Final Post... for now

Alright. It's been a while... Here's the pictures from the trip. Thanks for following. Hope you enjoyed it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2297170&id=6404399&l=3a7b4ca5a7

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Finishing up

Alright... Leaving Amarillo, TX riding my ditch proven road warrior I continued west. Well, being Texas, I soon found myself hot and uncomfortable. So I headed north to get into the mountains along the Continental Divide. So far north I made it all the way to Las Vegas... Las Vegas, NM that is. Kind of a let down. I kept heading north deeper into the mountains. After leaving a gas station I noticed big thunderheads to the north so i added some westness in to try and skirt the storm. Operating without a map has its advantages. For one, you're never lost because you don't have a specified destination. You may not know where you are, but that is more just something you come to accept. But it also had disadvantages and we'll get to that in a bit. Anyways, I was now riding through increasingly heavy storm. I have finally learned at the first sign of rain to put on my windbreaker. Still haven't broken all the way down and put rain pants on at this time though. dont know why. now its coming down hard and its about 5 ish. After the long night last night, I just want to camp and get out of this brewing storm. I take a road to the west. It looks good... enough. 20 miles later i come to another fork in the road and head north. This takes me towards a town as it starts winding west. Just before i catch a road that is heading north because the one that is headed into town looks as though it may go no further by the looks of the looming peaks surrounding the town (I later found this to be true). This fork winds along a creek for a ways through some beautiful cattle ranches. Real cowboy area. Well this road comes to a "town" and as I look dismally around I realize that this road does not lead to any pass as I was hoping. Instead it goes the quarter mile through the 20 odd residences and spits me out at a fork. The right fork is a gated catlle ranch. The left, however, is a steep unmaintained gravel road with a bullet riddled rusty sign that read "unmaintained road, private property, no trespassing." Luckily half the letters are missing so I rationalize to myself that I will plead negligence should the oppurtunity arise. Left it is. But first I wait for the car who found themsleves in the same predicament as me to turn around. They leave and I head up this road. Becuase of the altitude and pitch of the road my bike can hardly make it up. I put it in first and give it some choke just so i can hobble up at 5 mph. Finally the grade eases up and my bike can handle it. After passing a few more ranch entrances to the left I come to my final dead end about 2 miles down this road. This is the end of the line. The ranch has an automatic gate and clrearly states no trespassing with a newish looking sign. Disheartening to say the least. The thought of riding back the 40 minutes or more through the storm just to get back to a road that will continue through the mountains is the last thing i want to do at this point. Just to the left of this dead end is a big tree so i pull my bike under it out of the rain while i assess the situation. That's when I noticed across the road there is a 10 foot gap in the ranch fences that seems to continue on as far as I can see. I decided to hike down and check it out. After crossing two good flowing creeks I found a clearing just big enough for me to pitch my tarp. Perfect. Turns out this passage between ranches is some county imminent domain issue which worked out great for me. So I got back to my bike, got my camping gear and covered my bike. Then I wrote a quick note along the lines of "please dont tow my bike... Happy labor day!" That's the best i could come up with. So i pitched my tarp tent and layed out my gear and ducked under it to relax, read, and listen to the rain coming down above me. Then the thunder started. It was close too, my favorite. The thunder is so powerful, I tried to record it on my phone but it just doesnt do it justice. With the rain pouring down I started to get hungry. Not wanting to leave my dry haven i put the stove at the edge and boiled the rest of my water from the camelbak bladder. After i put in my pastat I realized I had left my fork on the bike. No way in hell was I going to go the quarter mile back to my bike barefoot in my boxers. so I decided to whittle a... fork! Not really. But I did come come up with some pretty good chopsticks. Ate my meal, enjoyed the storm and slept well.

Woke up to good weather so I packed up and moved out. My bike was still there, as was the note in the ziploc back. Warmed up the bike and headed down the road which was now a bit more washed out from the rain that formed creeks down it during the storm last night. I got to the fork to the previous fork and tried going north and when I came into the town I slowed down because now the road had turned into a one laner. Coming around a corner a dog saw me and immediately sprinted towards me barking and snarling. He chased me for a while I reminisced of the time riding scooters around Koh Tao when Kiel and I ventured down a steep gravel driveway only to find rabid dogs at the bottom. That was funny because i turned around in time, but kiel having waited up the driveway a bit (apparently to avoid the dogs) took longer to turn around, so when I came flying back up the driveway with a dog litterally nipping my heels Kiel was just getting moving and without the momentum neede to get up the steep drive, well.. he didnt fair as well. funny stuff. for me. anyways back to the first dog, he eventualy got tired just before the road dead ended so i turned around and this time took the road faster hoping to find that dof in the middle of the road and run him down. not really. anyways never saw it again. musta been gathering a posse to await my return. musta. back on the road. blah blah blah. oh that's right. I decided to by my heroic stomach breakfast for its glorious work two nights earlier so I stopped at the first hole in the wall joint i saw. Hung up my tarp on a nearby fence to sun dry and went in. Definitely cowboy town. I could tell by the look of their 'staches. The bigger the handlebar the bigger the cowboy. Luckily mine could hang. Ate, talked, whatever. But as i was packing my things two gentleman approached me. Local pastors. Nice guys. I told em my story, and they told me theirs of working in guatemala and one even got a malaria souvenir. He said it almost killed him. then he told me he was from granit bay and ended up knowing my roommate from freshman year. small world. I left, dont remember what else. Got to Bryce Canyon and the Monument Valley for sunset which was amazing. I wanted to get to Zion that night so I could camp there but no such luck. I was sleepy. So after nightfall I was on a relatively busy interstate and wanted to camp. Surrounded by desert/ ranch land I knew there would be some place I could lay my head unbothered. As I rode down the freeway at 70mph I kept seeing ranch driveways fly by at the last second. After missing the first 30 I finally timed it right so I could slow down enough to stop in time for the driveway and not get hit by the car behind me. And of course there was a gate. but... no lock. just a wire latch. So i waited until there were no cars within a quarter mile each direction and swung the gate open. Waited again and brought my bike in. closed the gate. waited again and rode down this cattle road. Lot of washouts, all overgrown, and a few sleeping cattle. After a ways I pulled off into the bushes and made camp. That night as I slept uder the stars my mind kept wandering to the thoughts of cows grazing my face. but i lucked out. good full moon too. Packed up in the morning and headed to Zion.

Zion is awesome. Too many people but it is amazing. Hiked a bit, decided against taking the bus through the more of the park with 50 tourists, caught an imax movie on preserving the African coast and the sardine run, and headed on my way. Next stop Vegas. Real Vegas.

Before I got to Vegas, I stopped at my favorite spot, The tribal fireworks store. Loaded up on bottle rockets and ice cream sandwhiches started riding again. It was so hot I changed my course to upper lake powell so I could swim and escape the heat. Then i noticed a sign saying fee area. Looked in my wallet to find the usual 2 bucks and turned around. Vegas it is. Figured I'd play poker to escape the heat and either win a bunch of money or... i guess i just planned on winning a bunch of money. got to vegas. rode down the strip baking in the sun, by that point i was in no moood to be gamble. I was hot and sweaty and just wanted to swim. So i headed east. forget vegas. about 10 minutes out i saw a sign for a hotel/ casino so i stopped. and they had a pool! for hotel residents. But you could get in no prob though a subtle entrance. Got my suit on and swam. so nice. getting out is when i realized that you need the hotel key to get out of the pool area. being the only one in the pool area, i swam some more. finally someone came. As the door was closing I jumped out, lodged a croc in it. Dried off and made my way to the casino to drop some cash. Played some crap with some fun people and just before the sunset Iheaded out of there with empty pockets. Timing it just right, I caught the glare of the setting sun in my eyes for the ten minutes before sunset. It was a long ten minutes on the highway filled with semis and oncoming traffic. 40 miles down or so I came to a pseudo pass through the mountains. Not really a pass just high desert (4,000') at its highest point. I took an exit called summit road which led into the hills to the north. As soon as I exited I saw a cattle grate over the road I wanted and I sign saying "end road maintained by... anybody" or something like that. It was exactly what I wanted to see. It was a sandy road covered with sharp rocks and the occasional downed joshua tree. If you've ever touched one of this tree/cactus hybrids its not hard to imagine them fallen on the ground. They can barely support their own weight as it is. Camped a ways down the road after passing some impromptu fire pits laden with spent shotgun shells. Practiced my slingshot aim for a bit and hit the sack.

