Sittin' on the edge of America

So it's been 2 and a half weeks since my last blog and it hasn't been completely uneventful.

I went to the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate park in San Francisco.



It's a nice place to walk around.



I've also been to the Winchester Mystery House.



It was built by Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester fortune after her husband William Winchester died. After losing both her daughter and her husband she was told by a "psychic" that the spirits of all the people ever killed by Winchester rifles were after the Winchester family and out for blood and the only way to get away from them would be to never stop construction on her house (ghosts are apparently easily fooled by architecture). So this house was under construction continuously for 38 years until she died. I guess if ghosts are after you it's just a matter of time. The "Winchester Mystery House" is full of things like fake doors, windows that face walls, and there's even a stairway that just goes into a ceiling.

Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the place.

I spent 3 days in:



I was visiting a good friend of mine and attempting to get passage to Hawaii.

I saw some sea lions basking in the sun down in the marina district:



and I caught a great sunset on the beach:



I also went in to Musée Mécanique.



It's a very cool little place full of antique coin-ops that are all still working. They had a whole bunch of little animatronic things you could watch for a quarter and "fortune tellers" and that kind of thing



as well as just antique and vintage games





as well as some slightly more modern arcade games and a steam powered motorcycle:



I played some ski-ball while I was there (how could I resist?) but my favorite thing in the place was this pinball machine from 1967:



I like that this is not a "pinball machine", but a "Flipper Skill Game".


I know it's from '67, but calling it a "Flipper Skill Game" really makes it sound like something from the '20s. I can't help but picture every time you say "Flipper Skill Game", no sound is heard, but a card pops up afterwards with the words on it.

What really makes this machine hilarious though is this prominently displayed sticker:



In 1967, they apparently believed that playing pinball would corrupt any young mind not prepared for the horrors of pinball and society itself would eventually be brought to it's knees.

After much asking around and a little research, I found out San Francisco is not the place to attempt to get to Hawaii from. I still had fun around the city though.

I leave you again now, with some words to live by:

If a door closes in the woods...

I've always said that our lives are generally in balance.

For every good and wonderful thing that happens to us, something bad is lurking around the corner to pull the cloud out from under us. For every stroke of ill luck suffered, there are good things that happen to us to lift us out of life's pitfalls. A certain area of life falls apart while in another, things coalesce into perfection. Opportunities slip away while others just fall into our laps. And sometimes, things come together so hard and fast that they start to break everything up; great wrecking balls of opportunity crashing into one another with you in between.

Ultimately, whichever side of the ever flipping coin we perceive is simply the one we focus on. There will always be forces pulling or pushing on us at different times and without opposing forces doing the same we'd probably just go crazy: lost in the euphoria that it doesn't get any better this, or crushed under the unbearable weight of knowing that it doesn't get any better than this.

All I can say is this: I won't let greed and insecurity ever be a force behind the decisions that I make. And that is liberating.

______________________________________________________________________

I wrote the above in June 2009. It probably belongs at the beginning of this blog because it really was the seed that grew into this trip, but I was clearing out some old stuff and stumbled upon it now. It was a time in my life when something bad did happen, followed by quite a few good things. The good stuff was mainly in the job market. I had just been hired at my last job and I was receiving some juicy job offers from other places. I didn't know if I would have a job past October, but the idea for this trip was forming in my head, and while it may have seemed a little reckless I decided not to take any serious job offers where I would be expected to work more than a year. No, this was the time to hit the road. Being a consultant meant I was going to have a lot less money and could be let go any time a project was coming to a close, but it allowed me the freedom to get up and go. And while I didn't know for sure I was going to take this trip, and I didn't really know what kind of a trip it would be, I recognized that freedom.

The Adventures of Mr. Macevoy and Chad Chad in the Church of Scientology

No, that's not that title of a new children's book.



After the rain broke, I spent a couple of days closer to L.A. proper and took the time to visit a friend from college, who lives in the heart of L.A.

While we were driving around, we passed the Church of Scientology.

"You wanna go in there and take a personality test?" my friend half jokes at me.
"YES!"
"Ok but how do we get them to give us the test? We can't just go in and ask for one."
"We probably can, but I have to go to the bathroom. It's perfect. We go in and ask to use the bathroom and after we do, they won't let us leave without offering to test us."
"I dunno man, I don't want them having any of my information or anything."
"Dude, don't worry! Just give them nothing but misinformation and lies! We get to take the test, free of future hassle. Don't even give them your real name. Make one up."



And that's exactly what happened, and while we were hoping to hear some real crazy stuff in there, all they did was talk about dianetics as a way to better your life.

