Oregon Trip, Day 1:

As mentioned before, I was up for a long time before making my run up to Portland. I was to meet Jason at A.J.'s house, and we'd be planning it to get there at about the same time.

Wednesday, I got up around noon, as I needed to find a new chain for the Ducati Multi, since the one on it right now is so stretched out, I can hear it clacking as I ride. No bueno!

After some phone calls, I find the chain, and also the sprockets, which come to find out...are more expensive than I thought.

On the Multi, the rear sprocket and sprocket carrier are 1 piece from Ducati. costing $251 bucks. holy hell! So after some talking, I found out I could buy a seperate sprocket carrier for $170, and a sprocket for $60 bucks....which is total of $230 dollars to replace the rear sprocket....and in the future, the only piece that I replace is the $60 dollar sprocket. So I chose this route.

After working all Wednesday night, I got home about 8am, put the chain on, and decided to wait on the sprockets till I got to Portland.

I threw the bags on the bike (this will be the first time I ride with hard bags on any bike), and headed out the door, about 10:20am. Start mileage: 22, 596

The plan is to bomb up the IH-5 and get to Portland as quickly as possible, and not fall asleep on the road. haha

The day was long, and even though I had my gas spots planned out, I was working with different readings on the dashboard to see how far I could go. The first gas stop was in Willows, Ca. at 144 miles. not to shabby. But I thought I could push it more. So on the next one, I was watching the "fuel remaining" reading on the dashboard....imagine my surprise when the bike said it had used 4.3 gallons of the 5.5 available, and suddenly sputtered just before cresting over a long uphill. Forcing me to dive across 2 lanes of traffic past some more than annoyed 18-wheeler drivers, I'm sure. haha

On the side of the road, I shook the bike, and kept getting it to turn on and go about a 1/10 of a mile at a time. I had run out of gas just before the sign that said, fuel = 1 mile. So I knew I was close. The bike finally wouldn't start, and I stood there for a bit, before beginning the arduous task of pushing my bike to the gas station. for shame. LOL

A guy on a harley stopped by, asked what was wrong, I simply said it was out of gas, and he told me about the next gas stop. Nice guy, but nothing he could do for me at the time, so we said our goodbyes. About 5 minutes later, a gentleman with his family stopped and asked if I was out of gas...I said yes, and he simply says "I got some you can have". Super awesome!!!! Sure enough, Dario had a 5 gallon tank in the trunk of his car. After grabbing a gallon, I shook his hand, he refused any money, and went along his way. There are still very cool people out there.

After fueling up at Hilt, Ca. I resumed my ride north. I didn't lose much time either, about 30 minutes total.

With the day getting long, and me getting tired, since I've been awake since the day before, around noon...I am ready to get off the bike. I make it into Portland, right after 6pm, and wind my way to my buddies house, by about 7pm. Jason had just arrived 20 minutes ealier, and A.J. had arrived from work, 5 minutes earlier. I don't think we could have planned it any better.

I arrived to a stout beer, and great friends. End mileage: 23,236 miles (total for today, 640 miles)

After getting the bikes settled in, we had more beer, a couple cheladas, and one of the best freaking burritos I've ever had from the local restaurant "Los Gorditos".

We ended up downtown somewhere, having a drink at a bar, where a friend of mine works, and I got to say hi to her as well. A great first day. I need sleep!!!

Oregon

Soooo, Thursday morning finally rolled around, and after a long 12 hours of work, I got to the house, and put the new chain on the Multistrada. 30 minutes of work, the bags were already packed, which was perfect, as I just threw them on the bike, and off I go. 10am start time from S.F.

It was a long day of bombing straight north on IH-5 to just get to Portland. :) It finally got nice near the Oregon border, although unfortunately, while trying to check the distance of my gasoline, I ...................wait for it.......................ran out of gas. hahaha wtf?!

as soon as the bike died, I passed a sign that said, gasoline 1 mile. so the good thing is that I had no more than 1 mile to push my bike, so I had that going for me....which is nice.

