klb1122
0
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2006
- Messages
- 2,531
- Reaction score
- 93
- Location
- Houston, TX
- First Name
- Kory
- Last Name
- Burleson
On my brother posted on Facebook, "Impulse plane ticket to Portland... check.." I told my wife about it and she said, "do you want to go with him." It took me half a second to say YES! And that's how it all began. That night I booked the same flights that my brother had. Here's the schedule, leave Friday night after work, go to the races on Saturday, fly back first thing Saturday morning and get in early afternoon. Go to Oregon/Washington and not even miss a day of work? That's how we roll.
So I'm in my house packing the night before we leave and I text my brother something like "don't forget a swimsuit, just in case." He shoots back, "you're going to overpack, I guarantee it." Challenge accepted. What I ended up taking with me was my camera bag, full of gear, and stuffed somewhere in there a change of underwear and an extra shirt and socks. That's it. I guess I got in my brother's head because he came to my house with a big bag of stuff, swimsuit included. LOL.
My wife dropped us off at the airport and as we sat at the bar inside we discussed what we could do in the little time after the races on Saturday. Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, or go to the coast. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion going to the coast would be both of our #1s.
I forgot to mention, I'm a planner. I plan everything about every single trip I take. This one, I was adopting my brother's method of going with the flow. Whatever happened was fine with me.
We flew from Houston to Phoenix and then into Portland, landing at about 2 am Saturday morning. My brother had reserved a rental car, so we hopped on the shuttle and took it to Thrifty to pick up our Toyota Prius. The idea was to drive along the Columbia River and park at a waterfall, so we could photograph it at sunrise. We parked in a lot in the middle of I-84 across from the Multnomah Falls. I got out of the car, and I was blown away. I've NEVER seen stars like this in my life. In the matter of minutes I saw probably 5 shooting stars, and I could see the Milky Way with my naked eyes. It was spectacular. I tried to take a few pics, but it was about 3:30 or 4 in the morning and I was completely out of it. Here was the scene...
We slept for an hour and a half in hotel Prius. We woke when it was starting to get a bit light outside. We were still so out of it that we basically just hit the road and completely scratched the waterfall. We drove down to Cascade Locks looking for a place to eat and nothing was open yet. We looked around at the bridge we were about to cross and then headed on.
We crossed over into Washington and headed back west towards Washougal. We were both starving and ended up finding a place to eat in Camas. After that, we headed to the track. The ride from the city of Washougal to the track was awesome. It was beautiful riding along the river and you could just feel that it was going to be a good day. There was one way into the track, and at 8 am it took us about 30 minutes to get in and parked.
I also forgot to mention that my brother had broken his foot the week before. Great timing. We walked miles and miles on Saturday, and none of it was on flat ground. I don't know how he did it.
Here's the full gallery of the trip with lots of mx pictures.
Here's a few of my favorites from the races.
It was a great day of racing. The KTM boys dominated. "Horsepower Hill" is no joke. It was the most incredible part of the track. It took forever to walk up it and we did it several times. Watching these guys grab a handful of throttle and blast up it.... there are no words.
After the race was over, the plan was to make a run for the coast. We ended up sitting in the parking lot for 40 minutes without moving, then we decided to take a chance and try a different way. It worked, there was a small exit that only a small percentage of people were using. All the sudden we were out of there in 10 minutes.
This is already a long post, so I'll shorten it up. We made it to the coast just in time. It happened to be Cannon Beach. Here's some pictures.
The tide was coming in, so we completely soaked our shoes. We drove back into Portland only to find out that all hotels in the city and surrounding areas were full, there were 5 different events in the area. So it was hotel Prius again. After another hour and a half of sleep we were still disguising and found a truck stop to take a shower at. It ranks right up there on the best showers of my life list. We turned in the Prius, hopped back on a plane and we were back to reality Sunday afternoon.
The trip was absolutely crazy and awesome all at the same time. Thanks for looking. Oh, and my wife and I are hitting the road tomorrow to head to the inaugural Indiana MX. I love life.
So I'm in my house packing the night before we leave and I text my brother something like "don't forget a swimsuit, just in case." He shoots back, "you're going to overpack, I guarantee it." Challenge accepted. What I ended up taking with me was my camera bag, full of gear, and stuffed somewhere in there a change of underwear and an extra shirt and socks. That's it. I guess I got in my brother's head because he came to my house with a big bag of stuff, swimsuit included. LOL.
My wife dropped us off at the airport and as we sat at the bar inside we discussed what we could do in the little time after the races on Saturday. Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, or go to the coast. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion going to the coast would be both of our #1s.
I forgot to mention, I'm a planner. I plan everything about every single trip I take. This one, I was adopting my brother's method of going with the flow. Whatever happened was fine with me.
We flew from Houston to Phoenix and then into Portland, landing at about 2 am Saturday morning. My brother had reserved a rental car, so we hopped on the shuttle and took it to Thrifty to pick up our Toyota Prius. The idea was to drive along the Columbia River and park at a waterfall, so we could photograph it at sunrise. We parked in a lot in the middle of I-84 across from the Multnomah Falls. I got out of the car, and I was blown away. I've NEVER seen stars like this in my life. In the matter of minutes I saw probably 5 shooting stars, and I could see the Milky Way with my naked eyes. It was spectacular. I tried to take a few pics, but it was about 3:30 or 4 in the morning and I was completely out of it. Here was the scene...
We slept for an hour and a half in hotel Prius. We woke when it was starting to get a bit light outside. We were still so out of it that we basically just hit the road and completely scratched the waterfall. We drove down to Cascade Locks looking for a place to eat and nothing was open yet. We looked around at the bridge we were about to cross and then headed on.
We crossed over into Washington and headed back west towards Washougal. We were both starving and ended up finding a place to eat in Camas. After that, we headed to the track. The ride from the city of Washougal to the track was awesome. It was beautiful riding along the river and you could just feel that it was going to be a good day. There was one way into the track, and at 8 am it took us about 30 minutes to get in and parked.
I also forgot to mention that my brother had broken his foot the week before. Great timing. We walked miles and miles on Saturday, and none of it was on flat ground. I don't know how he did it.
Here's the full gallery of the trip with lots of mx pictures.
Here's a few of my favorites from the races.
It was a great day of racing. The KTM boys dominated. "Horsepower Hill" is no joke. It was the most incredible part of the track. It took forever to walk up it and we did it several times. Watching these guys grab a handful of throttle and blast up it.... there are no words.
After the race was over, the plan was to make a run for the coast. We ended up sitting in the parking lot for 40 minutes without moving, then we decided to take a chance and try a different way. It worked, there was a small exit that only a small percentage of people were using. All the sudden we were out of there in 10 minutes.
This is already a long post, so I'll shorten it up. We made it to the coast just in time. It happened to be Cannon Beach. Here's some pictures.
The tide was coming in, so we completely soaked our shoes. We drove back into Portland only to find out that all hotels in the city and surrounding areas were full, there were 5 different events in the area. So it was hotel Prius again. After another hour and a half of sleep we were still disguising and found a truck stop to take a shower at. It ranks right up there on the best showers of my life list. We turned in the Prius, hopped back on a plane and we were back to reality Sunday afternoon.
The trip was absolutely crazy and awesome all at the same time. Thanks for looking. Oh, and my wife and I are hitting the road tomorrow to head to the inaugural Indiana MX. I love life.