Friday at The Races – MotoGP 2008

Friday was the start of the races. I opted out of watching some of the qualifiers and ran some errands for things I had forgotten. Dropped by REI, Target & Best Buy. I failed to pack any T-shirts, toothpaste, or a headset to talk on Skype with (I had intended to get a little work done on the down time). I also figured out that if you buy a Starbucks gift card you can get 2 hours of free internet a day. Not too shabby (Again, thought I would get some work done).

Kevin and Karen

I grabbed some lunch and thought “Hmm, Santa Cruz BMW is close” So I hopped on the bike to head up there. It was about 14 miles away up in Watsonville. On the way up Kevin called so I pulled over on an onramp to talk to him for a few minutes. In the three minutes we talked about nine CHP on motorcycles went by. As I discovered five minutes up the road they were staging for a speed trap. There were between six and ten CHP sitting on the backside of the ramp with one on top of the bridge radaring people. DOH!

Rolled up to Santa Cruz BMW and took a look around. My only complaint about my GS is I get a lot of turbulance off the stock windscreen. And, non of the San Diego dealers have aftermarket ones laying around the shop. But! SCBMW did! So, I looked at a couple, picked one out. They graciously offered to ship my stock one back to house after I took it off my bike. There was the trick. I left my tools back at camp. Their service department wouldn’t let me borrow any. And all their tools on the sales floor were off at the BMW rally in Gillete Wyoming. Fortunately I begged tools off a fellow rider who was fixing his bike in the parking lot.

Price's foo foo drink

Motored back on down to the racetrack to meet Kevin and Karen when they arrived. Pretty mellow ride back watching for speed traps along the way. Rolled into camp and waited around for about 30 minutes and K2 showed up. Helped them get their camp setup and we set off to grab some food down on Cannery Row. We parked the bikes and did the obligatory walk down and back looking at all the bikes. Amazing some of the stuff people will do. The pumpkin bike stood out the most to me.

Dinner turned into a mass meal event. Everyone we were camping with showed up five minutes after us and sat down with and next to us. We of course had to help Price get his foo-foo drink. And the heckling amongst friends ensued.

Then, we were all off to a good nights sleep. (Except me, I forgot my ear plugs)

Saturday at The Races

Edwards in Turn 3

Saturday we watched some of the preliminary races and checked out the vendor booths. Kevin was quick to point out that I have the same pumpkin tent as Charlie and Ewan have in Long Way Down. Wasn’t planned that way, it was on super sale at REI. Watching some of the races I fell asleep up above turn 1 for a while. Then Kevin and Karen went to go watch the last race of the day from the Grand Stands. I found Bill and gang and was given an extra super paddock pass! Then went up to the turn 4 Grand Stands to watch the last two races of the day. Pretty laid back day over all. For dinner we went to Fisherman’s Wharf and had Italian food.

Race Day – Sunday

Sunday is the day of the big race. We planned to leave right after the GP race so we got up and packed up our campsites. Kevin and Karen had paid for Grand Stand seats so they went off to get their good seats while I wandered around looking for a good spot to watch. On the way up the Corkscrew I ran into Oz and Sully with a few of their friends. They had an extra ticket for the turn 4 Grand Stands so I chilled with them and watched the Red Bull Challenge racers and the final GP race.

The Red Bull Challenge races are pretty cool. Basically they and KTM setup teenagers with a bike a gear and they get to travel and race around the USA. Very nice!  I also got within 10 feet of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards!

The GP race was very exciting. I’m not going to bore you with the details. Either you like racing and watched it, or don’t and don’t care. Rossi and Stoner put on a great first half. Very exciting indeed! Afterwards we headed back to the bikes and geared up to hit the road. We were originally going to drop Karen off in Bakersfield then move on to Kernville. That plan didn’t make much sense as we wanted to complete an Iron Butt the next day. So, we got to Bakersfield and all stayed in the hotel to get a good nights rest. I have to admit, I’ve been eating so little fast food the Carl’s Jr we had for dinner killed my gut.

Next installment. Iron Butt Run or Not?

