The end of the road
Well with every great adventure there comes a time for it to be over and, and that time came a couple days ago, I just haven't announced it on here yet. I continued heading north to upstate New York to stay with a good friend of mine Shawn Hogan from VMI. However on my way to Watertown i made a quick stop in Bufalo New York to see the awesome Niagara Falls. It was just a quick stop so i didn't stay there too long, that and it was raining. I was really glad though to get to Shawn's in Watertown because the rain was torrential, everything on me was absolutely soaked, there was so much rain i had almost an inch of water in my boots.
So Watertown was awesome, I got to meet all of Shawn's Army friends and we went to a number of fine Watertown establishments. I also got the opportunity to go white water rafting down the Black River which apparently has some of the world's best white water runs. I can thank Estelle for the awesome white water trip. We did a lot of class 4 rapids and with all the rain that Watertown has been having the river was higher and more intense than it had been in the past three years. We had an awesome rafting guide who took us down some of the tougher routes and we went over a couple waterfalls. The next day Shawn took me to a state park near Watertown where we went rappelling on these cliffs overlooking Lake Ontario. After the rappelling adventure Shawn, Estelle and I just hung out on the rocks and read and relaxed. On our way back from the beach we saw a seafood restaurant so naturally being our hungry selves we stopped in and got dinner there. It was a rather nice place and i was a little nervous about going there because I was wearing just my swim suit and a stellar sleeveless motorcycle shirt Allison sent me. However the restaurant owner let us eat there and i thought our apparel added a little color to the place anyhow. 
The official last day of riding occurred on Sunday August 11th. Initially I planned to make it a two day ride from upstate New York to my home in Virginia, but when I got on the road it turned out that it was a very doable 400 plus miles away so rather than stay in a campground over night I decided to hightail it all the way back home. I was on interstate 81 for much of the trip with some heavy rain at times and at one place in Pennsylvania around Scranton i believe there was tons and tons of hail on the road. It looked like a huge storm had just passed through and thankfully I did not have to ride in it, but there was so much hail that it looked like it had snowed. It was piled up almost 3 inches high on parts of the road, and it was a pretty surreal scene to see all the hail. Well I made it home around 9:30 Sunday evening, and surprised my parents having arrived a day early. So after almost 15,000 miles and a little under two and a half months I had made it back! Oh one story i forgot to mention, so many people asked me along the way if i listen to music or anything when i ride and i would tell them no, all that time and no music, i know you must say wow how bored did you get. 
So when i was in Watertown I bought some headphones for my motorcycle helmet and I listened to some tunes for the first time, which really was pretty nice to have some music to listen to and why i did not do it sooner i have no idea. But anyways when I was leaving Syracuse New York after saying my good byes I got on the road for my last leg of my adventure, and I thought it was so ironic because as soon as i pushed play on my shuffled songs Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" came on it was so strange because while I was listening to the song he names of all these places, and I was mentally going through them and I swear I must have visited almost 70 percent of all the places he mentioned just this summer. So that was kind of interesting and slightly ironic that that was the first song that came on while I was riding! Well I must say this was quite an adventure I had an absolutely amazing time, I saw some amazing places, got to meet great people, see all my family, and I really learned a whole heck of alot about motorcycles! I want to thank anyone and everyone who helped me along the way and supported me through this trip. Everywhere I went i was greeted with the greatest hospitality ever! Here are some quick facts about the trip that I kept record of.
