Day 137 Sunday, October 30

WHOO HOO! I'm back on the road again! I'm not going to bother with entries between the last entry and this one because I don't really feel those days have been a true part of my trip. They've been more like a side note and haven't really contributed much.

I got my bike back on Thursday after a bit of a hassle on dates with BMW. They'd initially told me the bike would be ready on Wednesday, Oct 26. With that in mind, and after having talked with them Weds morning to confirm the bike would be ready, I undertook getting myself from Sacramento to San Fran. Took the bus from Steve and Heidi's house to down town Sac. From there I hopped on AmTrack and headed into San Fran. When the train had gotten about 4/5 of the way to San Fran, my phone rang. It was BMW telling me that the bike wouldn't be ready until Thursday. Needless to say that definitely got my hackles up. in essence, I'd just wasted my entire afternoon and nearly $40 in transportation fees. The service manager told me that the complicated wiring system I'd installed on the bike was slowing them down and that the mechanic was so irritated that he wasn't even willing to speak with me. That didn't do much to liven my spirits either.

Anyway, Thursday, I repeated the trip over to San Fran and this time the dealership had the bike ready as promised. However, there was a slight problem. I had a Cee Baileys windshield on the bike and there had been a mistake made somewhere during the repair meaning BMW didn't have the windshield. Credit to them, however, they definitely made up for that small mistake. They gave me a LOANER WINDSHIELD! How about that? The service manager told me they are also going to give me the correct windshield, http://www.ceebaileys.com/wsdesign2-euro.htm, a $200 item for free, and they'll ship it to my brother's house in San Diego also for free. They just asked that I stick this loaner windshield back in the mail to them. Pretty cool. They also knocked an additional $100 off of my bill for yesterdays inconvenience. All in all I was completely satisfied with the results.

But there was another problem. Friday, October 28, I realized a mistake the mechanic had made in re-installing my instrument mount. That meant I had to take the winsdhield and a small piece of the fairing off to reposition the mount. But that unearthed yet another problem. Turns out the mechanic had cross threaded two bolts in a custom bracket that holds the instrument mount to the motorcycle. Now that was a BIG problem. Steve Li has absolutely no tools appropriate to fix the bracket! Also, the bolts which got stripped out were a size 10-24 bolt. Anybody who know hardware knows that the next common size up from that is a 1/4" bolt. Nearly double the size of the original hardware and WAAAY too big to fit in the flange of the stripped out bracket. So I searched around town all day Saturday for some specialty hardware to fix the bracket with and yesterday I spent the better part of the day cursing at the lack of tools here and installing the hardware I'd purchased. Long and short of it is, that I got the bracket repaired, got the motorcycle back together, and got fully prepared to get out of here today.

I'm totally psyched to be back on the road! I head up to the Redwood forest today and then resume my trip down the coast. Unfortunately, I'm definitely going to have to skip Olympic National Forest on this trip because the weather has broken up there in Washington. The forecast for the next 10 days calls for 50 degrees and rain, rain, rain. No fun for camping weather!

Leaving Steve and Heidi’s, I drove up I5 to Hwy 299 then up the coast to Redwoods. I really enjoyed Hwy 299 over to the ocean. It’s a beautiful road. I’d already decided that I was going to make it to the Prairie Creek campground tonight.. I pulled in tonight in thick fog and a very slight drizzle. I set up camp and then went over to talk to the guy in the next campsite, Jasen. . He’s out from Kentucky in his Toyota pickup on his own adventure just after having graduated from college with a Bio degree. He had a fire going and we sat around it and talked about our respective travels for probably two hours.

Day 119, Wednesday, October 12

Took Steve, Heidi, and Karina to the airport this morning. They’ll be gone to Minneapolis to visit with Steve’s family for a week so I’m here alone. I’m sure this week’s going to get really long. Steve handed me this long list of jobs he’d like to have me do while they’re away. I’m not sure how many of them I’ll be able to accomplish before I start to get cabin fever and need to spend time away from their house. One thing I definitely plan to do this week is to spend a fair amount of time re-planning the later half of my trip. I’ve got a lot of people I want to visit and need to do a fair amount of re-routing as a result of the Gulf states’ hurricane season. South-Eastern Texas and Louisiana will have to be wiped from my route.

Day 118, Tuesday, October 11

I spent the entire day today rolling around on 4 wheels instead of 2. One of the problems I’ve had for the last week is that I’ve only got three days of clothes with me here in Sacramento. My tent and the rest of my clothes are stuck up at TJ and Suzy’s place in the mountains. My riding suit, helmet, and all the bags from my motorcycle are sitting at the Trek Travel guide house in Petaluma. I spent today driving around gathering all my stuff back together and bringing it back to Sacramento. I spent a little time with TJ, Suzy, Rachel, and Miguel in the mountains but I doubt it was much more than an hour and a half I was up there. By the time I got back to Steve and Heidi’s this evening, I’d driven nearly 500 miles. It didn’t help much that as I was getting into Sacramento this evening, around half past midnight, I made a wrong turn which meant I didn’t get back to the house until about 1:30am. Long day.

