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Bud,
Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family as you move toward a peaceful end. My dad is facing a tough surgery to amputate his left foot at the end of the month (a good thing believe it or not) due to complications from his diabetes....so I know how family stuff can weigh on you...
Well, Charlie and I had recently done some preliminary work on this before the staff change, so take it for what it is worth. For sure do what you all feel works best....its all good no matter where you choose. I'll just share our thought process here and leave it at that.
Several SW members indicated if they rode up here for a NW rally, they wanted to include Washington in their visited states list, so we kept that in mind as we worked on some ideas. Greg pointed out the past places we've met, so we thought WA/OR might be a good choice this time around. We started with a list of five places and beat the drum for all of them, kicking one out every so often until we were down to two, both of which would be great choices.
I won't tell you which of these two I was leaning toward unless someone asks, but I will tell you the pros for each, which is mostly the riding in the two areas (I've ridden most all of it and it is stunning stuff). In no particular order....we narrowed it down to Lewiston, ID and The Dalles, OR. Lewiston offers "The Rattlesnake"...an awesome run down to Enterprise, OR and back for lunch. That is a famous stretch of motorcycle twisty heaven up and down a steep grade into a huge gorge that holds the Grande Ronde River. You also have areas to the east and north that offer some really nice riding. Lodging was never settled for Lewiston, but there is a lot to choose from there.
The Dalles is located right along the Columbia River on the Oregon side, right near the famous Celilo Falls (before they were covered by The Dalles Dam). Riding highlights from The Dalles are Mount St Helens (both west and east side), the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood. The Celilo Inn would have been my choice of lodging were that to be the location. Some of the other places we kicked around were Chehalis, Ocean Shores, and Wenatchee, WA....all offering their own flavors....coastal or inland...the terrain and climate varies greatly up here. Just some ideas to kick around!
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