Watching the clouds go by.

July.31st 2009
Sitting in my friend's appartment here in Seattle. Even though my tires are not that worn down, on a whim(and an air of caution), I decided to get a new set before the long ride to Fairbanks Alaska.
It's about 3,000 miles from here.

Upon rolling up to Seattle, I realized that it's probably one of few major cities I've not been to in the US. Our family was rather nomadic when we were growing up. We were various ages for the cross country trips, but we saw most of it. As an adult nearly every place I drive though or visit I get a sence of having been to the place already in a dream. This was different though, it was new and exciting.

Quick bit about the ride up to Seattle.
The Pacific Coast Highway is amazing! Highly recomended to anyone on a motorcycle! Tons of twisties. And the Redwoods are there! I went and rode the Ave.Of the Gients 3 times I think:)
North was definatly the way to travel the road if you are a new biker(which I was/am). You travel on the inland side of the road, not the clif side.
Don't know if it was the time of year...but for 1,000mi, there was a head wind. Only noticed on the bits of road that dip inland and the speedlimit increase to 50....so people drive 75-80. The little Buell Blast with me and all the stuff had a hard time of it. Thing was thumpin like crazy. Not sure if I was hurting the bike riding it like that!? Ahh. There is so much to learn about motorcycles? Maybe riding to Alaska though the middle of knowwhere canada wasn't the best first choice:)
The coast was colder than I expected. Temps hovered around 50-60 deg. Wound up wearing my rain jacket all the time.

Fully Awesome.

July.23-27.2009
As it turns out, riding a motorcycle for full days on end is completely awesome! Whoa! I simply had no idea. Motorcycling is fun. Traveling in fun. But who thought the combination would be so perfect!?!?
Up up up the coast. Stayed in some nice campgrounds, and met interesting people.
Here are some highlights:
Having dinner with a perfect stranger at the Ilwaco KOA just on the border of Washing. He pulled up at the same time into the 'Dunes' KOA. The managers had the foresight it seems to placed in adjacent campsites. My new buddy was traveling on a pretty BMW sport touring bike. He was a tall guy and the bike fit him perfect. The seat literally rested between my navel and pecs! (I'll keep to the little blaster master I think!)
After setting up camp, we still had all our riding gear on....and since it was only 3:30 in the after noon, we hoped back on the bikes and went foraging for food. That was pretty fun. I'd never ridden with another person before! I'm going to have to get a little pack together when finally back in NYC! In truth, I was a little embarresed riding around with my gear 'shit-rigged' to the bike. Many of the other tourers were husband and wife pairs riding big Honda Goldwings or the like. Everybody talks about the same stuff though. Tires, gas, the heat or the cold. Big fairings or little fairings. That was nice.
The ride up the coast it self was amazing. The northern coast is alien and severe. Steep mountains fall straight into the largest ocean in the world. Then nearly all the beaches have small upsets of land jetting out. Little galapigos islands that seemingly refused to submit to the relentless sea. As small as car, to as large as bank buildings in down town NYC. And as the coast streaches on for hundreds and hundreds of miles, you realize the few of these rocks which have be highlighted in nature books for various reasons, not only aren't unique, simply are not the close to the most amazing natural structures on the coast! Giant Arches unbelievably balanced over the sea, toped with dirt somehow, with grass fields and even trees!
The weather was fairly cold all the way up the coast. At one point feeling the lost of my beloved Red Woods(rode the Ave. Of the Giants 4 times!), I decided on a suggestion of a couple I met that morning to head into Oregon towards Creater Lake. The pass turned right into the deepest section of the Red Woods Nation Park. There would be national campgrounds to sleep in....and hopefully a perfect 55mile good bye to the beloved trees!
Camp ground after campground wound up being full. Panther Flats, Grassy Flats, even Grassy Flats lodge comicaly had no room at the inn. So I decided to head through the park, into Oregon and find a motel or something. As soon as I got through the tunnel on the north east side of the park I was greated with 'loosely paved roads', and scourching heat. Later at the bar across from the RV park I camped at, I discovered it was 105! Not just that. It seems this was just the first or second day of a projected 2 week heat wave! WHAT?!?
I did the only respecable thing a guy could do. I drank myself into a stooper, and was in bed alseep by 7pm! (The bar itself is a good story also!) By 8am the next morning it was already into the 90s, and I could not have gotten out of there fast enough. Back through the park(so wonderful!) and back to the safty and cool of the coast! Putting on all my gear to stay warm in the 45-60s is was on the coast was at least do-able. I don't know how people ride motorcycles in that heat. Hell, I don't even think my little air cooled engine could handle much above 80! And how are the tires rated? Can my little Pirelli's withstand 190deg blacktop?!?
Some where between Coos Bay and Ilwaco I saw the greatest sign in the history of people. It was too hot to stop and take a picture, so I will share the image I took in my mind:
40foot tall sign, like a gas station off an interstate. Quite large. Smack in the middle of this town(where I ate at Pig'n Pancakes). The sign was oval and tall. White, yellow trim, and a dark black border. In such a small town, this thing was set against the sky and was pretty un-ignorable from any vantage point in a 2 mile radius I would say. The image in siloette against the while background, was two adults, a mother and father. The middle siloette was of thier child, gender unspecific. The scene was that of love and protection. Pretty good since there's not alot you can do with a siloette. Under this icon of loving and protecting parents was this message in GIANT print:
"Porn Hurts Everyone."
OMG! So amazing. I mean. I get the message. Child porn = not cool. But seriously folks?! How much child porn is happening in your town of 500 residents?! Is that really going to stop the one dude who is probably going to do it anyway? Ha! But there is was. Everyday. On the way to the grocery store, to get gas, to take the grandchildren to freaking Pig'n Pancakes. Porn. Right in your face. Who is going to see that sign and not think of porn? People are awesome.
My next post will probably be from Seattle. Going to gear up there. Try and find a slightly better solution to getting everything on and off this bike which is currently taking me no less than 1 1/2 hours every morning! ug!
Ride safe everyone!

