Day 21 – Food Trucks and Bike Pickup

Posted on June 21, 2012 by jlin

Getting out of bed was rough. Body still hurt from way too much time walking/running the day before. But it was easier than the previous night. At least I no longer wanted to steal a bicycle. And everything seemed closer together. Don’t get me wrong – everything in the LA area is way too far apart, it just didn’t seem as arduous as the night before.

Even going through all the strip malls seem to take a long time. The availability of space is what allows all those patios. I was tempted by the variety of spas/salons/massage parlours. Would have been really nice to have someone fix my legs…

But since it was a late start, I wanted to make it to the food trucks at the OC Fairgrounds. It was next to a Farmer’s market and the fairgrounds provided decent seating and facilities. Probably not a ‘typical’ LA food truck experience. It really should be a truck on an illegal lot, serving tacos after a night of drinking…

Food was good – I got sliders. Fried chicken on garlic mash w/ gravy and a Vietnamese pork sandwich. Something I would actually attempt to make myself. Not cheap – $10 for 2 sliders, tots and a strawberry iced tea. Similar to Vancouver food trucks, I suppose.

Got to Ducati Newport Beach a little early, they had finished the work, but hadn’t done the paperwork or ‘washed’ it yet. I went back out to a nearby Starbucks and tried to work on some posts, but decided to try and sort out Service Canada instead. Since I ‘moved’ just before I left on my trip, they needed me to confirm the address. Unfortunately, when I have tried to call, the office has either been closed or too busy and disconnected me. I managed to get through this time using Dell Voice/Fongo – but I was not very audible. Poor guy on the other end couldn’t understand what I was saying. He tried to give me a hard time for taking so long to call back, but since I couldn’t explain it anyway, he eventually just helped me out and ‘fixed’ my account.

Picked up the bike and went out to pick up the bag I left at the hotel. Started realizing there was a new noise. Very faint. At first, I thought it was just the cars around me, but after a detour to Costco, I realized it was the Multi. Some experimentation seemed to indicate it was RPM dependent – and not audible after 3K RPM(bike was too loud). Since I was still in the neighbourhood, I dropped back to the dealership to ask. Techs were all gone, but apparently it’s expected. Old days, if the tension was really off, the same sound would be a howl. What I had was ‘fine’.

I suppose it’s just paranoia – after listening to the bike for 3 week solid, any change at all sticks out like a sore thumb. The folks were very nice and put up with my crazy.

Day 17-20 – Santa Barbara, Riverside, San Diego and Newport Beach

Posted on June 20, 2012 by jlin

Been a pretty chill few days. Downtime was forced by the Thursday appointment with Ducati Newport Beach. Never really planned on spending much time in the LA area other than the required day for servicing, so this was a bit of a bonus. Took a chance to do things I normally wouldn’t do on a visit to LA. Bit of a shift from a normal tourist visit, but a good change of pace.

Sunday was a throwback to the old Sun Run training days – Church at synergysb.com, pho for lunch and then a run in the afternoon. The joys of tasting pho in the back of your throat as you suck wind isn’t enjoyable, but it did bring back a lot of memories. But the trail run/hike in the sun up to ‘Inspiration Point’ in Santa Barbara was quite nice. Definitely not something I think I would have done on any other trip.

Taking the Duc out to Riverside on Monday was interesting. I went along the coast to try to swing by Neptune’s Net – but got there too early in the morning. Passing through Santa Monica, I got onto the 60 – this was a real taste of the LA highway system with traffic. I’m not sure what it was, but I could not for the life of me keep my eyes open. Not sure if it was the glare of the sun on the 12 lane highways, the heat, or the what, but it felt like I needed to just close my eyes for a while. Opening up the visor helped briefly, but in the end, I had to pull over for gas anyway.

Fortunately, this did give me a chance to look for an In-N-Out Burger. Cross off something ‘typical’ from the tourist list.

Got a little lost getting to my Godparent’s place in Riverside, but nothing too stressful. It was nice to see them again – and they have a little dog named Spanky! We hid out in the house to avoid the afternoon heat before grabbing some dinner and going for a walk/hike up the local mountain. Minimal pollution meant there were some great views. But my godmother did point out that the pollution does getting used to and that my experience on the highway might be related.

Not really having anything else to do, I decided to swing down to San Diego on Tuesday and cross of Corner #2 – San Ysidro. Tempted briefly to cross the border into Mexico on foot, but since I dont’ really have space for any shopping and wasn’t going to do any drinking, I didn’t see the point. Went by the Tiajuana Nature Reserve before heading towards La Jolla for lunch. George’s at the Cove was a great place for lunch. Good food, great views and solid service. Ticked off the ‘fancy west coast/cali’ dining experience. It was so busy even at 1pm on a Tuesday, I had to wait 30mins for a seat on a patio. I hopped down the street to grab a coffee. Chatted with young guy about his ‘hardley’ for a bit. He kindly pointed out that one of the young women who were at the next table previously was a ‘porn star’. Interesting encounter, can’t say the bike doesn’t open doors. Where those doors go is anyone’s guess. There was also a young boy hanging out for a while. We had a nice talk about bikes and my previous stops. Wasn’t long before Area 51 came up and we talked about some of the defense systems. Not sure how much of it was fantasy, but still entertaining.