The next morning I woke before the sun so I could get some miles out of the way before the real heat began. After a while I got to a 50's diner I had seen ( and I'm sure you have too) advertised on billboards for miles. Turned out to be pretty good. Met a couple other guys at the bar who liked hearing some of my stories about this trip. One was a fly fishing guide from Montana, while the other drove BMWs (car) and wanted to go fly fishing in Montana. Kind of a snob but offered to buy my breakfast after he saw me put down the entree and the better part of a peanut butter creme pie. Normally I would have but this would be my last breakfast purchased (also, one of the first) of the trip so I put up the bill for it. Hit the road and headed towards Ca, the 21st state of the trip. I didnt feel like taking I-10 so I headed north on some highway at the advice the flyfisherman and found my way through Apple Valley. When I got to 101 in Carpinteria I pulled off and went for a swim in the cold ocean. Very refreshing. After a bit of body surfing I was ready to get back on the road. Got to SLO, saw some friends, went to Morro Bay for dinner, stashed some fireworks in a bar for some of my rugby friends coming into town over the weekend and slept a bit. The next day I went and checked on the wheelchair ramp I built earlier this spring for the Post family. Ended up hangning out there for a bit as I told them some tales as Shirley kept serving me more and more breakfast. I kept eating but was still full from the Frank's breakfast burrito I had eaten earlier. Frank's is great because they still remember me and the same order i get everytime. After leaving the Post's place I stopped by my mom's rental place to check on the roofs and do a bit of repair. nothing but one missing shingle. Then coming back by my old apartment I saw my old landlord outside so i turned around and talked to him for a bit. He was blown away I had done the whole trip without gloves. "wasn't it cold?" he kept asking. "hell yeah it was cold!" anyways, it was nice to see a bunch of my friends still in slo and later in the day i left for the bay to see my roommates from last summer.

Got there at dusk just as Erin was leaving for a trip to Tahoe. Erich told me some stories from Burning Man. And yeah that's about it for the trip. Next morning I rode off towards home...

Westward

So, let's see. When I was last blogging twas many moons ago. but here i am again. blogging. so. i said my goodbyes to my new cajun amigos and rode out the gravel driveway wondering which direction to go. All right. north. I was tired of the bugs threatening to devour me whole so that was the only feasible option. I had heard of a town in NWestern Lousisiana so I headed towards it. Maybe i'd hit it. Maybe I did hit it. who knows. anyways eventually i was in Oklahoma. btw i passed through Lahoma, Oklahoma and realized i was in the home of the most creative people on the planet. exciting stuff. moving on. as i was riding on the highway i saw a sign to Paul's Valley. I couldnt remember where i knew that name from. Then i remembered! It's the okie noodling capitol of the world. I followed that sign.  40 miles later i was there. Expecting to see people walking around with whole catfish dangling from their arms I was a little taken aback when no toothless boat bearing folk tried to get onto their noodling rig for the afternoon. It was saturday afterall. However, I persevered. I went to the nearest live bait shop, once again a little disappointed when I didnt see a man with only wooden limbs behind the counter, but I still asked the fella if he knew where I could noodle. Well he started spinning some yarn about no noodling now because blah blah blah. I've never experienced a broken heart before but this had to be close. Holding back my tears I sprinted out of the store screaming. probably. It's all a miserable blur now. Anyways I spit on Paul's Valley and got the hell out of there. Heading west now. and north.  and east. but that was only once. 

Sun was setting  and I was homeless once again. So... I took a random road off the highway and made for somewhere other people weren't? Well lucky me I found an overgrown road half a mile down that other road ( I should probably learn to use adjectives).  And this road was a beauty. Weeds taller than me, gravel, sinky sand, and washouts 3 feet deep. I loved it. Nobody had driven this road in some years. My bike was fishtailing back and forth in the sand threatening to get stuck, but I just laid on the throttle harder kicking gravel high in the air. It was a blast. After a bit I was now deep in the woods. Got so far I found an abandoned house. Kinda gave me the creeps so i turned back a bit and made camp in a clearing just a bit before. Still had some daylight so I got my ground sheet out laid against a rock and started to read my book. The Godfather by Mario Puzo. I have to say Puzo is a phenomenal writer, first discovered this when i stumbled across one of his books in a used bookstore in Thailand. Hooked ever since.  As I was reading I kept hearing rustling behind me.  First a ways away, then closer. It was dark now and I was using my headlamp to read. I figured it was probably a dog smelling food. I got up looked around but couldn't see anything. The noise stopped too. Nice. Five minutes later the rustling is bigger and closer. Now its' fully dark, and the moon hasnt come up yet. I pull out my knife and turn around. Scanning the woods with my headlamp I saw nothing. Untill. 2 eyes lit up huge in the brush! A deer. Figures. Frozen in my headlamp. Luckily I had been practicing my slingshot skills lately. I grabbed it from my tank bag while it stood there. I pulled one back and let it fly. I hit it square in the ass. Instictively it kicked both its hind legs hard in the air and took off sprinting. This was now my turf.  Slept great that night. Even the bugs knew not to mess with me.

Next morning I warmed my bike up real well while I packed it so it could make it through the sand no problem. Back on the highway I started making miles.  Ended up doing 500 ish miles and came to Amarillo, Tx in the panhandle. Feeling weary I decided to check out one of the KOA campgrounds I have seen all along the way through this journey. I walked into the office, and noticed the free chips and salsa. I asked how much it was for a night to camp. 29 bucks she said. I said no way jose but didnt stop eating the chips. Now I had to make small talk while I ate more. I was hungry.  Little awkward. Finally, with just crumbs left I left.  There was a limo outside. "Weird." But not one to turn away a limo, i decided to get in. Afterall it said "free steak" on the top. Well they're already 5 or so people in there. Waiting for me I suppose.  They could see the hunger in my eyes and the salsa on my 'stache so they welcomed me with open beers.  Told me about this steakhouse challenge. Free 72 oz. steak if you can eat it all, otherwise it's 72 dollars. This made me cringe a bit. I definetely had no desire to pay for steak so I looked at my stomach and made a pact. "You help me now and I'll buy you breakfast tomorrow." It growled in agreement. It was on. Got to the steakhouse. Other restaurant goers looked at us in awe as we got out of the limo to start our cow eating quest. Sat down and soon enough the steak was in front of me and my fellow gluttons. it was a monster. medium rare, i swear it still had a pulse. 2 inches thick and  overflowing on all edges of the plate. I knew it was a race against the clock. So I ate. for a long time.  One of the others dropped out by now. There were 3 of us left. and probably a combined 10 pounds of meat left. Nobody spoke. The women watched as we took bite after bite. Another dropped out. It was just me and Earl. I had about a pound left and my stomach felt as though it was topped off. Too bad. I kept eating. Finally I did it. 6 pounds of steak in my belly. Mentally I felt great. Physically. Otherwise. Earl finished too. Gave him a fist pound and looked in disgust at the two failures sitting next to me. Somebody said dessert and I almost puked. Time passed and with no wheelchairs readily available I was forced to crawl back into the limo under my own strength.  Got back to the bike and realized it was dark and I still needed a place to sleep. 

