Robyn and Danny's Bike Blog: Overdue post about how we ended up in a motel on Monday night (and some photos!)

So it's 4:30pm and we are standing at the entrance to a KOA. To go on, or not to go on? We both still have some juice so we decide to venture boldly out into the great unknown. There was a green patch on google maps about twenty miles down the road with a pine tree icon to indicate a park. It now seems silly to have hoped for a campsite, especially considering the local we talked to in Raymond had never heard of it, but hey, it was early on a sunny day and my butt wasn't even complaining that much. I have always been a "more miles now, less miles later" kind of a gal. Short story short, no park, no town, no nothing.

I had been optimistic about the park existing, but now we were in the middle of nowhere at a crossroads 20 miles from Astoria and it was 7:15. Signs indicated a town a few miles away. There was a restaurant icon, a lodging icon, and an rv park icon on the sign, but when we rolled into Naselle a half hour later we found the only store in town closed, and the streets nearly deserted. When we finally found some locals and asked about camping, motels, or a restaurant nearby, everyone scratched their heads and looked confused. 'I guess there's the Sleepy Hollow Inn back up the road a ways' one of them said before adding 'you know, you're only 15miles from Astoria and they've got some real nice places to stay over there.

A great debate ensued! Actually a slow, option-weighing, indecisive stand off. If the sun hadn't been so obviously setting we might have gone the extra distance. It was, so we ended up at the Ol Carol motel. It was actually pretty nice though I think we may have been their first customers in a while. The attached Ol Carol restaurant was no longer with us so we put together a gas station feast of mac n cheese, icecream, and popcorn and ate like five year olds while we did our laundry in the shower.

Rails to trails in Raymond