12. Flagstaff
Jul 31, 2009 Uncategorized
Ah Flagstaff – my second home. I had an uneventful ride to Flagstaff from Phoenix (although I think I made it to Flagstaff in record time). It was nice to see my friends from school and see the changes in the town.
That night we went out for a few drinks. We started at Maloney’s pub, which is my favorite bar in Flag. Here are some pics from that night with my pals Tim and Christina.
There were a lot more pics, but they were mainly of us drinking and being goofy at a bar, so I’ll save you from having to watch that spectacle. The highlight that night didn’t get saved on film though.
The Arizona Cardinals hold their mini camp in Flagstaff. A few of their players were at the bar that night. Some girl at the bar tried to get their autograph and picture. I guess they told her they couldn’t take photos at a bar or sign her body like she wanted. Instead they signed a napkin for her. I felt bad that her dreams of getting her body signed by an athlete were shattered, so I offered her my services. I mean, I do still play hockey, so I think I can consider myself an athlete. She was delighted to hear this and had me sign a certain part of her chest. Max D #7 is what I left her. I have no pics of her, but I can assure you she was gorgeous.
The next day Christina and I decided to ride up to Snowbowl and take the chairlift to the top of the mountain. Flagstaff is at the base a mountain with a ski resort. Christina rode on the back of the bike. Neither of us thought about sun burns, and we were quite red at the end of the day. Here are the pics from Snowbowl.
If you’re my mother ignore the following picture. Just pretend like it’s not there and scroll past it for the rest of them.
Christina’s camera had a panoramic mode, so here is a panoramic shot of Flagstaff
11. Dogs
Jul 29, 2009 Uncategorized
Some of my friends in Phoenix have dogs. I took some shots of the dogs.
Here is Halo and Holly which belong to Matt:
And here is Joe’s dog Hallie. She’s the sweetest German Shepard ever
10. Tempe/ASU
Jul 28, 2009 Uncategorized
Today I decided to explore a little bit of Tempe, AZ. If you aren’t familiar with the Phoenix metropolitan area, allow me to try to explain it. Although it is known as Phoenix, there are 5 or 6 cities that are all connected that make up this area. Tempe is where the ASU campus is located. It touches Phoenix though.
Anyways, my dad grew up in Tempe and also went to ASU. Because of this I’ve heard about ASU related topics my entire life. I figured I would take this day to explore some of the things he’s always told me about. I started at a steak house at the heart of Tempe called Monti’s. My dad has pressured me to get a steak there since I moved to AZ for college. Today I finally gave in and had a meal there. Look at my giant Prime Rib I had for lunch. It was delicious. I should have listened to my dad about this long ago. Here are the pics from lunch:
That’s what I call a mouthful
I bought this shirt
This is the view across the street from Monti’s
After Monti’s I decided to explore ASU a bit more. I wanted to check out Sun Devil stadium. This proved more difficult than I thought it would be. I did a partial lap around the stadium looking for a way to get in that wasn’t fenced off. I thought I sneak in through what looked like a back way. To get there I started with an arboretum. This must be the largest gathering of plants in all of Phoenix
Then I walked on this path for what felt like an hour in that sun and in all my gear. According to my phone it only took about 5 minutes though.
And then I reached this fence, ugh.
I decided to check out the Wells Fargo Center next. This was a cool stop because they had lots of old sports photos and stuff. My dad was a bus driver for the ASU football team in the early 70s. My friend’s dad played for ASU football in the early 70s. Two years ago we learned this which was one of those small world moments. Here are the pics from the Wells Fargo Center:
Here’s a tribute to the Rose Bowl victory against Michigan and a shrine for ASU’s famous coach Frank Koush.
Here was another sports shrine connected to Sun Devil Stadium.
It turned out the stadium was closed for renovations. I was only able to take this picture:
That’s it for ASU. I was hot and exhausted so I went back to Matt’s place. A few hours later I met up with my friend John from NAU who now works in Phoenix. We got dinner at a terrible Mexican place, but we still had a good time. It was nice catching up with John and hearing about how he’s been.