Day 117, Monday, October 10

Apparently today is a holiday for state workers here in CA. Heidi’s father and mother, Rich and Claire who live over in Davis, came over this morning and we headed out to the foot hills to visit with two of their friends who live out in the country. It turns out that he spends a good deal of his time working with his neighbor who breeds and runs cutting horses. The land was beautiful and I really enjoyed getting out of the city again. Being stalled in Sacramento as my motorcycle gets repaired is starting to get to me. I’m getting really antsy to get back on the road.

Day 116, Sunday, October 9

This morning I caught the Amtrack commuter train from Sacramento over to San Fran to meet up with Kirsten. As it turns out, this week is Fleet Week in San Fran and today was the air show. Kirsten called me while I was on the train and suggested that the air show plus a touristy walk along the harbor front might be interesting. On this trip I’ve not really had a day of blindly following a tour guide without having to plan ahead what I’d be seeing for the day. Having Kirsten give me a tour of the harbor was great. She’s a helluva lot of fun to talk to since she’s a very driven, intelligent, and well traveled person. She works for Deloitte and Tousche (sp?) as a managerial consultant (a gross oversimplification of her job) and isn’t one for staying in any place for more than a couple of years. She’s only been in San Fran a few months and is already rolling around the idea of heading to India for a 2-year stint there. I had a great day talking with her and hopefully I’ll cross paths with her again some time in the future to compare our separate treks!
After dinner, I took a taxi over to Emeryville and then took the late train back to Sacramento. I didn’t end up getting back to Steve and Heidi’s house until almost 1:30am.

Days 114 and 115, Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October 8

Did more work around Steve and Heidi’s house these days. Not much else to write. Feel like I’m caught in the trap of Suburban Sacramento sprawl.

Day 113, Thursday, October 6

Today brought a most unexpected bit of news. I was planning to call San Fran BMW this morning to ask on their progress towards estimating the damage to the RT. To my surprise, I actually got a call from them just as I was trying to dial their number. The call went something like this:
BMW "we’ve got good news for you"
Me: "Have you completed the estimate?"
BMW: "Better. Guess what I’m holding in my hand?"
Me: "The estimate?"
BMW: "A check from your insurance company! We’re calling to get your permission to get the parts ordered!"
Not only did that surprise me, but they also told me that there’s a chance the repairs may only take two weeks! I’m not going to hold my breath on that time estimate, but I was super excited to hear that State Farm had taken care of my problem so quickly.
Other than the unexpected news on the motorcycle, not much of interest happened today. I replaced the ceiling fan in Steve and Heidi’s dining room this afternoon.

Day 112, Wednesday, October 5

Do nothing day spent in Sacramento waiting for San Fran BMW to assess my bike. I’ll plan on calling them tomorrow to see if there’s progress. At this point, I’m going to expect the worst and assume I’ll be stuck without my bike for 3 weeks. It really feels like somebody has stolen my legs out from underneath me and like this dream I’ve been living is sort of falling apart around me. I want to think I’m only just over half way through the trip but I won’t really know whether that’s true until I hear the estimate from the shop. Also I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to get all of my stuff back in one place. My motorcycle helmet, riding suit, and hard cases are in Petaluma at the Trek Travel guide house. My tent, tarp, cookware, and all of my clothes are up in the mountains North of Willits, and my trailer, bicycle, and other stuff are here with me in Sacramento. I haven’t felt this disconnected since the day I quit my job. At least every day I’ve been on the road, I’ve had a goal and a target. Now I sit here idled by a poor deer that took a wrong step and lost its life. It really feels hollow. I don’t do idle very well.
It’s becoming clear to me that when this trip I’m on has carried me back to the first stage of my final destination (my parents’ home in Brevard, NC), I’m going to have a helluva hard time rejoining the "real world". The passion for travel and for being on the move has lit a fire under my feet that’s going to be very hard to cool off.
Other things of note: I called Kirsten, who I met on Sept 14 whale watching, this afternoon hoping she’d be in town and that I’d be able to scoot over to San Fran to see her while I’m waylaid here. She was extremely fun to talk with out on the boat and I’ve been looking forward to taking her up on her invitation to dinner when I’m in the area. Unfortunately, I got her answering machine instead of her, but I was pleased when she called back and we decided to get together on Sunday. In a strange way, she sort of represents a strand keeping me tied into the dream that is my trip

more of the pampas grass

I thought the Pampas in the late afternoon sun was made a stunning foreground

late afternoon light highlighting the "California Gold" colors of the coast

What motorcyclist could resist a ride like this?

gotta get my baby in some of these pictures!

Southbound on Highway 1 in CA

California coast

Somewhere between Ft. Bragg and Bodega Bay on the California coast. The views were spectacular and the weather was perfect

Day 109, Sunday, October 2 -- Part 1

I’m dividing today’s journal into two parts for a good reason. Today very much had a Jeckyll / Hyde personality. It started out extremely well and then went from exceptionally good to exceptionally bad in an instant.

