Central Oregon offers king-size fun for Jordan's monarch

[Amelia]

One way of heading off trouble; don't tell 'em you're coming!

Central Oregon offers king-size fun for Jordan's monarch

King Abdullah Hussein plans to ride off on his motorcycle to undisclosed locations, but that's after a Deschutes rafting trip

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

JACQUES VON LUNEN

The Oregonian Staff

An international head of state slipped into central Oregon seemingly under the radar this week.

King Abdullah Hussein of Jordan, a reported avid outdoorsman, spent at least the last 48 hours in and around Bend and next is heading out on a motorcycle trip through undisclosed parts of the region.

The king's 1998 Heritage Softail arrived Monday at Cascade Harley-Davidson in Bend. The bike was in a crate on the back of a truck, said Cascade's service director Jeff Raszler. The technicians at Cascade inspected the Harley's overall condition, checked the tire pressure and topped off fluids, all under the watchful eyes of the king's personal mechanic, a retired British police officer, according to Raszler.

Also Monday, King Abdullah enjoyed a rafting trip on the Upper Deschutes River in the company of his son Prince Hussein and a detail of U.S. and Jordanian secret service agents.

King Abdullah II Ibn-al Hussein is the ruler of the small Middle Eastern country that borders both the territory of the Palestinian National Authority and Iraq. Though he retains a lot of power in the parliamentary monarchy, he is known as a reformer and has pushed for a Middle East peace process.

The king is also known for mingling with commoners. Last year, he and his entourage pulled up their Harleys in front of a breakfast spot in Carmel, Calif. The king chatted with the owners, ate some pancakes and, all in all, seemed like "just another guy," according to a report in the Monterey Court Herald.

Cascade Harley's Raszler corroborated that impression, based on his chat with the monarch about his own bike and the new Buell motorcycle models.

"He is a very cordial man," he said. "You could almost say he's quiet."

Raszler said that the king did not ask particularly technical questions but that his face lit up when he got on his bike. "There was a real sense of ownership there," he said.

Where was the king taking his freshly serviced ride?

"I'm not going to tell you anything about where he's headed," said Raszler.

Oregon State Police were equally tight-lipped. "We have no information to release" about the king's travel plans, said spokesman Lt. Gregg Hastings.

Other state officials didn't know royalty was coming to Oregon.

The Port of Portland, which oversees the airport, said they hadn't heard about the king's plane having landed.

Neither did the state's executive branch.

"We weren't aware that he was coming," said Anna Richter-Taylor of the governor's office. "But we definitely welcome him."