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October 18, 2004
Day 68 - Home at last
Odometer: 29,373.8
Well, I did it. 12,483 miles in 68 days...
Some said it couldn't be done. I guess I just had to prove them wrong.
Briefly, before I get to summing up the trip, here are the last few legs.
From New Orlens, I went to South Carolina, near Charleston, and stayed with Chrippy for a couple days. The ride was, mostly, miserable, due to some of the worst rain I've had. I rode all night, and got there at 4:30 am, after having to stop at a couple rest stops to wait for the rain to let up enough that I could see the road again.
It was good to see Chrippy, but to be honest, I just wanted to be home. Still... I had never seen someone drink 42 beers in 10 hours before, and had I not been at the bar where he works, I probably never would have...
The, instead of going home in one long strech, I decided to break the east coast return in two, by stopping to see Bill and Allison in Washington. Good thing too... That ride was one of the coldest I've ever had on the entire trip, baring perhaps the very last one.
That said, here is the trip wrapped up in a nutshell...
| 12,483.8 | Miles |
| 68 | Days |
| 31 | States |
| 2 | Oceans seen |
| 1 | Times Pulled Over for speeding |
| 0 | Speeding tickets |
| 1 | Warnings |
| 0 | Arrests |
| 105 Mph | Top Speed |
| 810 miles | Longest distance traveled in one day (approx) |
| 17 hours | Longest day spend mostley on the road |
| 1 | Bike |
| 1 | Tired Man... |
In my bed.
With my cat.
For the first time in 2 and a half months.
Good night!
Posted by Cyclops at 10:00 PM | Comments (5)
October 12, 2004
Day 62 - Filling in the gaps
Odometer:27,433.3
This post is to finish the last post in terms of pics.
I will post all the worthy pics I didn't get a chance to post and comment on them.Here we go...
These pics are from me crossing the desert between Califoria (L.A.) and Nevada (Vegas).
The last two pictures where, I believe, of the Mojave Desert, wich include, amoungst the other wonder full things it has to offer, a road named (I kid you not) "ZZYZX". Yup, that's the name of a road. If you do a map search for the town "Harmony Acres" in California and zoom in, you'll see it. I bet someone's cat steped on the keyboard for that one, and the clerk thought "what the hell, who cares about these desert roads anyway..."
Sigh...
next I have my pictures of the Hoover Damn. The first few are of the low sid, the last one is of the high side. Obviously, a damn has an area where the water is high (usually looks like a lake) and an area where he waters are low (looks more like a river). It is just more dramatic here than in most damns...
A few words: we are high up in the mountains here. The road to reach this place is through arid rock cliffs lined with high voltage lines (which, not surprisingly, come from the damn itself). After the last sharp corner (and if you remember from my last post, a pathetic security check), you get to the damn.
Of course you can pay to park your car, or just find one of the free parkings just a few minutes walk from the damn itself. I personally just parked my bike illegally at one end of the damn, oogled the place a bit and took some pictures. If you want a tour of the place (which I'm told are available), I'd advise finding legal parking.
Next I got to cross the Rockies again. I was now in Arizona (the border being the Hoover Damn). These are arid lands to be sure, but I do find a certain apeal to that. The depth of the views I had overlooking some of the valleys was breathtaking. You can see layer upon layer of mountain ranges.
Once I passed these mountains, we are in Arizona high desrert. Mountain ranges are visible at all times, but the road is flat with minimal, shriveled trees. I almost ran out of gas on one of these streches. I have no pictures, but it looks similar to the first pictures I posted today.
Now the next set of pictures I have are the rest of the Grand Canyon set. I posted a couple last time, and I will once again give my disclamer: these pictures do little justice to the place. They cannot capture the size of this place. It really is surreal looking at it. It looks like you're looking at an pastel painting. I would love to spend a weekend hiking across this place...
Catching up with where I am
After the Grand Canyon, I rode down to Tuscon where I spend the night at Kristie's house and met her great husband who made me want to get back into Paintball.After that, I took a rathe scenic route through south west New Mexico until I reached a town near Albuquerque. I stayed with Pyro's uncle, a really laid back guy with a wife and two kids. I don't have any pictures of New Mexico. It's too bad, as it is quite a pretty place, though as far as I can tell it has relatively few kinds of terain: they have moutains, with forests and seemingly decent amounts of water, and deserts (high and low).
I was originally planing on skiping out on Texas entirely, but to save time, I did cut across the northern part along I-40, paralleling the Oklahoma Panhandle. I spend the night in Amarillo, then zoomed off towards Oklahoma City. Since I hit Washington State, that was the first day I had rain. Tropical storm Matthiew cought up with me, and I got rightly soaked.
While northern Texas is one of the flattest, most boring places I've come accross, Oklahoma has nice rolling hills with a fair amount of trees and fields. But it still takes hours to get from town to town, with vast amounts of mostly empty land between places. (and, at least for me, lots and lots of rain).