Meanwhile, I'm a socially awkward creature. Introductions for me are a complete knee-jerk reaction. Somebody I don't know says "Hi, I'm-" and my brain switches over to auto-pilot. I shake hands, say "Ian. Nice to meet you.", and am just relieved to be past the first part of any interaction. It's probably why I have such a hard time remembering people's names. So when the guy in the church said "Hi, I'm-" and offered his hand, I shook it and said "Ian. Nice to meet you."

Oops. So much for giving a completely fake name. So when filling out my "information" on our personality tests, I used a fake last name. My friend on the other hand stayed on top of things and said his name was "Chad". And when they asked him for his last name he just repeated "Chad."



"Chad Chad" still makes me laugh.

Anyway, after we dodged their probing questions for a while, took their 200 question personality test, watched some videos about people with "problems", and refused to buy books, we left the Church of Scientology behind.

He tells me a friend of his actually got stopped on the street and offered one of their personality tests and made a video about it. It's pretty funny and you can see it here.

Anyway, I said I wanted a picture of the Hollywood sign so we went to get a view.

Behold:


Turns out they don't light it up at night.

So we wandered closer:


Shame my camera does so poorly in low light conditions.

Anyway, thus concluded my night with Chad Chad. The next day (or around then) I rode up to Highway 1 to Paso Robles for a night, then continued up Highway 1 to San Jose. Now, Highway 1 is a gorgeous road with phenomenal views and it definitely has it's share of twisties.



It absolutely sucks in the rain. The vast majority of my ride I was getting rained on, conditions were dangerous, and visibility was about 1 mile at best.

I'm going to have to go back down on a sunny day so I can experience that road the way it should be.

I've been in San Jose for about a week. This blog is going to slow down a bit for a while. I'm done for now. I'm just about out of money and I need to get a job. I don't expect there will be too much to write about between working, working out, and well, whatever else I do in a "normal" day. But you never know. I'll let it flow however it will but come springtime, I'm back on the road.

The only adventure that I foresee in the near future is I'm going to try my hand at boat hitch hiking to Hawaii some time in the next week or so.

It never rains in southern California

I left Irvine and headed North. I don't know why, but I've always wanted to ride through Death Valley, and I'm a doer.

I came into the valley from Panamint Springs.



Death Valley has good scenery,



but on a note for a future trip, it would be better to camp there than just pass through.

Coming from Death Valley into Nevada, I got into Beatty, which is an interesting little place.



While in Beatty I learned of Rhyolite: A ghost town just a few miles back the way I came. So I turned around to check it out.



Rhyolite is a little more touristy than I hoped a ghost town would be. Not like there were vendors around or anything but I wasn't the only person there, and I was really hoping I would be.

It's pretty much what you would expect of a ghost town but with a few people walking around taking pictures. And while there is a house made out of recycled glass bottles, the strangest thing by far appears to be a giant lego "shemale" just off the main road:



I really have no idea what they were going for, but then again, maybe I hit the nail on the head.

In Henderson, Nevada I saw my first scorpion up close that wasn't in some tank:



Cute little thing, isn't it? It was promptly killed and flushed down a toilet. So long soldier!

While staying in Henderson, I took a trip out to the Hoover Dam.

Here's Lake Mead in all it's dammed glory:



This is what a road runner really looks like:



The cartoon was not true to life at all. We were all lied to by Warner Bros.! And there he goes!



This is Hoover Dam:



It is very large. For now that's all I have to say about it.

Outside Henderson, just past a donkey crossing, lies the fortress of Mt. Doom.



Well, actually it's Red Rock Canyon. I was told not to miss it but again, this is a place you want to do some HIKING, not just ride through. Though I'm sure it's more majestic on a sunny day.



As for everything else: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".

But no, actually I didn't visit Vegas proper. I'll have plenty of opportunities to go to Vegas later in life. I don't think I'll ever run out of people whom I can convince that is a good idea. Meanwhile I didn't have my walking shoes, or a confidence inspiring amount of cash on me, so I was actually just a few miles from Las Vegas and I didn't bother going to the strip or Freemont Street. Next time, people, next time.

So what am I doing now? When I left Henderson, it was raining. I rode all the way back to Irvine in the rain. And then it rained all the next day. All through it. It has apparently been raining here for the past 3 days or so. My friend said "In 5 years I've never seen anything like this."

Oh well, I'm supposed to be leaving.

I was all set to leave Irvine yesterday but a fellow rider, seeing me gearing up started talking to me and was telling me that "in the last 10 miles I must've seen 20 accidents." He's describing full size bumpers broken off and lying in the middle of the street and cars losing control and spinning out all over the place.