9. Phoenix
Jul 27, 2009 Uncategorized
I left Pasadena, CA this morning at 4:30 AM. I didn’t think to leave that early until my friend Matt in Phoenix suggested it to avoid the heat. That was a terrific idea because Phoenix is hotter than shit on a shingle. I took a break every 100 miles to drink water. I used my camelbak for the first time. That ice cold water was so refreshing. At one of the rest areas I saw some lizards. Here they are for you to enjoy:
After that break I made it to Phoenix and visited Matt at his office. He has a regular office job, so I had to kill some time before he got off work. I decided to visit my buddy Joe, so I drove north to Cave Creek/Scottsdale to see him.
I spent a couple hours at the restaurant he works at catching up on his life and what each of knew about other people we went to school with. After lunch with Joe it was time to pick up Matt and take him to his truck that was in the shop.
Matt was my first passenger on a motorcycle. Arizona has an interesting take on motorcycle safety. They don’t have a helmet law, but eye protection is required. Since I only have one helmet I let Matt use it. I figure since my skull is at risk I would be compelled to drive to my safest ability. After dropping him off at his truck he convoyed it back to his house in Maricopa. I thought the 5 o’clock sun was going to kill me on that 30 minute drive. I later learned Matt’s car read 120 degrees during that trip. Now I’m not one to trust at car’s thermometer, but either way it was a hot day to be riding a black bike in all black gear.
8. Rose Bowl & The Dodgers
Jul 26, 2009 Uncategorized
I’m having trouble getting these pics off my camera. I’ll try to upload them later
Not much to write about for the past few days. I’ve been taking it easy and laying low at Pete’s place. I bought a new camera, and Peter’s mother gave me her old cell phone. Kudos to her!
I went to visit the Rose Bowl Football Stadium (where UCLA plays and where the Rose Bowl is held every year). It’s a pretty area with a great layout. There is a golf course next to the field and a nice lawn outside the stadium which I presume is used for tailgating. Here are the pics:
[PICS - Rose Bowl]
That night Peter’s parents graciously took us to a Dodgers game. Dodger stadium is the 3rd oldest stadium in America, but it doesn’t look outdated by any means. The Dodgers played the Marlins and won 4-3 with a walk off bloop-single by Kasey Blake. Here are the pics from the game:
[PICS - Dodgers]
Tomorrow morning I’m leaving for Phoenix. Not sure how long I will spend there, but my goal is to visit all my friends who still live there. I did some maintance checks on the bike today. I cleaned and lubed the chain and also checked its tension. I noticed the coolant level was a the minimum mark, so I and some more coolant. Good thing I checked that before battling the hot desert tomorrow.
7. Magic Mountain
Jul 23, 2009 Uncategorized
Today was my first full day in Pasadena. It was great having a bed to sleep in, but more importantly having a nice shower. The plan for the day was to get to Six Flags Magic Mountain around 10:30 AM and stay until closing at 10 pm. Joining Peter and me was his buddies Paul and Mike.
I had only ridden 2 roller coasters prior to today, so I was very excited. The first ride we did was X2, which according to everyone was the best ride there. I won’t bother describing all the rides, but X2 was pretty sweet. There are no pictures today because X2 cracked the screen to my camera while it was in my pocket. So now I don’t have a camera.
We just rode rides all day long and had a great time. I should have started doing this a long time ago. Around 9 pm Mike ran into an old friend who now works at Six Flags. His friend asked us if we wanted to bypass the line at X2. We all said yes, so instead of spending ~2 hours in line we were escorted to the front of the line. It was cool doing the ride again at night, and Mike’s friend really came through for us!
We did one last ride which managed to crack the screen to my phone. Great, now my phone and camera are broken. The rides were sweet, but a $27 ticket to Six Flags has now left me with quite the repair bill.
6. Pasadena
Jul 22, 2009 Uncategorized
I decided to take highway 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway) for the trip to L.A./Pasadena. Multiple people suggested it so I figured it was a better alternative than just mindless freeways.
Bryce mention a pyramid shaped building that was in downtown San Fransisco. Since I left as Bryce was leaving for work, I figured I had a little bit of spare time to spend in the city. I made one mistake though. For some reason I thought I had to take the Bay Bridge to get to downtown San Fran. I actually rode right past downtown San Fran to get on the bridge. The bridge took me to Oakland. It didn’t seem like that bad of a place; I don’t know why it get such a bad reputation.
After back tracking to San Fran I spent 20 minutes trying to find the building before quitting. My next struggle was to find the correct road to take me to the coast. That also involved getting lost and back tracking. I eventually got my bearings and headed to the coast. I believe it was highway 152 that was a fun ride. Lots of twists and hills. I would recommend it to other riders.