My last day of riding I covered the distance from Oklahoma City to New Orleans. It's is quite a ride... I ended up briefly going accross Texas again, but this time the easter edge. This side is more like Oklahoma, with hills and trees (and lots and lots of rain).
I finally made it to Louisiana, and, after about an hour, the rain finally gave up. By that time, it was dark, but relatively warm. By the time I reached New Orleans, around midnight, I was mostly dry. Allison's wonderfull mom stayed up to let me in.
I'll give you some more details about New Orleans hopefully before I leave. I spend most of tonight on Burbon street. Quick tip: don't drink at the trourist bars, ask the hot-dog vendors where the bars are that the locals hang out at. While they aren't as "hip" as the tourist spots, a beer that would cost you $6 at the tourist bar will cost you $1.50 at the locals' bar. Plus, they serve good coffey.
I plan on leaving New Orleans on Thursday morning, and heading to South Carolina, where I hope to meet up with Dr. Pastershwaker for about a day, and then it's homewards I head.
Posted by Cyclops at 03:31 AM | Comments (4)
October 07, 2004
Day 57 - Welcome to the Desert
Odometer: about 25,200.0 (need to check bike)
This will be a brief update, because I'm tired and I want an early start tomorrow... I have 32 new pictures, about 20 of which should make it to this blog. Unfortunatly, that process takes some time so I'll put up just a few today.
Leaving LA: The Frenchman's First Desert
I left LA and headed east. It takes a while to leave LA and its suberbs; but after an hour or so, I made it to I-15 and crossed the mountains that separate the coastal area of Southern California with the desert area. After cresting the last hill, I finally see the desert for the first time.It wasn't exactly what I had in mind. No sand, no dunes. I guess it's just not that kind of a desert. It is fairly hot, though not as hot as I feared, and very flat, yet mountains are always visible somewhere.
As you can see, it isn't devoid of vegetation either, but what is there is tiny little shrubs that, for the most part, don't clear 2 feet. It is definatly an interesting sight, at least for the first few days, cause I'm still seeing similar things here in Arizona and I'm still liking them. But I digress...
If anyone is going to be taking this trip, I would advise fueling up before entering the desert. I almost ran out of gas there and the exits are few and far between... I don't know what I would have done, out of gas, in the middle of the desert... You think I'd have learned by now. Luckily, pohdunk town #3 had a gas station.
The Desert finaly yealds to some more mountains, which are I suppose, still part of the desert, seeing how little vegetation and shade there is to be had there, but the scenery is now vastly different.
Whereas the previous desert had a very distant horizon, with nothing to give me a sense of depth, this has staggered layers, and depth is very noticable as the near mountains fly by quickly, the range behind moves slower, and the horizon range seems to be still.
I believe it is after this range that I entered the actua Mojave desert (but I confess to not remembering exactly where that point was).
This is where I would post some of the pictures of it, but as I am getting tired, no more uploads tonight... and the words shall be fewer too...
Anyways, I finally made it to Las Vegas, and, after some difficulty, met up with some friends of Laura. They showed me around, took me to get some great Sushi, and pretty much entertained me all night.
Vegas is Shiny, and full of everything that makes right wing christians cringe. The new Sodom and Gomorrah.
I left Vegas and headed for the Hoover Dam. I figured since I was so close I might as well take a look.
After the token security inspection (which involved 1 bored cop casually glancing into the back seats of SUV's as they drive by, and waving me bye with not even a glance -- some effective anti-terrorist action that is...), I got to the place. It had been so built up to me that I was a little let down... but just a little. Definatly a sight worth seeing if you're in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't make a trip just to see it.
This is where I'd put pictures of the dam up, but we've already covered why I'm not doing it...
I wanted to make it to the Grand Canyon that evening before camping areound Flagstaff, but I left late, so I barely made it to Flagstaff Arizona before dark.
So, the following day, I got up bright and early, and visited the grand canyon.
I have to say... well... I don't know if there are words to describe it. It is so vast I that it looks like you're looking at a paining that starts at your feet and extends as far left and right as you can look.
In fact, the distances are so huge that the whole thing looked flat. The bottom is about 3500ft down from the rim, and the canyon is about 10 miles across.
I saw a hawk hunting, about 1000ft belowme, and he was still very high off the ground.
I'm going to put up a couple pics just because I can't explain it. But keep in mind: this is so vast that there is no way I can frame it into one, even two or three picures, so what you're looking at will be just a very, very small slice of the whole thing.
Anyways, after that, I drove through part of the Hopi reservation, and got to see part of the "Painted Desert". Quite a sight, but too tired to get into it.
Then I headed south towards Tucson. On my way, I took a detour by Sedona, and got to see the "Red Rock". Whereas the northern part of Arizona is very much a desert (albeit one with a fair amount of plant life), particularly the reservation, The area around Flagstaff and south of there is more of a forest. The Red Rock reminded me a lot of the eastern part of Wyoming I had gone through. The same red stone, the same color green.