After about pushing for a 1/4 mile, a dude on a harley pulls up, and asks what's wrong, I say no gas, and I thank him for stopping. Then a guy in a car, with his family stops, hops out, asks "out of gas?", I say "yes", and he returns with "I got 5 gallons in the trunk, grab some".

Nice. haha so I throw in a gallon of gas and get to the gas station. Time wasted? less than 30 minutes. Thank you Dario.

The rest of the way was without incident, and I got to my buddy's house 20 minutes after Jason did (from Seattle). We caught up, drank a bunch, and I passed out about midnight. seeing as how I was clicking over the 36 hours of no sleep, and it was starting to take a bit of toll on me. haha (I had been awake since Wed at noon, it was now Thursday midnight)

Day 2: Jason and I took our time in the morning, and rode to the Ducati shop, where I got to test ride the new Multistrada 1200. I gotta give this bike 2 thumbs way up. With an 1198 motor in it, and fly by wire suspension, traction control and Horsepower adjustments at a click of a button...I went from "urban mode" to "sport mode" in an instant. what a difference.

Jason and I then rode out to Astoria, Oregon for some lunch at the Cannery. I'll just say that the Salmon burger, with it's huge chunk of Salmon fillet was so damn good.

We rode over the Astoria bridge, after having ridden up Hwy 47 (an amazing road of twisties, canopies of tress, no traffic, and the occasional adrenaline pump when I would go into a turn too hot and on the brakes) hahaha so much fun.

Pictures are coming. Jason is taking pictures, and we're headed east today. as well as to the Multnomah Falls. Another thing to cross of my list. :)

back with photos in a few.

Oregon road trip - Today!

Leaving after work for a ride up to Portland for a couple days, and then east on the bike. Which is completely dependent on getting the chain on and riveted. hahaha breaking the cardinal rule of never doing repairs or changes to your bike the day of, or night before, of a long distance ride.

but oh, well. before I say it's a simple change...I'll just say, the chain is ready to snake through the sprockets, and needs to be riveted and that is it.

Riding to Portland today, and meeting Jason there for some fun with my friends from Portland. should be good. I'll be back with photos, and yes, I've been slacking, thanks to a non-working computer (dropped my laptop from the bed hahaha) and now the screen doesn't work. :(

I think a new laptop is in my near future. along with many photos to come.
I see many monster energy drinks in my near future today. :D

work ends in 30 minutes.

brand new bag(s)...baby

First I'll start with a couple of updated photos of the new ride. :D I recently had the suspension dialed in by Dave Moss at Catalyst Suspension in San Carlos. The bike used to push wide in curves, but now, it banks and turns and seems to float on a dime. Very good setup at the moment.

So a few months back, I scored some used hard luggage for the Multistrada for long distance trips, and so I don't have to haul my messenger bag everywhere I go (as it gets painful after about 500 miles).

Picked these up for about 300 bucks, used, scratched up, and had them prepped (sanded), as seen above with the old Ducati Red. I got them back the other day, and went to town with some primer and black gloss paint......

....and finally

some clear coat to match the bike. not to shabby for a garage rattle can job. The clear coat is about the best you can do with a rattle can, UPOL-#1 Clear. depending on how you spray it, you can give it a gloss look, or a wrinkled look.

Finally, I mounted the luggage rack and hardware to the bike (about 30 minutes of easy bolt on), and latched the bags on the bike to see how she stands.

She's looking pretty good...even with a nice wide ass. hahaha junk in the trunk. :D

Soon, heated grips, and a custom seat, so it doesn't feel like a plank after 200 miles.

Had to purchase new tires recently, with 6,000 miles on the current ones, after finding a screw in the rear tire when I got home from Nevada. Can't say enough great things about the Michellin Pilot Road 2 tires.

A day at the range..