So Watertown was awesome, I got to meet all of Shawn's Army friends and we went to a number of fine Watertown establishments. I also got the opportunity to go white water rafting down the Black River which apparently has some of the world's best white water runs. I can thank Estelle for the awesome white water trip. We did a lot of class 4 rapids and with all the rain that Watertown has been having the river was higher and more intense than it had been in the past three years. We had an awesome rafting guide who took us down some of the tougher routes and we went over a couple waterfalls. The next day Shawn took me to a state park near Watertown where we went rappelling on these cliffs overlooking Lake Ontario. After the rappelling adventure Shawn, Estelle and I just hung out on the rocks and read and relaxed. On our way back from the beach we saw a seafood restaurant so naturally being our hungry selves we stopped in and got dinner there. It was a rather nice place and i was a little nervous about going there because I was wearing just my swim suit and a stellar sleeveless motorcycle shirt Allison sent me. However the restaurant owner let us eat there and i thought our apparel added a little color to the place anyhow. The official last day of riding occurred on Sunday August 11th. Initially I planned to make it a two day ride from upstate New York to my home in Virginia, but when I got on the road it turned out that it was a very doable 400 plus miles away so rather than stay in a campground over night I decided to hightail it all the way back home. I was on interstate 81 for much of the trip with some heavy rain at times and at one place in Pennsylvania around Scranton i believe there was tons and tons of hail on the road. It looked like a huge storm had just passed through and thankfully I did not have to ride in it, but there was so much hail that it looked like it had snowed. It was piled up almost 3 inches high on parts of the road, and it was a pretty surreal scene to see all the hail. Well I made it home around 9:30 Sunday evening, and surprised my parents having arrived a day early. So after almost 15,000 miles and a little under two and a half months I had made it back! Oh one story i forgot to mention, so many people asked me along the way if i listen to music or anything when i ride and i would tell them no, all that time and no music, i know you must say wow how bored did you get. So when i was in Watertown I bought some headphones for my motorcycle helmet and I listened to some tunes for the first time, which really was pretty nice to have some music to listen to and why i did not do it sooner i have no idea. But anyways when I was leaving Syracuse New York after saying my good byes I got on the road for my last leg of my adventure, and I thought it was so ironic because as soon as i pushed play on my shuffled songs Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" came on it was so strange because while I was listening to the song he names of all these places, and I was mentally going through them and I swear I must have visited almost 70 percent of all the places he mentioned just this summer. So that was kind of interesting and slightly ironic that that was the first song that came on while I was riding! Well I must say this was quite an adventure I had an absolutely amazing time, I saw some amazing places, got to meet great people, see all my family, and I really learned a whole heck of alot about motorcycles! I want to thank anyone and everyone who helped me along the way and supported me through this trip. Everywhere I went i was greeted with the greatest hospitality ever! Here are some quick facts about the trip that I kept record of.- one and a half sets of tires were used
- 5 oil changes
- over 291 gallons of fuel burned
- average miles per gallon 42 (driving conservatively at 55 mph)
- average miles per gallon 26 (full throttle driving at 80 plus mph)
- clutch cable replaced in San Francisco
- 2 flat tires both front
- dropped the bike countless times
- new chain and spark plug southern California
- only stayed in 2 hotels the entire trip
- Visited 27 states
- almost 15,000 miles traveled
- 72 days on the road
I hope everyone enjoyed reading this, I know it was rather lengthy at times but there was just so much to see out there in the United States! This really was an adventure that I will remember for the rest of my life and I was very happy to share it with you, next adventure... South America!!!
posted by Nick @ 6:03 PM
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Furthermore St. Paul’s Cathedral is also located in St. Paul (no pun intended) and I stopped by there to check it out, which is a must visit for anyone to the area. The Cathedral is absolutely gigantic and I spent a good amount of time in there, I said a couple prayers, took a few pictures and I was on my way. Heading out of the twin cities area I of course hit traffic because I was leaving right in rush how something which I did not wish I had done. Now the Twin cities area is well known for its traffic control strategies something which I spent two years studying; So traffic wasn’t as bad as it could have been is what I am really trying to say. I headed north east towards the Wisconsin border and it was a very chill ride. I wasn’t planning on a high mileage day so I went about 200 miles to a town on highway 2 in north eastern Wisconsin. I finally made it to a town called iron city, where I got a delicious couple blue moons, summer ale version that is and I headed to my campground which is on of course a lake, because there are thousands of lakes in the north east! Tomorrow will be a really great day I am going to visit Marquette Michigan in the Upper Peninsula home of Northern Michigan university where my dad went. I am really excited to explore the Upper Peninsula as I haven’t been there in many years so I cannot wait!!!!
Ok so on the road for me, I stopped in at a dinner on my way out of town by suggestion of the campground host for a delicious breakfast. It was amazing I got the super special something or another with a bunch of pancakes, and eggs and sausage and hash browns, ect ect. So yes that was good and I was full for pretty much the rest of the day! My one big destination of the day was the town of Marquette which is home of Northern Michigan University where my dad went. I stopped in there for a bit toured around the town of Marquette and I was back on the road. Most of the rest of the drive through the UP was kind of boring just more trees and no dual sporting for me which I had wanted to do. I did however get to drive through the town of Christmas Michigan, kind of touristy but I can now say that I have been to Christmas. Once I passed through Christmas I stopped in the town of Munising because I was of course hungry again. I found the most hopping place by the name of Dog something which apparently has awesome sandwiches as per the signs on their place. I got in and the service was friendly and the food amazing. They had an all you can eat seafood buffet which was all fresh fish caught from the lake, it was so good just thinking about it now I want to eat more! I got a full four plates of seafood and I was very content. I had planned on riding further after dinner but it was getting late and I bedded down for the night just outside of Christmas in a national park campground on the shore of lake Superior.