Part 1: Dr. Jeckyll

One of the benefits of being down here working with TJ and Suzy this week is that I'll be able to head down to Petaluma for a long weekend to visit with my friend Amy Davison (see Weds, Sep 7). She and I traded voice mails several times this week and decided that I'd head down to Petaluma on Sunday and that I'd return to the mountains on Monday morning. After talking with Amy, I decided that I didn’t need to be in Petaluma (where Trek Travel has its SantaRosa/Sonoma guide house) until the evening which gave me the entire day to enjoy the coast line between Fort Bragg and Bodega Bay. With that in mind, I left TJ and Suzy’s place in the mountains and headed over to the coast. I’ve already ridden this coast with Jeanette and when she and I rode it back in July, it was socked in by fog. In fact, the fog was so thick both when we were riding North and on our return leg headed South that we couldn’t see more than the first 15 feet of the stanchions of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I took HYW 20 over to Ft Bragg. This is a road that every motorcyclist ought to get the chance to ride. (seems like there are an awful lot of those in this section of CA) It’s twisty, clean, long, and scenic! Whoo Hoo! Once I got over to the coast I found that the atmosphere was incredibly clear! There wasn’t even a hint of the blanket of fog and mist that was draped over the coast when I came through last time. I got some beautiful pictures during the day and saw a nice sunset. I even saw, for the first time ever in my life, a bobcat just off the side of the road. It lit a torch under its feet when I turned around to get a better look at it. I’ve not sure I’ve ever seen an animal run that fast and yet look absolutely effortless in getting’ gone.

Thus ends the good part of my day.

The view from the front porch. Looking West over this view makes for some spectacular sun sets!

Suzy, TJ, and Zeke from the porch of their house in the mountains. What a view!

Day 104 through 108, Tuesday, September 27 through Saturday, Oct 1.

Somehow working on the land always leaves me feeling better about the fruits of my labor than doing chores in the city. I get myself tired have a nice dinner and TJ and Suzy have a (VERY) small A-Frame house there on the property which they call home while they’re on the land. The inside of the house consists of two rooms and a couple of closets downstairs and a loft. Their kitchen area is actually outdoors on the porch with part of it covered by a portable auto-port canopy. Showers and, shall we say, personal maintenance, are handled just the way they were when I was out on Lasquiti Island.
Two other of TJ and Suzy’s friends are up here also. I’m not really sure how TJ knows Miguel, but I know that he knows Rachel through his professional snowboarding days in Park City, UT.
I didn’t bring my computer with me up to the mountains because I didn’t have room and also because I didn’t want it to get all dusty. Also, I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I’d intended to take. It just seemed that every part of each day was taken up with doing some sort of work on the land and I just didn’t feel like washing off and unpacking the camera.

One of the roads I got to ride today. Yes it was incredibly clean with no debris! I dare any motorcyclist or sports car lover to look at this without getting a twitchy throttle hand or foot.

Day 103, Monday , September 26

Somehow I’d not realized that it’d be nearly 230 miles from Steve and Heidi’s house to TJ’s place. The ride was nice but unremarkable though some of the smaller roads I took were quite fun to ride. Clean, scenic, twisty. I dare any motorcyclist to look at the map picture of one of these sections of road without getting a twitchy throttle hand.

Day 101 and 102, Saturday, September 24 & 25

Spent these days with Steve and Heidi. Not much of interest to write. Days spent in temporary digs in an urban setting just don’t lend themselves to the type of stories that make this trip interesting. I’m planning to head up to meet TJ and Suzy Liese in the mountains North of Santa Rosa. I did more projects for Steve and prepared the motorcycle for the trip North again. TJ told me that I’m going to have to ride over several miles of rough and steep dirt roads on the way to his place. Hearing that, I’ve decided to leave the trailer here at Steve and Heidi’s house and head up packed lightly on the motorcycle. It’ll be kind of fun to have a full day of riding on twisty roads without the trailer in tow.

Steve, Heidi and Karina Li in their foyer

Day 100, Friday, September 23

My 100th day on the road!!! How cool is that? 100 days and approximately 13,000 miles so far.I did a little work this morning on the computer updating journal entries and hit the road by noon. I'd not realized last night that it was going to be nearly 400 miles from Crescent to Sacramento today. Figuring that out this morning, I headed over to I5 as soon as possible South of Crescent in order to make some time. As it turns out, the road (HWY 299) I took over to I5 is an incredibly fun motorcycle road. If I'd not been pulling my trailer, I'd have been grinning and laughing most of the way. There were counless super tight switch backs, great scenery, and the entire road was debris free! Awesome!I got in to Steve and Heidi's house this evening around 8pm and sat up a while talking with Steve before hitting the hay.The new tires I picked up in Portland, Metlzer ME880 Marathons, are GREAT. They're a harder compound than the Metlzer Z6's I had before and more importantly are MUCH MUCH quieter tires. The Z6's felt much more secure and had a more neutral steering influence during cornering but literally roared through corners and were fairly noisy in straight aways. These tires are darn near silent. For the riding I'm doing on this trip, harder rubber and silence are perfect!

Saw this on my ride down the Oregon coast. It cracks me up that they did BOTH of the painted n's backwards when there's a sign 20 feet to the left done correctly.