Saturday was pretty slow, and since I wasn't going to get a chance to go to Laguna Seca for the races this weekend, I figured I'd go and do something fun. :D Like shooting guns at the range. First stop, Jackson Arms, in South San Francisco.

Firing some rounds at the zombie targets...you know...just in case. HAHA Lin, on the right learning to fire the .45

After we were done, I got a call from my friend Will, who wanted to go to Bullseye range in Larkspur....so we threw the bicycles in the truck, and picked him up and tried to make it down to the ferry on time. Missed it by 5 min, so we just drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Co. Traffic was horrible, being a Saturday and all, but we got there, fired another round of shells, and made our way back. Thru bumper to bumper traffic....took us an hour to go what normally takes 10 minutes. lame. but at least we'd gone shooting, and it was a good day.

Will checking his shots.

Great times instructing a newb shooter (Lindsey), and firing off a few rounds (200).
afterwards, we were starving...as shooting usually works up an appetite. So we stopped by the In & Out burger, and I got two cheeseburgers and tons of fries. :D a good day for sure.

SF Armory.

I had a chance 2 days ago to stop by the old Armory in SF. 14th and Mission. The building, surprisingly enough, is pretty inocuous and slips your sight if you don't pay much attention to it. It is surprisingly bigger than what it appears while driving by it too. The building was built over Mission Creek, which still runs under it, and housed the National Guard, after being completed in 1914, in the style of an old Moorish Castle. It stayed in use until 1978, when it was designated as a historical site. Some much planned condos were put by the wayside, after they encountered much community resistance. Eventually, it was quietly sold to a company, which now leases it to it's current occupants.... Kink.com :D


Parking outside, with seemingly no entrance, and no signs anywhere.
The indoor photo is of a window, lining the side of the 39,000 square foot drill court. The windows housed anti-aircraft guns that could fire over the city and into the bay. pretty cool shit.

Underground/basement walk through shows, on the right, the indoor rifle range, which is pretty significant in size, and to the rear of that photo is Mission Creek.

On the left is a movie prop, used for...well.....you can distinguish, that that is a chainsaw belt, with tongues attached. :D haha Johnny Five, is alive!! There were underground horse stables, which have since been converted into movie sets.

I'll have to go back for the official tour, but it was still a great day to get inside such a historic building. As well, as touring along with it's current occupants. :D

Gold Coast, July 4th, 2010.

So for a long time now, I've enjoyed just simply going on a motorcycle ride and finding an unassuming town and enjoying whatever little tidbits it has to offer. Whether it be enjoying a farmers market, a parade, a local show, etc... it's always fun to experience a bit of Americana on road trips.

So this July, I had about 5 days off, and figured a road trip was in order. The multi would be going on it's first west coast ride.

I had no real plan, but to ride north, maybe hit some of the fantastic roads that Norcal has to offer. I would end up taking 299 from Redding to Arcata which was fun enough, with light traffic. Not to shabby, but I still need to hit Hwy 36 with it's imposing 140 miles of twisties.

Since we were on a leisure ride, and no real plan, we simply got out of the bay area on the first day, slabbing it north to get some distance towards our destination...wherever that may be.

Spent the first night in a regular motel, in Anderson, Ca.

Then jammed it over 299 to the coast.

Along the way, we stopped for some gas and a pbr, and took a photo with this homage to a local legend. Bigfoot. :D

From Arcata, we rolled north along the coast on Hwy 1 towards Oregon.

We made a run through the Redwoods N.F. (note myself and the bike under the redwood) and stopped at the Trees of Mystery to check out this giant statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. :D with testicles and all. hahahaha

We passed into Oregon, without much fanfare, and stopped at the tallest bridge in Oregon. The Thomas Creek Bridge, at 345 feet.

..and walked around to some of the sights....this photo above, is about 500 ft above the water below. pretty deceiving unless you look closely. The reason the trail was closed, was due to the high amounts of poison oak along the trail...hahahaha didn't see the sign, before I went over the log blocking the way. Oh well, PO doesn't affect me. so it was all good.