Being on the outskirts of a big city like this I headed north to get away from the interstate and hopefully find some abandoned land. No such luck. While there is nothing but land all around, it is all properly locked. Went down some road until it dead ended at some power plant. Had to turn around.  Now I decided to go back towards west towards town, not wanting to back track even a mile. Finally came to an abandoned fireworks warehouse in an industrial part of the city. A perfect building to sleep behind. Now I just had to get around the chain gate and I could rest in peace. I started going slowly around the metal pole staying close because there was a big drainage ditch 3 feet away overgrown with 4 foot tall grass. As soon as I  got my front tire across it immediately slipped a foot into the ditch. I couldnt tell the contour because it was dark and the grass area all along the border. With my tire there I knew i couldnt back my bike out now. I had to give it gas and get out of this ditch. As soon as I did my front went forward a bit, but now my back was in. well i gave it more throttle and my bike tire spun a bit and my front started sliding down the slick grass toward the bottom of the ditch. There was nothing I could do, I had to ride down 90 degrees until my bike was completely in the ditch. As my front tire slipped down it hit a block of concrete which stopped my bike but the momentum carried me and the bike over sideways. My bike was now tits up in this grassy hell. My bike was revving uncontrollably so I stuck my hand down into the thorny weeds and hit the kill switch. It was 10p and I was in a ditch with my bike exhausted after riding 500 miles and eating the better part of a cow. So after giving a couple attempts at lifting the behemoth I stood in the ditch a bit dumbfounded. Just then I saw some headlights in the distance. I ducked into the grass and let it pass. I was in no mood to talk to anybody, especially whoever was driving these roads late on a saturday night.  After making sure no gas was leaking from my inverted tank I began pulling grass and covering my bike with it. After a few minutes and a few more ducks into the weeds my bike was now perfectly covered. I headed out behind the fireworks warehouse to the woods to sleep with nothing but my motorcycle jacket and the clothes i had on my back. All my sleeping gear was pinned under my bike. That night I slept terribly. Lying on sticks and rocks listening for anyone to come and try and steal my bike. Soon though i rationalized that I should be so lucky to have someone take the time to get it out and just when they had it out of the ditch ready to go I would come and say "So that's where I parked my bike!" and ride away. No such luck. It ended up being a cold night so i used one sleeve of my jacket as a pillow and put the rest of the jacket over my chest as a blanket. 

Morning came and I got up at 6. My camo job still looked immaculate. It took me an hour and a half to get it out of the ditch. But I did. It took some heavy lifting and a bit of ingenuity finally it was out, running, without a scratch. A huge relief to me. While I was standning in the ditch working on it, people would drive by... and wave. I wold wave back. Then 3 seconds later they would double take, see me in the ditch with my bike, and keep driving. I'm glad they knew that I understand it is always better to do things for yourself. 

SO with an hour of sleep and my bike frshly out of the ditch I rode until I came across a barn where I slept in the cool shade until the sun woke me up around noon. Then I rode some more. ...

I yearn to learn

Im tyred of tiping. Here it is. I have been here in Broussard, LA for the past week learning everything I can about flying ROV's and how exactly they work. From hydraulics to flight cards, I'm learning it all. It's great. After riding a motorcycle for the past 6 odd weeks I have relied on my brain for such menial tasks as finding stealth shelter and how to get free food. Now I'm learning a great deal about ROV's as well as the massive oil industry. Interesting stuff for sure. Been refining my soldering skills, and even had a chance to do some more maintenance on my bike. Now, however it is time to leave. The job we have been waiting for has been put on hold for a week so I am out of it until I come back in a few weeks time to make some real money. I've met a lot of good people here and had a great time. Horse racing with cajuns is pretty fun. People know how to have a good time down here. It's been a lot of fun. Met some interesting people to say the least. I'll explain more down the road. probably.
Now it is time for me to figure out which way I am heading. It is a very weird feeling packing your bike not knowiing where you are going. All along this trip I have know the general direction, but not today. I have talked to some people in Oklahoma about noodling (google it if you dont know), as well as some adventure moto riders in good ol mississip. Or i could head west. I suppose I'll figure it out when I get on the road. All for now.

Insert creative title here

All right. As many of you have noticed I have been ever slacking on the blog posts. Moving on.

I sit here in Broussard, LA typing away in the office environment that has become all too familiar. Time to backtrack to the future.

I left my sister Rebecca's place in Austin heading east. I decided to go east based on a call I made to Jim Whitehead with Sea ROV. Anyways not being much for interviews on the phone I told him I would meet him in person. So i went. Having stayed at my sisters posh city apartment for a week I had gone soft. bigtime. Anyways I rode for a while, it was muy late by now, and stopped at a gas station near Houston. Two guys in a broke cadillac with spinners were off to the side of the station. One approached me. I counterapproached. We both gave salutations. Then he asked me for money. As I said earlier, after living in an apartment for a week I had gone soft but worse, I had lost my edgy homeless look. I couldn't beleive he asked me for money. He told me their story about how they were coming from working offshore, and their alternator quit on them and first their lights went out while driving... then the car shut down. I felt some compassion for them because this exact scenario happened to me in dangerous rural south africa. So I did a noble deed and gave them all of the money in my wallet. Two crinkly George Washingtons. But more importantly I offered them some of my sandwhich. This was far more a gesture of my good faith. Not only could it feed a family of 12 if need be, it was made with love. They turned down the loaf of bread laden with a whole chicken, and various other delicouties. Getting sidetracked sorry.
I was now back on the road. I rode until I was overcome with the sleepyness. Time to find a place to camp. Out of the rythm of finding abandoned roads it took me a bit longer than normal to find my hideout for the night. Soon though I cam across an overgrown strip of something between the frontage road and I-10. Got my bike hidden and covered then made camp and laid down to try and sleep. No such luck. Bugs in the south are impressive to say the least. It took them about 10 minutes to realize some poor sap was actually attempting to sleep on their turf. My sleeping bag must have been the wrong color because it was an all out gang war. They came out me with everything they had until... my friend 98.11% deet showed. Game over. They had nothing on me now. I won. Still couldnt sleep though, too damn hot. Got up early in the morning. Packed my stuff and started my bike to warm it up. Two passerbys jumped a bit when they heard the purr of my bike coming from some bushes. I rode out, they saw the tattered american flag flying in the breeze and immediately ran home to lock up their daughters. probably.
Back on the road get to Lafayette. I pull in there looking for a library so i can kill some time before i told Jim I would meet him. First tho I find a table and grab the remaining half of my delicioso sandwhich. Within a few minutes somebody eyes my bike and starts a conversation with me about it. He s very into the bike... until he sees my sandwhich! Inquiring where i bought such a beauty I reveal the sad truth that no deli could create something this perfect. Blah Blah blah, walk into the library, grab the razors edge and sit down to read it. Because I always read before I go to bed, it naturally puts me to sleep (one of the reasons I never studied during college). So in ten minutes I was asleep. Luckily the librarian dictator woke me up. That was close I almost got some rest. Another few minutes and I am out again (probably helped I had half a chicken in my belly). Awoke to the stern finger in my face of the same guy. "One more time and you're out of here!" Great way to be woken. Unfortunately I didnt have the wherewithall to draw pupils on my eyelids so i forced myself to stay awake.
But I did strategically move seats to a more stealth area of the library. Relaxing in the chair not bothering to read two kids approached me. (Must have been the 'stache). One told me if he had all the money in the world he would buy the library... and a candystore. Stayed there for a bit becuase the afternoon thunderstoom had just hit. Time passed. Kids left and the storm lightened. On to meet Jim.
Got there. Walked into the building. Nobody in the officed so I opened a door that led to the back. Found four guys standing around a bunch of foreign machinery. Asked for Jim. Talked to him for a bit. He looked over my resume, asked some questions, yada yada yada, now I have a job. He told me that we'd be going offshore in a few weeks and I could contact him then. Cool. Instead of leaving then I walked back outside and met the other guys and figured out exactly what and ROV is (since i would be flying it.) It's a robot that can go 2000 meters deep and perform a bunch of tasks like cutting, grabbing, loitering, laundering, murder... the list goes on. After sittin for a bit, shooting the proverbial shit, Jim came back out and asked if I wanted to see what it was all about. Said yes. Told me they were slated to leave in a couple days and I could head out for a week or so. Perfect.