The Photoalbum

Wednesday night I headed north on my way to Monterey and the 2008 MotoGP races.  Kevin and Karen were heading south from Idaho and we planned to meet by Friday.  The first leg took me from San Diego to Valencia where I met Bill, Jenny & Steve.  We all met at the Hyatt in Valencia which was the same place Alison and I stayed at for Darrius and Shannon’s wedding. What was weird is I ended up in the same room we had stayed in.  The evening was pretty fun.  Steve apparently is a great disher out of crap.  Well, so am I when prompted.  We got along great!  We went out for sushi at a pretty good place right across the street then had some ice cream before crashing out for the night.

The next morning we met up at 8 AM to head north.  Bill apparently has pretty good knowledge of the backroads up to Monterey.  Including a pot holed road that takes you up on top of some pretty cool passes.  Bill and I are on dual-purpose bikes but Steve was riding a BMW RT.  He had a to take it a bit slower through the rough stuff.  As for riding partners, we all were about the same pace.  Bill is faster with Steve and I being about the same speed.  A couple of exciting moments of the ride; Suicidal little dog trying to run under our wheels, pot-holed road, and the insidious tar snake.  Of the three the tar snake was the scariest.  Through a tight turn my bars went full right lock and the bike tried to take me off the road.  Made it out but scary non-the-less. Total blast of a ride!  One thing of importance on these long distance rides is properly taking care of yourself.  Stay hydrated, fed, and above all liberally apply Anti-Monkey Bugg powder. I cannot express the importance of this enough.

I have a few other pictures from the ride but I’ll have to upload them sometime this week.  I haven’t had much high speed connectivity along the ride.  I did however figure out that if I buy a Starbucks card I can get two hours of free Wifi per day.  Nice!

Catch you all soon! Monday is the day to follow the Spot Tracker!

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

-Born to be Wild, Steppenwolf

Funny story behind that song but I’ll get to that in a bit.

I thought I’d let you know I’m heading out on another adventure!  Kevin and I are meeting up at Laguna Seca this weekend to watch the MotoGP races then heading out for another seven days of riding and camping.  We’ll be at the races from Friday until Sunday morning.  Then we’ll head out to Kernville to camp by the river and prepare ourselves for an Iron Butt taking us all the way to Springer New Mexico completing a 1000 miles in 24 hours.  I’ll do my best to keep the blog updated for your enjoyment.  But if you want some near real time update click on the Spot Messenger link over on the right.  It will ask for a password, if you don’t have it email me and I’ll send it to you.

As for the song reference.  Last year when we did the Alaska ride I had loaded a bunch of music on to my Zumo GPS.  As I rolled away from my house I hit ‘play’ on the mp3′s and the first song that came up was “Born to be Wild.”  (I think because it was alphabetical).  The song is incredibly appropriate, and now I play it every time I embark on a big trip with the bike.  Kinda neat!

Ciao!

I have been trying a couple of times a year to take motorcycle adventures to neat and interesting places.  This month I’m taking a 10 day trip out on the motorcycle starting with the MotoGP races at Laguna Seca.  Saturday I did the 12k service on the motorcycle and Sunday I did the final gear check and packing.  Its actually amazing how much stuff you can fit onto a motorcycle.  I try to keep my gear under a 100 pounds.  Gregg came home while I was in middle of sorting everything and said “Dude, I don’t know how you get that all on your bike.”  Then a light went off.  I can make an exceptionally boring video demonstrating how much stuff you can fit on a bike.  And, here it is for your viewing pleasure!!!

Here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve got with me on the trip. (In no particular order)

• Clothes for 5 days (I’ll wash them along the way)
• Shoes
• Sandles
• Sleeping Bag
• Down Pillow
• Tent
• Shade Canopy
• Cooking Gear (Stove, fuel, plates, cups, utensils etc…)
• Toolkit
• Cycle Pump
• Tire Repair Kit
• Canon Rebel DSLR + Lenses
• Asus EEE 900
• Camp Shovel
• Camp Mini Hatchet (This thing is probably useless)
• Lantern (It can burn unleaded!)
• Shower Kit
• Camp Towel
• Tie Downs
• 20 feet of climbing rope
• Camping Hammock (Its nice to have)
• Sleeping Pad
• 5 freeze dried meals
• 2 freeze dried ice cream sandwiches (YUMMY!)
• 12 Mojo Clif Bars
• Camelback
• First Aid Kit
• Heated Jacket (Just in case)
• Rain Liners