With the day getting long, and it being super windy, we decided to go no further than Gold Coast, Oregon. I'd been thru here before, on my rides to Seattle, and found a nice cheap local motel to stop at. After getting settled in, we bought some drinks, and went down to the beach for a nice sunset. A bit chillier than socal, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

No one else on the beach, but with a nice sweatshirt, thanks to the Kimchi, it was just fine.
Especially while enjoying a Chelada on the coast. :)

The next day we decided to make the most of the trails in the area, and hike about. As well as to stick around Gold Coast, and enjoy the local 4th of July celebration. Which would start with an F-15 fly by at about 11:30am. That was cool to see, even though it was quick.

We rode around, and saw Arch rock, and then a few of these ginormous boulders, rocks, remnants of a bygone era........and the sheer size of them is impressive. That's me on the far right photo, down by the water.

After a nice day, sunny, yet windy, we headed down to the piers where the main festivities would be held. On lineup, was the Cajun band to play, the pie and watermelon eating contests, and the patriotic pooch show. hahaha As you can tell from the above photo, there is always one little dude, who doesn't care about what others think. He got out with the band playing and danced to his own tune. Much to the enjoyment of the entire crowd. That is how I hope my kid will be one day. Simply can't be bothered with what others think of his behavior, and about people looking/laughing in his general direction.

The patriotic pooch show went well, with many a different class of dog out there, and all the local kids trying to be in as many events as possible. The pie eating contest was held with great fanfare, and the little dudes (dancing dude included) went at it full throttle. hahaha

Finally, it was time for the fireworks, and they were stellar. Great to spend a good evening checking the fireworks, and enjoying a bit of rural America, in my opinion, every now and then. Reminds me of why this country is so great, and why I love it so much.

We took it easy that night, as it was 400 miles home the following morning. It went well, with a spirited ride down the 101 south into SF. With an obligatory stop to get a post-ride beer, at Zeitgeist. I went for 2 pbr, as that is how I roll. :D

great trip, great experience, and I can honestly say, this was one of the better July 4th's I've spent in a long while.

too much time away from the computer...is good, no?

Well, I haven't been able to get on here and update lately, but have had some good trips recently. My laptop is on the fritz, and hopefully getting it looked at tomorrow, and possibly fix it, so I can put up photos.

Recently rode out to Hawthorne, Nv. with a bunch of friends from the bay area, and spent 3 days in Nevada, riding and seeing sights, but more importantly, drinking and hanging out by the pool. :D

I have to talk about one thing while I'm at it....Saturday evening, after a good day of riding with several of the guys and gals, we were swimming and I was chatting with one of the ladies in the group. We were throwing stories back and forth, and somehow the story of myself being sent to a survival camp in Ontario at the tender age of 11 y/0 came up. Before I could finish, she asked "Was it Northwaters?"

I was like, "wtf?!" and then "no, but it was Langskib, the all boys camp" and she was in the sister camp (coed, but both run by the Northwaters group) What the hell?! out of nowhere. I've seen this lady a few times in our motorcycling groups and chatted here and there, but to randomly find out all of a sudden that she was at the same camps as myself only a few years after I was...was pretty rad and unexpected.

Needless to say, we talked a bunch and filled in each other with memories that either we couldn't remember, and were filling in spaces for each other, or just marveling at finding someone that had experienced the same thing. 27 years, and I had never met anyone else that had been to these camps. It was an intense 4 weeks of canoeing, camping, hunting, and learning to live in the bush, with little to no resources, while respecting the land and what it has to offer.