My niece Tyler ready to ride.

ketchup

It's been a while since the last post so here's a catch up. I'll be brief hopefully. Starting in nawlins, I broke my cardinal rule and paid for a nights accomodation. I deeply regret it and I promise it won't happen again. I suppose I paid for the hostel dorm room because i had recently been informed that new orleans has the highest murder rate per capita. which i ironic because the place i stayed at apparently had 5 murders the week before.  anyways got to the hostel, no one there, so i blogged. then someone showed up showed me to my room and gave me a tour the rest of the facilities. found a naked woman in the back... yada yada yada i bought her dinner dt. caught some great music downtown, met a guy who had a house and a job etc. and was now homeless due to katrina. sad stuff for sure. yada yada yada went back to the marriott the next morning where i had valeted my  bike the day before. rode out of there and onto tex to meet up with reilly and go to schlitterbahn! well i stopped by the gas station to fuel up and noticed my tire looking a little bare. so while on the road, my mind started to dwell on this tire and i decided i had better stop and get a new one before it blew out on the highway. now i was in baton rouge, land of the rebels, and succesffully looked through every tire store before finally finding the right tire 3 hours later. they could not balance it for me so i had to take it to a local bmw motorcycle shop. the guys in the shop there were awesome. they balanced my rear wheel for 20 bucks and sold me a brand new front tire for 20 bucks. as it turns out, my rear tire had at absolute most 50 miles left on it before it blew out. probably would not have made it the 400 miles to austin. at that shop i met a character named jack something. he had come into the shop trying to get one of the mechanics to come crew a boat in the gulf of mexico with him. he kept talking about this so i said i'll do it. took him off guard, but i told him my story and he came around. the only problem is that he is quite sure that obama is poised to destroy the us. I asked him how he thought obama would pull such a feat and he replied: "reform healthcare." maybe he and i have different definitions of the word destroy.  anyways good thing i had those new tires on my bike because by the time i left baton rouge the sky was poised to open up. and it did. this was the biggest rain i have ever ridden through. the drops were huge and for a bit it hailed. rain hurts when it hits you at 70 mph riding a motorcycle but hail is somethin else. the other moto riders on the freeway felt the same way because they pulled off under the overpasses to wait out the storm. this wa the point when the truck in front of me was generating a 10 foot rooster tail of water behind him.  too bad for them because i was loving it. it was intense but the payoff was i saw a bolt of lightning hit 50 yards ahead of me just 10 ffet off the freeway. the accompanying thunder shook my body. it is truly an impressive feat of nature. i just wished i had put on my windbreaker. the sun was about down and i was absolutely soaked. but it wasnt bad.  so i road for the next 8 hours or so and got to austin late into the night. met up with my sister rebecca and hit the sack. 

woke up early the next morning to meet up with reilly, paige, and kyla. We headed to schlitterbahn and had a blast. saw many of the worst tattoos on this planet (i hope) and tubed all day. lot of fun. yada yada yada, ive been in austin for the past week. loving it. took a few days to go visit my other sister shavahn and her husband dean and my niece tyler. Changed my oil there, helped dean and ashley out with and engine they are rebuilding, but more importantly fed the chickens with ty. she is a cute 3 year old that could pass as 6 based on her height. shes got volleyball written all over her.  next morning i woke up to her jumping on my chest yelling "wake up uncle woot." then she found some cow that moos far too loud to be legal in city limits. i was up. just as im getting up she had tucked the cow into the sheets and told me to be quiet because he was sleeping. of course. oh yeah, dean and i and ashley got a steak at some local steakhouse, and when they ordered the small steaks I was a little disappointed because i wwas very hungry. anyways the steak came and it didnt even fit on the plate. overflowing on all sides i wondered how you could get away calling this a small. texas lesson learned. it was damn good though. feeling a bit comatose i decided no more work today.

so much for being brief.

headed back west with a planned pit stop in austin. said id be there for a day or two, still here 6 days later. too much fun here that isnt blogworthy. but i did meet a great person name Luis through Rebecca. Luis is a retired accountant that now follows his passion of building and designing lofts. he is also very spiritual, something that i have never read much into because i cant use logic to rationalize it. However, he is very intuitive and was able to pick up on some obscure details of my life that few have before. the next day i told him the exact time and place i was born and he gave me a 3 hour long lesson on my life. it was quite intense. i'll spare you the details but i am more interested in the topic now and want to know why historically so many civilizations have based their beliefs not on the story of gods, but rather the alignment of the stars. lot to learn. 

leaving luis' place i saw a guy with a pv544, the very same car i have been working on practically my whole life. i turned around and followed him to his spot. talked with him a bit ( i have only seen one similar on the street a handful of times in my life). he was a  music bum, gave me his card, and i'll send him some pics of my frankencar. went to the bookstore after to get the book Luis told me i must read. they had it in stock, 15 bucks tho, i balked at the price but remembered how adamant Luis was so i walked to the counter to buy it. Fate happened and i had luckily left my tab open the night before, so after trying to haggle for the seven dollars in my wallet, i put the book back. i'll buy it another day. 

that night met a bunch of new UT faculty at a mixer with my sis. some were smug, some lacked basic social skills, but most were great people. had a great time with them all. over pizza that night with some of the more social, talk came to the show cheaters, and being the academia crowd, quickly evolved into a much deeper discussion.

alright thats enough, i get another post sooner. maybe. now i just have to decide if i am heading east or west... 

Time for an oil change.

Well, with the monster 600 mile day I had now rolled over 5000 miles for the trip and am due for an oil change. At breakfast that morning I walked in and said hi to the front desk as i always do. started a broing conversation about the weather. blah blah blah. im in. Well as im enjoying my third plate of omellettes reading the paper, the lovely Tammy from the front desk comes into the breakfast lounge. Seeing my phone charging she gives me a funny smile. I knew this day would come. I get ready to say something awkward, but then she says, "Where in the heck are you from?" I tell her my story of coming from sacramento. and she says "Oh my, I've never travelled around the world before..." I laughed a little and started tellin her some stories she wouldnt soon forget. She ran off for a minute and came back with her business card making me promise that I would email her some more stories and pictures. I almost told her to follow this lame blog, but I quickly remembered that could compromise my breakfast for the rest of the trip. "For you Tammy, the world." I replied and pocketed the card.
I finished the breakfast and went to the computer to figure out how to get to Lake Village, Ar where i was headed that day to meet Forrest. Computer's down. Bummer. I knew it was south east of where I was. Being as stubborn as any mustached man is I started taking roads south for a while, then east for a while until I had no idea where I was. Came to the arkansas river. Took a nap and a swim and headed south, then east, then south. This got me all the way to the east of the mississippi river through beautiful winding roads of arkansas. Much better than interstates. Only problem was I wanted to be on the opposite side of the river. So i folled highways south, then west, until I found one that would cross... no. it dead ended after so many miles at a dam. Now, I though about driving around the open chain link fence, but decided that the chain link on the other side would probably be locked. Had to backtrack a bit, went south, then west and got across. Stopped to get gas in a town i knew was close to lake village. I broke down and looked at the us map to see that i only had to follow 65 south for 90 miles and I would be there. As soon as I left the gas station, not 50 feet from it, I see a sign for Lake village. Figures.
Got to Forrests. Kate and the dog Mason greeted me at the door. I showered and when Forrest got back a couple of us went to dinner at his girlfriend julia's house a few twns over. Everyone I met that night is doing Teach For America. Pretty cool experience from what they say. On the way back from dinner forrests muffler decided to jump ship, not without sending sparks flying on the freeway long enough for the car nest to us to point yell and point. Forrest said without blinking, "There goes the muffler." At the time I was blown away that forrest could recognize the individual sounds parts of his car make as they jettison from it at 60 mph. Now I understand.

Slept there, got up this morning, ate the rest of forrests mini wheats and hit the road. Made good time to New Orleans where I am sitting un poquito homeless today. I parked my bike in the valet of the Marriott. Hopefully it's ok. I am sitting in an abandoned hostel right now, where I have yet to see anyone that runs it. So naturally I hit the computer and blog. Now, onto the town.