I think there’s a few things I’m forgetting too.  In addition to prepping the bike I prepped my electronic gear.  I’ve been trying for the last week to get Windows XP to run on my Asus EEE to no avail.  Last night I caved and reinstalled the Xandros Linux system it comes with and relearned how to build and compile tools so I could get my wireless card working.  Fortunately it ended in success!!!  And, I signed up for a new Twitter account.  Its useful for keeping people updated on the road.  My old twitter account got hosed and no one in support over there is helping me.  (They probably got made because I used the support ticket like a Twitter update, haha!)  I can’t use my mobile phone to do updates as my number is locked up in the other bad account.

I roll out Wednesday night up to meet up with some others riding up.  Hopefully my toe doesn’t totally fall apart before I leave.  Its not looking too good.  If you’re going to the races in Monterey drop me a line!

If you know me, you know I love gadgets.  I have the gadget gene inherited from my Mom.  Apparently this genetic feature has been passed down through the ages.  My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was one of the first owners of a fork.  His great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was one of the first to jump on the whole wheel concept.

This weekend I was supposed to go out the Colorado River out by Yuma to meet up with Paco for Dalin’s bachelor party.  The plan was for me to take the motorcycle but my lack of desire for riding in 100+ degree heat, thunderstorms, and the fact that I couldn’t even get clear directions to find them deterred me.  So, on a whim I headed down to Fashion Valley to see how big the iPhone line was.  When I arrived, it was about 30 people.  I figured I’d go get a bagel and come right back.  The line tripled!  Ah well, I had my book and a chair with me so I figured I’d chill and see if I could get a phone.  The line was fun and only about an hour and a half.  Now I have a new shiny 16gb black iPhone. Nifty!

Additionally, this last week I bought an Asus EEE microlaptop dealy thing.  I’m taking a trip on the motorcycle for a week and want to be able to get a little bit of work done along the way and this little laptop is perfect.  Its no powerhouse but its small, and has a solid state drive (SSD).  Why is the SSD important?  Because motorcycles vibrate ALOT.  Over time even with self parking hard drives its going to fail.  I’ve got to tweak it a little bit as it seems to be glitchy running XP.  Hopefully I’ll get that done before I leave Thursday.  (That is a quarter sitting on the palm rest, just for size perspective)

I’ll have to make an illustration of how my motorcycle is setup.  Then you all will be like “Gah, what a geek!”

No iPhone, just wasn’t willing to stand around with a 1000 other people outside the Apple store.  And, no river trip as I’m not to keen on riding the motorcycle through thunderstorms.  I guess I’ll just hang around SD for the weekend and get ready for the big moto trip.  Anyone want to camp the ATT store tomorrow morning? I’ll buy breakfast!

That is the question.  I’m a gadget freak.  I love gadgets!  Phones, gps, cameras, basically anything shiny with buttons that does something!  Basically, the new iPhone adds two features.  3g wireless, and the GPS.  I’ve never been particularly unhappy with my Edge wireless on my iPhone 1.0.  I guess its just been far better than any other mobile phone as far as surfing the web.  I can get the OS on the existing iPhone too (Which I’ll be doing as soon as I get home).  But can I justify spending $200-300 on the upgraded new shiny iPhone?  I don’t know.

Chances are, I wont know until tomorrow morning when I wake up like the rest of the mactards and file my butt down to the Apple store to nerd out with the gadget geeks.  I suppose I’ll let you know tomorrow!

(I should have played with Melonie’s Touch phone yesterday, that’s a pretty cool gadget too)

So, just a random discovery.  Last week I was getting notifications from Twitter that people were following me.  I thought “That’s really bizarre, cause I deleted myself.”  So, I go check out what’s going on.  I tried to login and it told me “You’re deleted, want to reactive?”  I figure what the heck, might as well since a few people have sent me emails asking why I nuked myself.  But now, I can’t reactivate because it says someone else has my username.  I filled out their duplicate account ticket process and haven’t heard anything since.  So, unlikely I’ll recover my twitter.  Sorry gang!

Your two happiest days of owning them are the day you buy them, and the day you sell them.