It wasn’t such a big deal, I got to ride on lots of snowmobile trails which conveniently were all marked in my Garmin, so I had a lot of fun riding the trails. One thing I did have to worry about as I rode further south down the snowmobile trails towards the mackinaw bridge area was that a lot of the snowmobile trails were pretty well sanded out. No more had packed forest dirt but lots of sandy spots, so the riding was a little squirrely at times and thankfully Mav didn’t go down at all! Ok so I rode dirt roads for a better part of the Upper Peninsula all the way from Munising to the Mackinaw Bridge. Once I got near the bridge is when I decided that I didn’t want to spend another night camping and that I would make my way to my grandmas that evening. So after crossing the bridge which was a lot of fun I high tailed it down interstate 75 straight through the middle of Michigan and on to Grandmas! When I told people I was going to cross the Mackinaw Bridge on a motorcycle I initially got many concerned comments. Apparently the bridge is subject to some extreme winds and cars have actually been blown off the bridge but thankfully I crossed on a fairly calm day and I really enjoyed the drive over. Once I crossed the bridge the ride to Grandmas was uneventful and I got a little after nine and bedded down for the night.
Yes people Cedar Point has a roller coaster named after my famed Kawasaki KLR! The ride was very cool and I will not describe it to you so as not to ruin the surprise. After we rode it I wanted to get a sticker for my bike from the ride however the store there did not carry maverick Stickers which was a big bummer. Later that evening we had dinner with all the family at a Japanese steak house where I ate way too much food for the roller coasters I would be riding later that evening. I managed though to hold it all down and rode roller coasters long into the night all the way until 11 pm. The trip to Cedar Point was quite a memorable one and I really enjoyed seeing all my extended family there. I want to personally thank my Aunt Marilynn for making it an awesome experience and taking care of me the entire time, I would not have been able to come or even known about it this trip had it not been for her, so a big thank you goes out to my Aunt Marilynn!
The second time the flames weren’t quite as big but the cheese was really good on pita bread. So I ate and ate and ate, and hung out with all my family for a good long while until it was time for me and everyone else to head home. Before everyone left though we all went out front and got a picture in front of Mav with my entire family, hopefully I will be able to upload that picture for all to see, and I will also try to get the video up of the flaming cheese, a personal favorite of mine! Ok so something that has been looming over my head for the past several months has been an unfinished report for the Virginia Department of Transportation which I am required to complete as part of my time in graduate school. So the report is almost almost done, there are just a couple revisions which I had to make so I spent a better part of the night polishing it up for final review, as such I did not get to go see the new Batman movie which I had planned on seeing before I left Michigan. All in all the trip to Michigan was great, I got to see all of my family, I got to eat great food, and it was quite a memorable experience
Ok remember how much I was saying how great south Dakota was, well the rest of the state is the complete opposite and consists of miles upon miles of corn farms which are all devoted to ethanol. One pleasant sight along the way was right outside my campsite I followed a route which took me straight through another section of the Badlands National Park which was a good morning sight. So I rode and rode and rode, and rode some more, all the same, lots of haying operations were going on as well. I was on I-90 heading east for about 100 miles and I can honestly say for every one car I counted twenty motorcycles heading west for I assume Sturgis. I met a couple Sturgis bound bikers at a gas station and I assured them that the beer will be cold when they got there, and that all the t-shirt stands are ready and waiting for them. Back on the road and riding, as for this particular 500 mile day I had the privilege of passing into Minnesota for my first time and I also got to see what the western portion of their state has to offer, which is more corn fields and hundreds of windmills. 
So Minnesota is pretty flat and from the highway you could see windmills disappear into the curvature of earth, that is just how many they have there. So Ethanol and Wind power are rather prevalent forms of alternative energy in the great state of Minnesota, kudos to them. Ethanol is so prevalent that 89 octane gas with ethanol is actually cheaper than 87 octane gas without ethanol! But overall gas is cheap everywhere in Minnesota, which got as low as $3.50 something in some places! As the sun got lower on the horizon I was getting a bit hungrier, and I should have mentioned earlier but I acquired a new found love of fast food on this adventure which is Dairy Queen, recently the Q as I will refer to it has beefed up their menu, no pun intended and they have tons of burgers and such, and they are good, really good. But not all Q’s carry the burgers and it took me 4 tries to find one that had a menu other than icy treats. Much to my surprise at the Q I stopped in at there was a fellow biker by the name of Pat, He was rather curious about my trip and where I had been, Pat is somewhat of an endurance rider and he told me about one Iron butt ride he did and if you’re not familiar with the iron butt association then you should check it out, but for those who don’t have the time its basically like a long distance riding club and if you complete particular rides you can be in the association, an example of one would be to ride 1,000 miles within 24 hours. Ok so Pat was telling me more and more about the association and I got to thinking, what if I did an Iron Butt ride to culminate the end of my adventure, I did some more thinking and I’m going to research some rides later and find out if one suits me. I feel that this would most likely be the best time to try an Iron Butt ride since I have basically been training for marathon riding for the past 2 months and if I was ever in condition to do an endurance ride it would be now. 
