Days 36-37: A Blooming Good Time

Catching up with the Bloomers is always fun. John and Liisa are both entertaining, in vastly different ways. I also finally met their kids Maddie and Alex. Both are absolutely awesome and warmed up to me faster than they usually do.

While having lunch outside near the beach, we actually ran into my old friend Chris Mason leaving a late and long lunch at the same restaurant. He looked drastically different, shedding his surfer locks (or what passes as the surfer look in Rochester, NY) for the clean cut look. We had a barbecue with him and his family on June 29th. Even his Mom was there, whom I hadn't seen since I left Rochester many, many moons ago. Everything was wonderful and it was great to see him again after so long.

John played hooky earlier on Thursday, and we visited a bunch of places, the highlights being the Carvin guitar store and the Matchless guitar amplifier factory. The manager/engineer for Matchless is a friend of John's and graciously spent some time showing us around the relatively small warehouse. Oddly, we didn't get to actually hear any of the amplifiers, probably since they were pretty strapped for time getting a shipment out. Their operation was surprisingly small, but cool in a startup kinda way. We also visited the Labrea Tar Pits, which weren't quite as interesting as I thought they would be.

Days 35-36: Joshua Tree and Visiting the Brady's

I arrived near Joshua Tree late on the 34th and stayed at the worst motel of the trip. I said to myself, "Self, you've been staying at too many nice places, time to go cheap!" and ended up staying at the first place I found. For $50 it sucked, especially since there was a Motel 6 1 mile down the road. When I arrived, no one was in the office but the sign said back in 15 minutes. So I waited. Across the street was a bar, and shortly a guy exited and ran over (liberal usage of "ran"). I was worried when he said he had to show me the room and explain the quirks. The quirks were nothing too odd, mainly having to do with the cable tv and juggling the power outlets for the lighting. OK, already too much time spent on this place...

Joshua Tree was really nice, as you can see from the pictures. I love the photos warning against swimming.

After the bulk of picture taking was finished, I decided to drive through the park figuring there would be a gas station near southern entrance to quench my rapidly parching tank. Without realizing that California had a helmet law, I cruised to the other side sans protection since I was the only one on the road and it was damn hot. When I arrived at the highway, I returned my helmet to its proper location and set out towards Palm Springs and a gas station. Turns out it wasn't that close, and I rolled in almost on fumes. Luckily the cycle gets about 55 MPG or it would have been fun hitchhiking for the first time.

I had intended on going up the tram to the top of the mountains in Palm Springs, but I didn't find it until I was leaving. Suffice to say, Palm Springs may be skipped unless you are, as my friend John described it, old or have an alternative sexual preference. Stevie, which one of these are you?

I finished up the day by visiting my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Ed. Sadly, Ed has pancreatic cancer and isn't given much time to live. As I write this (2008-06-28), I have find out that he passed away last night after exiting his coma long enough to say goodbye to his family. I'm very glad I was able to see him because it had been about 21 years since they moved to California. It was fun catching up. Even sick, Ed looked good, and Nancy didn't seem to have aged.

Next up, the Bloomers in Redondo Beach!

Days 31-34: Sin City, Now for Children!

After dropping my bike off for service on Friday, I had a wonderful wakeup call at 8am on Sunday when BMW of Las Vegas called to tell me my baby was all fixed up and ready to go. I was very fearful it would take until Tuesday, so knowing I'd be free to roam on Monday made me happy. After picking up the bike, I met my cousin at Excaliber and our weekend of drunken debauchery commenced.

When I think of family vacations, my thoughts tend towards skiing, the beach, camping, Disney, and cultural excursions into the museums and galleries of the cities. I did not realize how many people had Las Vegas on that list. The only thing I can think of is the parents showing the kids where they were conceived. Some might even have had the biological father along for the show and tell portion.

Seriously, who thinks Las Vegas is for kids? There were kids of all ages, too. From one year olds up to young teens. Of course, the streets are lined with desperate looking scallawags snapping business cards with images and advertisements of women on demand and strip clubs. These same cards ended up plastering the sidewalks -- the same side walks used by the kids. Sigh...

Of course, it got worse. Someone thought it would be a great idea to bring their little yipster with them and then lock it in the hotel room all day and late into the evening. The dog was yelping for about 12 hours, though I think it was getting tired around midnight because I could no longer hear it in my room.