The camp had a few agreements with the local Ojibway Indians and for that, were allowed to use their land, and tried to instill the same philosophies to us. It pretty much defined the rest of my life and how I have been able to do just about anything I put my mind to. No complaints, no crying...just do it. Survive! Live! and if the world takes everything you own, away from you....you live with the certainty that you will survive and not fall apart.

eh.. it was crazy. but loads of fun to know/meet someone that had been there too.

after that we all drank heavily, ate tons of good food, and talked motorcycles for the rest of the night, before riding home in the morning.

I have many photos from the trip, and will get them uploaded asap, as well as a few fun videos. :D

Here is a teaser, from our Saturday. I decided to tag along with one group, and we rode to Bodie State Park/Ghost town.....and then we rode back to Lee Vinning for some lunch at Mono Cone (best burger, just east of Yosemite) and then we stopped in Nevada to toss a few rounds down range. :D

The Stinkin' Rose, SF. 7-6-10

The Stinking Rose
325 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, Ca.
94133

So I've been in the bay area for about 5 years now, on and off, traveling back and forth, and out for contracts.....and probably about a year into being here, I heard of a restaurant named "The Stinkin' Rose". A restaurant that specialized in using Garlic as it's main, if not primary ingredient in all of it's dishes. As some of you may know, Gilroy is the self professed garlic capital of the world, and just south of San Jose, Ca. Each year they have a garlic festival, and you can smell it for miles and miles.

I had heard varying reviews, and one of them was that this place was overpriced and more hype than worth it. well, screw it, I really like Garlic, and wanted to try out this place, so, I finally made it out for some dinner, with Lindsey.

We started off with some roasted garlic cloves in olive oil sauce, with bread on the side. The garlic simply smushes onto the bread like butter.....garlicy butter. DELISHIOUS!!!!!!

Followed by a little Garlic and Fontina cheese fondue. Holy smokes, if nothing else, you have to get this. So good...I could have eaten 2 orders by myself...but I was saving myself for the Piece de resistance.

I ordered the Lamb Shank, in chianti sauce with farva beans, and a nice side of garlic mashed potatos, with cream spinach. I have to say right away, that the meat was so tender, soft and juicy, that I immediately seemed to go into a food coma when I began to eat it. hahahaha

Lamb can be weird to cook, and sometimes gets to dry. Not here. It was succulent, tasty, well complimented, and definitely a dish I could see myself eating a lot of. Needless to say I finished the whole thing, and we rolled out of this restaurant.

It's definitely somewhere that you will need a reservation on a busy weeknight, but we walked in about 7pm on a weekday, and they had plenty of tables available. It's surprisingly roomie inside, and there is a row of private tables, more suited for 2 people, but definitely will hold 4 people in a cozy and private setting, around the side. The waiters are a little tardy and innattentive...but not by much. Not enough to be a problem, that's for sure...and I personally like to be left alone when I'm eating, instead of having a waiter constantly by to ask, how I'm doing.

all in all a great dining experience in North Beach.

WORLD CUP FINAL!!!! Netherlands vs. Spain!

Netherlands vs. Spain.

Some history real quick, Netherlands has been to the final 2 times in '74 and '78. Both times Netherlands lost. Spain has never been to the finals, but has been to the last 13 World Cups, which equals 52 years of playing world cup, in a row. (World Cup is every 4 years, for those that don't follow it. haha)

Spain is playing a good game, controlling, and keeping the ball the majority of the play so far. A few close calls, but who knows where this will go. I'm torn on who to root for, as the Spanish have always been disrespectful to the Mexican community, as if looking down from their pompous high horse. the netherlands, well, it would be cool if they finally won the WC, but honestly, from the first 30 minutes of play, I think the Spanish have outplayed them. There is already 5 yellow cards in the first 30 min of play. I foresee a red card and ejection to come in the second half. Possibly in the next 15 minutes. hahaha

I am happy to see new teams making it to the final, and not the same ones of the last decade.
The favorites are out, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France and Italy....some of the heavy hitters, who as we know, some of them didn't even make it out of the first round....fu France! hahaha

back to the game....

July 4th weekend!