Before I managed to make it to the coast I spent an hour on the freeway. 101 South to be exact. I don’t know if California looks the other way when it comes to speeding, but I was definitely going 80-100 mph the whole way. I hit 100 a number of times. It’s quite enjoyable and has me thinking about buying a sport bike someday.
The California coast was a beautiful ride. I hit the coast at Monterey and stayed on it till San Lius Obisipo. By the time I got to SLO I was behind schedule so I went to back to the 101 freeway the rest of the way. The Cali coast was like Heaven on a stick. It’s amazing because the road is on the edge of a cliff 300-500 feet above the water. The only bad part was the traffic. I cycled through intervals of no traffic for 20 minutes and then a line of traffic for another 20-30.
After the coast I raced to Pasadena before the sun went down. As I said before, the California freeways are where it’s at. The flow of traffic in the left lane was doing a healthy 80-90 mph the whole way. I made it to Pasadena on time and met up with Peter. I took a glorious shower (it had been about 3 days), and then went to dinner at the Yard House with Pete. They claim to have 100 beers on tap. We had a few beers and I had a full rack of ribs. It was delicious. I’ll be in Pasadena for the next few days. The plan is to hit up Six Flags tomorrow and catch a Dodgers game later in the week. No pics today 
I was too busy trying to get here on time to pull over and snap some shots.
5. San Fransico
Jul 21, 2009 Uncategorized
After my first night roughing the elements and pitching a tent it’s time to head to San Fransisco. If memory serves me correctly, it was roughly a 300 mile trip. Not too bad for one day. I also learned about the Avenue of the Giants, which is a loop that connects to highway 101 and has a nice detour through the redwoods.
Before I left the campsite some KOA officials showed up in their golf cart to fix the electrical outlet. It turned out I didn’t have power the previous night not because I didn’t pay for it, but because the people working at the front desk were incompetent. The guy I spoke with told me the people at the front desk knew my camp site didn’t have power because it was clearly marked on their chart. So not only did they rape me at $27/night, they also didn’t even provide me with all the services that included.
The Avenue of the Giants was an awesome detour. Here are my photos from that portion of the drive:
This is the bottom of a redwood that was laying on its side.
I tried to capture the height of one of these trees with these 2 pictures
Another bike shot
I also managed to get lost due to a misleading sign. Instead of continuing on through the redwoods I ended up on a back road. Things were pretty sketch because it was a 1-1.5 lane road. There wasn’t a lot of a space. There were many blind corners that had me worried about an oncoming car coming around the corner and killing me. I persevered and manage to fight off my fears for a very fun ride full of twists, turns, and hills. After a few miles I was quite certain I was lost, but I figured I was committed so I might as well see where the rabbit’s hole was taking me.
I ended up on a gravel road which I was pretty sure lead to someone’s house. There was also a concrete bridge that went over a stream. I decided to flex the BMW’s off road muscle and took it down the gravel road to the bridge. When I crossed the bridge I was tempted to play in the gravel a bit. I’ve never driven a dirt bike, but it seems like a lot of fun. The rocks were fairly large for riding over, and the instability quickly had me assessing the risk of dumping my bike on a bunch of rocks in the middle of no where versus playing around. So I turned around a headed back to the bridge. Here are the pics from the bridge:
This is the view from on the bridge facing the road I took to get here
View looking south from the bridge
View looking north from the bridge
Gravel area I briefly played around on
After the redwoods I made one last stop at the shrine of the redwoods. For only $4 ($6 in a car) I was able to drive through a redwood tree. As cool as that sounds it was pretty lame. I’ll let the pics explain it, but it was pretty much a U-turn through a redwood. At least it came with a free postcard. The pics:
Some van driving through. The entering the tree said it was 7′x7′.
Shrine tree info
Looking into the tree
Looking up inside the tree
After that I was finally headed for San Fransisco. The Golden Gate bridge was really cool. It was a a foggy day, and I arrived later than planned. Because of that I didn’t get any good pics. Here are my only San Fran pics:
The Golden Gate Bridge
I think this is Alcatraz, but I have no clue
Stuck in the middle of San Fran it was hopeless to find a hotel (although my neighbors in the morning told me there was a great one at the edge of town). I texted my buddy Bryce and asked him if he lived in San Fran. This was actually a loaded question because I knew he had accepted a job offer there in March. What I didn’t know was that he had only moved there a week earlier. Bryce was kind enough to let me crash on his very comfy couch. We had a few beers and some Thai food and fun, relaxing night.
