Gregg sent this to me. I think its hilarious! Its another translation of the WW2 movie with Hitler, and how his men bought him the WRONG BIKE!
I just got a call from the BMW Dealer that I bought my bike from. BMW USA asked him to invite some offroad riders to come try out the new BMW Motorcycle Rider Training fully covered! Basically, I just have to pay for my flight and lodging and I get the course and bike provided by BMW for Free! OUTSTANDING! I can’t wait to check it out! I was able to take the Jimmy Lewis course last year, so taking this course this year would be spectacular!
I also have to share one of my now all time favorite pictures.
I haven’t updated everyone in a while, mostly because I’ve not been doing too much adventurey things! In January Kevin, David, and I ventured to Death Valley. Death Valley Daze is an informal motorcyclists gathering in Death Valley. Several different groups come together and have fun riding with each other and meeting new friends. Kevin and I had discussed doing this a few months ago as we now live nearly a 1000 miles from each other. Our last get together was Utah which was unfortunately cut short. Funny thing about that is I wouldn’t have met David if plans hadn’t changed. I talked David into joining us in Death Valley as a shake down ride before he heads south into Mexico. As it got closer to the day of the trip the weather kept getting worse. I figured the worst case we’d hang out around the camp and enjoy each others company. Loading up the truck and trailer the night before I noticed a hissing sound coming from somewhere. After a brief inpsection, I’ve got a dry wall screw in my rear passenger side tire!!! Not much I could do about it at this point so I finished loading and planned to hit the tire shop first thing in the morning.
Thursday I got up early and went directly to the tire shop, and somehow there were three people ahead of me. Three hours later I’m good to go and go to pick up David out in El Cajon. Leaving San Diego it was raining lightly and stayed that way until we reached Cajon Pass north of Riverside. There, it turned into snow. Most Californians have no idea how to drive in the snow so it always makes for an interesting trip. The tire repair set us pretty far behind in schedule and we didn’t arrive until pretty late. Kevin had to entertain himself for about 4 hours, so he was pretty entertaining when we arrived.
Friday morning we got up and decided to set out for Scotty’s Castle and see the Racetrack. It was overcast but generally warm at below sea level. The ride up to Scotty’s Castle takes you up to about 3000 feet. Amazing, how in 3000 feet you can go from 60 to 34 degrees. It was cloudy and cold. No rain but it looked like it could have. We got out and looked around for a little bit and went into get some hot chocolate and coffee. The server said “You guys should be careful of the crows, they’ll get into your stuff.” Kevin looks outside and sure enough, a big ass crow is on his bike picking at something on his handlebars. This resulted in guard duty for the bikes so the crows didn’t tear into our bikes (Lotes of shiny stuff). I asked a few people about the road to the Racetrack and everyone said it was the most terrible road ever!!! (I should have applied my own experience at this point but failed to. People said the same thing able the Dalton, and it was a super highway compared to roads in Mexico). With that, we bailed on the plan to see the Racetrack and head over to Beatty for lunch. Bad choice, it was cold, straight, and we road through snow. We thought about stopping at some hotsprings, but we all decided we didn’t want to see each other naked (And the place looked kinda sketchy). We did pass by Angel’s Landing Brothel! Um, yeah… We stopped in Beatty and had some lunch at the Casino and then headed down the road to Rhyolite eventually ending up back at camp. One thing I didn’t mention, is we were eating good. Tonight, Carne Asada!!!! Had some awesome dinner, a few beers and wandered around the campground to meet some other riders. (Oh yeah, Kevin is a Pyromaniac, don’t let him tell you otherwise)
Saturday was a much better day. Much more sun, so we decided to check out the West Side road and see Badwater. Additionally we planned to take one of the roads up into the mountains but later changed our minds as we’d have to turn around and come back the same way. Today was a picture fest. It turns out David is the best photographer of us all. Most of the pictures I’m featuring here are his! I must learn his tricks! We got to see the Artist Loop, Badwater, and some other areas in southern Death Valley. While looking at the map we met a new friend, George! He rolls up on his KTM 950 with the biggest grin. We chat for a few, and he decides he’ll ride with his and we come up with a new route bringing us around through Green Valley giving us pretty much a majority day of off-road riding. Most of it was fast open stuff but we got to see some good scenary.
As we got closer to the road, it became apparent to me that I needed to find a restroom ASAP. I guess I had one too many Clif Bars. DOH! We hit the road and I hit the throttle, and didn’t let up until we got to Shoshone. We ate at the Crowbar, pretty typical American fare. Filling, but generally ordinary. There were some great stories to read about the place on the walls and in the menu. From here we headed north along the road until we hit the turn off for Green Valley. Some more good scenery and laid back riding. It was a pretty uneventful but pleasant. Got back to camp and threw the Lasagna in the oven and the four of us enjoyed an evening of good food, beers, and good stories. George is affiliated with KTM somehow, and a fricken awesome rider. Talking to him he is quite knowledgeable about Baja California so we picked his brain a little bit. As we wrapped up the evening Kevin decided to stop enjoying beers early, load up, and head on home. George said he’d be by in the morning and we’d go hit the Racetrack as he said the road is cake and nothing harder than what we did that day (I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO MY EXPERIENCE!!!) Later that night the wind kicked up and it looked like a storm was going to roll in. The trailer got knocked around a bunch by the wind, but eventually we fell asleep.