While the officers were commiserating in their cruisers over my fate a truck came by and whooom, a gust of air blew maverick right off balance and it toppled into the shoulder, ah even better, my highway patrol incident was getting better by the second, not to mention my tank bag was open as usual just like the last time Mav went down, and my coins went all scatter brain over the shoulder along with my wallet and gloves which I had to borrow the cops flash lights to use to find them in the brush. Ok so I got off with a warning and they told me to go to the first gas station and repair my tail light, well I didn’t have much time at all so I raced to the gas station took of the light case and I grabbed some glow sticks out of my bag snapped em and tossed them into the brake light housing screwed the cover back on and magic I had running lights again, and you know what they are still on! So I was pretty impressed with my MacGyver skills and I was back on the road, the Garmin reported that I would arrive at the hostel promptly at 9:59, so with just one minute to spare I made up some time on the freeway and I got closer into Minneapolis I knew I was going to make it I just knew it, however Minneapolis failed to tell me that they were undergoing ridiculous amounts of highway construction and it seemed as though every exit ramp I was suppose to take was either closed or had a detour luckily my Garmin was smart enough to re route me however at each re route there were more closed ramps and soon I was out of options, and it was getting very close to 10 pm, finally I found a back road route to the hostel and I was gunning it, I found the place parked the bike and raced to the door, it was 10:02 and yes they were close, I was so mad, so very very mad. I had come all this way with just 2 minutes between me and a nice comfy and cheap might I add bed! But no, in my anger I made sure I revved my engine extremely loud as I left the hostel in search of other cheap abodes. Something I failed to recognize in my search was that Minneapolis is a pretty pricy city, the first place I called wanted $289 for a room, compared to the measly $27 I would have paid at the Hostel. So I search around some more and I talk to some locals and finally I realized I would have to leave the city if I wanted some cheap digs which brought me to the Super Motel 8 in Roseville. Nice accommodations, internet I might add, I have the privacy of my own room which I wouldn’t have at the hostel and I got a late check out, because in my marathon of a day today I crossed from the mountain time zone to central which I failed to realize and I lost an hour, so an extra hour for checkout helps me out with catching back that hour of sleep! Ok well this has gone on long enough but moral of the story is check your gear in the morning, or just plain check it, because if I had noticed the tail light out earlier I would have remedied the situation with out the assistance of the Minnesota state police. Well it is late and I must get to bed.
Before I crossed into Montana I stopped to get some gas and I was absolutely starving and I asked a couple people where I should go to get food in this town I was in and everyone said I had to go to this place called Owen’s which was an old fashion soda shop, and it was of course amazing they make all their sandwiches fresh right there and I got a vanilla and black cherry malt. Yum! I made it as far as West Glacier and I bedded down there for the night in what was a luxury RV park but they were nice enough to let a lowly tent camper like myself in.
My only regret is that I didn’t spend longer there. I know that I have to come back now because there were just too many hikes that I wanted to do. I would really like to spend a couple days here just backpacking. I took it slow going through Glacier just enjoying the main road which ran through the park called ‘Going to the Sun Road’. The highest drivable point in the park is Logan Pass which is where I crossed back over the continental divide, unlike the first time when I crossed back at independence pass on my way to Aspen I was at something of 12,000 feet, while Logan pass was at just 6,000 or so feet. Like the rest of the park when I got to the top at Logan pass the parking lot was filled completely! 
Luckily though I have a motorcycle and there was a plethora of motorcycle parking, I even found a spot amongst several other KLRs, so I felt right at home. While there I met a really nice couple on two red KLRs whom have been all over on them. They have done two trips down to Panama which I think would be an amazing ride, and is a pipe dream of mine, basically any ride down into south America would be amazing to do. We talked bike for a while exchanged some stories and parted ways. 
They offered to let me stay with them as I would be passing near their house however my route changed and I ended up going another way, and why do I know this already, because I am typing this blog several days late. So I had planned on making it to a town called Lewistown last night named in honor of the famed Lewis and Clark explorers however I did not make it there, I did make it to the banks of the Missouri river to a town called Fort Benton, it was small and quaint and I stayed in the windiest campground thus far which was on the banks of the Missouri river. 
The ride from Glacier to Fort Benton was rather uneventful, lots of straight roads and lots of haying and combines running all over the place.
