Southwest Road trip: Day 3

Leaving Las Vegas, for good! Hit the road about 9 am and took the 215 out of town, around Lake Mead and over the Hoover dam. They are putting in a suspension bridge over the dam instead of having people drive directly over it. That makes sense. That way you can have four lanes, no twisties to get to the bridge also, some of you might know that Im scared of heights but watching them build this was insane! So, Im minding my own business, waiting in line to cross the bridge and I hear a sound above me. I look up and about 100 yards above and over are these two guys suspended in cage from a crane dangling over the chasm (like 1 mile straight down) taking notes on clipboards! I could feel my manly-ness suck up into my body cavity. Jesus Christ, is this how they build these things? Engineers have serious huevos. I'm sweating just writing this. (I found this photo on the net, notice the small cage and the person inside)

Anyway, another 9 hour / 400 mile trip. I took the excellent Highway 93 south towards Phoenix. This highway is why you ride a motorcycle. Rolling hills with smooth black top, 75 mph speed limits, no traffic and all while surrounded by this amazing forest of Joshua and Yucca Trees Check out these photos. Stunning

I made it to Tucson around 6 PM with leg cramps and a seriously overworked ass. Cheryl had made an excellent dinner and we had a bottle of wine while we watched the Cardinals lose to the Bears after a 20 to zero led. Can they ever win? Time for some rest and some easy day trips around Mount Lemon.

today's top six road tunes:

6: My Favorite Things (Sarah Vaughn)
5: Sounds of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel)
4: Summertime (Ella and Louis)
3: Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
2: How Long Has This Been Going On (Louis Armstrong)
and at number 1: Ain't Misbehaving (Fats Waller)

For more photos check out the link below
Roadtrip Day 3

Southwest Road trip: Day 2

Las Vegas baby!! After a restful night recovering from my ordeal, I hooked up with my old High School pal Kevin who has been living in Vegas since he went there to deal Blackjack for the summer back in 1990. I asked him to show me the real Vegas. I understand if you are on vacation, the resorts, the shows, the gambling, etc... but what do the people that live here do? Or, if I can be so blunt, why would anyone live in this run down, crack house urine soaked mattress of a town? I'm looking for the "there there" as Gertrude Stein puts it.

We started the afternoon by getting some lunch over at the excellent Crown and Anchor British pub. Excellent British style pub food and beer. In fact, if wasn’t in a strip mall and on an eight lane thoroughfare, I would swear that I was in England. OK, so that is something. Seriously.

Next we headed over to the Pinball Hall of Fame. This was in a different strip mall about a mile away but was by far the highlight of the Vegas adventure. I’ve never been good at pinball but I’ve always loved to play and enjoyed the idea of it. I don’t know if it’s true or not but it always seemed so American. This place was amazing, like a shrine to the art. Check out the link cause I won’t be able to do this place justice. Every game I can remember playing as a kid was there and meticulously restored. I was also told that this is only a fraction of his collection. I mean these are serious pinball nerds. They had index cards on each machine explaining the significance and history of the specific unit, the artist that drew the back panel, the year make and model. Here’s a tip guys, get real signs made. I was reading one on the Superman game and they mentioned they had replaced the Atari (yes that Atari! they used to make pinball games) bumpers with Bally ones because they were clearly better as everyone knows… Nerd! Go to this place! and spend a quarter just to play and hear that loud “thwack” sound as you win an extra game. It was like a time machine.

At this point Kevin left to work the late shift at the Hilton as the Pit Boss and I decided to check out the Vegas Hookah district. To be fair, there are only a few Hookah bars but these two were blocks away from each other (and UNLV): Hookah Lounge and Café Hookah. I won’t bore you with the details but let's just say a good Hookah was had by all and that you don’t need to worry about going to Café Hookah.

Now off to an art house movie theater to watch… wait, there isn’t one. They show “those” movies at the local library. OK, a nice quite coffee house… well, I can’t find any and it isn’t mentioned in either local weekly (which were almost impossible to find themselves). The Starbucks guy or the Hookah mistress (is there such a thing?) didn’t know of any either. Whatever. I set myself up for a letdown it seems. OK back to the run down “new” Frontier, packing and a good night’s sleep for tomorrow's ride to Tucson. I had a good time but I don’t think I need to come back anytime soon. If I’m wrong, let me know, but there is no there there.