Badwater, looks like mars!
Sunday morning we woke and it was still wet from the rain the day before and that night. George was supposed to come by for breakfast and show off his ‘Pancakes in a Can’ but he still hadn’t arrived yet. I wandered over to his campsite around 9:30 and no George. I’m guessing he got fed up with the weather and bailed out as well. David and I lollygagged around and decided to write off riding for the day. Instead I taught him how to use his GPS software, then we gathered ourselves up and drove up to Scotty’s Castle and actually look around. Along the way we checked out the west end of Titus Canyon. I really wanted to ride Titus, but the weather would not permit. After our tour, we made our way back to the campground, had some delicious Ghetto Mac, and called it a night. (If you don’t know what Ghetto Mac is, email me and I’ll ‘splain it)
Monday we packed up and drove home. Most of the night had been very windy and it continued into the day. There were some areas were the visibility was 100 yards at best. This caused havoc with my fuel mileage and just outside Barstow I was worried we were gonna run out. Then! There was a gas station. I hopped out of the truck while David went to pay for fuel. I figured I was going to loose my hat so I go to open the door and its locked! WTF?! I ran into the gas station to ask if I could use their phone so Onstar could unlock my truck. That worked like a breeze! The wind at this point was so bad that if you stood with your back to it, jumped up, you’d go forward about 1.5-2 feet before you landed. Crazy! Rest of the trip was ordinary and we rolled back into town around 4PM.
I’m looking forward to going back to DV when the weather is better and seeing more! For more pictures go check out the album.
CIAO!
Odd title for a post about motorcycles huh? This is actually two rides, with a break in the middle. You’ll get the title as you read along.
Day 1: Christmas was coming. I’m personally not religious so Christmas is more of a time to go see the family. My family happens to be spread out along the California coast. Saturday morning I loaded the bike up and pointed myself north out of San Diego. Mom & Ted were camping at a beach spot in Jalama Beach, just west of Lompoc CA. The route from San Diego to there was pretty laid back. Unfortuantely there is just a ton of civilization between here and there. I could have gone inland and looped around but I was more keen on spending time with family. So, up the 5, 405, 101, 1, and then down a 14 mile twisty road to the beach. Along the way I tried out my new Spot Messenger. Its a pretty cool device, I think I bought as much for my family as I did for myself. I set it up to track my route sending its location every 10 minutes or so. It worked pretty well! Unfortunately they haven’t setup guest access yet so friends and family can check on it. Better yet would be if they setup an API so you can post the information on a website (I’m working on some php code to check an email address and parse the data).
I arrived at Jalama Beach just before sunset. My mom makes some of the best enchiladas for a gringa. 
Had an awesome dinner, philosophized about life, and crashed out pretty early. The next morning Ted and I wandered down to the beach. He was hoping to catch some fish, I was hoping to catch some good pictures. I got my pictures, he didn’t have much luck with the fish. (I think the act is more important to him than the catch). Had an awesome breakfast, wished them the best, packed the bike up and headed north to San Francisco.
Day 2: It was chilly along the coast this morning as I headed north. My route took me along the 1 with some intersections with the 101 all the way to Santa Cruz. I saw some new sections of the 1 here but this is a route I have ridden many times before on my way to Monterey. The wind was pretty gusty at times, and to be expected it was chilly along the coast. Around Big Sur I ate the most expensive hamburger I’ve every had. I think I paid $14.95 for it. It was good, but a bit pricey. At the stop I uncovered that shampoo in a not so sealed container can fill up entire open cavities with bubbles! DOH! Once I hit Monterey I realised that I’d have to take the short way into San Fran as following the 1 was going to get me in well after dark. Once I hit the 101 south of SF the traffic was heavy. I started to split lanes but apparently the SF 49er fans weren’t too keen on that. I also saw a couple of other bikes, but they weren’t attempting to split lanes at all. Go figure. Got to Jeremiah’s pretty easy and got to see him, Beatrice, and Carmen.
Day3: Today was chill day. Did some sight seeing around SF. Got groceries for dinner (We did our Xmas dinner on Xmas Eve rather than the day. Have turkey’s alway been that expensive? Spent the day playing with Beatrice, she apparently finds her Uncle Jason pretty cool. (I think she’s pretty cool too) Ate too much, passed out on the couch. A good day!
