Skiergirl: Millersylvania to Cannon Beach

I was up at 7:00 again this morning, packed and out of there by 8:00 (and, for better or worse, paid for my site.) I decided that since my travels took me past the Mount St. Helens visitors' center I'd stop in. I got there in time to catch a little movie about the eruption and looked around the place for a while. The mountain itself wasn't visible from that visitors center, but you could see it from the other center 50 miles up the road. I debated going up there, but talking to the girl there I learned that the mountain was shrouded in clouds so there was no point in going. So, onward.

Oh yeah, almost forgot a funny story from packing up this morning. I wrote my journal entry while in my tent last night as it was already getting dark when I was ready to do so. As I was cramming the tent in the stuff-sack this morning I heard "Friggin' Idiot!" I had forgotten my Napoleon Dynamite pen in the tent and must have hit the button on it. I laughed very hard for a few minutes. It's hard to have a great laugh when no one else is there to share it with you, but it was a pretty good one.

It was time to hit Highway 101, which snakes along the Oregon and California coastline. I had eagerly anticipated this portion of the trip, hearing it was spectacular. After driving across a very large bridge over the Columbia River, I was in Oregon. The trees were absolutely enormous and it was so lush and green everywhere. First stop was Astoria, one of the main cities along the coast. I had lunch there at a cute little fish and chips take-out housed in a fishing boat.

Then I got a little lost, but eventually started making my way down the coast. The driving is pretty slow as the highway is almost continuously populated, speed limit is often 25-35 mph. I had full intentions to get quite far down the coast today, but stopped in Cannon Beach for a look around. Well, I'm still here! As soon as I exited the highway I saw this huge sea stack poking above the trees. This was the famous Haystack Rock, one of the many sea stacks the Oregon is famous for. I parked Rolly and headed down to the beach. It was absolutely beautiful! Haystack Rock is huge, with waves crashing against it and sea birds circling around. Gorgeous! Also, Cannon Beach is such a cute little town, and I found a shop that does surf lessons. I have a private lesson at 9:00 tomorrow morning, hopefully I'll get enough knowledge to start renting boards and going out on my own.

Also, another fun thing I did today, I stopped in at this shop that had beautiful glass stuff in the window. Added bonus, it was actually a glass-blowing studio and the woman was just starting a piece! It's such a fascinating process and the artists are so skilled. I really want to buy something from there, but I just don't think it's in the travel budget... I must sleep on it.

Now I'm at a little cafe called Bella Espresso. They have fantastic desserts, free wireless internet, and a pretty decent band playing. Decent, but, very churchy! And, the girl sitting next to me is reading the bible and underlining stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not my usual crowd. Wow, the longer I sit here, the wierder it gets... people are quoting the bible in their conversations. I wonder if any of them have seen Jebus on my dash???

Sometimes it's easy to forget one is in a different country when one is traveling through the US. But, as I'm discovering, sometimes you are brought back to earth and reality quite easily. As I was driving down the I-5 I noticed a gigantic billboard with a huge Uncle Sam pointing at me. The message said "Shouldn't Immigrants Have to Wait 21 Years to Vote? I did!" Now, the first reaction to this is, "Wow, what a fucking red-necked, closed-minded bastard!" As I was angrily thinking about the message, I started to laugh. Goes to show you how stupid these dumb-ass fuckers can be... I'm pretty sure the voting age in the US is 18... not 21! Ha! Friggin' Idiot! In the US's defence, on my way down Highway 22 I saw a large billboard that said "More Alberta, Less Ottawa!"