October 07, 1998.  Wednesday.  No time.

    Day 8.  74,571 miles on the odemeter.  9:00 am.  I took some stuff
my grandmother had given me to deliver to my uncle in California.
    Exit 104 to make it to famous Highway 101 to Abedene.  The highway
routes along the west coast of the United States along the Pacific
Ocean.  The highway signs have a silouhette of George Washington.
    Again, I was caught up in the rush of traffic of people just
trying to get from point A to point B.
    I saw some neat highway signs.  One sign had a rig about to flip
over, and another had a use an ashtray.
    Took a quick detour to an antique shop on Summit Lake road.  It was
a very beautiful drive.  The road has just been paved.  Kind of road
where they might do those tranquil car commercials.  Stopped by to see
if the souvenir shop had any Washington stickers, but they didn't.  The
lady was very nice and offered me directions to Highway 101.  Get to
drive under the trees which form a tunnel of sorts.  Very windy though.
Between exit 16 and 17 on Highway 8.
    Last time I drove towards Highway 101, I was listening to a
radio program on one of the public radio stations.  They were playing
a tape from a man who found out he was going to die.  Near the time when
he was about to die, he took a cross country bike trip to his parents
home.  And there, on Halloween, ready to face his fate, he finds out
that he was going to live.  He began crying when he discovers his new
lease on life.  I recall he became some head honcho at Spin magazine.
   I went through the city of McLeary.  When entering McLeary, there is
a school zone from 8-5, and at the beginning of the school zone, there
is a somewhat steep hill, so naturally you have to ride the brakes.  Why
they ever set things up like that, I don't know.  How can you maintain a
20 mph speed.
   There sure were a lot of catepillars on the road.  I think I was able
to avoid every one of them.
   Drove through the town of Long Beach.  Took a short walk on the
boardwalk before heading out.  At this time of year, there weren't
many visitors at the beach.  Like many other beach towns, this town
catered to tourists.  To get to the beach, take 10th or 38th street.
   A woman at the thrift store told me to not drive on the beach.  A
man was killed by a motorist in the fog recently.  I don't think I would
hit anyone, but afraid the truck might get stuck in the sand again.
   In Chinook, there was a restaurant named Century restaurant.  What
was odd about this restaurant is that it looked like a church.
   The Astoria-Megler bridge over the Columbia river connects Oregon
and Washington.  Astoria, Oregon, was where they filmed Kindegarten Cop.
The bridge is a impressive structure spanning about 1.5 miles.  The wind
was strong, and the seaguls couldn't fly into the wind.  One seagul must
have glided to close to the road and was hit.
   Spent much of the day in Oregon driving south on Highway 101.  When
I did stop at a gas station, a guy came up and offered to fill up.  He
said Oregon does not have self-service.  Oregon also does not have a sales
tax; therefore, the state must depend heavily on tourism.  He also added
that they shoot down the laws to have a sales tax whenever it comes up.
Even with full service, the gasoline wasn't too expensive here, even
cheaper than Washington along the coast.
   Got turkey wraps from Fred Meyer's for dinner.
   Kept driving.  Stopped on the side of the road a little past some
road construction.  Slept for a couple of hours.  Then woke up and
decided to drive a little further.  This way, I could make it to San
Jose, California by tomorrow.
   So I kept driving until I reached a rest stop about 75 miles from the
Oregon/California border.  There were 3 cars here.  Went to sleep
peacefully on this windy night.