We drove all over Mount Rainer and saw some amazing sights, like the Rockies there was tons of snow still on the mountain itself. We drove by reflecting lake however it was not reflecting on this particular day due to the wind, so it was more like ripple lake. When we got to the main Mount Rainer visitors center we grabbed lunch and then Judy and I decided to take a quick hike up the mountain however much to our surprise the mountain had so much snow this year that the walking trail was completely covered in snow, it was basically like walking up a ski slope; we got all of 20 feet and had to turn back because it was just too slippery. I forgot to mention that we also made a quick hike down to the Grove of the Patriarchs, which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Mount Rainer. What it is, is an old growth forest which is completely surrounded by water and had been protected from any forest fires so the trees are absolutely huge in there. My Aunt Anne and I held our hands out and we didn’t even span the width of an entire tree! So Rainer was basically awesome, and to top it all off I had mentioned that I really like Mexican food, and Judy said that she knew of a really good place that their family goes all the time. So we went there and I got to see the rest of my mom’s side of the family as well. The food, wow it was like I was back in the south west riding when I ate burritos every day at every stop I made. At the conclusion of the day I was completely exhausted from my big day at Mount Rainer. I was extremely glad that I got to go there and that my family took me, it was one national park trip that I will definitely not forget.
The seafood in Seattle is not like any seafood I have ever seen, they had scallops which were the size of baseballs, and I think the biggest ones I have ever eaten had to be the size of quarters, so there was definitely a big difference between the seafood here and everywhere else, that and it was completely fresh! Ok so I watch a lot of Discovery Channel specifically Deadliest Catch and I got to see all the Alaskan King Crab legs that were on sale at the market and wow those things are gigantic. Watching it on tv and seeing the real thing is completely different, I should also mention that these things cost a whoping $15.00 a pound! Another highlight of the market was getting to see some street performer figure out a rubix cube in all of 30 seconds. I couldn’t spend thirty years and figure one of those things out. Lunch time rolled around and we made our way over to the Seattle Sky Needle where we had the biggest meal ever, and I mean biggest because I was full for the next three days. Im actually still slightly full right now and I’m typing this a full four days later. It was three courses and the whole time we were in a restaurant that turned around, ie you sit in one place and the restaurant rotates around so you get to see the entirety of Seattle. Of course I got the salmon again and it was fresh and delicious and amazing, which is the usual case I have come to find out for Seattle seafood. Having not ridden a seattle ferry yet we took the Bainbridge ferry to go see Chief Seattle’s grave. The Puget sound I might add is rediculisouly big, since Im actually writing this a few days later and I have since taken three different ferrys all of which I have been on a minimum of 30 minutes a piece! It was very interesting to see the grave of the person who basically brought everyone to this particular regon and was later infueltial enough to have an entire city named after him. The ferry ride back was a little delayed as there was a long line to get on the ferry back to the mainland. When we got back I again had a rediculsy amazing good night’s sleep, and I got to sleep in the next morning as well, and in a real bed too with a real pillow not a threma rest with an inflated camel back blatter as a head rest.
Today Mav got a much needed oil change and I also replaced the welded on shifter lever that some of you may have read about a month back. To anyone who doesn’t know, I was in Southern New Mexico leaving my campground when I pulled in the clutch and shifted to the next gear when my shift lever just fell right off, the metal had sheared completely off and I had to call my tow company to bring me to a welding shop where this guy John 90 years young welded my shift lever back on and it has done me well ever since Truth or Consequences New Mexico, yes that’s the name, Wikipedia it for more info as to why it’s named that. I put the new after market shifter on and it works like a dream, as strong as good old John’s weld was, it wasn’t just quite perfect and the shifter was rubbing against the engine casing which made shifting a bit of a burden, the new MSR shifter shifts as smooth as butter, its like a whole new maverick! I should also add that in my down time I planned my entire rest of my trip all the way back to Virginia, and for everyone wondering when I will be making my return, I should tentatively be back in the Northern Virginia area around August 12ish, but not without a stop in Michigan and the biggest motorcycle rally in the world, Sturgis South Dakota!!!!!! What a way to end my triumphant journey with a huge motorcycle rally!
I did not spend long in Hollywood and I was rather disappointed because I wanted to take a picture of me in front of the well known Hollywood letters however I could not find a good place to get a picture, I did see them briefly as I was coming into town on one of the highways. I then headed a little further north via Sunset Blvd to Beverly Hills which was quite a site to see. I probably spent a better part of my day in Beverly Hills. 
It is everything and more that the movies make it to be. Tons of huge houses, tons of nice cars, and tons of star maps for sale. Instead of getting a star map I just took one of the first lefts I saw off Sunset Blvd in Beverly Hills and headed into a neighborhood, and luck have it there was other people doing the same thing however they were on open air buses, doing the ‘star tour’ so I followed a bus here and a bus there just listening to what the tour guide was saying. I didn’t drive past any notable movie star houses, or at least any that I knew. Most of the actors and actresses houses that I heard about on the tour were from an era before mine. About an hour of house looking I made my way down from the ‘hills’ to Rodeo Drive, but first I had to get gas, and luck have it there is one gas station in all of Beverly Hills that was near me and guess where it was located, yes at the intersection of the Beverly Hills Hotel and Rodeo Drive. This gas station was no ordinary one at that, it had Rodeo Drive prices to go along with it, I mean this gas was even expensive for California standards. Well I parked Mav right up next to the Rovers, Maseratis, and Royce’s filling up and Mav got his own. I took a stroll down Rodeo Drive and I stopped in the David Yurman store to see if I could pick anything up for MA but the only thing they guy showed me there was a pair of $1,100 pearl and diamond encrusted earrings, so maybe next time MA. I really enjoyed my time in Beverly Hills it was just so nice and it was really cool to see the place where all the movies have talked about for the longest time. 
