My longest day yet, 500 miles and then some!
July 27th
With every bad day there is always a lesson to be learned, and to save you the time for reading through every minute thing that happened today which culminated in me staying in a Super Motel rather than the trendy hostel I was slated to stay at I will tell you this. Always make sure you do an equipment check before each days ride, and not just a quick once over but check things like brake lights, and cables, ect ect. Because little things like a tail light being out will snowball into a multitude of other things which leaves one staying in a Super 8, and not the trendy hostel, in the cool part of town. My day officially began at 4:55 am to a cool wet felling of rain on my face. Earlier that evening I had checked the local Interior South Dakota Weather and there was no such report of rain not even close and since it was much warmer in the Badlands than Oregon or Washington State I decided to leave the rain fly to cool me off. Well that did not go as planned due to the unprecedented rain, I hastily jumped out of my tent leaving the door wide open and I rummaged through my things to find the rain fly and stakes. I quickly put the rain fly up only to realize that I did it upside down and I had to un stake and re do the entire thing. I should also add that because of the warmer temperatures I was sleeping without a shirt on so when I got out of the tent to put the rain fly on I neglected the fact that there were swarms of mosquitoes, and I subsequently am itchy all over now, and since I left the door open on my tent I spent the rest of the night, wet, itchy and restless, so between the hours of 5 am and 8 am I did not get much sleep, which is not what I needed the day before a big 500 mile ride I had planned. Of course I was up with the sun well I was already up in reality so I packed up camp and headed to the amazing all you can eat sour dough pancake breakfast I had awaiting for me, which was amazing, I can say one thing about today, the food was excellent. I 4 pancakes total each the size of a plate, so I was full for pretty much the rest of the day.
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.
With every bad day there is always a lesson to be learned, and to save you the time for reading through every minute thing that happened today which culminated in me staying in a Super Motel rather than the trendy hostel I was slated to stay at I will tell you this. Always make sure you do an equipment check before each days ride, and not just a quick once over but check things like brake lights, and cables, ect ect. Because little things like a tail light being out will snowball into a multitude of other things which leaves one staying in a Super 8, and not the trendy hostel, in the cool part of town. My day officially began at 4:55 am to a cool wet felling of rain on my face. Earlier that evening I had checked the local Interior South Dakota Weather and there was no such report of rain not even close and since it was much warmer in the Badlands than Oregon or Washington State I decided to leave the rain fly to cool me off. Well that did not go as planned due to the unprecedented rain, I hastily jumped out of my tent leaving the door wide open and I rummaged through my things to find the rain fly and stakes. I quickly put the rain fly up only to realize that I did it upside down and I had to un stake and re do the entire thing. I should also add that because of the warmer temperatures I was sleeping without a shirt on so when I got out of the tent to put the rain fly on I neglected the fact that there were swarms of mosquitoes, and I subsequently am itchy all over now, and since I left the door open on my tent I spent the rest of the night, wet, itchy and restless, so between the hours of 5 am and 8 am I did not get much sleep, which is not what I needed the day before a big 500 mile ride I had planned. Of course I was up with the sun well I was already up in reality so I packed up camp and headed to the amazing all you can eat sour dough pancake breakfast I had awaiting for me, which was amazing, I can say one thing about today, the food was excellent. I 4 pancakes total each the size of a plate, so I was full for pretty much the rest of the day.
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. http://ironbutt.com/ here is the website for anyone curious, other examples of rides they have would be Ride all lower 48 states in 10 days, 5,000 miles in 5 days, or Coast to Coast in under 50 hours. So you get the picture. After some delicious dairy queen burgers I was just too full to get the culminating blizzard. Oh I also forgot to mention something along with the amazing food that made the day better was that Margaret Ann officially got back states side today from her UK adventure. I still had almost 100 miles to go to get to my hostel in Minneapolis after eating and I wasn’t in a rush but I couldn’t dilly dally. Well as soon as the sun set and it got dark which I might add I hate to ride in the dark because of all the added dangers i.e., deer, drunk drivers, ect ect. So I was being extra cautions and defensive on my drive when all of a sudden out of nowhere a blaze of blue and red flashing lights illuminates my path behind me, and I had this deep sinking feeling, great a ticket just what I needed that and I wasn’t even close to the Hostel, I hope this wouldn’t take long because I just didn’t want to cut it close, the Hostel closes its doors at 10 pm. I pulled over not really knowing why I was pulled over because for one I don’t speed, I cant actually, Maverick gets best gas mileage while running at 4,000 rpm which carries me at a brisk 65 mph, so speeding was out of the question. The officer comes up then another cruiser arrives oh great more to add to the party. I dismount and hand over my papers, well turns out my rear brake light was out, and a trucker saw it and radioed to the troopers to flag me down and let me know, how nice of him. Well my bulb wasn’t burnt out the light still came on when I squeezed on the brakes just the running light was out, a fuse most likely however I just did not have the time to take off my boxes take off the seat to get to the fuses and figure out which one went.
