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| HIGHLIGHTS COOS BAY 2004: THE OREGON COASTAL BYWAYS NATIONAL TOUR July 25 to 30, 2004 By: Dikk Jones This tour was four and one half days of touring through some of the most scenic countryside available anywhere. By mid afternoon of Saturday, July 26, a day before check in and two days before touring would begin, the HCCA National meeting had been held in the morning, and an estimated 40 of the 125 horseless carriages that would ultimately make the tour were already on site. To keep all those HCCA rowdies out of trouble and on the streets, a hot dog barbecue was put on early Saturday evening to which the veteran vehicles toured about fifteen miles through town and across the peninsula to what would be the first of many stops in the area's large, green, wooded parks. This one was right at the beach. At Sunday's check in the official tour parking lot at the Red Lion was loaded with eye catching brass era cars. Coos Bay is a small (pop. 15,000ish) Pacific Ocean port town on a salt water bay, and keeping that brass sparkling would soon become a problem as the sea air dulled the high polish and attacked the brass itself. That afternoon's route instructions were issued for a treasure hunt/rally/tour through town that would end with dinner and live entertainment in another park. The touring began on Monday, with our daily departure from the Red Lion parking lot, which opened onto coast hugging Highway 101. We drove into cold, overcast, sometimes drizzly, days whose chill was intensified by the wind chill factor in open cars. Uniform of the day was all of the summer clothes from one's luggage worn under a closely buttoned duster. Things did warm up later as the sun tended to break through in the afternoon. Mileages of touring days varied from 64 to 90 miles, The morning dashes out along hwy 101 channeled tourers onto more appropriate, leisurely journeying on well maintained, paved country roads, designated either "Road" or "Lane" depending upon whether the predominate direction was north-south or east-west respectively. There was a bit of hilly driving with some challenging grades. This tour's location was not in mountains that are often associated with Oregon, or remembered from the Ashland tour, but in the hilly coastal range where altitudes top out at about 2,500 feet. Nearly all of the country traversed away from the coastal highway was warmer and was forested with green, pointy trees. One could see some clearings where trees had recently been harvested and could distinguish areas where varying degrees of regrowth was in progress. Farms existed where timber had been cleared long ago, and dairies, cattle and growing cattle feed appeared to be the primary agricultural activity. The tour's courses crossed many bodies of water, referred to as creeks and streams and rivers and inlets and sloughs on bridges ranging from wooden one-lanners to trussed steel center-opening drawbridges that would allow large vessels to navigate the waterway. Additional attractions included visits to a cranberry farm, and small museums, antique shops, as well as lighthouse visits and tours. Lighthouses figured prominently in the tour logo, and everyone took a handcrafted six-inch high wooden lighthouse away from the Wednesday night dinner and show. With all that coastline, there were many seaside viewpoints and photo ops on overlooks and at beach levels plopped into the driving instructions. The total number of tour registrants was listed as 131 in the tour book whose statistics also indicate that 47 makes of cars were registered for the event |