day 33 - reno, nv - marina, ca

(really I just call monterey my home...)

home! I made it! I cannot even believe it. Yesterday, after some hemming and hewing over which shop I should take the bike to, I decided to just try my luck - see if the chain lube would hold my chain until I got over the hill and down the coast. It was over a hundred degress, like the rest of the trip - I'm not sure why I thought it would be cooler... oh well. But, I kept cool yet again by soaking my shirt in water, and keeping a water bottle handy to resoak after the shirt got dry - I hope none of the motorists behind me were complaining, because it really just feels rude when someone decides to fling windshield cleaner inadvertently at you... at least they are shielded in their cars.

I80 - I love this road...

After a few phone calls with dad, we decided on a place to meet up - a cantina just past gilroy. From 80, I took 680... just before SF, 680 meets up with 101 around San Jose, and when it does there is a lot of traffic - but! in California, lane splitting is legal! This made me glad I had already shipped home my saddle bags, because I was able to just zip my way back into moving traffic. Even in second and third gear though, my bike was overheating - agh so many things to worry about with my bike!

Then after a little more traffic in morgan hill, I deviated from dad's directions to get to 152 west to a cantina - I arrived way before dad... which usually happens when he tries to take traffic into account (but I guess lane splitting not into account) - but I was glad he was there. He rode with me over the pass (I was a little buzzed I admit - and again say to myself that I shouldn't do things like that ever again - but I probably will...) and we met up with Al, just for a bit - then Al just went home. All this time, the area has been like a hive for all kinds of motorcycles - but a lovely increase in sport bikes - tasty treats! Haha meanwhile, here's my bike limping along just hoping to hop over into the fog, into Marina. When the cold fog hit my bare arms, I felt relief... I was in a familiar place, I was just a few miles away, not even a discernible distance on the map. And my bike was showing no signs of giving up yet. At each corner and street in Marina, I let out a yell! I'm home!

Through the Golden Hills of CA with Dad leading me home

We pulled into the house, to find a gang of friendly folks that Lee had invited to our house for moto GP weekend, all from Arizona. I called mom to find that she was out shopping for groceries for dinner. Lee had already arrived the night before, and would be back again along with some passes for motoGP weekend! My stuff was all inside my house, the cat was happy to see me. And all will be well again with the bike very soon!

Welcome to the familiar fog of Marina, CA!

I hope you all enjoyed this trip. And I found out that my mom was not worried at all - just as I had suspected : )

I won't be posting anymore probably - except to add more pictures, and another link to the finished timelapsed video.

Be back in Bmore probably in September!

day 29 - 32 - grand juntion, co to salt lake city, ut to reno, nv

I left Grand Junction after talking to the cute barista girl with neat tattoos. Soon after, I got pretty thirsty since it was already at least high 90's if not over 100. I decided to head north through the top of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and then Utah again. This was a really good choice, not only because of the beautiful roads and canyons, but also because it got cooler after a whiles. But not before I had to stop at a subway and drink 80 ounces of soda... feeling a little light headed... but getting to talk to a gang of bikers from Indiana - some from Bloomington : D

dehydration and pink floyd - priceless

It was a long haul, but I finally made it into Salt Lake area around 8pm, as the sun was setting, and as a racer with numbers 285 passed me, the only one faster than me on I-80... I wonder who it was. Turns out that the Red Bull rallye that Glen is on was coming to the Miller racetrack near Salt Lake the day after I left there. Oh well. I'll see him in Monterey - haha hopefully if I can find him.

I called Tom to let him know that I'm coming to his house - so that was much easier than trying to get hold of Hannah : )
I hung out yesterday with my cousin Zack, watching moto crashes, body builders, and other gory things on google video - i love google video - talk about a new turn of historical documentation even if its somewhat hard to tell the documentaries, from fictive videos - fun times nonetheless. Then I went with Hannah to the post office to send off my camping gear! Don't need it anymore yes! Then we picked up Hannah's little brother, Pete, who was coming in to help finish the tiling in the diningroom. We had dinner at Barbacoa - their other brother, Jesse's very favorite place in the world besides Chipotles. And then I took Zack for a ride in the evening - with LED's - and then I took Pete for a ride to visit their sister, Sarah. So I got as much visiting of family as I could expect from two days.