For more photos check out the link below
Roadtrip Day 2

Southwest Road trip: Day 1

(posted from my Treo so sorry for the spelling) There is nothing more perfect than a flat twisty road through the mountains on a crisp autumn morning and a throaty v-twin. Not sex, not money... What a long day. I ended up spending about 12 hours in the seat. I left Coulterville around 9 and made my way to Yosemite. I had been told by several people that because of the rain we had two weeks ago, that Tioga pass had closed due to snow for the season. I had to hear it for myself so I called the park and it turns out they just reopened it. Yes!! I tore off through the valley and then froze crossing the 10k foot pass. The snow mostly melted but it was still icy. I think I had a touch of hypothermia at the end and once I left the park and dropped back down to 7k, I sat defrosting, shaking and eating lunch outside outside of Lee Vining. The joys of being on a motorcycle. I really don't get this whole romantic idea people have of it. Try this. Sit on a chair or your bicycle for 6 to 8 hours not moving you hands or feet and taking 15 minute breaks every hour or so. No radio, no one to talk to. In fact most of the time I'll sing every song I can think of to pass the time. My top 10 this trip:

10: Car Wash Blues (Jim Croce)
9: Cotton Fields (CCR)
8: All I Want Is You (U2)
7: Blue Skies (Ella)
6: Free Falling (Tom Petty)
5: Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You (Ella)
4: Carefree Highway (Gordon Lightfoot)
3: Behind the Wall of Sleep (Smithereens)
2: The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot)
and at number 1: It Had to Be You (Sinatra version)

so after 6 hours of arrow straight highway 95, my voice was giving out as I rolled into the "new" Frontier (which is anything but) in Vegas around 9. Fell down on the bed. Time for some sleep.

For more photos check out the link below
Roadtrip Day 1

Southwest Road trip: Day 0

Friday I managed to get out of SF a bit early so I could split lanes for 2 hours. How do people do this commute? I'm guessing from SF to Stockton at about 4 hours. Ughhhh! I eventually got off the superslab and took Highway 132 east and spent the night in Coulterville, near Yosemite, at a charming little place, the Hotel Jeffery. Serious, great place, great hosts, cool old bar


So today I'll be heading out to Yosemite to spend the night and then off to Las Vegas, Tucson, LA and then home. I'll be breaking the Sportster in so if the weather holds up it should be an amazing trip. I'm really looking forward to the Yosemite portion and crossing over Tioga Pass (before it gets snowed in this year). Plenty of fotos to follow. We'll see if I can get them posted daily.

Tuesday Night Poker Party

A few people at work have been organizing a Tuesday night Poker party that is on the verge of becoming a regular thing. The location varies and this week was at my newly emptied house so I had plenty of room. As you can see from the photo above, Dave Snapp cleaned us all out and was laughing in our faces during. From right to left: Dave Snapp, John Boyd, Briana Lenz and Adam Chapman (all my co-workers in IT at Current). We had a good turn out of about 13 people so we started a second table (photo not shown). Before we got started with the gambling, I fired up the grill and we enjoyed the last of the decent weather here in San Francisco.

Folsom Street Fair

This post is about a week late but I just wanted to give a shout out about the Folsom Street Fair last Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco. Perfect for wearing your harness, chaps and close pins. I actually didn't go this year but happened to be riding around the neighborhood and saw everyone as they were arriving and leaving. Seems like I saw alot more women this year (wearing latex Dominatrix outfits). Also, rather than taking photos I figured I would just wait for the postings on flickr. Warning, these photos show the usual casual blow jobs on the street and naked guys in hanging cages. You've gotta love San Francisco!

Saturday Afternoon Ride

Summer has finally showed up here in San Francisco and it has been a nice 80 degrees warm for the last couple of weeks. Typically we get a few weeks, maybe a month if we are lucky, of this weather and then comes the cold drizzle. I took the opportunity to hang with newbie rider, co-worker, and NY transplant, Frank (hell on wheels) LaMonaca. We headed south to Half Moon Bay and then cut inland to the world famous Alice's Restaurant for lunch and then back to the city. We missed the big Sunday ride but had an great burger, saw our share of cool bikes and had an excellent ride.