As I mentioned in the Kern River 4th of July trip my generator and refridgerator died.  Well, turns out the brushes went bad on the generator costing $570 in parts and labor.  The refridgerator apparently has a recall which they are going to do.  It may not even fix the problem, but it does fix another problem which sets your trailer on fire.  FUN!

For the 4th of July weekend Dan, NJ and I went up to Kernville to camp with the family.  There are a bunch of things do up there.  Fish, hike, mountain bike, tube, raft, sit, drink beer, etc…  Since there was a descent sized group of us I decided to bring the toyhauler (the camper trailer) so we’d have an extra bathroom and shower for everyone.  My parents bought one after seeing mine.  Fortunately for them its been awesome.  For me, I liked the idea but since I’ve had issues with it I’m not so in love with it anymore.  More on that later.  Dan, NJ and I loaded everything up Thursday afternoon and drove up to Kernville.  It took 6.5 hours to get up there.  Longer than I wanted or estimated but we arrived just before dark.  We got to see my Mom and Ted and have a nice relaxed evening.

Cannell Plunge

Friday morning I walked around Kernville looking to see if I could find some fellow riders who were planning a ride that day.  Walking out the front door of Mountain River Adventures I came across Ryan, Seth and Paige looking like they were getting ready for a ride.  As they say, if you don’t ask the answer is ‘no’ so I approached them and asked if they were going for a ride, and if I could join them.  It turned out, they were trying to figure out logistics on how to get to the top of Sherman Pass with three bikes and two cars that could only carry two bikes each.  I said “I have a truck! If you can give me a ride to it after the ride I can put everyone in the truck.”  And a deal was struck.  I rushed back to the campsite to get my bike and gear.

On the way up to the top of the pass I got to know the gang a bit better.  Seth and Paige were out on vacation from Colorado visiting their daughter in San Diego.  And Ryan is from Lancaster.  It turns out Ryan is an adventure monster.  For fun the guy rides a bicycle from Lancaster to Santa Monica.  At this point I started to think “Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into.”  Paige fortunately informed me that her and Seth were not quite so extreme.

Our ride started at the summit of Sherman Pass at 9200 feet.  The air up that high is pretty thin and I was feeling it on the climbs.  The first 18 miles or so was a bunch of up and down.  Through the forest, meadows and a little bit of fire road.  Its a generally well maintained trail but sandy, kind of like this kitty litter sand.  Going down, not much of a problem.  Its a little squirrely but you get used to it.  But on the flats and climbs it was pretty tiring.  Not all of the trail is like this, but there was a fair amount of it.  We only ran into three other people on the trail.  It was a small group of three guys attempting the same ride we were on.  I didn’t have good hopes for them as one was without a helmet, and another was saying he was toast, just an eighth of the way into the ride.  Not good!

Along the ride we got to see some really neat stuff.  You’ll have to take a look at the pictures to get an idea of it all.  Highlights (and lowlights) were the Cow Poop Swamp, Big Climbing Rock, Lord Seth’s Throne, Sandrock Pile and the Plunge itself of course!  The top part of the ride is in the woods and meadows.  Very green and lush.  Stream crossings every once and a while along with some rocky technical sections.

Once we hit the top of the Cannell Plunge we do a 7000 foot descent in 9 miles.  At two points there are climbs which are very technical and steep.  The second climb I couldn’t even ride it was so steep.  This is what Ryan called “Up-Plunging”  I preferred the term “Suck.”  It is a pretty awesome ride if you are in great shape and like a challenge.  The riding varies significantly and you get to apply your skills and fitness level to the test.   We finished off the day with a BBQ and watching the fire come down the mountain on the southside of the lake.