And then off! The next morning! I've been stopping frequently. I also paid homage to the Bonneville speedway. I must admit that I did adventure off to some salt flats and it made my engine sound funny- plus not very much traction in the soft salt. So I got off and continued to the official beginning of the speedway. Where I was met by a highway patrolwoman and another guy, who were keeping people from interrupting a commercial taping for Honda? I'm pretty certain its not as good as the other one liz showed me... you think they'd have spent their entire budget already.

Look even my sunglasses look faster on the flats - awesome!

When I hit the Pacific Time Zone, I let out a holler! Wooohooo! I can call mom now without doing math : )

After only one scare of police lights, and many miles travelled at a hundred miles per hour, I hit dark just 35 miles from Reno... I was peeling, and tired, and when I got into to town, my motorcycle was making funny chain noises. But my fun and slightly insane family was waiting for me. I got to stay up late with Christina and Stephanie... my two cousins - how did they grow up so fast? and joke around quietly as cute blondie troublemakers, Andrew and Daniel, tried to sleep. They just moved into their new house.

Anyhows, Tom and I looked at the chain... and it sounds intermittently bad... but if things are too complicated... then I think it will last me until Monterey... haha although no cruisin' round downtown monterey with my led's on. Ah well at least, i can probably ride dad's bikes around... we'll see what happens tomorrow! Can't wait to go home!

day 29 - Grand Junction, CO

So last night I decided that I wanted to stay at another motel - since I wasn't going to make it to Salt Lake City last night. I stayed at the Prospector Motel in Grand Junction after finding most motels were full for the night in Delta, the cute little town 30 mi before Grand Junction...

I would not recommend it for those fearful of disreputable looking people - it was a slightly seedy motel. Needless to say, it had no wifi - haha oh well. It did cost 10 less than the last motel I stayed at. Though, since I had to borrow a little more money from my mom this morning... I'm hoping that's the last motel I have to stay at... I'm done with my tent that's too small.

Here is a picture from yesterday! I put some up on the last post too.

Plans for today - get in touch with cousins hopefully! And then head towards salt lake. If I can't get in touch with them I'm not sure what then. But whatever... the day is growing late! And I need to get goin. - Also I just added pictures to my last post - I didn't have enough battery life to get them in.

days 27-28 - Wagoner, OK to Montrose, CO

day 27 - tonkawa, ok to guymon, ok
Ahhh yesterday before I left, a guy came round with some saddle bags that he used to have on his Honda, and he sold those, a tank bag, a third bag that goes on top of the saddle bags, some sweet red foot pegs, some clutch and brake levers, and a few other misc. things for $100. Danny got them for me. Around 4 or 5 I left, and hit Tonkawa as the sun set... and as I decided that I wanted to find a cheap motel to stay at for air conditioning -- I didn't quite feel like riding around at night - and it was too hot to sleep in a tent... let alone the fact that I wasn't really seeing any great places to squat.

The Oklahoma sun - you would hide in a motel too...

Then after laying down $48 to sleep in a cool room... with shower and towels and wifi and all that jazz... I promised myself to get up at 5am. But after one wake up call from the motel office, and one from Danny... which I don't remember hearing at all... I woke up at 10:45 am - getting out of the room 20 min after check out time. Whoops. Then I after getting out of Tonkawa... my gas light came on - 187 mi... usually it comes on at 200 mi or 215 mi... I felt lucky when I found a gas station within range. Today though, it is over 100 degrees outside. So I've been stopping pretty frequently at gas stations. Little did I know I should be filling up about as frequently as I stop... because when I had passed Knowles, OK, my gas light came on again - 165 mi. This might have something to do with going 100 mph pretty consisitently in between gas stations. I've reduced my speed to 80 again... but I'm not taking my chances. Its hard to find gas stations that I have cards for at this point. It may be that even if I want to break my rule of not going to more than one motel this trip... I won't have money for it. Maybe my landlord will send my roommate the deposit to our place soon - and then she can send my parents a check - ah that would lighten my money situation up. However, I have paid my credit cards this month, and should have enough extra money to pay for all the gas I would need to get home... but it would be nice if I didn't have to pay for it until I came home...