I'm not particularly scared of the rain. It's even pretty warm out here so while a little uncomfortable, the rain isn't that bad. The rain is friendly, with no lightning. Water falling from the sky is not going to keep me off my bike. It's drivers that scare me. And to me, the idea of a freeway full of SUVs that are all over the place because the people who drive them don't think they need to be careful in inclement conditions is terrifying. More terrifying than the thought of a pizza eating a baby.

So daring to be an inconvenience I called my friend and asked if I could maybe stay a few extra nights to wait out the rain at his place. He agreed. "Yeah, I would hate to have to go to a funeral for a friend because they came out to visit me."

It never rains in California,
but girl don't they warn ya,
it pours, man it pours.



ATV cat says:
"Hell is other drivers."

Southern California

I left Palm Desert for Irvine and took the Pines to Palms Highway (US-74). What a treat this road was. It twists and winds through the beautiful Mt. San Jacinto state wilderness.



I think turning onto the Banning-Idyllwild Panoramic Highway (US-243) might lead to the route that's more fun, but even though I stayed on 74, I was treated to a beautiful sunset on a great road:



I got in to Irvine and met up with my friend Alex who I haven't seen in quite a few years (like most of the people I'm visiting).

Alex works for a quaint little gaming company down here called Blizzard. You might have heard of them. Anyway, today I got a tour of their campus. Totally cool but I'm not allowed to talk about anything I've seen. It's all very top secret.

Most Wolf Raiders know to stay away from Ian, but some need to learn the hard way...

California, preaching on the burning shore

My last few days in Arizona were spent in Tucson and then Phoenix and in each location I stayed with an amazing adventure biker of whose passion for what we do impresses even me. I'm now seriously considering a dual-sport for my next bike. We'll see how that pans out.

Meanwhile, I made it out to California!



Let's compare the view from where I'm staying now, to where I was 2 weeks ago:

Palm Desert:


Sandy:


Oh but it is good to be in SoCal.

Today I rode through Joshua Tree National Park.

If anyone tells you to skip this place, they are clearly a traveler who is only concerned with the destination. It's full of spectacular views, great big rock piles to climb on, and truffula trees:



I also saw a dude who I can only describe as Jesus Of The Desert in his flip-flops, capris, poncho, and fly-goggle sunglasses. And the best part is, he was driving this:


I love it here!

I beat the cold!

The day after the Grand Canyon, I went out to Meteor Crater.



The meteor that left this massive crater was about half the size of the parking lot at the bottom of this picture:



About 50,000 years ago, this meteor hit the earth at about 40,000 miles per hour, and left that giant hole in the ground.

This is a picture of a rock. A rock that FELL FROM OUTER SPACE! How cool is that?!



I decided to pass on the Petrified Forest. I was kind of close, but how much I've been pushing myself the past few days had been catching up to me and I just wanted to head back to where I was staying and relax. So I skipped the Petrified Forest and didn't bother stopping in Winslow, Arizona to stand on a corner and see if a girl in a flatbed Ford would slow down to take a look at me.

Yesterday as I was packing up my bike, I started talking to two other bikers on a couple of dual sport adventure type bikes. Turns out they're up from Argentina, traveling the world on their motorcycles and doing a documentary about water scarcity. It's a problem that a lot of the world faces that most people wouldn't imagine in this country. These guys are doing some noble work so check them out at www.motodestino.com.ar (most of it's in spanish).

It was lucky I ran into these guys though because it was Matias who pointed out that one of my bags was leaking. The side compartment of my luggage system was leaking a green fluid...that's where I've been keeping some extra radiator coolant/antifreeze since my radiator issue in Austin. Crap. Luckily it was just the cap on the bottle that crakced and not the bottle itself so it was just a mess instead of a disaster. He asks me what the bottle of mysterious green liquid is and I explain it's radiator fluid because I had a leak in Austin so I've been keeping extra but haven't needed it. He points out that Sebastian's bike needs antifreeze because he's been using water and they can't bring the bike anywhere where the temperature is below freezing.

Sweet serendipity! This stuff has been taking up space in my bags for the last few thousand miles and I've been looking for a way to get rid of it other than just throwing it out. I gave them about half my supply. I would have given them all I had but the rest was packed deep in Mt. Luggage and it would have been quite a hassle to get it out and then repack. I'm glad I could contribute to the cause though :)

I then rode from Flagstaff to Tucson via Sedona and Payson through the Tonto National Forest.

What a ride. I may have added an hour or two to my total trip, but it was so worth it. Sedona was such a cool place, even to just ride through, and the ride over there was amazing.

After hitting a whole knot of twisties I ended up in a canyon along a river that was just beautiful.





And then I entered the Tonto National Forest on my way to Payson and it was also amazing.

Now most of you probably picture the same thing I used to when I thought "Arizona":



But this is more like it:



Now here I am in Tucson where it's 73 degrees out.

