Countdown!!!

2 Days and counting till I leave for Reno and the Iguanas H3. Setting the trail on Saturday and looking to destroy a few people. :D hahaha

Then on on to Burning Man. I "think" I have everything I need, most likely, not.

back to the packing.

Seattle and back... prologue

Finally made it back from Seattle, after 6 long days of riding the motorcycles, drinking a lot of beer, and hashing, and then riding back in the central California valley heat.

Sitting here at work, still jazzed from an amazing trip. Pictures to come, unfortunately can't grab them while at work, so will just wait till I get home to post up a decent trip report.

Needless to say, my buddy Ben, had a trying time. LOL First, I didn't realize he did his longest motorcycle ride on the first day that we rode out of San Francisco. San Francisco to Madras, Oregon. It didn't seem like a lot to me, but later on that night he told me that it was the longest (approx. 600 miles) hahaha

Jason rode down from Seattle and met us there, for the ride back north.

Ben lost his wallet as it shot out of his jacket pocket...I saw this, pulled over (as he rode on, not even noticing) and there I am sprinting across 2 lanes of traffic to the center divider at the end of a long left hand curve...blind to the oncoming traffic, grabbing wallet, cash, license, and credit cards. About an hour later, after returning his wallet, I saw a nice shiny phone go smashing down the road. LOL

a few of the highlights...
Conversation with a Washington State Trooper...
enough beer to kill a donkey....
hashing with Tacoma on their 600th run....
river crossings.....
converting another person to the joys of Cheladas.....
riding our motorcycles north to Seattle and back......

more to come....back to work for me.

Glad to get some shifts in, as our work acuity has picked up. Not bad, as I am seriously looking for a new motorcycle, and I have decided which one it will be for sure this time. :D

With a little help from my friend A.J. at MotoCorsa in Portland, Oregon...I am going to get a hoped up Ducati to tour on.

more to come....

Seattle roadtrip

It's been a while since I visit Seattle, Wa. So I figured what better time than the Tacoma H3's 600th run out in Landsburg, Wa. The illustrious hare, Magot, should be putting on a fine trail up in the mountains, as well as providing his milk goats for warmth and caressing at night. LOL

I talked a friend of mine into going with me. This was kind of a last minute deal, as I like to be spontaneous, sometimes...hahaha most of the time. Well, truth be told, I was told to quit making things so spontaneously, as most of the guys can't ride out on these trips, cause I don't give them enough heads up.

Either way, Ben, works from home, so he's packing his lap top and is in.

Leaving in a few hours, and after goading Jason into it, he is going to ride down, from Seattle, after work this morning and meet us somewhere in mid-Oregon.

Looking forward to getting out on the road, punching out some miles, listening to some music, and spending the weekend with friends, regardless of how far the bike makes it. I say this, in an effort to ward off any gremlins that may rear their ugly head. I keep saying that the Duc is not going on any more long trips, and yet, here I am, blasting out of town in a few hours.

Finally got some hours in at work, as we've been super short on patients (mostly cause one of our surgeons went on vacation), so now that I have rent and food covered, it's all good. :D

Plan is to go home right after work, nap for 2 hours, the bag is packed, and Ben will come up around 11am, for our departure. Slab it up the IH-5 for about 280 miles, turn off at Weed, Ca. (hahaha), and north to Klamath Falls, Oregon area. Gonna try and swing through Crater Lake National Park . For some pictures and some twisty roads.

The plan is to make it to northern Oregon, meet up with Jason, chill with some beers and food, and then on Friday, we'll bug north and arrive Seattle, for the hash happy hour. My idea was to ride around Mt. St. Helen's area, and grab a couple shots with the bikes up that way. I haven't been there in about 5 years, and a few years back, the mountain started belching smoke so bad that they had to reroute flight paths for commercial airliners. Kinda want a good picture and ride through there before it blows again. :( Here is a short video of the 1980 eruption that killed 53 people, and whose volcanic ash made it around the world, basically leveling an entire mountain.

Rain? Really?

I don't know why it makes me laugh so hard when people around here (Bay Area) freak out at the slightest drops of rain on the road. We hardly ever get any rain, but when we do, it's the end of the world for them. People start freaking out, they don't go to work, they whine and complain about how wet it is outside. how lame.