People here are nice - as usual - and the moment that I parted from Danny, people started talking to me again. I cut my hair in Wagoner though - and cutting my own hair apparently is a hit and miss kind of thing - this time missed by a mile. So now I have really funny looking bangs... that I have been hiding with bandanas... I'm lucky I'm cute as a button with or without hair. Although every day I have to fight the urge to find the next barber shop and pay the 8-10 bucks to go without hair completely... I liked being bald - kinda miss it - but the boys at moto gp won't talk to me if i do that. Ah well.

day 28 - Kim, CO to Gunnison, CO
After I left Guymon, I saw impending doom clouds, including one lightening bolt! So I bit the bullet and rushed north underneath large dark clouds... but luckily no rain. Then just as I was in the clear from any more doom and gloom, I saw lights flashing behind me. What? What was I doing? Apparently I was going 45 mph in a 30 zone... Well as I dished out my license, registration, and (slightly forged) insurance... I got off with a warning - i with the power of photoshop win again : )

Then after wondering if I could make it to Trinidad, CO by nightfall, I passed by Kim, CO, and decided to just stay there. Kim is actually my dad's name... and its funny cause both he and the town have zero cell phone reception (remembers certain cell phone thru window and stomping incident), but I wanted to call him to ask him if he knew there was a town named Kim in colorado... and then a few other people to let them know where I am - like I've been doing most nights. After briefly surveying the five blocks of town, I decided to stay to the side of a church. I was tired, but not sleepy. Luckily it had cooled off once I had entered the stormy areas of Colorado, but this meant that I was promptly attacked by mosquitos - which I think is probably the least threatening frantic making thing ever. Swat swat swat! Aghhhhh! Swat swat swat!

No police stopped by - but a couple stopped by, I think to drop things off at the church. They didn't come over and ask me any questions, so I figured I was probably ok. For some reason... the fact that I slept in? drank too much caffeine? wasn't really used to the idea of camping again yet? or maybe because I'm just a little bit too tall for my one man $15 junior tent... if only it was half a foot longer... I got pretty much zero sleep last night. I tried up until about 4 am or 4:30... just closing my eyes, getting over the fact that I'm outside of my comfort zone... I've done this four times before by myself -- this shouldn't be a big deal. Oh well - but that means that I'm making my mad dash today with no sleep - maybe an hour - probably not.

morning in Colorado - cold and itchy from mosquito bites

I woke up, and apparently mosquitos woke up too... argh! And then I had to pee so bad. When I've been squatting at churches and places... it never included squatting like that because I have a pretty strong bladder - but apparently not stong enough for the 1-2 gallons of soda and water that I drank yesterday. So this morning was the first time I went pee in the wild... I had to use some sanitary napkins as toilet paper. Oh well... if the market had been open at 6, I would have waited... but they opened at 7:30 and I wanted to be gone. Just as I was finishing, I heard the sound of a door closing... which is really not a sound you want to hear at dawn when you've dropped trou - but nothing came of it. Get stuff in the trash can, get stuff on bike, and escape the mosquitos!

Colorado is so pretty... not like my haircut.

I've followed the Rio Grande for a good portion - amazing and beautiful! I just had no idea. I found it by accident... there were a lot of bikers there, and I'm sure they followed it on purpose - but silly me just saw a good looking road on the map - totally ignoring the fact that the little blue line right next to it is named the rio grande, I had only seen it from way high before... not right next to it like on these roads. There were many storm clouds, but they tend to the peaks and plateaus... not in the valleys, which is fine while the road is in the valleys. At one point I saw clouds every where, and decided to come back to a National Forest Campground... where I lay on a table - ah how comfy - except for the bugs which started bugging me right away. Then I heard thunder and decided it was time to leave.

Ahhh - I have to come back - so pretty - such good roads.

Hmm this cafe is playing a really good cd. Its my kind of chill compilation sounds like, with world and jazzy psychedelic sounds.