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.
posted by Nick @ 2:26 AM
1 Comments
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.
The beaches and the waves were awesome. Seeing the pacific was such a relief, I was so glad to have finally made it all this way from coast to coast! There are two things I realized after being in southern California, A.) there is a fair shair of traffic and B.) everyone has really nice cars here, oh and C.) you can lane split! Not knowing exactly what lane splitting is I learned after phil told me. Apparently since it gets pretty hot here motorcycles used to overheat while stuck in traffic so a law was passed in California which allows motorcycles to drive between the lanes when traffic is moving slowly this kept bikes moving so that they would not overheat. Well being my first time ever on a southern California freeway and being stuck in traffic I started lane splitting but keep in mind I have a lot more on my motorcycle than the regular little sport bike, and all I could think about as I was riding between traffic that one of my boxes is going to knock off some expensive Mercedes side mirror. 
Luck have it I didn’t bump into anything and I made it through the traffic to the coast. So I rode down the Pacific Coast Highway for about 20 miles from about Seal Beach to roughly Newport Beach I then cut inland to my Aunt Barb and Uncle Mike’s. I was really looking forward to finally getting to the west coast to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins out here. When I got to Barb and Mike’s they had pizza and beer ready and waiting, just what every weary road traveler could want. It was really great to just relax and talk with them and chill out on their amazing backyard patio with a grill that could be featured on HGTV!
In California, backyards are like second living rooms, it is just so nice outside that you just can’t pass up the awesome opportunity to relax outside, plus Barb and Mike have a really great patio overlooking a really great skyline. The next day I awoke refreshed and ready to take whatever the 4th had coming for me. Barb and Mike took me to a really fun lake slash pool party at a place called Lake Forest. It was like a big neighborhood party and I got to meet all their friends and there were plenty of frosty beverages there as well. My uncle Mike and I enjoyed a lot of carnsade tacos, which were really tasty and something I never really had before. The fireworks were also very awesome to watch; they floated this huge barge out into the middle of the lake and launched tons of fireworks. 
The next day I had to sadly leave Barb and Mike’s it was great to see them however there was one more thing we had to do before I left, and that was go to In and Out Burger, which really hit the spot. I was so glad that they took me there and it was just as good as I had anticipated it to be, we all got Double Doubles which is two patties with cheese and all the toppings and stuff, but you can get as many patties as you want on an In and Out Burger. I also picked up a nice new In and Out bumper sticker for Maverick. After a great lunch it was time to hit the road again. Barb and Mike suggested I go through southern Laguna Beach which was great because it really was a cool beach town to drive through, I really liked all the cliffs and beaches and houses precariously perched on the cliffs as if they could topple into the ocean below at any second. Any description I could write here about the beaches and the cliffs of Southern Laguna would not do it justice, nor would any picture I put up. 
To say the least California has an amazing coast line down here. So I rode the Pacific Coast Highway for a ways through all the different beach towns and I made my way to Seal beach where I turned inland again to my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kurt’s. Now my uncle Kurt has a garage of garages, something I really was not prepared for. He has every tool you could imagine, and as my aunt Nancy says, he even has tools to fix tools. Mav also had some company in the garage, because there were two other motorcycles, a 400 cc Honda dirt bike and a perfect condition 80 cc 1972 yamaha enduro which my uncle completely restored. 
We got the powerwasher out and hosed down maverick, which I haven’t done in a long time, or come to think of it ever! We also cleaned out the air filter which to my surprise was not as dirty as I through it was going to be. I really thought I had done some harder riding which was not indicated by the almost clean air filter. Tomorrow Mav is going to get some more TLC and my uncle and I are going to work on tightening the chain.
There is honestly more things to do out here than I could fit into my schedule, so looks like I’ll be coming back this way again. So to give you a step by step of the past few days would take me forever but I will give you the highlights. So Maverick got a lot of good attention while I was at my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kurt’s, I don’t know if I already talked about it but their garage is absolutely amazing, every tool I could imagine was in there. Mav had been running pretty rough and I knew I had to tighten up the chain so Kurt and I were doing some chain maintenance and we noticed that the chain was binding after we tightened it and then after further inspection turns out the chain was missing some of the rollers which was a big no no. So the next day Kurt picked up a great new fresh chain for Mav along with a new spark plug. In the mean time I got to spend some quality time with my cousin Christy and her friends which was awesome. She showed me all over southern California. 
