Philip Robert

I’m always up for driving through and exploring new country. This past weekend I was heading up to Vancouver, Washington to visit my friend Tracy, and on the way up decided to drop in on an old riding buddy of mine.

Last time I was up this way was on the Great Lost Summer Road Trip of 2002 when I rode my Harley Sportster through 46 States and 3 Canadian Provinces. That was a road trip!

During that great road trip I made the acquaintance of Ratbike Milo and his family while looking for a place to stay overnight in Eureka, California. Milo, his family and friends were awesome! They made that particular weekend one of the best of the entire summer. So what’s Milo doing in this post about a road trip to Portland? I remembered that he owned a tool supply company in Roseburg, Oregon. Oregon Tool and Supply was pretty easy to find, and I figured I’d stop in unexpectedly on my old buddy Milo.

Now I had no idea if Milo was going to be in the store or not, but it was worth a try. The guy at the counter said he was in his office just sitting down to lunch, what was my name? I followed as he headed towards the office and announced my visit. Milo said he did remember me from that run. We chatted a while about motorcycles, dogs (he just got a new pug) business, and Oregon. He’s got a pretty facinating story about building up Oregon Tool and Supply on his about page. After a few minutes I figured it was time to go, but Milo makes you feel like he would drop everything just to go spend an afternoon catching up with you. Probably one of the reasons that Oregon Tool and Supply does so well.

Time to continue the adventure up to Portland and Vancouver. Central Oregon is amazing. The farms and vineyards have some of the greenest fields I’ve seen anywhere. It’s no wonder that people had a desire to migrate to this country.