The plan for tomorrow is to make it to Peter and Pasadena.
4. The Real Day 1
Jul 20, 2009 Uncategorized
What a day! The initial plan was to make it to Chico, California to crash with my friend’s younger brother. According to Google, taking I-5 the whole way was nearly 8 hours. I figured I would take I-5 part of the way, and 101 highway for the other part.
I woke up on my own and saw Garrett’s clock on the microwave said 10:30. Oh shit, I just overslept a few hours, and Garrett left without saying goodbye. I quickly started getting my stuff together and took a shower. When I got back from the shower I saw Garrett. I gave him a hard time for being late to work, and he told me he was surprised I was up so early. Hmmm…
It turned out Garrett’s microwave clock was not set correctly. It was actually a few hours ahead. So now I was up and awake earlier than planned. I packed everything out to the bike, said my goodbyes to Garrett, and headed to California.
Around Salem I made the decision to go to highway 101. It follows the coast at least as far as Las Angeles, and I’ve been told it’s a very nice ride. This early departure from I-5 added more hours to the trip. Here are some pics I took along the way:
These are from Lincoln City, Oregon
These pics are from Port Orford, Oregon:
Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox can be found in Klamath, California. These things were huge!
Paul Bunyan
Babe the Blue Ox
Various other pictures from the Oregon coast:
The coast of Oregon is colder than a witch’s broom in December. My choice of mesh pants and jacket proved costly today. I froze my ass off riding and fighting the wind for the entire day on the coast. I fell behind schedule and was in Acarta, California shortly before 7:00 pm. I was still 4 hours from Chico. So I called Pete and told him of the changes so he could alert his brother. I decided to camp out in Arcarta and a Kampground of America (KOA). This will be my last night with KOA unless I am desperate in the future. I don’t know how they get away with charging $27/night for 1 tent. But that’s all that was here, and I was exhausted.
I set up camp like a pro and had the tent up in 3 minutes. I unloaded my gear and headed to town looking for food and firewood. I didn’t even bother asking KOA if they sold wood. They already took enough of my money.
If you ever need firewood in Acarta there is only one place to get it – Safeway. I tried Target, a gas station, CVS, and Walgreens unsuccessfully until someone told me they had it as Safeway. I bought 1.35 cubic feet of firewood. It came in a big cardboard box slightly larger than a milk carton. I loaded all the empty bags up with wood and it fit perfectly. I also wanted the box to use for kindling. So being the brilliant man I am, I folded the box flat and put it on the bike between my legs for the ride home. I may have looked foolish, but I got the whole payload back to the tent. I also bought a 6-pack of Top-Ramen (I only wanted one but they only had 6 packs for $1.41) for dinner.
I got the fire going rather quickly and then started with dinner. One bag of Ramen was the main course tonight. I used the stove and gas I bought at REI to boil some water with the small pots kit I bought at REI too. After I very long time I got the water to boil. I added the Ramen and waited. I waited too long and overcooked the Ramen into a soggy mess. Rats! Oh well, I still ate. Then I wrote this and went to bed. Here are some campsite pics:
3. Day 1
Jul 19, 2009 Uncategorized
I got my endorsement on Saturday. I took the test on a whim as a last minute effort, but I actually scored a 100. When was the last time you got a perfect score on a test? After securing that I had no reason to stay in Tacoma any longer. So Sunday I left Matt’s house and hit the road. Rather than spend the day getting every last piece of gear I decided to quickly pack up and hit the road. I figured whatever I didn’t have I could buy in Portland.
I threw everything on the bike and hit the road. The ride went well for my first prolonged freeway experience. I hit a top speed of 100. It feels pretty good to go fast on a bike. I felt pretty content going that fast and wouldn’t mind maintaining those speeds for the entire trip (or at least the parts on freeways).
I made great time to Portland. I met up with Garrett. He wanted to go canoing, but I had to make a stop at REI first. He reluctantly agreed. I bought a fancy fabric based pair of socks, boxers, and 2 shirts. These will be used as my skin based layers of clothing. (Update: This was an excellent purchase. I’ve since bought a few more for the rest of the trip).