Had a great weekend riding in Norcal and Souther Oregon for the July 4th weekend celebrations. Made a last minute decision to stay in the town we were stopped in, for the fireworks, and it worked out great.

Over 1000 miles
beautiful scenery, and roads.
fast, fun, twisties
Experienced a bit more of America, randomly spending July 4th in Gold Beach, Oregon. :D

pictures to come as soon as I download and organize them.

update:

been offline for many days. so much going on.

had some good trips around the area lately.

World Cup fever is coming to an end soon.
So far USA, Mexico out. The two teams I was rooting for the most.

Spain just beat out Portugal, and Japan was axed by Paraguay in a very hard game, that went to penalty kicks after 1:20 hours of play.

be back with more soon.

oh, and Brownie, suck it. hahahaha

good day of games in the World Cup.

Damn, there are some serious surprises going on in World Cup.

Too bad too many Americans think this game is boring...I absolutely love the World Cup. Brings out the best, worst of every countries team. hahaha

Surprises, Germany upset by Serbia. Holy Hell, that ref was handing out yellow cards as if they were candy, plus the red card that dropped the German team to 10 players, allowing Serbia to score soon after. Then the Germans were given the greatest gift you can receive in World Cup play....a penalty kick....and they botched it. what the hell?! hahahaha

USA ties in their match, in the second half....2-2, which was huge, since they were down by 2 through the first half. It keeps them in the game, but they have to play Algeria next week. Who probably won't be an easy team to match up against, seeing as how Algeria just tied with England 0-0 (they played hard, and both sides defended very well), that was a major blow for England. but then again, I'm okay with that. hahahaha

I really need to start recording these games...as usually there is 3 games per day. Starting at 4-4:30 in the morning, 2nd one at 11am, and 3rd one at 1-2pm. hahahaha doesn't help that I'm working nights in a row. oh well, it's World Cup....only happens every 4 years.

GGOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mexico vs France

Mexico by 2 goals, one by penalty!

tied in 1st place with Uruguay in their group.

Tomorrow, USA takes on Slovenia for a key game to keep them in play.

watching the games on a 50 inch flat screen is the best!!!

R.T.O. relay race 6/3-4/2010

Well, for the 2nd time, I participated in the Reno/Tahoe Odyssey relay race, around Lake Tahoe, starting in Reno. I hooked up with the same team as last year, all hashers, and this year we would be rocking the #69. haha

I drove up to Reno on Thursday and met the other hashers for dinner at Silverpeak. We figured we'd be meeting up at the start point in the morning, and then have breakfast. I would be in Van #2, which had 3 new legs for all of us. (last year, we were in Van #1).


My first leg would be #11 (5.5 mi), followed by #23 (6.2 mi) and #35 (7.5 mi) Some photos at the first van exchange. All the members are hashers, so it's pretty laid back. Ray (No Film) would go out first from this section.

A few hashers and the van painted up for identifiability. haha


Photo on the left was at a stop we made for Greg (Got Wood!?), on his running section.

Photo on the right is Joe (posterior), waiting for Mike to get in and tag off, so she could run the downhill of Geiger grade. This is during the final 6 stages of the race, and we all are running our final leg.


During my legs, I just told them to drive to the exchange point, and didn't need them to stop, except for the last leg, because it was near 90 degrees, and 7.5 miles. I had a hand water bottle, and it held me just fine the evening before, and that morning (around 3am).


The Reno Tahoe Odyssey Trail relay is a fun event that brought 153 relay teams together to run around the lake for a total of 178 miles. Our final time was 27 hr 47 min. an hour faster than the year before. My brother in law was kicking 6.5 min miles...hahaha he had the fastest times of our team.

This is one of the final photos at the ceremonial finish line, with the whole team. The final runner, fudgina, had just finished her leg. Included in the picture is Beaver Spit who broke her leg 2 weeks before the event, and needed an alternate to run for her (my brother in law). She was our team Captain.