After lunch, I wandered around Sunset Cliffs and Point Loma before heading back to Riverside for the night.

Wednesday morning, I decided to take Spanky for a run. ~4 miles down to the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside, hangout for a coffee before heading back.

It was a nice trip, although probably a bit of a late start. Getting uncomfortably warm by the time we got back. Spanky was thoroughly wiped.

I rode out on the 91 towards Newport after lunch. Same thing as Monday and Tuesday. Could not keep my eyes open and the watering made staying on the road dangerous. Ducked out to grab gas while I stopped anyway and things eased up. Checked into the Vagabond Inn and dropped the bike off at the shop before walking down to Newport Beach. Got there fairly late in the afternoon, so it was rather quiet.

But definitely got my ‘beach’ fix – makes me want to rent a beach house one of these days. Walking back was much less entertaining. Run and the walk in one day was too much. So much so I was tempted to steal an unlocked kid’s bike just to get off my feet. Lots of stops for drinks on the way back, but no appetite – at least until I saw the Chik-Fil-A next to the hotel. Forgotten how good they were. I think they’re better than In-N-Out!

Day 16 – Wheeler Gorge and Santa Barbara

Posted on June 16, 2012 by jlin

Lazy start… nice to be clean in an air conditioned room. Less pleasant when you finally do walk out into the heat. Rather warm in Maricopa.

Chatted with a trucker who had a 98 Softail Classic in his garage. His baby, but can’t ride anymore due to arthritis. Another reminder that motorcycles might be an instant club, but probably won’t last forever.

Looping out to 33 towards Santa Barbara, I did manage to find the National Monument I was looking for… and BLM lands too – camping would have been free!

The road wasn’t the best… might have been risky in the dark. Couldn’t be worse than the dirt stuff…

The signs to go to Ventura made it seem really close – as if I should have made a run for the coast last night. But it’s a good thing I didn’t – the road picked up soon enough. Twisties!

If I had known the road was like this, I would have had breakfast and coffee before heading out. 33 was great, 150 wasn’t bad – much better if it weren’t for being stuck behind a white Altima…

Things were less rosy once back on the 101. Traffic is taking some getting used to… after days of riding virtually alone, now I have to deal with cagers again. The bikes lane splitting are new to me as well. At least their loud pipes are doing something for me.

Eventually made it to Carpinteria in the Cali June Gloom. Swung past the State Park/beach, but with the grey skies, didn’t feel like paying for parking and stopped for lunch instead. Things did clear up after and I went out to Stearns Wharf for some classic tourist activities. Was entertaining overhearing a conversation about travel books and how cliche the big sites are.

View from Stearns Wharf – Blue skies and water, just like the TV commercials!

Day 15 – Death Valley and the search for a National Monument.

Posted on June 15, 2012 by jlin

Not exactly a great night of sleep – very sweaty. And it did eventually cool off enough to be uncomfortable without a sleeping bag. Oddly enough, the ground was still warm at sunrise everywhere I had gear.

Beautiful morning – and since I figured I wanted to get things done before things really heated up, I got moving.

Some geographical location that’s really steep in they Valley. Can’t see anything…

Rock bottom. Or Salt bottom, as it were. Badwater – where the mules refuse to drink and you’re at the lowest point on the Western Hemisphere. Nowhere to go but up!

I stopped at Furnace Creek to cool down and grab a drink. Had a nice chat with two girls from Bakersfield. They mentioned I should take 178 along the Kern River and that the only downside was that it ran through Bakersfield. At this point, anything involving water sounded like a good idea. Looping back through Stovepipe Wells to check out the dunes, I decided to get gas at Panamint. Unfortunately, they were out of unleaded. All of it.

I went next door to the resort to grab a drink and use their WiFi, hoping that the truck would show up in the meantime. Managed to set up my service appointment for next Thursday at Ducati Newport Beach. A large Harley tour group from Europe pulled up into the resort to eat while I was there.

After over an hour of sucking back on iced tea, I figured I should get going. I heard anywhere from 42 to 55 miles to the next gas stop. Half uphill, half down and the bike reported I should be able to go 70 miles. Should be good! In the end she did 192.2 miles on that tank, and the last bar on the fuel gauge wasn’t even blinking yet. She’s been good to me and deserves to be named…

Going south, I went onto 178 and went along the Kern Valley as recommended. Excellent bit of road. Not as cool and refreshing as I would have hoped – still 33-35C, but excellent roads. Would have been even better if I hadn’t been trapped behind a pair of 5th wheels leaking some mystery liquid ever right turn. I don’t know what it was, but getting covered in it didn’t seem like a good thing. That did mean that I was never in a position to annoy them into pulling over or pass. But I did stop to take some shots of the river and valley.

The real adventure began as I entered Bakersfield. I saw a sign for some state camping just east of the city, but chose not to stay. Gassed up at a Chevron and did a quick equipment check – not good. Everything was still running low on power. Some poking around as I went through the city seems to show that the tank bag contacts were failing. But if I leaned on or held the bag just right, it would continue to charge. This was a pretty big distraction and probably led to a few more bad decisions, like trying to camp at the National Monument west of Bakersfield while avoiding the major highways. This meant it took a long time to get out of the city. Past dark.