Ok so when I was driving out of Bev Hills I was riding down Rodeo Drive which has lots of stops and there was this white old Rolls Royce with this guy driving it and some girl hanging all over him, and lots of people were looking so I was like ok it must be someone famous of course, so I finagled my way up next to the Royce and we were next to each other for the next five stop signs and luck have it, I was driving next to the one P. Diddy or Sean Combs as he is now referred to. I waved to him and he smiled and I kept on my way Santa Monica Blvd to Malibu. Malibu is another awesome place; there was not too much fog yet so it was a good drive along the coast, cold but good. Lots of amazing houses perched over the sea. I was lucky to find one of the last camp sites available at Point Mugu State Park. However after I made camp, they apparently booked someone else at my site as well and not wanting to be alone, I said that I would share the site with them since it was big and all I had was my bike and tent, so in exchange they built a fire and I got to have somores with them! 
The next morning I slept in a little longer than I should have and I got a late start on the pacific coast highway but that didn’t matter because it was foggy as usual. I went up PCH, and passed through beach town after beach town, my favorite stop of all was Ventura where I purchased some camping provisions from Real Cheap Sports, which is a stop everyone should make if you’re passing through Ventura. I then went to the Patagonia store and they gave me Patagonia Ventura California Stickers, where one of the employees asked if I lost my buddy because he said not five minutes before I showed up a guy on a KLR loaded down had just stopped in. He was on his way back from a trip of the West from Mexico to Alaska! I passed through Santa Barbara next and I drove through the University of Southern California Santa Barbara, which is a really nice campus. I then did the 2 mile drive down State Street in Santa Barbara which is an amazing tree lined street with every store imaginable on it. 
It was getting late so I had to bed down for the night and I knew it was going to be hard again to find a camp site. Oh one quick note I apologize about not talking about the ride on PCH very much but there really wasn’t much to talk about because well the entire road was covered in Fog and smoke so I couldn’t even see the ocean from the road! Someone had mentioned this place called Pismo Beach where you can drive off road and camp on the beach so I was so there! I got to Pismo and it was Foggy and Misty and I inspected the sand to make sure Mav wouldn’t sink into the sand, but it was pretty well packed down from all the trucks and dune buggies driving on it. 
I aired down the tires to about 10 and 15 psi so I would have better traction in the sand and it made a really big difference! It was still a little slippery but not too bad. So I rode for about a mile in the dunes and it was packed with people, everyone had huge huge lifted trucks and behind them they towed gigantic trailers homes, with huge doors on the back which housed every kind of dune buggy ATV and dirt bike known to man. The place says 15 mph but people were racing at like mach speed around the dunes, I kept Mav at a respectable 15 mph however not too slow because if I stopped I was afraid I would get stuck in the sand, so I had to keep my speed going, it was fun driving on the beach, I even rode a little into the water, there was also a lot of people on horses on the beach which was cool to see as well. 
So I found a nice packed sand area near some big trucks and trailers and I had a bit of wine made some delicious tuna fish and ramen and I bedded down. It was misty raining all night long so I didn’t want to spend long outside. I slept great in the sand, but I was woken up at 6 am to the sound of dirt bikes and ATVs racing around the dunes. I was up early and on the road further north. I was excited today at the hopes of maybe the fog clearing up but that didn’t happen. I drove up through San Luis Obispo got a good breakfast at a local coffee shop which had wireless so I was able to get online and pay some bills and take care of some emailing and blog updating. 
Back on the road around 12ish and I was headed to Hearst Castle which I was really excited to go see. Words cannot describe how awesome this place is, and how huge it is. Ok so there are 7 different tours and each one is about two hours long! I did the first tour which was recommended for first time visitors and I saw a really good national geographic video about the making of Hearst Castle. Now this place is so big it had two airfields that Mr. William R. Hearst used to fly in guests. The likes of Emilia Earhart, Howard Hughes, and Charles Limburg also were guests and flew into the Hearst Castle as well. 