Before I made it to Tucson, the sun had set, so I have no idea what to expect when I get up. But, I made it safely to Kristie's hideout, and finally got to put a face to the name.
I will be going to New Mexico tomorrow, and crossing it diagonaly to reach Oklahoma. The goal is to sleep in Oklahoma tomorrow night.
I should be in New Orleans in about 3 days.
With that, I'm getting some sleep!
Posted by Cyclops at 03:42 AM | Comments (4)
October 03, 2004
Day 52 - Basking in the Los Angeles life
Odometer: 24,619.2
Distance Traveled: 7729.0 miles
Living in LA
I stayed at my cousin Rick's house. He, like an obscene number of people who live here, works for Hollywood. He fixes screenplays (e.g.: Everafter, Anna and the King, and the latest Will Smith still in production: Hitch) and is trying to get his own originals out.He lives just north of Hollywood, with his wife Debby and their two awesome kids in a nice house with a pool. That was my base of operation here while I explored various parts of LA.
Rick's calling though is that of an artist. His current project is making bronze's of his children. This involves creating a supported wireframe, fleshing out the details in clay, then sending the clay model to a bronzing place where they figure out how to chop it up and make molds of it, pour the bronze and weld it back together.
While still far from finished, this is what it looks like so far (and yes, this is the first time he's ever done this):
I gave a thrilling ride to their son, up and down their street, at speeds aproaching 30 mph.
You can see from his smile how thrilled he is.
My first excursion was to go along Mulholland Drive. As a fan of David Lynch, I couldn't pass up this opportunity, plus the view is really quite stunning. Of course, I forgot my camera that day...
Mullholland Drive runs along the top of the Hollywood Hills for quite a while, with beautifull overlooks of some river I can't remember the name of to the south, and to the districs north of LA which are topped with a nice layer of smog.
I also walked up and down Hollywood Blvd. It's like a tourist trap, except it isn't really: this is hollywood, and there are all sorts of shops and displays and theaters and "Ripley's Believe it or Not". The sidewalks are paved with stars containing the name of some famous person.
I also took advantage of my seasons pass to six flags and went for a day to Magic Mountain. I had a blast, but the lines were killing me, so after a little over a half dozen rides (including their "Superman: the escape") I had to take off. There's only so many 1+ hour lines I can take in a day.
As I am prone to do, I looked up the local clubs. I went to Perversion, at the Ruby. I give it 2 thumbs up. 3 stages, good music, 4 bars. The only complaint is the price of the drinks. A captain and coke was $8 in a small glass. My advice, get a ride, and drink before you go.
I also got a crazy hookup. Debby (Rick's wife) knows one of the bouncers for this little club called "Prey". It's, you know, the place all the big stars go to. The night I was there, Hugh Hefner was there with his escort of Bunnies. Some other stars where there, but I really couldn't care less about Britney Spears type stars. Still, it was cool to skip the line of wishfull party goers, and go in through the side door. The funniest thing was actually going in, there is a couple in front of me trying to go in and there is this older guy with a suit that cost more than my bike telling the bouncer "Phil, can you let them in? They're with me." "Sorry man, there's a camera on me, try the front door." Then Phill looks at me "I'm on the promoters list..., David Cohen...?" "Oh yeah, come right in."
I met some people who where in some bad, and almost went to a jam with the Stone Temple Pilots, but it didn't go through. The odd thing about living here, is it's so ridiculously easy to run into fame that people are completely bazee about it.
Of course, I had to go check out Venice beach. I spend most of a day there. It's really a cool place, lots of street vendors, performors, cool shops, cheap (and not so cheap) food joints. There is some really cool art, such as this Alien, made entirely of junk metal welded together. It is lifesize...
If any of you have been to the south of France, in Nice, it reminded me very much of the boardwalk there. Of course, there isn't nearly as much smog there as in LA, so the sunsets here are much more intense...
Final highlights: I went swimming in the famous californian waves, twice my height and decently warm (and far enough north of LA to be clean), and I hung out at the obligatory Biker Hangout.
Plans for tomorrow and the following days
So the plan for tomorrow is to get up early and ride accross the Mojave desert towards Las Vegas where I have a couple places to stay for one night, then check out the Hoover dam, and spend some time along the Grand Canyon. I'll probably crash somewhere near Flagstaff, there's a bunch of National Parks I can camp in.After that I'll be heading south to Tucson where I will finally meet Kritie and the Futon she promised me about 6 weeks ago.
By the way:
Kristie, I managed to lose your contact info... all of it... I'm sending you an email, but I probably won't be able to check it again until I get to your place, so if you could call me, that would rule! My number is listed in the help me page.
Well, it's time for me to get some sleep. I have a hot desert to cross in the morning...
Posted by Cyclops at 12:18 AM | Comments (5)