After shopping ($250) we went canoing. We paddled for a few miles and called it a day. The goal for tomorrow is Chico, California to crash at Peter’s brother’s place.
Some pics from canoing:
2. Pregame
Jul 16, 2009 Uncategorized
With 9 weeks of vacation I couldn’t just shoot the whole load on one trip, so there were a few mini-vacations lined up before the actual bike trip.
The 4th of July was spent in beautiful Chelan, Washington – The heart of Washington’s wine country. I had a wonderful stay that involved friends, water, wine, beer, and the sun. We had a fantastic time over the weekend playing on the water. We had a couple boats and a wave runner and tons of fun. I walked away from the event with a sunburn that pretty much covered my entire upper body and the desire to return again for it next summer. I also managed to avoid a bar fight twice with a rather dim individual. Despite his size, there didn’t appear to be much going on inside his head. I have to thank my friend Justin for doing his best to cool down the situation.
Las Vegas
The fun didn’t stop in Chelan. We left Chelan on Sunday night and drove until we reached Las Vegas on Monday afternoon. Two other friends from the 4th of July trip joined me for two nights in Las Vegas: Peter and Justin. We were supposedly there as a farewell for Peter who is moving to Ecuador for a year, but any reason is worth going to Vegas. As usual Las Vegas was a city that provided many ups and down; however the downs always seemed to follow the ups.
My buddy Pete had a fantastic idea to go cougar hunting while in Vegas. The idea here is not to hunt cats, but instead try to catch the eye of an older woman. We’re only 23, but the goal was to meet women in their 30s and 40s. It was a lofty plan, but this was probably the best city to try it in.
Here’s where the problems started. For a mere $35 you can buy a jug of frozen liquored deliciousness. I’ve since come to learn that alcohol and gambling is a dangerous cocktail. Things were going well until I lost most of my money for the night playing blackjack. There was a high note to my first night in Vegas though, I met a girl named Karen. This wasn’t just any Karen though, this Karen was a cougar!
Despite how much I may or may not have drank, I still found a way to dazzle this Karen. She mentioned she was going skydiving in the morning. I told her I had always wanted to skydive. She invited me to join her in the morning, and we exchanged numbers. We went our separate ways, and my friends and I all miraculously found our way back to our rooms.
I awoke in my bed recalling the events from the previous night. As a veteran of the game, the first thing I checked was my phone. 2 Missed Calls and 2 new Voicemails. Surprised to see this, I figured it was just my dad or a friend. But no no no, it was a unknown number. The first voicemail was Karen at 6am reminding me about skydiving (I think it was like 10 am when I woke up, so I missed the chance to fight the skies). The second voicemail was also from Karen. This one wasn’t quite as brief as the first one. She was actually singing a song to me about skydiving. Well shit, 2 call backs and sing-songy voicemail makes me think Karen was actually into me. I called her back, left a voicemail, and proceeded on with my day.
After everyone doing their morning rituals we started the day at the Flamingo’s Go-Go pool. That classy name is the cover for the $10 topless pool. We were childish and immature enough to pay that spot a visit. What a let down. The only topless people there were in their 50s. It was a lot less crowded though, so that was nice, and the beers were only $3 (which is a steal compared to typical Vegas prices). We spent part of the day there, and I managed to make my sunburn from Chelan even worse.
That night Pete and I were once again on the prowl. We were actually heading back to the room to meet up with some friends when a guy on the street offered us a free game of beer pong. That was an offer too good to pass up, so we waltzed right in to the establishment. The bar was relatively dead, but we were paired up with a brother and sister team from Texas. They were in town for a teaching conference.
The brother and sister were pretty cool, so we played a few games with them. My memory isn’t quite accurate to how we managed to meet these girls, but I believe the brother just walked up and started talking to them. It’s crazy how such a simple concept worked so well. Whatever he did was a tremendous success because suddenly Pete and I were knee deep in hot chicks at the bar. We talked to them and played beer pong with them too. It turned out we stumbled upon a goldmine…
Two of the chicks were sisters, one was a friend, and one was the mother of the two sisters. Since they were with the mother, she was the key. If we could have fun with the mom, then there shouldn’t be a problem befriending the daughters/friends. I spoke to the mom for a bit and suggested dancing on the bar with her. She didn’t rule the idea out, but she didn’t ask for a boost up either. She wanted some time to think about it. Anything other than no meant yes, so that let us know that the mother was pretty cool.