The list of persons who were guests of Mr. Hearst reads like a laundry list of actors, politicians, media moguls and millionaires of the early 1900s. If anyone has the chance it is a sight to see! And to describe the architecture there is near impossible each building is different, there are roman, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Swiss, Moroccan, Egyptian, and English influences in each building. One way to describe the main grand building is a Japanese Swiss Bungalow. Now if that makes any sense to you then be my guest to write a description of what these buildings looked liked. Again I cannot even describe how amazing it is. 
After leaving the Hearst compound I started to head north on PCH again however turns out there is a huge forest fire in Big Sur, the best part of the PCH drive and I had to backtrack about 50 miles to get to a detour, which I was not too happy about. 
I had to take boring hwy 101 all the way to Monterey where I am now, and I didn’t get in until 10 pm tonight, it was very tough to find an open campground or a non full campground or a campground at that. It’s on to San Francisco tomorrow to stay with my good friend from Egypt Ben!
The smoke was so dense that I could not see the campsite next to me, which made riding all the more hazardous. While in Monterey I stopped in at their historic wharf and cannery row, as made famous by author and extraordinaire John Steinbeck. One site I did like in Monterey was Lighthouse Field State Beach, which is an awesome several mile drive along the cliffs in Monterey through the old historic homes of the city. So to one side are these huge majestic beach houses and to the other side are sheer cliffs with tons of surfers enjoying the waves. A few days before at my campsite just North of Malibu I met a couple who told me that I had to definitely go to Santa Cruz so go I did. One of my favorite things to do on my trip is to visit college campuses so by suggestion of the couple I met I went to University of California Santa Cruz, which is an awesome campus tucked into the mountains and forest. Santa Cruz like Monterey was foggy, something which I have begun to grow accustomed to on the California coast. 
Riding further north towards San Francisco the fog let up a bit more and I could actually see the ocean for once along Highway 1. A little after noon I finally had made it to San Francisco, where I had my triumphant reunion with Ben my best friend from 6th grade. Ben works as a Chef in San Francisco and is also something of a bike rider extraordinaire; as such he took me for a tour of the entire city via bike. First stop the painted ladies or as many of you may be more familiar with, the Full House houses. Now this row of houses was made ridiculously popular from the Intro to the 90s hit television show Full House. 
Ok saw the houses back to riding, and of all the cities I’ve been through thus far San Fran has to be the most bicycle friendly place ever. The tour Ben gave me was awesome, we went up the popular and busy Market Street, and through the financial district, along the water, past Alcatraz, through the touristy Wharf, and then back to a city park where I caught my breath and Ben and I enjoyed some frosty beverages. It seems as though the open container laws are on par with other popular destinations of mine such as Las Vegas and New Orleans. Frosty beverages in the park turned out to be a great way to relax after a long day of riding both motorized and non motorized cycles. 
That evening Ben took me to an Indian slash Pizza restaurant in the Mission area. I subsequently went into a food coma after the amazing Indian pizza we had, along with a ton of other stuff. The next day in San Fran was my day to explore and check out the city as Ben had to go to work. I walked and walked and walked all over the place, first stop, Chinatown which rivals the real China. I swear that if it wasn’t for the American license plates that I sporadically saw then I would not have been able to tell the difference. Chinatown was fun and very busy and bustling. 
I kept on my way to the touristy Wharf to get some clam chowder in a bread bowl which I had been craving all day long, but before I could get that I stopped off at the famed Lombard street, the crookedness and steepest street in San Fran. There were tons of people there and the sidewalk is so steep that there are actually steps on it. The wharf was rather cool lots of tourists, lots of boats and I got to see Alcatraz, from afar that is. I decided that the next morning I would get up early and take a ferry to Alcatraz to do the tour however that would not be happening because turns out Alcatraz tickets were booked for almost a week straight so no jail tour which I was kind of bummed about. So I did the next best thing, I decided I would take a harbor tour via boat which takes you around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate, ect ect. 
Ok so there are a bunch of tour boats at the wharf and some are huge with like over 30 people on them and others are small with just 6 people, which I much rather preferred. When I arrived to the Wharf to pick out my boat the 6 person one I wanted was out and would not be back for another hour, and in the mean time 10 of the other huge boats came and went, but I was determined to get on this historic wooden boat that seats 6. I wait and I wait and I wait, finally Serendipity comes back to its berth and I pay my $15 and I get aboard, so I wait and wait and wait until the captain can get 5 more people to round out our numbers to 6. However no one seems to be coming and the sun was getting low on the horizon. Two guys get on and we wait some more all we need is three more people. Well luck have it a family of 4 arrives and wishes to go on the tour, well this is when things started to go south. The Capitan actually kicked me off the boat, since only 6 were allowed to ride and it didn’t look like we were going to get our 3 we needed, and since I was by myself and the odd man out, I was kicked off the boat, and boy was I mad. I had waited specifically for this boat for over an hour, how’s that patronage for you. I angrily stomp down the wharf to the large 30 person boat and I get on board. 