Hot Hot Hot!! Run away!

July.25th 2009.

On a suggestion to visit Creator Lake in Oregon, I hoped through the redwoods on route 199 from northern CA. Beautiful ride. Was like riding though a Yogi Bear cartoon.
Anyway, as I crested the last mountian, I was hit with a 100+ deg wave of heat! What?!? It was already too late to try and get back through the pass(which was 80mi long). The trip was nearly my range to begin with, and I need to find gas before I could attempt it. But it was getting dark, and I was tired.
Wound up camping at an RV park as close to the border as possible. They were confused why I wanted to camp there, but took my money anyway. Had some drinks in the local bar accross the street. 3 beers = $4.75. Love it in the middle of nowhere!
Drunk(no dinner) and sleepy, passed out in my tent even though it was only 8pm. By 7am the next morning it was already 90deg! Ahh! I got on my bike and hightailed it back to the coast!

First daze.

July.22.2009
It was a little chilly leaving San Francisco. Had a late start also. The day was supposed to be light(only 150 miles ish), so I wasn't that worried.
Got my first taste of winds after crossing the bay. My poor little bike and I were being blown all over the road. That lasted about 30miles till the coast. The Pacific Coast Highway was amazing! It's an endless windy road pulling you along the coast. Every turn has it's own speed rating, and as I learned in CA over the past week, happened to be the perfect fun speed on a motorcycle. Plenty of lean, without scrapping the pegs.
This first day also marks the moment I fell in love with the RVs who should not have been on that road. Because they drove incredibly slow, the RV's provided a perfect excuse to crawl at any pace I pleased. If I ever got antsy, I could just buzzed past them.
I'd only 'planned' the first two nights resting spots before bouncing SF. Since I've NEVER toured before, it was impossible to predict how far I could go. What were my physical and mental limits? What were the limits of the Buell Blast now that it had 50+lbs of gear, tools, camping equipment weighing it down? No idea.
First night's rest was at a KOA. I'd booked it mostly because of the laundry service. It'd been nearly ten days at that point and I was pretty stoked about the prospect of clean cloths.
Worked out great. They even had a comunity kitchen so I didn't have to set up/breakdown my camping stove(fires are a sketchy thing anywhere in CA it seems).
Lastly, about the Blast. It handled admirably! Then again, the bike has always loved putting along at 40-50mph. We'll see how he handles when/if I need to get on a highway!

Blast off from San Francisco!

July.15->22.2009,
Departed San Francisco after nearly a week of chores! Few sooo boring!
Scuderia(which is a motorcycle shop dispite it's name) was awesome enough to accept my bike when I franticly called them nearly 4 weeks before asking if I could ship them the Blast from NY before going to South America. When I finally got to the shop to pick up the little guy I found him well taken care of! He was put on a battery tender, tires kept at pressure, and even put under a dust cover!
Scuderia had all the gear I was looking for the trip also. I would like to thank my father and Wilco for the show load-out I worked on the night before my plane for the west coast. That overnight gig bought me some nice new gear to keep me safe and comfortable!
More running all over town, trying to figure out how to get the growing assemblage of crap on to the back of the little bike. Sleeping bag, tent, air mattress, gear, tools, spare parts, maps and other implements of destruction. Did I put cloths on that list? Who needs those?!? Seriously though, cloths wound up being VERY low on the priority list, and only one spare set of base layers, and everything else was/is functional layers with limited purposes.
This picture was taken just before the journey to Seattle. The idea is to get the Seattle, which is only 1k-ish. Once there to put new tires on the bike, and switch out some gear depending on what works or was forgotten:)
I've got this romantic idea of riding up the coast on whatever roads possible. Don't know yet if route 1 goes all the way up the coast, I'm sure it will work itself out on the road.

Hello I must be going.

Hi guys and gals,

I returned yesterday from the southern hemisphere! Amazing people, culture and sights. Our group of scientists and artists from Cape Farewell spent 2 & 1/2 weeks studying climate change. Many great discussions were had on the ideas of how the two respective fields operate, and how they could both learn from each other.
This is just a short post as a 'we returned alive' message.
Many bug bites, cold nights, and chiggers later, we are better people. It convient that I've got this amazing trip to Alaska lined up right after such an epic adventure. To be honest though, it will be a life time of contemplating everything that we saw and learned these past weeks!
I'm currently sitting on three short days at home, and back on the road again!
I'll do my best to post another more comprehensive outline of the trip before I bounce out to the west coast!