The final day and conclusion..

I've come to realize that one of my favorite things in life is being able to have a decent cup of coffee with a friend.  Ben and I grabbed coffee around the corner of his place.  When my barista asked what I was doing in town, I casually mentioned that I was visiting Ben, my boyfriend.  As she asked for me to repeat myself, both the look on her face and the response from my friend were priceless. Ahh, to allow yourself to be immature at choice moments in life can be immensely self-satisfying.

Unfortunately, Ben had to go to work and I needed to head home in order to write an essay or two and DJ a wedding in the upcoming weekend.

The trip was long and as the last leg home generally goes, a little sad and nostalgic.  I made sure to get my last dose of In-n-Out in Redding for lunch, but as I cruised up the forested, rolling terrain of southern Oregon, I went over different points that I learned during the trip and thought about what I would have done differently or rather will do differently on my next journey.

First of all, a link to my photo album from the trip is here.

1) Make sure to not include any 11 hour segments- I think ideally I could run 3-6 hour days with maybe the occasional really long one.  What I did, pushed my adventure more towards a self-styled endurance ride, or as one older gentleman put it, "a young man's ride." While I did cover a lot of ground and visit many a friend, my seat took a while to forgive me.

2) Ride with a friend.  This would have made it easier in the segments between locations to just say, "hey, lets camp here," and have fun doing it. Granted, it's always easier to make friends and divert from your original plan by yourself, but I also wanted to do some more off the pavement trails in Moab and along the way.  One friend would be all that would take.

3) Bees are bigger on the road.  I swear that I had some that hit me that were about the size of golf balls. Unfortunately I have no evidence of this.

4) After my stretch in Colorado, handguards seem like they would be a life saver, they will be added to my bike.  Feel free to make suggestions if you have some for my V-strom.

5) Once again, from my stretch in CO, make sure you have at least one pair of wool socks on you.

6) As a guest crashing in someone's home, always act like you are the biggest inconvenience and go out of your way to let your hosts know how thankful you are.  Because, well you are an inconvenience no matter how charming you think you are and you really should be grateful for your awesome friends.  One of the ways you can show this is by simply sending a thank you note or postcard. Another is by keeping hairs out of the soap in the shower.

7) 2008 Suzuki V-strom dl650. I approve.

8) Make friends.  I met so many great, friendly, supportive people along the way. Some of whom I have even become Facebook friends with (oh my!)  But really, I have found with a little effort of initiating a conversation, asking for or offering help, just flashing a smile, you can greatly enrich your experience (yes it is selfish, but in a good way) and brighten someone else's day as well.  People are amazing.

All in all it was a great adventure.  I thank you for following at least a little of my blog and leave you with a couple uninspiring photos along my last few hours along I-5 in Portland.  I will continue to update this blog on things loosely related to my motorcycle, but doubt it will be epic again for at least another few months or until Discovery Channel sponsors my trip down to South America.  Think about it Discovery Channel.

Happy riding, or happy whatever you do with your life.

Pleasanton, CA, where you too can live in your nice little Bay Area suburbia

I was still kinda sick so took the liberty of sleeping in while Ben took off for work and his roommate Jon for school.  It was Monday, and I was excited that I was on vacation, but aware the rest of the world was not.

I got up and reheated some of the coffee Ben had made for me that morning.  Ben had a clean and nice little place right off the downtown strip of Pleasanton.  Apparently they were a biking household, as there were 5 bikes and one bike frame strewn about the little apartment. Aside from the bikes, his place was cozy. I also found my friend's parents book - Love & Respect - on his bookshelf, which is always fun.

I walked around the neighborhood.  Quite a few restaurants and mainly shops that older women with money would shop at.  The market there was quite clear.  It was a sleepy little suburb with no misconceptions of what it was.  While relaxing, I wasn't too concerned about exploring it too much.  Actually after reading a little I was pretty tired and went back to bed for a little.

I failed to mention earlier that the night before as I rode down the main strip in Pleasanton I realized that somehow my hydration tube had came off of its mount and was blown back and pressed against the muffler.  Obviously it wasn't too long, but enough that damage had been done and the tube was melted.

This obstacle didn't prove to be too large, as I just ran down to TrueValue after my nap and grabbed 3 feet of non-toxic tubing, plugged in my end pieces and it was good to go. And I just realized if I could have dealt with the tube being 3" shorter, I could have just cut that off.  Really, that took a lot of problem solving to come to. I find myself too smart too late too often.

After this I went home, wrote a blog entry and watched some of the Wizard of Oz synced with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  Never seen it before, and if you haven't, the link is here.  Some of the transitions are more than eerie.

Ben had a long day.  Not only did he have to work overtime (in his new profession as a plumber) but he had a family crisis that was emotionally draining.  So we just grabbed beer and mexican food.  Complaints? None.

LA to SF, with a slight misdirection...

After a late farewell, a blog post, packing and some laundry done I departed from my friend's place in Huntington Beach up the valley to Pleasanton, CA in the bay area.  The trip was to be fairly straight forward and mostly boring.  I would go up I-5 and turn on 580 into Dublin/Pleasanton.  This was the less scenic route.  I wanted to save time, though, quite honestly, if I were to do this with someone else, I would be making it a two day trip on the coastal route.

The road was fairly boring.  I listened to my music heading up I-5.  The scenery was interesting, but not too exciting, and I focused on gas mileage and not being too bored. My main concern was finding someplace that I could get In-n-Out for lunch along the way.  After miles of this, I reached Fresno.

Wait, Fresno? Fresno is not in I-5.  Never has been.  And apparently I missed that fact when riding along and somehow ended up on 99.  So I just add maybe 30 miles onto my trip up to Pleasanton.  Another 70 and you could have an argument that I should have taken the coastal route for sure.  I did manage to see an amazing sunset over Fresno though, for which I pulled over and took a picture.

But I hopped right back on my bike, fueled up, and trudged the rest of the way into Pleasanton.  Ben had a spot for me laid out in his living room and I was pretty excited to get off my bike, as the long segments have been starting to take their toll.