The two daughters I previously mentioned were actually twins - identical twins. Hot identical twins! So here I am playing beer pong with my buddy Pete. We’re each teamed up with the twin that we thought was hotter too (they had different hair styles). It really couldn’t get much better than this. We even had bottle service which was a steal for $30 a bottle. The girls liked the rum we had and did a round of shots with us and with their mother too!
Things were really going well. The only real problem here was the time. It was only like 7 or 8 at night. Our drinking was on a pace more suited for midnight. The only flaw of that bar was they didn’t have a bathroom. So I exited to take a piss and came back to a bar with everyone gone. WTF?!? I rushed out front to find Pete, the twins, and the brother from earlier in the day playing beer pong. Whew, all was relatively well. Then this asshole Pete decides to leave. Neither of us know why he left, but Pete had consumed his fair share of alcohol up until that point. So now I was left with a tough choice – The twins or Pete. Looking back on it I keep choosing the twins. Tragically for my sex life, I chose Pete. I spent the rest of the night trying to track him down. He toyed with me over the phone, and I swore I would kick his ass as soon as I found him.
Fortunately for everyone, Pete and I never saw each other again that night. Apparently I wasn’t the only one looking for him that night because he said he had a run-in with the valet that lead to the cops or security looking for him while he snuck through a parking structure. Oh well. I struck out in Vegas going 0/2. We overslept and packed all of our bags while in the check out grace period. Pete and others were heading to Arizona later in the day, but I had to fly back to Washington. We all lost money to that city, but I only lost what I brought to lose. Then, as I was walking to the car to head for the airport my phone rang. Unknown number, huh? Oh yay, it was Karen. We had some lovely small talk about skydiving for about a minute. Then she transitioned into what my plans for the day were. I told her I was heading to the airport and see said Seeyalater. 0/3 Fuck you, Las Vegas. My wounds didn’t need your salt.
Alaska
After getting to Washington I had 1 day to move out of my house and put my stuff in storage. I accomplished that and spent a very relaxing week visiting friends and family in Alaska.
July 16th
Today I’m flying back to Washington to start the bike trip. Now the madness can really begin
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1. The Big Picture
Jul 11, 2009 Uncategorized
Well, I was able to secure 8 weeks of leave from work. I secured this little prize while negotiating my job offer. Using my small amount of paid leave, I was able to push it to 9 weeks of vacation. This leaves me with the time from 4th of July to Labor Day to do as I please.
The original idea was to go on a motorcycle trip across America with my buddy. We came up with the initial idea during the summer of 2008, but nothing really started to come together until the start of 2009. Things were going as planned until April of 2009. My friend ran into some financial woes and would be unable to go on the trip with me. By that point the timetable for my leave had already been set, so there was no turning back.
In April I bought my 1st bike. It was a beautiful (and unreliable) 1981 Suzuki GS450L. Here it is in all of its glory
That bike had numerous problems that developed shortly after buying it. It is currently not running and being worked on in a friend’s garage. I was able to put ~50 miles on it before it stopped starting. It’s not the best financial move I’ve ever made.
I was tired of dealing with the headache of the Suzuki, so instead I bought the new bike I had been planning on buying. The Suzuki was bought to learn on, not for taking on the trip. After some cutthroat negotiating at the local BMW dealership, I purchased this bike: a 2009 BMW G 650GS
Despite the famous BMW name and the reliability associated with it, this bike managed to find its way to the shop for warranty repairs with less than 500 miles on it. That’s not the best moral booster for this adventure, but the problem has been fixed. Hopefully it’s the last one I encounter on the trip.
I guess the goal for this trip is to see the different parts of the USA. I haven’t traveled much throughout the states, so I figured it would be nice to take a break and see the sites.
I live in Washington. I’ll start my trip by heading south to Pasadena, California to visit a friend before he embarks on a year long stay in Ecuador. It was either visiting my buddy before he leaves or Sturgis for the big biker rally. Personally, I thought Sturgis would have been awesome, but all my friends/coworkers/acquaintances thought that Sturgis and me was a terrible idea. I still think Sturgis would have been a winning ticket, but the LA area will have to suffice.
After LA my trip is wide open. I have friends in AZ, CO, KS, WI, and MT. I plan to visit them all while making various stops along the way. The basic plan is to make a loop of America and end up back in Washington when it’s all over.
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