The Tornado Hunt

So leaving from some HIE in somewhere in SE colorado I was off. It was early. Probably 7 maybe 8. i was headed to Dodge City, KS. I rode and rode through smalltown kansas. Basically kansas goes like this. nothing. then tiny town with huge silo. then nothing. repeat through state. Got to dodge city. blue skies. Sweet I thought to myself tornadoes and blue skies, this is going to be perfect. So I waited there for 12 hours... no tornadoes. weird. well that 5 minutes i was in town felt like 12 hours. anyways i googled my name again. still nothin. but i did find a storm brewin in enid, OK. Luckily I had a map to figure out where oklahoma was. Thats about all good the map was. so i used my keen sense of smell to track the flying cows. I headed south then east, then south, then a little west. anyways i rode a long time. throughincreasingly bad weather. as the weather got worse I began asking myself why i was doing this. luckily my add kicked in and I started thinking about how I was riding 88mph through a lightning storm. That Doc Brown had to be somewhere with the delorean waiting for me. Never did find him. Storms poundijng hard. my daily odometer reading was nearing 600 miles. time to find some shelter. Luckily i was near just entering the grand town of cherokee, ok which has the same amount of stop lights as bars. one. my kinda town. Mel's was the name of the place, and the 70 year old man behind the counter. He reminds me of George. A true old timer. I got a beer to pass the time until a tornado dropped out of the sky. Only hail. Then while i was searching the horizon for my elusive tornado a bolt of lightning hit the power pole 50 yards from where i sat. this whole time mel had been rambling about his days climbing poles (said the highest one was 1500') as soon as the lightning the conversation changed course. I remember that i was homeless in a town that a tornado was due for. Long story long, mel mentioned something about my cover for my bike about to fly to kansas. he was right, it was flapping, ready to take off. The he said something about me driving my bike into the bar. I said hell yes. So i told the drunks playing pool to ya know move. Hopped on the bike in the pouring raind and came across the street, up the curb, and into the bar. Fit like a glove. Anyways now that my bike was in the bar, all my worries were behind me. Mel got some more beers for the four of us in the bar. I cooked some dinner in the kitchen and we had a great time singing damn near every song on the jukebox. One gal, Brandi, said she was some country starts 5th cousin, cant rember who). maybe. anyways the night ended when brandi's truck drivin husband came raining in out of the storm furious. Something about brandi not supposed to be in a bar. again. things got weird for a bit. anyways now it was me and mel. and some guy who couldnt enunciate the word beer. Luckily the singing was done for. Well mel talked my ear off lthe way i am talking yours off and finally i headed out to fnid a home on the side of the road. the storm eased up a bit. I made camp next to an overgrown entrance to a ranch. and a very subtle electric fence. Not my ideal place during a lightning storm but it would do. I unhooked the section of electric fence that was almostlmost touching my tent. too bad it was the hot end. I just made sure not to roll over to that side of the tent during the night. Woke up to very intimidating thunder and the biggest rain to date arond 2am. I kept trying to remember if there were power lines overhead. luckily there werent. blah blah blah. i woke up and headed ar but not without a proper breakfast.

Which way to Kansas?

Well my plan was to head to Kansas. But as I was leaving the airport I saw a sign west. I took it. I had just remembered that there was a South American Adventure bike rally somewhere 200 miles west of denver. What's a 400 mile detour anyways. All I had to go by was the iron in my nose and the gps coordinates of the rally outside a town that wasnt on my map. Piece of cake. Eventually found it. Rode down the 4 miles of gravel to place best described as amazing. When i got there I saw 20 of my dream bikes. (650 Gs). There was a pig roasting over an open fire. Somebody yelled "who the hell are you?" I honked my horn. Later that guy fell in the fire. Anyways Im not much for story telling but I met some cool people. Two of which had just gotten back from a 7 month ride to ushiya, argentina. Im tired o writing.

Next morning woke up at 6 to climb a local mountain. Sleep called. I slept. Rode to wherever I 30 miles west of wherever I am today. Watched some big lightning in the distance while I camped in an open cow pasture. More importantly I just caught wind of a tornado warning in Dodge City, KS. Pun intended. Time to put my tarp tent to the ultimate test.

End of an era

Here I sit in the business lounge full of delicious HIE breakfast.
We got to Boulder, CO to drop Kevin's bike off with the Fellows. Upon arriving at this house, Steph's mom, Kay, shows up to the sight of two dirty mustached vagabonds in her living room. Her face lights up. Kay is at the top of the list of my favorite people with Kim from Craigmont. After making sure we get showered and our fill of fresh food she tells us that our show starts in 10 minutes. Little did we know that Kay is an amatuer professional lead singer at Rockband. So we jammed the afternoon away. After a few stern tongue lashings from her I got my drumming act together and soon enough the neighbors were coming in to light one up and enjoy the show. Tuckered out from jamming so hard, Kevin put in some good blog time. I... googled my name. And read some blogs about people riding their motos down to argentina from here. Pretty sweet.

The sun set and we knew it was time to get to dt Boulder. We appropriated Steph's car and headed in. Boulder is known for its endless breweries and delicous beer so we went to the liquor mart and bought joose and pabst. industry standard. After tasting the value we went down the street. Saw a street performer ride a 10 foot suicycle while juggling flaming pins. I fell asleep. Twice. Found a pub, played some baseball game where others tried to make friends with us, but it was too intense so we declined their friend requests. More stuff happened. Probably. Tried to sneak in the back door of a club. Luckily for us the owners best friend was there, telling us we were in trouble this, he was going to call the cops that. Long story short we hung out with his friend all night in a "vip" section. More stuff happened. Kevin gave a bum my phone number promising him work in the land of the free. Being sober as we were we decided to make the 4 mile walk home at 4am. Passed over a fence into a construction site as a short cut. Ended up being harder to get out than in. blah blah blah. In the morning we gathered our lives together and made for the airport.

Travelling around the country on a motorcycle makes you limit which posessions are essential. for one person. Because we were Dumb and Dumbering it the 40 miles through dense traffic to the denver airport, it was a challenge to double the load. We stacked kevins stuff 3 stories high on my bike somehow and headed out. Kay gave Kevin directions to the airport. he tried to pass them onto me. Refusing to listen I sang to myself. Kevin took matters into his own hands by leaning hard and turning for us whenever we had to.

Dropped him off at the aeropuerto and now I was heading to Kansas to find me a tornado...

Harry Chinese Tornados

Left Sturgis by way of short cut once the rain had supsided and planned on getting to somewhere in Nebraska by night fall. Saw the sites along the way: Rushmore, kicking-falling-standing-horse, and then had 100miles of open country highway with one else on it and a raging lightning storm chasing us all the way. Along the way I made a mental note to tell Luke that I wanted Chinese buffet after we had just passed through a town around noon that had one. When we reached Alliance NE, we stopped in at the gas station and asked if they had one. Yeah, they did and as faith would have it, it was located just accross the street from the holiday inn express, brilliant. The attendant did warn us though that they were on tornado watch. Flabbergasted we thought to our selves how could this get any better. It did Harry Potter half blood prince started at 7:30 bingo we had found the greatest place that Nebraska had to offer. After way to much hot and sour chicken and soft serve and with HP now in our back pocket we took a gravel road to its end and found solice in another rainy night but with Boulder jsut on the Horizon

Stugis is as free as you want it, as long as steven tylers still a drunk and falls off the stage

Easily one of the longest days yet and not just because we are about to ride into the mecca of conservative harley town riding matching BMW with sweet mustaches but also cause we put close 450 miles behind us. Left Thermopolis went through this great winding canyon and up to a pass which reminded me of my time spent on the moon cause in the sun it was 70 and when you went through the shadows it would drop to 40. As we got closer to ground zero, we took a quick detour to a pre-biker rally known simply as the "ham and jam" were we stocked up on free brisket sandwiches, checked out fat biker chicks who were just wearing ass less chaps and got prepared for what I will later be know as the greatest source of debatchery since kim jung ill's batchlor party. We stopped by devils tower to take a quick peak (gonna climb it summer 10' let me know), and joined our first biker parade towards sturgis. Half way there we got fed up with smell harly girls and took a short cut through the hills that another BMW rider had suggested. Little did he know that we are completely unable to listen to directions and wound up right back into the biker pack we had attempted to elude...tricky. We rolled up to Sturgis and were in aw at the thousands of leather shops, fat bikers, topless little girls, and bikes lining the streets for miles four rows deep. We choose a spot tight spot right between two of the most expensive bikes we could find, mixed up a couple of seagrams and Seven-up and proceeded to have no clue were to go. Two blocks down the street I realized that once again I had left my keys in the ignition which turned into a blessing because we passed by a bar know as "The Knuckle" and heard that there was going to be mma amateur fighting and it started in 5 minutes. An even fatter drunker danny deveto came on stage and started holllering that everyone should sign up to fight cause its really fun and no one gets hurt. Wait a minute it a fighting match and no one get hurt, danny I will take my free drink elsewhere if I wont see someone get creamed. Then I layed eyes on the grand master thor himself steppin over to the signup desk. He was steve goldburg if he was a foot and at this point I start saying words of encouragement to my companion such as "man he's probably so slow", and " bet you could dance around the guy"...that is unless he connected with a single punch. We thor ended up getting taken out in his second round by an even bigger monster and as the blood started to spill and the whiskey took its hold more and more girls ended up taking off the shirts and riding the machanical bull right next to the ring, Glorious. A few hours later when all the fighters were either drunk being led away by medical professionals we decided to bite the bullet and find a campsite at a place known as "the Buffalo chip". I say bite the bullet because it was 70 bucks to camp and see aerosmith, and because you get paid 20$ to watch Aerosmith because they are so horrible its like spending 90 bucks to camp in the rain. We parked our bikes in the farthest reaches of the parking let (a 4 acre field) broke into the homemade booze that had been fermenting in my saddle bags for the last two weeks, divided the last of the seagrams into water bottles and headed to the concert with thunder pounding and the lightning guiding our way. On the walk over we realized that we both hated aerosmith and that we couldn't go back on our agreement to pay for camping so we started hopping fence. Two chain links and two barbwires later we were in the middle of the VIP section, getting a few weird look but with a few well aimed winks and promises of mustache rides we got into the concert. At this point we got seperated and the effects of homemade booze and gulps on seagrams hit me and said adios to the crowd and headed to the bikes where I set out my bag and tarp 20 yards deeper into the field. Luke in the mean time was cruising the show watching bikers line up with their hogs to enter this caged in area where they peel out their bikes until their tire or engine blow. Not the brightest stars in the sky. Luke stumbled back to the bikes a few songs later, but not until Steven Tyler successful fell off the stage...smooth. I woke up again to my old friend thundershower in the heaves of a good time, a little disoreiented I wandered back to the bikes to see Lukes sleeping bag layed out prime for the fluffin. Silly goose I thought he left his back out while he was at the show I'll just have to pack it up for him. Nope, he was deep asleep completly drenched and in the throughs of another dog dream with his feet kickin and soft yipping. We set up the tarp and awoke to the parking lot completly empty but the knowledge that the concert and camp actually cost 120$ and after stevo fell off the stage the show was canceled. Oh Sturgis how can we ever thank you .

deer heads and sprinklers

After a wonderful nigt spent next to the freeway leading into Jackson we rangled up our bikes and headed back into town to get some grub at bubbas and find the public library. Aparently no one goes there because we got three different people to tell us to go four different directions, damn richy's can't even get around there own town. We struck out east with no real destinations till we arrived at Thermopolis WY, where they have the worlds largest hotsprings and the fattest men who like stop up the slides leading into them. Ended up going down a slide were you can actually catch air and then go straight into a turn and almost upside down, ouch. After the springs we didn't have much left to do besides drink steele's and waltse around the park. Checked out the hotel that we'd be visitin in the morning and crusied around the inside looking at hundreds of animals lining the walls and pictures of animal attacks, good old wyoming. We took a few tips from the animals that we saw on the walls and slowly snuck up to our prey... a nice little family with a couple of boxes of pizza. Ended up talking to them for a bit with the dude saying he builds houses for billionare's...boring everyone knows billionare's are like sea horses and unicorns, they don't exist. Finishing are steele's we set off for home which was a gazebo tonight. Yeah I know we splirged and put a roof over our heads. Woke up to Luke screaming about sprinklers or something and I went back to one of my Nam flashbacks where my CO luke is running around naked trying to evade charlie while I stay in my fox hole when all of a sudden i turned around and get peppered in the face by home depot finest. We lost that battle but made our way to the newest HQ, a joggin path. With another terrible nights sleep behind us we set out early for one of our lives goals... Sturgis.

Yellowstone is a zoo

Leaving camp in the morning was no picnic. Our bikes were deep in the brush and hardly off road. After high centering and nearly starting another forest fire for kiel we got out of it. Heading to Bozeman,MT we rode for a while. Montana is gorgreous. the sky really is big there. It is as though you are in a snowglobe, (not that I'ver ever been) but it just seems like the sky is very close and goes on forever around the horizons. I think it is because you are on high plains (4-6,000) and there are mountains all around. Truly beautiful. Got to Bozeman a bit before kevin. Went to the Von's for some food. just then these half dollar size raindrops start splashing around me. So I get under the only 4 sq. feet of cover near the store and tuck my bike in. Then the rain stops. your welcome Bozeman. I grab a beef pasty and 46 ounces of v8. My stomach still hurts. While waiting for Kevin shared a bench with a guy who had the spent the last winter living under a bridge. Kept raving about his 20 degree below bag (ironically thats exactly how cold it got that winter). I suppose it is the simple things in life that make people happy. Kevin got in and we headed to a coffee shop to check the map. I have noticed that we look very distinguished looking at a map of the us that has writing all over it. people love us. Since kevin has to be in denver to learn soon we decided to get to Yellowstone to camp. Bozeman is a great town and I would love to go back. A lot of adventure sports there. So we finished the coffee, made friends with a couple dog owners, and headed for the land of Yogi and Booboo.

Caught a great sunset, and rode the 60 miles. We got to the edge of yellowstone and stopped for a drink at bar there. great spot. met some guys bicycling from florida to portland. Said it was a great trip. They told us there was no way to get into yellowstone for free. I slapped him and said: "really?" Apparently the three of them had just finished riding through10 miles of hking trails to get out of the park. they broke a bunch of spokes. a little disheartened we were. Got to the entrance and it was closed. we were in.



Met the ranger patrolling the hot springs. where we were gonna camp. no dice. she said all the campsite were closed. We told her no big deal of course we were riding the rest of the way through the park tonight. We left her and found a little town. Mammoth hot springs. We parked the bikes, Kevin said "should we cover em?" I said "No i think they're safe." We grabbed our sleeping gear and headed up a trail ontro a ridge overlooking the town about a half mile in. Found a spot off the trail that would be stealth frmo hikers in the morning and went to sleep. I couldn't. Soon rain started falling. A little rain not a problem. The drops got bigger and stung my face. The thunder and lightning show started. I counted the time between thunder and lightning. 4 miles. We had to get off this ridge. now. we rolled our now wet bags up in our tyveks and wne to the bikes to cover them. Hid out under an awning for some time before we grabbed the tarp tent and headed back into the hills. not as exposed on a ridge though. yellowstone wasnt done with our initiaiton yet. An hour into that camp i still couldnt sleep. Kevin still could. I heard a car in the distance. Something else did too. it came sprinting at our tarp trampling the small bushes in its path. It came within a few feet, I could hear the air rushing in and out of its wet nose. It was a black bear. I was using my pants as a pillow so i grabbed my knife out of them while it cirlced our tent. I clutched it looking out the open walls of the tarp tent, waiting to see its snout poke in and... lick me? who knows, coulda happened. A few minutes and it was gone. Slept with my nknife clipped to my boxers.
woke up that morning. broke camp. and headed for Mt. Washburn. Stopped at a few lookouts. Yellowstone is more of a safari than a park with craggy peaks. Stopped for a while to let a 12 point bull elk cross the road. Figured a 2000 pound beast probably has right of way. Climbed washburn. Good hike. Good view. Met a ranger up there who lives in solitude to look for fires in yellowstone. weird life. Asked him what the big drums on the side of the building were. He said something something microwaves. I said " ohhh, is that what you cook your food in." He didnt like really ridiculously funny jokes apparently.
Headed towards old faithful and something else. It was raining but still beautiful. Got to faithful. Missed it by 5 minutes. Figures. Took a nap on the front row bench. Awoke surrounded by hundreds of people wanting the space i was taking up by my body. Sat up within a secondi was surrounded by 6 Japenese tourists. the one next to me was funny. At the end of faithfuls eruption we booed it together. she was fun.
anyways headed through the tetons towards Jackson where i sit today in the public library. Tetons are unreal. caught them for sunset I will come back and climb them. Jackson was 20 miles aways and the only thing that stood between us and it, was a gnarly curtian of rain, thunder and lightning. That was the scariest 20 miles I have ridden to date. My helmet visor had hundreds of drops on it. i know because every passing car lit them up and the light reflected off effectiviely blinding me. The road had no shoulders so you cant stop. Very happy to get the the cadillac bar for a hot meal and a beer... and some great company.

Testy Fest

While in town, getting the tubes. A guy noticed our bikes. said something along the lines of you guys are girls, then changed to you guys are reel men (saw my hat). He proceeded to inform us of the Nationally acclaimed Testicle Festival going on that day just 20 mins outside of town. He just warned us that if we didnt have 12" we should refrain from taking our pants off there. This was going to be tough. So after tubing we made our way towards the nutfest where we planned on eating our fill of rocky mountain oysters. Just as we were about to start the bikes we noticed kevins bike was already on. weird. battery was dead. oh. I spied a laundromat down the street. First asked if anybody had jumper cables in their laundry basket. no dice. So i grabbed two coat hangers and stripped then ends with my buck. Put my finger ony my nose to imply kevin could hold the electrodes, and got to work strippin the bike down to the battery. Well after a few minutes of rigging we had our bikes frankenwired together. I started mine. Told kevin to start his. Nothing. Weird. the coat hangers didnt have the ampacity to carry the curent. Damn cheap coat hangers. So we walked across the street, looked in the back of a Wrangler and wouldnt you know it... more coat hangers. Just kdding, jumper cables. sweet. jumped em and we were off.

got to the festival asked how much to camp. at the gate she said something, something, for you 35. Id rather spend 35 bucks on my fill of cow balls. We turned around, headed mile and a half down the road. When no cars we looking, we road a trail a hundred yards in next to a creek and called it free. Covered the bikes, grabbed the growler and it was time for dinner!
Got there hopped the barbwire fence, and we were in. First thing we see is a fat harley biker singing a sad karoake song. weird. musta had too many oysters today. As we made our way through this biker pavilion, we waded through drunk bikers and topless women. Times running out. The testy fest was great, grand, wonderful. After acquiring some beads, and a nipple gauge we quickly got rid of them... out of time sorry.

Go with the flow

So, we left Craigmont early, about 6 am after both randomly waking up at 3am. Must have been that 4loco. So we rode out on some road that a random told us to take. 15 miles of gravel is overrated especially when there are suicidal deer families. Kevin almost made us stop for veil when Jane and John Deer decided to try and sacrifice their kids by crossing the road. He stopped just in time for the last little fawn, doe, somethin to kick his front tire. he just shook his fist, yelled Turkeys!!!, and kept riding. Sidenote: The turkeys thing came from a time when Kevin and I were on a chairlift at Mt. Bachelor and saw my dad pizzaing down the mountain in his bright purple and yellow ski suit. he happened to see us at the same time and shot his pole in the air and yelled turkeys!! at the top of his lungs.
Anyways we road and rode and rhode. Down 99 miles of curvy road over a pass. All along the way signs saying "motocycle use extreme caution." terrible road, long morning. Got over the pass and into Missoula where we would meet with our first couchsurfing host Colleen. While in a A&W parking lot Kevin gets a call to change his life. Just got accepted into the Pahrmacy school of Denver, or something like that. School starts in... 14 days. Pretty sweet. So we went to town and rented tubes to meet up with colleen and float the river all day. Great time. Her dog, guapo, a hefty pit swam with us too. More than swimming he liked cuddling in the tube with you. So he did, but what he really liked was popping your tube. or colleens. So colleen swam with guapo. Guapo was not allowed to cuddle with me anywmore. After the river we hung out with the gang, colleen, cassie, her mom, and jeff. Great people, great time.

Posts you want, Posts you get

ok 15 minutes to recap on the last days since craigmont, id. i might have to skip all of it. here we go.

got to criagmont. population 582. wait no recount 584. we head straight to hardware store wich is best ive seen. random stuff everywhere. no aisles just piles. end up buying haf the store. list of the goods. alaska is for reel men hat, two belt buckles (potash), other stuff, american flag for my bike which came from the sculpture out front. I asked if i could have it. She thought for i second, I reminded her I was heading for Sturgis. case closed it was mine. Rigged some piping to fasten flag to bike. Now im a patriot. but still a niners fan. got the 25 cent tank top there to prove it.
Then to the bar. We met our favorite woman in the world, Kim. Followed shortly by our least favorite, Jim. Jim's the type who had two teeth, half a liver, and doesnt know when to shut up. Kim told us the stories of bear hunting, and offered to make us elk if we came back tomorrow. Deal.
Met up with Kiel who is working for Smokey. Got some steelys and headed out to shoot some cans. On the way out to the shooting spot we saw a turkey. almost popped out the tercel sunroof in time to get it, but it would have to wait. Shot some can. Kiel got his first kill, a nighthawk, shortly after i said " No chance anybody gets that nighthawk." Touche Kiel. Then he ha dto take a bite of the liver. The least he could do. Avian flu. 7 minutes.
next morning woke to kiel peeing his pants because he got called onto a fire somewhere in oregon that kevin and i started a week earlier. he owes us. That left kevin and I to squat in kiels trailer until it was time for elk dinner. We passed time by doing stuff probably. Went to dinner. kim said her sister, bar owner, wouldnt let her serve us elk. We dont like her much. So we had finished the beers, grabbed the gun and went out for that turkey. So we walked and we walked, until... we found abandoned tractors. so we took pictures, then we walked some more. Now the sun is going down and our best turkey call was still failing us. Looks like we were gonna have to shoot a cow. dont know if they were wild, being fenced in and all. Figured our best bet was to tip it first.
3 minutes. tired of typing sorry. word jsut got in that time is being updated. lucky you guys.

Full steam ahead, here we come east coast!!

To continue where we left off, we loaded up the bike at carl's house then stopped by her work for one last photo and to drop off some keys. The other day that we hung out with the girl from rehab we also rode along with this Australian dude who recomeded that we take highway 20 near the Canadian border. As soon as we hopped onto the freeway north we got completely bogged down with traffic and shortly after saw a sign say highway 2 next exit. Close enough. It was an awsome right as soon as we got off the beaten path up to stevens pass and then following the Columbian river until we were able to pull off to the side of road and go for a swim. Upon further inspection there were campfire rings benches, boulder to climb, and fish to catch. We ended up stowing the bikes behind a big rock and stayed for night (hit a rock on the way in, dumped my bike for the third time going 3 mph, dang). blah blah.
On the road again in the morning with our sights set on spokane, which we later learned was actually spokomptan. Gross, nothing there and still in washington. We jumped the border into Idaho and pulled into Cour' da lane. Beautiful place, quiet little college town right on a huge lake with tons of jumping rocks and rope swings. We did what any respectable transient would do, shot gunned beers in the parking lot and looked for our next meals. Once we found a safeway I opted to buy steele reserve and while sitting at the front of the store waiting for Luke I made a new friend. He was a dirty little mexican man with three teeth and a great smile. He asked me how I was doing, and to try and keep him away I just murmured incoherent words. In bum speech that apparently ment "great, how bout you sit down next to me". Which he did and gave me a wonderful bum hug. He then went on to offer me cigerattes and also and invitation to go inside and chug mikes hard lemonades in the booze isle. Tempting... but I said I'd watch his bike for him. Luckily Luke came out right then and we sat back to watch the entertainment. As we sat on the porch of an abandoned house and drank our steele's and ate chicken sandwiches I thought back to my short interaction earlier. It all made perfect sense, the bum, seeing one of his own and a 12 pack was just trying to make me feel at home, and with that experience I knew we had graduated from bum college. The night went on with some live music and strip clubs and when all the steele's were gone and we realized that Luke had left his tab open at the first bar. The band had just ended and the whole crowd was getting ready to go skinny dippin in the lake. On my walk down I ran into one of the singers of the band a big ole gal with dreadlocks who had a thing for tall skinny guys. Being polite and a little scared I walked to the lake with her and when she whispers to me that she want to take me down into the grass I started to scream Lukes names. Out of thin air he appears with a wheel barrow, I jumped in and he rolls me to safety. I jumped out of that thing at the bottom and ran into the hills where I lost a croc and had to leave it behind. Luke's heroics though didn't go unnoticed and for that chick one dude was as good as another. Long story short Luke ran into the hills. After waiting for a few minutes I decided that the coast was clear and started to shimmy down back towards the trail. I ended up stepping on some guy camping up there and after a short apology found a tree and waited behind it. No sooner had I gotten there that Luke stumbles out of the bushes next to me and we agreed that maybe skinny dippin wasn't on the recipe tonight. We set up camp on the hillside and as a tip from the toll booth operated got out of the parking lot at 7 and found our holiday inn. We've made it to Craigmont and that adventure will have to wait till next time.

Seattle and such

First of all I would like to thank David for being our only follower on this blog. Doesn't go unnoticed. Not at all.

Also I have received some comments regarding our tabs. We always pay our tabs, unless there is no tab. Settled.

On to the goods.

Seattle was fun. Let me think. ok. yes. it began in the morning when i awoke spooning a velvety siamese cat. great start. then took the morning slow. kevin tended his moonshine contraption which consists of a juice bottle, some shampagne yeast, and a condom. Lot of science involved. At noon we hit the town, and it was hot. muy hot. we found ourselves in a used bookstore. The shopkeeper was very into backpacking and such. learned about the enchantments in eastern Wa which are supposed to be amazing. Bought an old school adventure book. Now I read Kevin a tale from it every night. Helps him sleep.

On to the hustling and bustling of Pike's market. Eh. After 30 seconds of wading through sweaty foreigners we headed for the pier. At the pier we contemplated jumping off into the water 20' below. But luckily commonsense had struck hard that day so we decided not to jump there. But rather on the patio above. We climbed the two flights of stairs and upon reaching the top I encountered a bummish man. So I looked him in the eye and said "Are you going to steal our stuff?" And he said that wasnt his thing. I had to beleive him. So once again we stripped to our boxers in public. Before we jumped we enlisted some Japanes girls to take pictures of us. They obliged. And we jumped, and it was good. So we climbed out the barnacle encrusted ladder. Got back to the top and a photo op with the our asian admirers. Sun dried and back to the bar.

Found a quaint place, got a bucket of something delicious. Met some ferry folk. they left. Pillaged an abondoned pint. Met some canadians in town for the Mariners-Jays game. We decided we should to the game. so we went. Not good game for mariners, luckily we were sitting with the canucks on the upper echelon in right field. Huge Ichiro fans we are. More stuff happened. blah blah blah.

Climbed the next day at stone garden. sweet gym. went to first rei. took picture wish carly. skadoodled back on the road.

Too many pictures

Top to bottom: Grandpa's crude art "the secretary," 3 fingered jack,

work of tornado, wakeboarding

top to bottom: top of 3 fingered jack, uncle nick, nicks boat the shyster, niche market, kevin jumping the wake

top to bottom: Jamie!!, in center 3 fingered jack, norcal coast, hoodoo in back, fog burning off redwoods

Top to bottom: my brother and fam, mt st helens, elk butt, dead cat, dallas and folks

top to bottom: corey jumping wake, bridge, climbing on 3 fingered jack, cleanin up camp in eugen, tillamook camp

some pics in random order

top to bottom:

boat, arcata, wood cabin,

aaron and fam, aaron jump wake

My post on things

First of all, let me say for all you "english" majors out there... get over it. I have no time for spell check nor do I care to proofread what i write. Or read it at all for that matter. on to the recap.

Here in Carly's condo in Seattle I am hot. It is hot and I want to swim. But i blog instead.

Starting at Green Peter lake (not green pepper) we met up with Aaron again for a day of wakeboarding, camped and generally hung out. Then as soon as we were there, we were gone and headed to... Tillamook!

Tillamook? Is it necessary to take a 200 mile detour to the coast for a tour of a cheese factory?

No. But it's sterile and I like the tastes.

sorry that was dumb. anyways we had our fill of cheese and ice cream, a great combo, and headed for the hills/ someone's property. Sticking to our policy of never paying for lodging through the trip we skimped on the 4 dollar campsite and found an overgrown ATV road to follow into the hills. It turned out to be amazing, didn't even get run over by offroad enthusiasts.

The next morning we woke up early because we had 70 miles to Portland to cover before the continental breakfast closed. (sidenote: Kevin just mascared his mustache, pretty amazing. pic to come) Ate the breakfast, the folks at moliday binn nexpress know their biscuits and gravy and I commend them for it. Not enough to actually "pay" but kudos are in order.

Feeling rather comatose we hit the road again. Got to Mt. St. Helens where we listened to a ranger give us and others the deal with the volcano. It was ok. The mountain itself is absolutely incredible. Riding up to the lookout ridge there were downed trees for miles, nothing like the typical forests surrounding peaks like these.

Anywho, met some other bikers on KTM's, but they had nothing on our K75's. Tired of writing.

anyways put this in:

At the bottom of st. helens we were at the gas station eating ice cream, because it was hot, when we started to talking to an outpatient gal who knew of a local swimming hole. With a little rearranging I now had some new cargo on the back of my bike and she navigated us to the spot. Sketchy to say the least. We park at and abondoned building (in washington this means meth lab) where our bikes were sure to be a ok. then she and kevin started walking towards the spot while I nakeded into my board shorts. as im walking to catch up kevin has left her and is walking back towards me with a scared look on his face, moreso than usual. He says something like "gawrsh Luke, I dont know about this..."

I am partial to swimming so I followed her through the woods towards the creek. At the spot there were 3 other guys who knew her, and she kept reassuring me that it was going to be ok. which was weird because I hadn't said a word. But I love swimming so I something something jumped into the river where these guys who were now groping their long lost friend were. I flexed, showed my beard, and everything was fine. Turns out they were hillbillys, not even the stabbin kind, and they also like beer. We got on great.

The story told as told to kevin by our friend stacybill (name changed due to memory reasons) went as follows:

I was walking with her along the bridge. 3 guys start waving toothily at me from the watering hole. Stacybill shies aways, and says, omg it's buckwheat and jimfrank his dad. I say "is that a problem little lady?" She says "they all wanna s * x me (taken verbatem with asterisk and all). and the father grabbed my chesticles so i stole his cars." Flabbergasted I exclaim nothing at all. urinate a bit. she replies "they were only antiques (aka hot wheels)." This is when kevin turns around without a word to "check on the bikes."

Thats the story, later we were gonna camp at mt. ranier, but a landslide took out the road we were planning on taking in. so we made it to seattle. Definetly going to combe back and climb ranier when we can. it is impressive. very craggy.