Since riding in the dark trying to follow cars who knew where they were going was giving me flashbacks of “the loop”, I thought it best to Google for a campsite. Supposedly there was a campsite, but in my way was a gate for an oil company in my way. Normal security measures, electronic controls, cameras, etc. But, oddly, there was a detour sign around the gate over a dirt road. I took it… there were roads on the other side. Bumpy and covered with dirt. I made it to the ‘campsite’. Nothing there. Just a corner between two unmarked roads. More tooling around in the dark. Evidently I looked lost enough that the tech on duty that night bothered to come out and talk to me. Phillip was a really nice guy, told me there was no campsite where I was going and that the closest one was Aliso, but a ways into the bush. After a nice chat about his bike and how he was ready to let it go, I turned around and ran back to Maricopa and stayed at the Motel 8. Evening of fail.

Day 14 – Area 51 and Death Valley

Posted on June 14, 2012 by jlin

Felt like I had seen an awful lot of parks recently, so I figured I’d do something else the USA does very well – kitsch. Looked like a lot if miles, so I had an early start. Probably a touch too early. Without coffee and on gravel roads, I tried to take the Multi off the center stand. Tipped the wrong way(away from me) and fell over. The brake lever end snapped off – I like to think of it as an earlobe. So the first real damage has been done. Surprisingly, it actually feels better – smaller on that side now.

A wind farm – not successfully farming anything.

Looping around 318, I filled up outside Alamo. Had a nice chat with Dennis from MA. He was in Vegas to a new addition to his extended family. Not wanting to spend all day with a newborn, he rented an HD for the day and did a bit of riding. We played tag with cameras, but he had a better rig and better stops.

ET Highway!

Buddy Bison on the ‘Black Mailbox’

Saucer Burger special at Lil Ale Inn cafe. I really need to stop eating so many burgers.

Not really having a plan after lunch, I was informed that 93 back to Vegas wasn’t worth doing. So I thought I would go the other way and see where that took me. Got a little lost in Tonopath, but eventually stopped for gas. Nearing 13,500 miles, I figured I should start heading SW for my service appointment rather than cutting straight west for Yosemite. So Death Valley it was.

Ever get the feeling that you’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake and you’re about to pay heavily? Well, in trying to find a camp site, I realized the entire place was empty. Setting up camp, I realized there were some serious clouds moving in from the west. I know Death Valley is in a ‘rain shadow’, but reading all those road sign warnings about flash floods and sudden storms freaked me out. Fortunately, some other people rolled into the site shortly after. If God protects fools, at least there was a group of us.

Sunsets with clouds are very pretty.

Day 13- Cedar Break and Great Basin/Lehman Caves

Posted on June 13, 2012 by jlin

Leaving the KOA site and getting to Cedar Break was an adventure. Road was closed to reconstruction after a slide. Had to go around.

Day 12 – Lees Ferry, Grand Canyon North Rim, Pipe Springs

Posted on June 12, 2012 by jlin

Day 12 – Retrospective

Posted on June 12, 2012 by jlin

Trip is starting to take it’s toll. Didn’t get much sleep again. Woke up before sunrise, staring out into the brightening sky and really didn’t want to get up. All sorts of body parts ache. Everything’s filthy – there’s sticky red sand/dust on everything.

Failing Equipment –

SD780IS Elph camera has lens issues – probably dust in the gear mechanism.
Patriot LX 32GB SD card is ‘slow’ – slow enough that the GoPro won’t write to it consistently anymore. On a PNY backup card now
Crappy Tire Mastercraft 200W inverter is shot. Pretty much only good for blowing fuses now.
Joe Rocket Speedmaster 7.0 Gloves are continuing to fall apart. Not as comfortable now that I’ve been supplementing the gloves with my own patches of leather, glue and duct tape.
Ducati Performance Top Case straps have been ripped out of the top half. Strong winds ripped the screws right out of the plastic.
Cargo net is now all stretched funny. Zip ties are doubling up certain lengths, but still need to source a new one.

Supplies Dwindling

No more 15A fuses
Running out of camp fuel – considering switching to kerosene so it doubles as bike chain cleaner. But that stuff stinks like crazy – and it’s not like I have latex gloves to work with.
Ran out of PJ’s chain lube – replaced with something from NAPA.
Almost out of coffee

At least the Multi and the new BMW Rallye3 gear is holding up well. The Duc has seen the ground on both sides now – with minimal damage. There are some scratches to the side cases, but barely noticeable under all the dirt and bugs. The dirt still calls to me, but I think I’ll stick to pavement from now on. As much as some people suggest I should get a Termi exhaust system, I think the money is better spent on some armor. Plus, you can attach footpegs to the crash bars and that would be much appreciated at this point.

BMW gear is pretty much broken in now. It almost feels soft to the touch and the armour is starting to fit better.

Not even 15% of the way into the trip. I probably just need a day to regroup and restock. Attempting to find things on the run eats up time better spent focused on other things.