The two shows we saw were Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity at New York, New York and Penn and Teller (at the Penn and Teller theater, no less!) Sadly, tickets for Robin Williams were starting at 200/ticket so we had to pass. If only I had won more that first day at the tables. I had seen P&T before, and they didn't disappoint -- by far one of the best shows for your money. Zumanity is the adult/over-18 show that all the casinos are pushing right now. The difference is that this is Cirque du Soleil and you know they craft an good show. Though there was toplessness, the nudity really wasn't what made it adult; it was the extensive and well acted lewd jokes and behavoir that made it so risque. I won't say more, but I would urge you to splurge on the loveseat tickets.

On Monday, luckily the crowds were too busy escaping Vegas to worry about clogging up the buffet or the line for the roller coasters. I managed to ride the Manhatten Express with a wait of about 10 minutes, whereas the line always looked at least an hour or more on Saturday and Sunday. My first stop after leaving Vegas was Buffalo Bill's Desperado roller coaster, which in 1996 had the longest vertical drop in the USA. Both were amazing rides, and if you suck at gambling, you are better off giving the casinos your money that way.

I met a guy at Buffalo Bill's who said I should go see Hoover Dam since the traffic heading towards LA was stretching as far as the eye could see from the top of the roller coaster, so I turned around and drove back to Vegas and on to Boulder City. Sadly, there's a bunch of construction going on at the dam which caused more ridiculous traffic, plus the hike I took (4 miles each way) was also affected by the construction and didn't offer a view of the dam.

As for gambling, a great streak at the $5 blackjack table in Buffalo Bill's enabled me to at least close the gap in my losses. Officially I'm 1-1-1 for the three days, but the loss day was a big loss, especially since I was going to walk away even and then ended up losing $140. Oh well,I suppose it was all part of the fun. The big win day did allow me to pay for both my cousin and my dinners in Paris.

OK, I'm off to Joshua Tree now to look for a place to stay tonight...

Day 30: Viva Las Vegas, a little early

I caught the morning shuttle to Flagstaff where I picked up a rental truck and drove it back to the South Rim. I then requisitioned the help of about 9 park service personnel to help me run the bike up the ramp. Actually, I asked for 3, and then like a Disney movie, the petite, blonde ranger started singing "It's a small world" and more rangers appeared out of the woods. I'm not kidding! After securing the bike with some nifty knots I looked up online, I headed to Vegas, baby.

Here are my first thoughts on Vegas:

• From 90 miles away I could see the light of the city, as if the second coming was imminent.
• In Vegas, the lights go all the way up to 11. I've never seen anything so bright.
  
• The Luxor is much more impressive when it isn't viewed next to the buildings twice as tall.
• A corvette completely took my 16' Budget truck off the line. What's funny is my bike in the hold could completely kick his ass assuming I was on a level surface when I stopped.

Tomorrow I drop the bike off at BMW where they told me they'd do an express fix-er-up-er and then I'll ride the rollercoaster on the roof of one of the hotels the rest of the day.

Day 29: South Rim - The day that shall not be mentioned

Originally, this post was titled:

• What's your vector, Victor? Where I detail how vector calculus is necessary to successfully transit Arizona on a motorcycle in 40-60mph winds of variable direction.
  
• All the world's a sand storm. Where I detail the glory of zero feet visibility.
  
• Some other stuff exhaustion has wiped from my memory.

Suffice to say, I have a 32" inseam, the bike is approximately 32" high at the groin, and the road wasn't as flat as I thought it was. My friend Ted is convinced that the Canyon is cursed. While on his XC trip, he was hit from behind by speeding, drunk, Native Americans causing his car to perform multiple flips and compress like an accordion. He and his travel buddy escaped unscathed, though. Something to be said for Honda safety ratings...

The views from the South Rim were amazing. Much better than the North views. It was a tourist haven, though. I didn't get any pictures, unfortunately, as I had to arrange for housing, and all the stuff one needs to do to transport a 700 lb bike to Las Vegas for less than 900 dollars.

What's really awesome is that I got the room comp'd! Which is good as it wasn't worth the $100+ they would have normally charged me.

Day 27: Grand, Isn't It?

I'll upload the pictures of the Grand Canyon (as well as the other pics from Utah) as soon as I get some bandwidth. No Verizon service out here in the sticks, but luckily I'm getting dialup speeds out of my AT&T USB adapter.

I didn't do much today besides sleep in (accidentally) and score the last hotel room at the Jacob Lake Inn, the owner of which, John Rich, was at the birthday party I attended on Saturday in St George. Of course I found out he was the owner (well, his family owns it) after he had left and I hadn't met him!

I did attend a brief presentation of the geology of the Grand Canyon, and took two short hikes.

The big news, I suppose, is my first true riding screw up. I was going around a left curve and shifted my weight onto my left testicle causing me to shift off, angling me off the road. I'm perfectly fine, though the bike sustained some ugly scratches to the right side where it scraped some rock.

Tomorrow I'm slowing it down by riding a mule down into the Canyon...

Photos Photos Photos

I finally uploaded all my photos to Flickr (I'm now a pro user since they put so many arbitrary limits on non-paying customers. Pickle, wherefore art thou?)

So, now that blogging is mutually exclusive of photo uploading, updates should roll much more frequently. Enjoy!

How undemocratic!

Exactly why are registered Republicans allowed to vote in the Democratic primary? Seriously, Texas and now Indiana (and maybe others...) have had Republicans flocking to make sure Hillary wins the state for the Democrats since McCain already has his party nomination wrapped up. Luckily, the people in Texas voting the delegates somewhat corrected the problem. I'm not sure how it works with Indiana. What does this say about Hillary if her party's opponents want her to win the nomination? I wonder what her paying supporters think?

Regardless of why this is allowed (state or party rules), unless you are an independent, you should not be able to vote in whichever party you want, it goes against all rational sense. The people switching sides *may* want the candidate they vote for to win, but they should have to disavow their party affiliation before the voter registration deadline. I guess "fair" doesn't really count much in politics anyway, so maybe it's just fun for them while we all get screwed.

Segue

I'll be starting the hardest, most annoying, least pleasant, part of the trip on Sunday. The good news is I'll be in Carlsbad on Monday to begin the long awaited portion of the trip. Check out the itinerary. Plans subject to change as weather and exhaustion dictate.

I'll hopefully find time to catch up on the missing days. Sadly, nothing truly exciting or picture-worthy has happened, so you aren't missing much. I do have minor regrets for not pulling over when I see funny billboards, but I suppose I'll get over it. I really need a video camera that can record my funny commentary for all the crazy things I'm seeing and forgetting about.

Day 8: The Big D

Not much to say about Dallas other than "blah".

My friend Dave and I went to a Rangers-Royals game at the new ballpark in Arlington. It's quite nice and it was a doozy of a game -- the Rangers won 11-9. It wasn't that close for most of the game as the Rangers jumped out to a 9-1 lead before the Royals woke up in the 7th inning with five runs of their own. Josh Hamilton, who has a good comeback story, was very impressive, even though he was much ridiculed at our roto draft back in March.

Much thanks to Dave and his wife (Lisa? I should be able to remember this 2+ weeks later, but I didn't really meet her) for their hospitality.

Day 6: Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

Since my schedule is pretty tight, each day I generally have to chose one or two things to do before I hit the road. This morning in Chattanooga there were two seemingly good choices: the new aquarium and IMAX theater and Rock City. I say "seemingly" because the people at the Waffle House yesterday went on and on about how cool the new aquarium was, and for 20 miles into town I saw billboards extolling the virtues of Rock City. The map of Rock City seemed pretty cool, and since I wanted to be outdoors, not to mention I still haven't been to Baltimore's aquarium and I skipped over the awesomeness of Atlanta's, I figured it was a good choice.

Time for New Rules: Unless you know otherwise, never go to a place that advertises excessively and uses fun but meaningless adjectives like "amazing!" and puts other phrases in quotes "See Seven States" (yeah, I can see all 50 from the space station ...)

The map of Rock City makes you think you are going to be climbing up a hill, after all it is on Lookout Mountain. Well, Rock City is at the very top of the "mountain" and the approximate difference in potential energy between the entrance and the top is about 0. It might be fun for kids, but the price is pretty steep, in both time and money.

Speeding away from Chattanooga towards Memphis, I took a brief detour to travel on the Natchez Trace Parkway which runs from Natchez Trace, Mississippi to Tennessee. Nick Bollweg recommended the trip to me, but originally I was going to go through Birmingham, Alabama and ride on the parkway much longer than the 10 miles I ended up riding.

Eventually I ended up in Memphis, land of blues, barbeque, and Elvis. After checking into my hotel (5 stories tall and the slowest elevator know to man. Luckily I don't mind exercise), I headed down to Beale Street to check out the action. Of course it was Monday and the pickings were slim. Of course, part deux, I was two days early for the only day during the year when motorcycles are allowed on Beale Street -- it's usually blocked off from all traffic. I ended up having amazing pork ribs at Alfred's while listening to a great band play blues.

When I left the parking garage, the attendant who took my money scolded me for parking my motorcycle in the garage. I just shook my head and rode off.

Day 5: Hotwire bonus: Chattanooga Holiday Inn Choo Choo

Good ol' Hotwire came through for my first hotel booking: the Chattanooga Holiday Inn Choo Choo. Chattanooga is probably best know for the Chattanooga Choo Choo, both the Glen Miller song as well as the train that inspired it. The first train was a wood burning engine travelling between Cincinatti and points south in 1880 at a time when nearly all trains going south went through Chattanooga.

The hotel was neat, a combination of hotel, museum, and theme park. OK, the theme park is basically a short train ride. You could stay in a train car that was converted into a room and visit the model train museum. I advise against paying the $3 entrance fee and just check out the images in my flickr stream like this and this.

While on my way to Chattanooga, my ride was interrupted by a torrential downpour forcing me to seek solace at a Waffle House in the middle of a town with no dentist. OK, that's mean, the people working at the Waffle House were quite friendly and fun to chat with. They also made a mean hot chocolate, three of which were needed to warm my body up for the remaining hour ride.

Day 7: The King and I, Pt 2

Knowing nothing more than Graceland being Elvis' home, it turned out to be a surprise. I was expecting something more mansion like, but the house was respectable. The 60s and 70s weren't good for decor, though, and pretty much every room in the place was nightmarishly gaudy, but over all it was a very cool place.

I didn't realize quite a few things about Elvis, the main one that he wasn't "fat" Elvis until near the end. Most of his Vegas shows he looked older and overweight (due to his medication, not so much to alcohol and such) but not as drastic as most of the pictures I've seen that led me to believe that he was grotesquely overweight. Sadly, I don't know if those images were placed there by real pictures of him or parodies...

After Graceland I drove to Nowheresville, Arkansas. I mean I drove to Arkadelphia. Nothing to report. Move along...

Day 4: The King and I, Pt 1

To kick off the morning, I treated Nick and Brigid to breakfast at Ria's Bluebird, an awesome joint near the Oakland Cemetery. The cemetery was unfortunately hit hard by the tornadoes that flew threw recently, and the cleanup process is preventing pedestrian traffic.


Atlanta is known for at least three things: Sherman burning it to the ground, Martin Luther King, and Coca Cola. I spent the first part of my day at the Martin Luther King Center. This museum is awesome. It's basically a chronological summary of his life and the times. A lot of audio and pictures telling a moving story.



Out of curiosity, I researched whether Sherman really burned Atlanta or whether it was an exaggeration. Turns out it happened, and Sherman justifies his actions in a letter to the mayor and councilmen:

But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war.

I'm sure this observation isn't unique, but most people view the succession as "It was a Constitutionally valid action" or "We must protect the Union," the latter having the implied notion that it was just a "bad thing." If you look at Mexico, it has never been a stable country. IIRC, they still have major issues with drug lords, corruption, and revolutionary groups, not to mention their economy. There are a plethora of alternate histories based on the South seceding, and I think all of them predict the same thing: war, so maybe violating the Constitution was the right thing overall...

Anyway, back to the trip... The World of Coca Cola and the humongous aquarium were both booked, the lines to get in almost joined each other, so I wandered around a little bit and ended up at the CNN offices where it appears Chinese-(americans, immigrants, ...) were protesting CNN's coverage of Tibet and the Olympics.


I waited a bit for something exciting to happen before heading to the hotel for the bachelor party w/ my friend Chris Bray and his buddies I've never met before, though Mark seemed familiar from somewhere. Lucky for Bray and I we already had facial hair so we didn't have to wear the faux ones.

Day 3: Sherman had it easier

Now that the pictures are all up, I can just get on w/ posting the literary (laugh) portion of this blog...

This morning I listened to Rebekah give a report on the water cycle. She had really good slides and presented them very well. Hopefully my comments helped her out.

The highway in and out of Raleigh to the west is not a pleasant ride, so I decided to take Rt 64 to Charlotte before continuing to Atlanta. The ride was very nice and relaxing until I reached Rt 85, which is not pleasant as you approach Charlotte. I drove this way in a car last summer, but it is very different on a motorcycle.

For miles I saw signs in SC for a peach this and peach that, so I stopped since I needed a break anyway. Guess what? No fresh peaches in the entire store. I don't care if peaches weren't in season, there wasn't anything fresh in the store except some scraggly looking strawberries. I did pick up some great Vidalia Onion and Peach salsa as a gift for Nick and Brigid who were gracious enough to have me as a guest, seeing as I only knew Nick from IM and his time doing some great Drupal work for my old company.

I eventually rolled into Atlanta around 7pm. The traffic to get to Nick & Brigid's house was painful. I now know what giving birth must feel like for the baby, as they were trying to squeeze watermelons through these tiny roads with heavily imbalanced light changes. Their neighborhood is a bit sketchy, but their house and yard are nice. After numerous breakins last year, Nick bought a safe. I wish I had taken a picture because it is very impressive. I'm worried it will disrupt their foundation. Maybe it can be offset by their future washer and dryer... For dinner, Nick grilled us some awesomeness: stuffed green peppers, corn, and some bratworst for me (they are pretty strict vegetarians, but their grill isn't, thankfully!)

As you know, my parents and brother are in the dark about this trip. My friend Tim suggested I send them postcards along the way. I've made them fairly anonymous, but I'm sure they'll figure it out from the handwriting.

Day 2: A leisurely ride to Cary, NC

Google wanted to send me from Charlottesville, through Richmond and south on a major highway to the Raleigh area, but Tim said to take Rt 29 and bear east. I saved time and it was a much prettier and less stressful trip!

In Cary I visited with my friends Alicia and Craig, including their adorable children Rebekah, Isaac, and relatively new Elsah. Isaac is as rambunctious as my god-kids Lawrence and Drake, but at 1/3 the volume. After an excellent beef kabob dinner by Alicia, Craig had a roller hockey at a very impressive indoor facility. His team led going into the final period when a really bad penalty call at the end of the third allowed the other team to tie it up. They ended up losing when the other team outworked them down low. Faster line changes, people!

Day 1: A slow beginning and a fine ending in Charlottesville

Living in DC, my body acclimated to the relentless traffic noise of Wisconsin Ave. How else to explain sleeping in until 10:30 this morning while various people worked with power tools outside my open window?

Despite the sluggish start, things ramped up quickly from there. I think I actually packed everything except a long sleeve shirt, but I can live without that for now. I did have to bail on bringing the tent and sleeping bag as they took up way too much space to justify a few nights of camping.

It turned out to be a beautiful day for a ride -- a little warm, but the breeze was nice. On my way to Charlottesville, I had a quick visit with my friend and former co-worker Megan Mink. She just got back from riding the Dragon in North Carolina with her husband Joey. Isn't that sweet? He's a lucky guy, but he knows that.


The ride went very smoothly after fighting past the traffic lights on Route 29. One of the cool sights was a seeing a biplane cruising around overhead (as opposed to faceplanting in the corn field.) After meeting up with my friend Tim Gallagher, we joined his friend Tate at the UVA baseball game. Like the Flyers game I attended, the team I was rooting for lost. Damn the Tribe of William and Mary! Who names their team the "Tribe" anyway? What does it have to do with William and Mary? We drowned our sorrows at the Court Square Tavern where I enjoyed a Young's Double Chocolate Stout.


Next up are my friends Craig and Alicia in North Carolina!

Trip's On!

The hand is about 80% of normal and getting stronger every day, so the trip is on! I went for a ride in today's beautiful weather, and my mood and excitement level are both through the roof. Thursday I take the blue beauty (the color is really called Sinus, which is just ick) to Bob's BMW in Maryland. It's a ride and a half in early rush hour traffic, but it should be a good warm up for the real deal next Wednesday.

Go West, Young Man...

These words introduced directions to my friend Jackie's house outside Buffalo one summer while I was working in Rochester, NY back in the early 1990s. Starting on April 23rd, and ending around the beginning of June, I will begin a more involved trip starting in Virginia and ending in California, or maybe even Oregon or Washington!

My long running fascination with going out West began, perhaps, while living there as a little kid -- I vaguely remember playing in the white sands when our Volvo broke down while moving back east from Arizona. My intention of attending UC Boulder was met with Mother's tears, more or less influencing my tenure/imprisonment at the University of Rochester. My applications for PHD studies in astronomy at University of New Mexico and New Mexico Tech probably evoked laughter after seeing my Physics GRE scores -- probably the best for both parties. You would think doubling your percentile ranking would count for something.

Since then I've punctured the west with various ski trips to Utah and Colorado, and friendly visits to LA and SF. As much fun as these trips are, their narrow focus doesn't do justice to the experiences awaiting my discovery.

Upon hearing of this trip, people usually respond with support and enthusiasm, though some react with concern: You're driving a what where?!?! My friends at Viget Labs gave me an unbelievable going away present in the form of a motorcycle jacket. I'm not sure if they really knew what they were doing when they purchased it, but aside from the size -- who would have thought I needed an extra large? -- the jacket is comfortable in dry, wet, warm, and cold weather. More importantly, it's sexy. All it needs is a Viget logo...

Note: I wrote the preceding text while flying back from Utah with what I thought was a sprained thumb. Upon further review, there could be a minor fracture. Hopefully it will get better in the next week.

My Current Route Across the US of A

Sadly, GoogleMaps doesn't allow you to embed a map w/ your highlighted route, so you'll have to link over to my route to see it.