The C in Colorado can be for a lot of things... like the C in the morning is for Cold! I forget the other C's I came up with - but they were Clever - haha pun not intended - oh! C is also for Cows. Parts of Colorado are free range, so watch out for the heffers. C is also for Chipmunk. The roads - as predicted - are most excellent. I was first amazed by hwy 12 and then 149... but I also discovered that I don't like how my new saddle bags change the weight of my ride - I will probably ship them home along with all my camping gear as soon as I get to Salt Lake City (because I won't need to camp out anymore!)- and on that note:

I haven't yet heard from my cousins - they might be in Idaho, visiting the rest of their family that still live there. But I think if I hear that they are in town, or that I can stay at their place tonight, I will go tonight. But if I don't hear from them I will probably camp out near Grand Junction. But I checked at a Yamaha dealer (Yami for short - or as endearment - like I have a cute widdle Yami - errr maybe not) to see if my chain was loose - it wasn't! it's perfect and good to go - darn taco bell for stealing that phrase. Ah so far I'm a good little mechanic... well I didn't really do anything. Anyhows onward with full confidence in equipment!

day 26 - Bike Fixed!! - Wagoner, OK

My bike is fixed! The case put back on (no leaking yay!), the oil filter changed, the clutch working, the gears shifting... and now the bike has LEDs, my headphones are fixed, and most everything else is taken off the list of things to do. I'm now putting a new set of mp3s on my mp3 player... and soon will be out of here - with 5 hours of daylight left. Hopefully, I'll clear Oklahoma in that time.

I'm fairly set on a Northern route now... although I haven't confirmed with family up that way, so I may not have places to stay at... Daily posts will come again soon - now that there will be new places and adventures to report! Thanks everyone for the love and support during mech troubles - and thanks most of all to Danny who has proved himself time and again as one of the most helpful people that I know.

day 22 - Wagoner, OK

I finally got a good version of the timelapsed journey to where I'm at now. You can view it here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5644945708845429700 Luckily, a new battery will be sent soon for my new camera, which means a more complete and easier to watch timelapsing of the rest of my journey - hard to think that I'm only halfway there... or already halfway there. It turns out that Danny probably won't be joining me for the rest of my journey, not even to visit his friend in Phoenix... so I will probably alter my route a bit to up north where I've got family. Actually, if I can't fix my bike (like if I misdiagnosed the problem and need different parts than the ones I've got - like Dafan thinks I probably did...) then Danny will actually lend me his bike to go home on - until we can get my bike fixed properly... but the logistics of that haven't quite been figured out, especially since I think I know what is the problem. Oh well find out soon enough - that's for sure.

And check out that farmer's tan.

In the meantime I got to go on a ride on Danny's bike... I mean where I was riding. I went back to the awesome road that leads in to Wagoner and Talequah from Arkansas. I was using the bitch pegs to get up and over on the bike - fun times... I think the other cruisers were a little confused when I passed the other direction standing up on the bike. I miss riding everyday. Yesterday, I snuck into the pool - well not really sneaking since there wasn't anybody to take my money (whopping $2) no lap lanes... so I had to wing it - I think some of the kids were confused, I don't really think that many people exercise around here. But we get to watch the final World Cup game tomorrow - good that Germany beat Portugal today - haha something for their crowd to celebrate - wouldn't want a bunch of sore Germans hanging around Berlin during the crazy intense final game... although my german friends seem to have taken the loss in stride. Na ja. : )

day 20 - Wagoner, OK - still broke down

Ahhh - I ordered parts for the bike yesterday. It looks like the push rod broke cleanly in the clutch assembly (my chain was loose again) - they should arrive in a week. In the meantime, I've purchased some really big fireworks to take back to "Safe n Sane Firework Land" - Marina, CA. I didn't fire off any of the mortars I got... but I saw similar ones in the neighborhood and at Danny's dad's house - they're huge! I've been trying to do a few things everyday - besides lay around the house - but it's not really working. The hammock that Danny has is so nice - last night we saw a bright and fast satellite, I thought it might be the Space Shuttle... but it wasn't - we checked on the internet.

I'm drivin' a truck - it's a good way to fit in.

I looked ahead at the roads in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona - very exciting!! I will have to come back in the Fall or Winter. But not this Fall... I already have too many places to visit this Fall - and I just missed the $8 fare sale from Spirit Airlines - I was gonna try to fly from San Francisco to Detroit for $8 and then from there to Washington for $8 - then back. Detroit is not completely random since I was gonna visit Ellen when or after she moves to Oberlin.