If you’re in the area, go for the ride.  I recommend taking munchies and plenty of water.  And be physically prepared.

cannell21

For more pictures of the ride: Cannell Trail Photo Album

Tubing and Rafting the Kern River

On Saturday we did some tubing and rafting.  From my prior experience at the Kern River I discovered that tubing and I don’t get along.  Seriously, this is one of the most idiotic things a person can do.  You sit in a tube, which has no directional control other than your futile paddling.  Most people wear no life jacket (myself included) nor a helmet.  You ‘flow’ down a rapid moving river over rocks and logs.  And hope you don’t get tossed.  Everytime I’ve done this, I’ve been tossed.  This time I was cruising down the river trying to avoid the first eddie and I ended up right in it.  There I was, stuck, and trying to figure out how to get unstuck.  I paddle some, try to bounce, and finally I get dislodged and tossed over a rock off of the tube.  Now, I’m being pulled downstream rapidly over rocks and branches trying to figure out how to get back onto the tube before I drown.  At some point, I thought it would be a good idea to try to stop myself with my feet on the rocks.  Bad idea.  I ended up smashing my left big and second toes.  Finally I got to the calmer area with Ted and Danny there and I said “This is just f%$#ing retarded” and stormed out of the river.  I had thought I broke my toe but it just turned out to be jammed badly and the nails were torn off their beds.

Rafting however went much better!  I had be kayaking on the Kern before and enjoyed it alot.  Even though I had be tossed on that trip too.  But, you at least have a paddle and some far fetched notion you are in control. (HAHA!)  This time, I decided to do the raft with the rest of the gang.  Six people + the guide can ride in the raft.  We had eight, so Carmen and Jerry took the inflatable kayak (IK) while the rest of us piled into the raft.  The most important thing they say to do is keep your hand on the T-handle on the paddle.  Apparently having one of those swing around can be very bad and give you summer teeth. (Summer in your mouth, summer in the raft, summer in the water).

They start you out by teaching you how to work together, for about 60 seconds.  Then they just go for it.  For the most part, if you do what he says, and do it together you’re good to go.  Paddle forward three means everyone paddle forward three times.  Paddle back four means paddle backwards four times.  Or, if they just say paddle forward you keep paddling until he says stop.  Along with following the front left persons pace, and some other tips you’re pretty much ready to go down the river.  Until you hit the first rapids.

The first rapids was an entertaining experience.  Jerry and Carmen were ahead of us in the IK.  The guide yelled to them “Follow the other kayak in front of you down!”  The look on Jerry’s face was priceless.  It was the look of “Are you f$%#ing kidding me?!”  They did as told and bounced through the first rapids and pretyt much aced it.  Then, it was our turn… Dan was front left, I was front right.  Behind us were the two boys, Jimmy and NJ.  Then Rob and Norma were in the back.  The first rapids we dipped hard forward and it basically turned into Dan and I paddling with screaming kids on our back and everyone all over the place.  We probably got spun around two to three times as we were pretty much flailing all over the place.  The guide is yelling “Paddle forward!!!! Paddle backward!!!!” Pretty hilarious actually.  After that, it was much easier.  There were a few more rapids but pretty mellow compaired to the first one.  We mastered the “splash your neighbor” skills as well as paddling in unison.

Giant Sequoias

On Sunday we took a short road trip up to see the giant sequoias.  I can’t even explain their magnificence and just encourage you to take a look at the photo album.

You can find more pictures of the forest in the Photo Album

As I mentioned earlier I had brought my trailer.  I wanted to bring it because it has a real bed, a shower, power, a fridge, and some other nice things.  Unfortunately everytime I’ve taken this trailer out I’ve had problems with it.  I’ve reached a point that I just plain done with it.  I bought it for two reasons.  1. Dirt biking in the desert and 2. Alison.  Well, I don’t have dirt bikes anymore and I don’t have Alison.  I can’t see any reason to continue to drop money into it anymore.  This last weekend both the generator failed to work and the fridge died.  These are things that have happened before and cost me a fair sized chunk of money.  Currently its in the shop and its already cost me $350 just to see what’s wrong with.  That’s not even including the cost it will be to fix it.  Like I said, done.  I’m going to get it working and get it sold.

Not to end on a negative note.  I had a good weekend even if I was a little baked from the sun.  At some point Sunday afternoon I decided I was just done with 95 degrees plus temperatures, dust, and the relentless Sun.  With smile and fond farewells we packed up and hit the road to go home.  It only took us five hours to get back home opposed to the six plus it took to get up.  I attribute it to driving ‘down’ the map.

Good weekend, fun adventures, and loving family members.  Love you guys!

Photo Albums:

Mountain Biking Cannell Trail
Giant Sequoias
Danny’s Photos (He has alot)