For my first adventure Christy, her boyfriend Tommy, and her friend Chrissy, took me to Venice Beach which was quite an experience. Venice if you’ve never been or heard about it, well I don’t even think I can describe it. To give you an idea of what Venice is like I am going to have to take an excerpt from my trusty ‘Let’s Go, Road Tripping USA’, Venice’s main beachfront drag is a seaside circus of fringe culture. “Street people converge on beaches, evangelists drown out off color comedians and body builders pump iron at muscle beach”. Yes that’s right people muscle beach, I went there, with all of its glory and overly tanned bodies. On our trip to Venice we also made a stop in at the Venice Freak Show, where I got to pet a boa constrictor, and a five footed dog, and I even met the famous Wolf Boy from the Guinness book of world records who’s entire face is covered in hair. 
We watched a bunch of the street performers, and I saw a guy literally jump over eight people and do a flip in the air, it was quite a site to see! After an awesome dinner of real Ramen for once courtesy of Tommy, we went to Beard Papa which was equally amazing, we got these pastries which had vanilla cream in them and Tommy and I devoured them. The next day Christy took me to Huntington Beach with Tommy and her friend Jenn, where we watched the surfers got some rays. 
We all grabbed lunch on the Huntining Pear at Ruby’s which was again amazing. I got a cheeseburger on a grilled parmesan roll with an avocado, and did I mention Ruby’s has unlimited baskets of fries! That evening we all went to a comedy club and even though we missed most or all of the show we did laugh a good amount. 
I was rather sad to be leaving the southern California area the next day because I had so much fun seeing all my family! And I cannot thank all my aunts and uncles and cousins for everything they did for me this past week! I can’t wait to come back and see everyone again! 
Once the evening rolled I met up with Dave, a fellow VMI classmate of mine who is a Las Vegas native. We had a really good time and went to this cool bar called the Griffin, which I highly recommend if you are in downtown Las Vegas away from the strip. So Dave and I were just sitting there enjoying a couple drinks talking some VMI when the guy next to us leans over and asks, where exactly did we go to school. So of course we replied VMI, and he was shocked as were we because turns out he was an 89 grad from VMI and somehow we randomly picked the one bar in Las Vegas on a Tuesday night and sit down right next to a guy who graduated from the same school as us. Turns out he had moved to Las Vegas and started a club a few years back but had just sold it that week. So we talked VMI some more and had a good time just relaxing. Then Dave and I decided it was time to see some more sights, so we headed to downtown Vegas, not the strip with all the flashy hotels. 
Now Dave being an excellent Blackjack player asked if I wanted to play, so we found a good $5 table and he taught me the ropes. The table got going then I cut the deck and it seemed like the table didn’t get going. Then it picked back up again and before long our table was full and we we’re making some money. I ended up doubling my money which is always a good thing, and not being one for gambling I had a ton of fun playing blackjack. I ended up leaving Vegas the next day a good $80 richer which is nice because tomorrow I would be heading to the glorious land of California and $5.00 gasoline.
It was a very cool visit to say the least. But yes the drive was extremely hot. It was 104 something that day when I left Vegas, and it only kept getting hotter on the drive. I had to take tons of water breaks, and Mav wasn’t doing too well either, and overheated a couple times so I would have to stop and let em cool off every 30 minutes or so of riding. When I got to Edwards I met Phil at his office and I didn’t know this but Phil is a fellow motorcycle enthusiast as well and he has a very nice and fast Honda CBR. 
We did a quick base tour saw some more planes and we rode back to his place, and a nice place at that. Phil has an amazing house about an hour outside LA complete with a movie theater, pool table, and all the workings of a fun place to live. Now when we got there Phil asked if I was hungry and of course I replied with a resounding yes, and he asked me if I liked sushi and again I replied with a very definitive yes. 
And if anyone knows me one of my favorite restaurants in Charlottesville is the China King Buffet, a plethora of amazingness which includes all you can eat sushi. Well Phil suggested we go to this place called Big Tuna which is a Sushi restaurant that has all you can eat sushi, and well the outcome was shear amazingness. I think I had 12 different rolls that evening each one better than the next. 
I have been traveling all over the country this summer and I have been looking for an all you can eat sushi place and finally I have found the one. By far the best meal I have eaten on my entire trip. I left full as can be and equally happy. I am just glad to be out of the desert and nearing the Pacific! 