Day4: Xmas morning. I didn’t take off on Wednesday so I needed to head home today. SF to SD in one day isn’t a big deal. About 600 miles or so. I took a scenic route through Hollister, down the 25 to the 198. The 198 is a great road. That took me over to the 33 and south. At this point I had to put on my rain liners to shield me from the wind. It didn’t get above 40 degrees the entire day. I learned something about CA though. Along the 33 there is a stretch of oil wells about 24 miles long. After a while I turned off on Cerro Noreste. This road is fantastic. But, I advise doing it in the summer or warmer months. I came across snow, ice, and gravel all along this scenic route. At one point it was 35 degrees, brrr. Made it home that night, warmed up, and packed up for Baja!
I should start this out by covering a few things. Our original plan was; Day 1 – SD to San Quintin via Tecate, Day 2 – San Quintin to Bahia de los Angeles (Bay of Los Angeles), Day 3 – Bay of LA to San Felipe, Day 4 – San Felipe to San Diego. Let me recap the bikes people are riding here so you have an idea of what we’re getting ourselves into. Byron is on a Suzuki DR650. Good bike, sturdy dualsport single cylinder. To most people this looks like any dirt bike. Andres has a Kawasaki KLR650. This bike is considered the poor mans adventure bike. Its a great bike honestly. Morgan is on his KTM 950 Adventure and I am on my BMW R1200GS. Morgan and I have big bikes, and later in the story you’ll see how the big bike affects me.
Day 6: Byron & Morgan came by my place around 8:30. First it was just Morgan. I asked “Where’s Byron?” The night before he decided to change the chain on his new DR650. He had some problems as it wasn’t a master link chain and it required a special tool (or a hammer) to mushroom out the rivets. Byron showed up a few minutes later. Loaded up we headed south to the Tecate Border Crossing. Today was fricken freezing. I was lucky, I have heated grips and a heated jacket. Crossing the border Byron got the Pase, Morgan got the Pase, I get the Regrese! I start to pull over for the inspection and the border guard gives me a wave and says “Pase Amigo!” Just inside Tecate we meet up with a final member Andres. Gas up and head south! About 14 miles south of Tecate we leave the pavement and roll onto the Los Compadres Highway. You can see a picture just above of Morgan on the ‘highway’. As you can see, its not much of a highway, but a dirt road.
Well, basically I’ve decided that I have to make some decisions on life. And traveling is one of those decisions. On March 26, 2010 I’d like to embark on a journey. The only things I have worked out so far is that it will be on a bike, and it will be away from here. I haven’t decided if I’m selling my house or what to do with Karma and Pookie, or what it means for the rest of things. What it does mean is that I have until that countdown timer on the right ticks down until zero to figure it out
Currently I’m reading a book on Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. Its interesting so far. I’ve got a stack of books at my house to go through over the next few months. But in general I want to take the time now when I am still fairly young and generally able to see what I can. Wish me luck!
Total Miles: 2847 – Through California, Arizona, Nevada & Utah
Wednesday – October 10, 2007
Meeting with Chanderjeet
My ride started out with meeting a fellow named Chanderjeet (CJ) who has come all the way over from India to ride the United States. It all started with a post by a local celebrity to the Adventure Rider crowd who goes by the moniker of StrikingViking (SV). As a result, donations were made, a bike was found, and Chanderjeet has come over for adventure. If you’re interested in how things are going you can read up on him here. On Wednesday I aimed my front wheel north towards Barstow California. I picked up Pete along the way and we motored on up to meet CJ. I told CJ and Bob to meet us at the In-n-Out in Barstow. Mainly because its easy to find, but as CJ is Indian he doesn’t eat cows. Pete and I pulled in to In-n-Out and I realized, “Crap, this isn’t Barstow.” I started to look in my GPS to make sure there wasn’t another In-n-Out in Barstow proper and CJ and Bob showed up. We crossed the parking lot to Panda Express and got some quick chinese food before hitting the road. Our goal was to get to Palm Springs to meet up with SV around 4 PM.
We took the 247 to the 62 down around the backside of Big Bear and through Yucca Valley. Pretty nice road, way better than motoring down the Interstate. It was pretty uneventful and pleasant until we came down the 62 into Palm Springs, then we hit the crosswinds. There’s a reason those big ass windmills are there. The winds were definitely 30 mph +. (I’d venture to guess closer to 50 as it got really quiet once we were on the 10 eastbound) We met up with SV at his close friends custom motorcycle shop. Very cool stuff. I have to admit, Glen AKA StrikingViking is a fricken giant. Even with that, his smile is infectious and he’s a super likeable guy. Afterwards we all headed over to another rider’s house for a BBQ.
I just can’t wait to get back on the road again
Heading up to Utah today by way of Palm Springs. I’m going to meet up with a guy that has come from the other side of the planet to ride in the United States. I’m really looking forward to seeing him. He’s having a blast and is planning to get across the US to New York before his vacation is over.