This trip was the best thing I could have chosen to do after graduating. Especially since it is one of my goals to build my own RV and live in it after moving out of my mom's. I just saw a pretty good U-Haul truck for sale for $5500 yesterday in a parking lot. I practically jumped up and down - used campers (with no truck) usually cost 20,000, but building my RV will cost less than that - and even if it does, that would already include the truck part not just the camper part. And after camping on the first part of the trip, I feel like I'm ready to live in an RV, that I could comfortably live in one.

Anyhows to beat the heat Danny and I have been hiding out in his bedroom with the air conditioning on - and one day we went for a double feature at the movies - that wasn't really supposed to be a double feature. I hope we do that again before I leave. I've been eating lots of ice cream :D and playing chip's challenge - ahh such good times. I'm anxious to get back on the road but until then I'm content with dreaming about my future RV on the hammock.

Day 14 and Day 15 - Wagoner, OK to Pocahontas, AR to Wagoner, OK

So (day before the day before yesterday) after some fretting about the quality of roads in Missouri, we finally hit some more wavy roads passed the suburbs of St. Louis. There was a truck after a while that was going rediculously slow (with some 15 cars trailing behind) - the road lines were being dumb but I waited to pass, but getting impatient and seeing this tasty wide stretch of pavement on the side of the road, I passed on the right side. Danny told me later he had decided I had lost my mind - but followed me the first time I did it - then a van honked at me - I hesitated like usual and pulled back in line. Then I did again - ah the pavement was running out! gravel was approaching! I pulled through a patch of gravel back in line again. Danny caught up with me eventually and we passed the truck together through a double yellow line - ahh open road.

Our goal was to make it to Arkansas before nightfall, and so we stopped at Doniphan, glad to find a Days Inn, as places to stay on Hwy 21 are sparse. I swam in the pool and dragged Danny to McDonalds for ice cream - ah my childhood dreams fulfilled.

Welcome to Arkansas.

Bright and earlyish we got up to set out from Doniphan. I was excited to see more good roads! We hit the border and got dropped into Pocahontas - we couldn't find the route we were looking for - 62 - but we did find hwy 90, which proved to be a really neat road - one i could let pretty loose on - of course whenever I do that I have to slow down on the straight stretches to wait for Danny - I don't mind it though, he's really fun to ride with. Then heading downhill, I heard a strange noise almost like my bike had popped into gear... and I thought - hey that sounded like how it did when my bike broke down in february.... oh shit - I checked my clutch - god sometimes I hate it when I'm right - so now my bike is broke down by a market in between Pocahontas and Imboden. Danny and I doubled up on his bike (I hate riding bitch) and rode the three hundred miles to Wagoner yesterday. I got stung by a bee - again.

Danny is the best ex-boyfriend ever.

The roads in Arkansas are every bit as wonderful as they looked on the map! I mean it was so great to see them, but I won't be able ride them on this trip on my own bike. The scenery is gorgeous, and as everywhere else, the people are nice. I had always been hesitant to visit Arkansas, by myself at least, having heard numerous stories from when my parents lived here. But breaking down made me face my fears about Arkansas, and reallize they were completely unfounded. I just wish I could go canoeing on the big lakes and small creeks.

After driving the three hundred miles back to the bike - in hundred degree weather - we stopped for a sandwich and drove it again straight to Danny's house. We plugged in my mom's mp3 player into the truck stereo, as long as the batteries would hold out. Overall we enjoy travelling together, but it would be way better if we only had to see the roads of Arkansas once and not three times :)

101 degrees...

It occured to me that when I met up with Danny, that people would perhaps stop being so bewildered or perhaps friendly. After all, girls don't learn how to ride motorcycles without the encouragement of their boyfriends, or plan cross country trips by themselves... obviously I'm just along for the ride. Then it occured to me as we were loading up my bike into the truck that people were going to think I was towing it home because I crashed it. I told this to Danny and he said "If it makes you feel any better, they'll probably think I crashed it." But after riding bitch - which is not only uncomfortable and slightly nerve racking but also a loss of status in the moto community - that really didn't make me feel any better at all.

Ah well - the bike is here in Wagoner, I've got a few days before any bike shops open up, so I've got time to try to open up the bike and see what parts I need to order.