Morgue Anne

My friends and I film sketch comedy in our free time under the company name "Sick Kids Productions". It's an incredibly fun hobby. We even produced a DVD of our work entitled "Nuclear Justice". Behind the end credits on the DVD is the picture from the end of "The Shining", only instead of seeing Jack Nicholson in the crowd you see all of us. That photo editing job was done by Morgan, a friend of Kreg's [sic].

One day during this past year in which I had a job in Secaucus, NJ, I was hanging out with Kreg after work and he says to me

"Morgan said she saw you at work yesterday."
"...What? No. Must've been one of my clones." On a side note, I do have several clones running about.
"No she's sure it was you. She asked me where you worked and I said 'Somewhere in Secaucus.' She thinks you work in the same building."
"There are a lot of somewheres in Secaucus. Can't be."

And a few days later as I'm walking back in the building from lunch, someone driving by in a car yells out "SICK KIDS PRODUCTIONS! YEAH!"

Small damn world, huh?

Eventually, it falls on me to deliver Morgan's copy of "Nuclear Justice". After a few text messages back and forth, this process has quickly taken on the tones of a hostage negotiation. She was to get her DVD, and I was to get a pirate. I didn't really feel I needed a pirate, but it's important to not let people think they have all the leverage. I even decided to throw in a munchkin. I can't remember why there were munchkins in the testing room that day, but there were.

It was apparent that neither one of us wanted to be the first one on the scene. After all, if you show up first it gives the other side time to observe you and plan an ambush. So as I was furtively glancing around a corner into the hallway like I was playing "Time Crisis", I caught a glimpse of Morgan furtively glancing around a corner into the hallway like she was playing "Time Crisis".



We made the exchange and she gave me a packet of ketchup along with the pirate. That left me feeling pretty good. Did I miss my calling as a hostage negotiator? I think so.

When I found out that the pirate separated into two parts, and inside was a treasure map, I kept it a secret. If she didn't know there was a treasure map in there, and I told her about it, she could call dibs and get the pirate back. That's pirate law right there.

I figured I would find the treasure on this trip, and now you know my real reason for leaving. I told her about the treasure map while I was in Dallas, beyond the boundaries of any repercussions, but she knew it was there the whole time. Did she already get the treasure? Did she take the real map and switch it for a decoy that points to the other side of the country? It's too late to worry about it now.

Anyway, her blog is pretty damn funny and she is amazing as a special effects artist. Morgan will make a zombie costume that will have you convinced the end is nigh and looting your local grocery store (with apologies to the Walgreens in Alamogordo). We agreed that rather than compete for followers, we would just link to each other's blogs on the condition that I draw her as a turtle as a peace offering. Hence the button to the right. She decided to make an exchange of it. So we each created a custom avatar for each other, her being a real artist and me being an MSPaint turtle-artist. Check out her blog, The Asylum follow it, enjoy it.

Out of the cold

There was a break in the weather on Saturday and the temperature got up to 45°F which was the warmest it was going to get, so I took the opportunity to book it south as fast as I could. I spent a night in Cedar City in a party apartment with some very cool musicians/students.

Sunday, I left Utah behind



and arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona where I'm staying until Wednesday.

On my way I ran into some trouble. About 100 miles out of Cedar City, I filled up my tank in Fredonia, Arizona at Judd Auto Service. As I drove away from the gas station I thought "What's that noise? And why is my bike all wobbly?...Oh crap. I have a flat tire."

I turned around and rode back in to the gas station where I asked them if there was anyplace that could repair a motorcycle tire around here. The guy behind the counter gives me like 6 different places to call, but all of them were closed on Sunday. So I ask if they have a plug kit or something and while they don't sell any there (or they were just out of them), Steve, the mechanic there had one. He found the hole in my tire, plugged it, and filled my tire back up with air. It looked like it was holding. He got me on the road again and didn't even ask for anything in exchange.

I've been checking my tire pressure every time I stop and it's holding steady. This is my personal thank you to the good folks at Judd Auto Service.

Today I went to the Grand Canyon, which has been a major destination of this trip.

The Grand Canyon is indescribable but for it's name. Sitting on the rim of the canyon, I just felt nothing. But the nothingness was vast. Talk about "mind blowing". There was wind and space and millions of years and me.

It is absolutely futile to bring a camera to try and take a picture of the Grand Canyon. It is good to have a camera along to take pictures of stuff you find in the canyon, and around the canyon, but no picture can do justice to the canyon itself.



Hardly makes the cut.

Walking around the canyon rim for a few hours is just the smallest taste of it. Ideally, I would be here with enough gear (and proper shoes) for a 2 or 3 day hike down into the canyon. I'll just have to return one day for that experience.

Just remember: