I really like driving. I really like riding a motorcycle. So I thought I would share a few things about both that I really like. I'll try to fit 'I really like' in as much as possible, too.
Road trips are awesome. Not the drive to Vegas kind, that's all about getting from A to B, because B is where the alcohol is. The kind I'm talking about is where you go from place to place and enjoy the stuff on the way. The trip Tash and I took is my favorite. Up the coast to San Francisco with a stop in Solvang on the way, then across the state to Lake Tahoe, down to Yosemite, over to Las Vegas, across the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, and then Phoenix. Tough to top that one.
The other car trip was with my Pops and your uncle to Washington. It was about 24 hours of almost straight-through driving (violating the 'enjoy stuff along the way' part of a good road trip) and we encountered high winds, rain, and snow, but it was still good to be doing it together. Your uncle had been stationed in Washington and his stuff (read: motorcycle and a few boxes) were at Pops, so we decided we would get a UHaul trailer to haul it up there, driving in shifts. Then we could check out Whidbey Island, Seattle, and whatever else. I'll never forget waking up in the backseat to find out we were parked at a gas station in Oregon because they had worn themselves out trying to drive through Grant's Pass in a snow storm at night.
The best bike trip was to the West Coast Hawk Rally in 2005. My friend's brother had a bed and breakfast in Point Reyes, north of San Francisco. I decided to ride up on Friday and back on Sunday. With the riding we did as a group on Saturday, I put in about 1200 miles that weekend. Going up the coast Friday, I had a stop for lunch in Santa Barbara, dinner at an In-n-Out somewhere along the 101 south of the Bay Area, rode through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge, and then into the pitch black night where by chance I ran into the rally returning from dinner. Saturday riding was through some of the best parts of California, but was cut short by a bad crash (not me this time.) Sunday riding home was brutal, taking the shorter route down I-5 through the blistering heat of the Central Valley. Had to stop every hundred miles to get off the bike and off my bum. Probably the worst single ride ever, but still pretty awesome.
And completely different from a car trip. Plenty of time to be in your own head, feel the temperature drop when you ride through a dip, smell the garlic as you approach Gilroy, have a little fun riding big sweepers after droning on the long straight stretches of highway, all of that stuff.
Where's the shitstorm? I hope you get to do all those things, including a bike trip. Not my trips of course, your own with your own destinations and your own places in between. Those kinds of experiences can't be bought.
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