Waynesville, NC

I left Birmingham two days ago and headed north to Nashville. On the way I stopped off at the Jack Daniel's distillery for a tour. Ironically, the distillery is in a dry county, so there were no samples to be had. I did lean quite a bit about the whiskey making process though. After arriving in Nashville at Justine's (sister of my previous host, Simone and #1 fan, Eli) apartment, we headed to the Loveless Inn for some fine southern food, where I promptly ordered a Jack on the rocks, which I enjoyed with a new found appreciation. After dinner we headed back to the Vanderbilt campus, where Justine is a student. Returning to the college party scene made me feel a bit old, but in all, I feel I represented well. In the morning, we had breakfast at Nashville's famous pancake restaurant, which was easily worth the 20 minutes we spent waiting on line outside. After breakfast, I got the bike all packed up. As I went to unfasten the lock that I had placed between the front wheel and the frame, the key snapped off in the lock. I was stuck! Luckily, Justine didn't have class, so I borrowed her car and drove to the tool rental store, where I rented what the man behind the counter called the ultimate universal key, a set of 30" bolt cutters! I drove the 3 miles back to campus and had the lock off with one chomp of the bolt cutters. Once I returned the cutters and the car, I was on the road within 30 minutes of breaking the key. Knoxville was in my sights that afternoon but the set back with the lock and pouring rain caused me to switch my aim to a state park just west of Knoxville. It was getting dark as I turned north off the main highway towards the park. The road took me up into the hills past a high security state prison. Prisoners, taking an evening stroll behind the barbed wire, waved enthusiastically as I passed. Just as the sun fell below the hills I reached the park gate to find it closed with a sign "park closes at sunset." I turned around, drove the 20 miles back to the highway in the dark and got a hotel room. Due to the comfort of that room, this morning I got somewhat of a late start. The goal for today was the fabled Tail Of The Dragon, a stretch of RT129 that crosses the Tennessee, N Carolina border through the smokey mountains and boasts 318 curves in 11 miles. The endless rain and a gathering of the Smart Car owners club that had the road clogged with 103 golf cart-like- vehicles limited my enjoyment of the road but it was thrilling nonetheless. At the southern end of The Dragon there is a motel/ campground/souvenir shop/rest stop that calls itself a motorcycle resort. The cafeteria had the feel of a ski lodge with riders in full rain gear swarming around for lunch and hot drinks. Outside there is a tree heavily adorned with broken motorcycle parts (pictured). It's called The Tree of Shame and the parts are off of some of the thousands of bikes that have crashed on The Dragon over the years. After drying out for an hour at the resort I continued east in the pouring rain. When the water in my boots reached my ankles I stopped and bought another hotel room. Tomorrow I head north into Virginia.

Arkansas, Misissippi, Alabama

Route 82 has carried me across these three states here to Birmingham. 82 is not an interstate but it's not a scenic road either, unless you consider the industrial underbelly of the south to be scenic. The two lane road took me past the Campbell's Soup factory, the Sara Lee Cookie factory, train yards, lumber yards, boat factories, RV factories and a Mercedes car factory. It was neat to see it all but the big downside was all the trucks. The drivers apparently have no regard for speed limits or human life. Eventually the trucks and I settled on a friendly compromise. In exchange for me staying the hell out their way, the trucks didn't run me over. Win, win! I spent the day today at the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum. A man I met on the way in described it as the Augusta (golf) of motorcycling. The museum, surrounded by a world class race track, houses thousands of rare and collectible motorcycles, most in perfect running condition. In addition there is a great collection of Lotus, Ferrari and Porsche race cars. I spent the entire day there and just managed to see all the bikes. The museum is definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Check out the pictures in the new album to get an idea of the scale of the place. It's the Mecca of motorcycling. Tomorrow I'm headed up to Nashville to see my friend Justine, then it's on to the tail of the dragon and the blue ridge parkway!

Arizona, New Mexico and Texas

In three days! I'm here in Gainsville, Texas having just watched the Giants Cowboys game at a BBQ joint in town. It's deep Dallas territory so admitting to being a New York fan was tough. My timing getting here couldn't have worked out better if I had planned it. I've spent three long days in the saddle careening across three big states. The biggest surprise was New Mexico, which dished out everything from long stretches of road above 7000 feet, to rain, hail, icy roads and dozens of giant tarantulas crawling across the road! Last night i camped out outside Fort Sumner, NM, the final resting place of Billy the Kid. At the moment I'm about halfway across Texas. Tomorrow I expect to make it into Arkansas. The South is next!