I’ve added a new widget on the right ‘As it happens’ which I can update via my cell phone while I’m roaming around. Figured I’d try it out and see how it goes. Its powered by Twitter, looked like something that could be useful.
I had a funny conversation with Alison today about why people who are prone to melancholy feel the desire to wander or roam. She pointed to me to this poem that a mutual friend of ours showed to her. The Wanderer, and its interesting how I can identify with a few of the areas. (Granted, this was obviously written some time ago and times have changed). And she brought up the ‘greener pastures’ idea. Perhaps, but here are some of my thoughts.
The thoughts of a wanderer…
An interesting part of me that some people either; recognize and understand, recognize and don’t understand, don’t recognize and understand (oddly enough), or are completely oblivious. Is, that I’m never happy ‘here’ and I’m always looking to go ‘there’. Sometimes ‘there’ is a place, a time, or a being. But regardless, its never ‘here’. The problem with going ‘there’ is that once I’m there, its then ‘here’ and I feel the urge to find another ‘there’ shortly after arriving at ‘here’. I don’t think I’d be where I am today if this wasn’t a part of who I am. I’d probably be back at some old ‘here’ landing where ever my decisions and life put me. But, instead I followed the path of ‘there’.
For some friends this behavior is completely incomprehensible. It causes confusion and misunderstanding for which I deeply apologize to them. For others, they get it, or know that its not important that I’m not content with staying ‘here’ with them and that at some point our ‘theres’ will intersect and all will be good again. Sometimes when I’m on a journey I don’t think to let people know where I am. If that makes me inconsiderate, then I apologize. Its nothing personal, its just who I am. I accept my friends for who they are, I can only hope they all do the same for me.
But back to the topic of ‘here’ and ‘there’. It is very unlikely that I will ever be happy just being ‘here’, and I’ll be happiest going ‘there’. It doesn’t mean I’ll be happy when ‘there’ becomes ‘here’, but that I’ll be happy making the journey. Whether that journey is physical, intellectual, spiritual, or emotional. For me its the journey, its the new experience. It probably explains the issues with my relationships, because at some point I was ‘here’ too long and I couldn’t figure out how to get both of us ‘there’. Or, perhaps our ‘theres’ were not the same, thus our paths diverted. There is nothing wrong with that but unfortunately it leads to more misunderstanding and unhappiness of most parties involved.
So, my parting thoughts. If I am ‘here’ with you enjoy the time. And if you go ‘there’ with me enjoy the journey. And, if you stay in the ‘here’ do not fret for I shall always be your friend. Its just time for me to move on to the next ‘there’, and know that at some point our future ‘theres’ will cross, and we will be ‘here’ together again my friend.
Next trip is all planned. Going to take off on Wednesday night October 10th and return on Sunday October 14th. Its gonna be a blast of a ride. I’ll be meeting Kevin and his Dad in Payson, then we’ll ride from there and check out Utah. We’ll stay off the dirt this time since his Dad is riding a BMW R1200RT (I could be wrong on that)
Next time I want to hit this road. Utah State 279 There are some dirt sections but the views look awesome!!! Then on to planning the Tour of Mexico in Spring of 08. Anyone want to come?
This picture was taken by a fellow rider who did the dream ride around the world trip. You can read the rest of his thread over here. But my favorite quote from it all.
true dat. I always said that if a Jeanie came out of a bottle and offered me a wish, it would not be for money or fame or any of that stuff. I would want to ride around the whole world.
I remember being in Kyrgyzstan. I met this very attractive Turkish woman (who turned out to be part of some sort of powerless royal family) and I rode her across that country. The Kyrgyz language is essentially old Turkish so she could get us accommodation in yurts and good food etc. The roads are not paved and the mountains are high and jagged and snow covered. The dirt roads cut back and fourth to get up them.
We woke up in a yurt one morning and ate with the nomads. We rode for a while to lake Issyk Kul. It’s the second highest lake in the world so it should be freezing, but there is volcanic activity so it’s the worlds biggest hot tub surrouned by the Tien Shen mountains. We swam there and started riding again. Some nomads rode up on horses and camels and after talking for a while, invited us to stay with them. We were riding back to thier tents and I’m looking at the view and I’m thinking. “I’ve been riding for well over a year, I’m in Kyrgystan on my beloved GS, the view is breathtaking, the road is perfect, the sun is shinning, I’m going to sleep in a yurt with Kyrgyz nomads tonight and there’s a freaking Turkish princess on the back of my bike.
What was missing from that picture? Did I leave anything out? Should there be TWO princesses? I dunno man. There are plenty of snapshots like that that pop into my head when I’m in the middle of doing something like tracking a package for a customer or something.
petefromberkeley – advrider.com