The Capitan of my new boat asks me why the long face and I tell him my predicament, and he promises a good trip. I find a good spot at the front of the boat with a bunch of funny ladies in their mid 40s and we chat it up and I tell them my story and it ended up being along more fun than I had planned, they were very funny to talk to and I had someone to take my picture of me as we went under the Golden Gate Bridge. On our way back to the dock I really had to go to the bathroom, and luck have it they had one on the boat, and as I’m getting off the boat, the Captain stops me and says good thing you came aboard because the Serendipity didn’t have a bathroom onboard and it got stuck in the bay, so I was happy again. I make my way back to Ben’s and I get ready for the next day, and since I had seen basically everything I decided I would get on the road the next morning. Next morning rolls around I pack my things say my goodbyes and I get as far as the Golden Gate Bridge when I pull in the clutch to shift and I hear a snap, I look down and my clutch cable is hanging on by just two fine wires and had almost completely sheared off. Oh great another thing to break, and luck have it, it was Sunday so no motorcycle shops were open. So I Mav and I limped our way back to Ben’s, all the while I was praying that the two fine wires that were still connected wouldn’t snap and I would be clutch less. 
Being Sunday and being that I was a block away from one of the biggest Catholic Cathedrals on the west coast I made it to the 5:30 mass which was really good and in an amazing Cathedral. Afterwards the cookies and apple juice made up for the almost snapped clutch cable. That evening I walked to Chinatown as Let’s Go suggested I go to Chef Jia’s for some amazingly cheap and good Chinese food, and they really lived up to their reputation, they were cheap, for San Francisco standards and it was amazingly good, I had a spicy peanut chicken dish with sweet potatoes and white rice. Ok so let’s try this again, I wake up the next morning and I make my way to the Gold Coast Cycles, whom I might add were not the most friendly motorcycle dealer that I had visited, I pick up a new clutch cable, which I thought would have been tons of money however it was a measly $17 and it was also the easiest repair I had ever made. 
To right now I still cannot believe how easy it was to install, I keep looking at it just to make sure that I installed it correctly because it literally took just 10 minutes and I did it in the parking lot of a Chevron gas station. Once the clutch was repaired I left the city via the Golden Gate Bridge which didn’t charge going the northbound direction which was awesome. My first stop was a small town on the opposite side of the bay, called Sausalito, I moseyed around there for a bit, and it was rather touristy. I got a pastrami, Swiss cheese and avocado sandwich with grilled peppers and oil and vinegar and it was really good. The thing I like about my Let’s Go tour book is that it tells you places to go and the real truth behind them, and one of those places I read about was Bolinas California. The fact that I typed that very name in this blog has probably set off a chain of bad events for myself. See Bolinas is a small coastal town which does not like to be bothered, so much so that they remove any street signs and road signs directing you to their town, and it has stayed like this for decades. Thankfully though I have my trusty Garmin which is like Krypton to the Clark Kent’s of Bolinas. The town is awesome, they have amazing dark sand beaches, with surf shops and cafes all over the downtown area. It is not touristy at all and very down to earth. The folks of Bolinas are very environmentally friendly and there are homemade recycling signs all over the place. 
I really enjoyed my time in Bolinas and would love to have a house there someday, it is just so chill, I really think though that some of its residents think it is still the 60s or 70s. After leaving Bolinas I get back on highway 1 and I continue heading north. It was frigidly cold driving up the coast but the views were amazing, the fog and smoke had cleared and I could see all the way out into the ocean and all the craggy cliffs below the highway. There were tons of other motorcyclists out on highway 1 when I was riding, and I could see why, it has tons of twisties and switchbacks and amazing views. The riding was slow going though, I think I might have gone 17 miles and it took almost an hour. When the sun started to set I took the recommendation of a state park ranger to go to Salt Sea Campground. Luck have it when I pulled into my campsite, there were two Suzuki Dual sports parked right next to me and would you believe it they had United Kingdom license plates. Yes you are reading that right.
I could not wait to meet my neighbors, they must be some real world travelers and yes they were. My neighbors were a young couple from Scotland who shipped their bikes to Alaska where they rode North to Prudhoe Bay, then headed south through Canada and were heading all the way to Tierra Del Fuego, the southernmost tip of south America. I must say I was very jealous of them and they had been on the road for about 4 weeks so far. We exchanged stories and seeing that they had come the way I was going they gave me all sorts of good places to go. I was really excited to meet fellow riders, and ones who were doing a trip of this caliber, that is just amazing. I wish them safe travels wherever they may be and I look forward to hearing back from them on the status of their trip! I think I have caught up on all the things that have happened the past few days, now its time to hit the hay.