Las Vegas (again!)

I left SF two days ago to start my journey east. Riding I80 over the Oakland bridge, over the mountains and into the desert, I made it to Reno around 6pm. At the airport, the racing was done for the day but I was able to walk through the pits and see some of the racing planes up close. Fortunately, there was a catholic church just down the street that was renting out campsites to race fans, so I stayed the night there. In the morning I got an early start, took advantage of the free continental breakfast offered by the church then headed to the airport to watch some racing. The championship races were later in the week but there was plenty of qualifying laps and heat races to watch. Before I left at noon to head to Vegas I managed to see some racing from all four of the major classes; Sport, bi-plane, war-bird, and jet. The race course is set up so that spectators have a view of the whole thing. With the planes never going higher than a few hundred feet, some reaching 500mph as they go down the front straight past the grandstand, it is quite exciting to watch. After seeing a quick aerobatic demonstration, I hit the road for the long ride to Vegas. The original plan was to make it there in two nights but when a gas station attendant told me about a short cut that would shave an hour off my time, I decided to push on and make it to town just after nightfall. The short cut turned out to be one of my favorite roads of the trip. The road that took me up through the mountains had more curves and dips than some roller coasters. At some points the valley walls rose straight up from the side of the narrowed road. Fortunately, I didn't meet anyone coming the other way. Probably because on that stretch of road there were 130 miles between gas stations! Arriving at Jeremy's house around 9, after 9 hours on the bike, I went immediately to sleep. I spent the morning around town picking up supplies. In the afternoon we practiced a little long range target shooting with Jeremy's M4 rifle, then tried our hand at Geocaching. Geocaching is kind of like a scavenger hunt for adults. There is a huge online Geocaching community where members post GPS coordinates to hidden objects around the world. There are thousands in Las Vegas along. Our cache hunt took us north of the city to red rock canyon. We spent an hour clambering over boulders and up the side of the canyon but were unable to locate it (an orange Tupperware container, we were told). Oh well, it was a neat hike anyway and I got this great picture from the canyon wall as the sun was going down. When we got back, Jeremy and Franny treated me to an amazing home cooked meal. This morning I'm preparing my gear to continue east. Hopefully today I'll make it across most of Arizona and maybe into New Mexico!

San Francisco, return leg

I arrived back in San Francisco on Thursday and dropped my sister and her husband at the airport on Friday for their honeymoon. Saturday was spent taking care of the bike. The KLR was treated to new tires, new chain and new oil. Yesterday (Sunday) I met up with my friend Jesse and went for a ride around the hills of Oakland. After stopping at a viewpoint that offered the entire city of San Francisco, we headed down into Berkley for lunch. Lunch consumed, we swapped bikes and took the scenic route back into San Francisco. Jesse got a huge kick riding my KLR. He though the ride compared favorably to a Cadillac while the engine felt like a tractor's! I had a great time on his lightly modified SV650S. The engine was especially impressive. The SV's torque was comparable to the KLR but it made power all the way up to the 11,000 rpm redline while the KLR runs out of breath around 6,000. I am now convinced that the Suzuki V-Strom should be my next bike, ergonomics of the KLR with the engine of the SV. This morning I rode into downtown for an appointment with a diamond merchant. My task was to authenticate a diamond for a friend who is in the market for a ring. Examining the stones under high power magnification and all the certificates, I had no idea what I was doing. Mission accomplished, I called my friend to give him the report. Since then I've been back at my sister's apartment preparing my gear for my departure from San Francisco tomorrow. The plan is to head to Reno tomorrow to check out the air races. Then back to Vegas for a quick stop at Jeremy's. Stay tune as I head eastbound, and down!

Update

My sister's wedding went off without a hitch this weekend. All in attendance agreed that it was the best wedding ever. The happy couple has returned to San Francisco and I will be joining them there this thursday night. Then the bike will come out of storage, new tires will be installed, the oil will be changed and the return leg of my trip will begin early next week. The route will take me through the southern united states with stops at Reno Air Races, Barber Motorcycle Museum, the Tail of the Dragon, and many more. Stay tuned!