That whole process got me thinking and missing actual rain. You know the kind that just comes down in torrents, soaking everything, loud and replenishing. Sitting on the porch or watching out the garage door (like back in Corpus Christi) waiting for a bit of respite, so you can go ride your motorcycle. Nonetheless, still a very cool thing that I am missing at the moment.

Off to Seattle for the weekend with some friends on the bikes. Maybe we'll get some decent rain on the way up.

photos to come.

Half-Sleeve update...

So it's affectively been 8 months since I last went in for any ink on my arm. I just put it on the back burner, and it was not really at the top of the list. Having settled a bit, what with being out of town a lot of weekends, I decided to give my tattoo guy a call and chat with him about the background needed to finish up my right arm. Well, one conversation led to another, and that was this past Tuesday, and yesterday I went in for a brief session.

Well, the thought was to have a brief session and finish the front part of the arm, as he drew free hand on the arm with sharpies and then outlined things and colored it in. After an hour and a half, he had finished the front, but for the ribbon and a couple of the details, and we decided to go on with the rest of the background (wind bars, clouds, shading, etc.) Next thing you know, it's been 4 hours, and I'm starting to wince and he finishes.

Hahaha had to finish with the upper most portion of my underarm....that smarted, but good.

here is some photos. I'll try and drag up photos from the beginning and do one long post with the progressive photos, once I am done with the arm piece.

BOHICA campout

Rode down to Lake Isabella area for a hash campout, after bagging on the races for this weekend (July 11th)

Started off as a long night on Friday with the Bostones at the fillmore, and lots of beer till about 4am. Well, there went my well laid plans to leave at 0530 to make it in time for the mountain bike bash. hahaha Regardless, I got up around 9am, had breakfast at the pork store with everyone that spent the night at my house. After a very leisurely morning, the guys kept harassing me to just stick around. and even bet on it. Well, that led to one thing.....I'd be rolling down to southern California without a doubt. :D

About 1pm, I was packed and ready to roll. one change of clothes, some shorts, my runners, and my sleeping bag with my hash mug attached, and I was out the door, much to the surprise of the guys who are worse than women when it comes to getting ready. The ride down was pretty uneventful, I was just going for time. So bombed down the 101 to Gilroy, and then over the 152 and Pacheco Pass onto IH-5 for the run south. 100 miles later, I cut east past Hwy 99 and onto hwy 155. I realized I'd been on here before with Leyla many years before. There is a nice spot to get off the road and take a break, up in the mountains. ;)

There is no cell service up at the A frame, so I would be going on coordinates alone and hope to find it. After turning off on Kelso Valley Rd, and going 25 miles, I found the dirt road that led to the property. 8.5 miles of this, and I'm almost there. and ready for some beer.

Long shadows in the evening, but the bike is running fine, and not doing too bad in the dirt. I'm ready to get off the bike though.

Once I arrived, there was no mistaking it...as the bike is loud enough to hear from miles away. Everyone was in the hot tub (situated just to the left of that big boulder in the photo above). It's a man made hot tub, with a wood burning stove next to it, that cycles water through it, heating it up, and making it a kickass thing to have up in the mountains. No sooner had the bike been turned off, that Kenna was hollerin' for me to grab a beer she had poured. I think I was down to my skivies by the time I hit the hot tub a mere 20 ft away. :D righteous way to finish a long day of hangover and riding.

Dusty boots. The dry clutch does not approve.

Allison and Kenna being very welcoming. I love the BOHICA.

The toy. Polaris Razor. So Saturday night, Jimmy took this thing out and was giving folks rides. Phallus was in it with him, when they were drifting (sliding) around a corner at full throttle, and the left side tires blew out (pressure was probably too low) and the wheels caught in the dirt and launched the 4 wheeler in the air, then rolling 1 1/2 times. so awesome. All the guys were jealous that she was in the car and not them...including me.
Cause it must have been a helluva ride.

The next day everyone pitched in to try and get the tires back on and catch the bead while trying to air them up.

It was obvious after we got the two tires aired up, that the rear axle was jacked. as the right rear tire was further forward than the left rear tire. so much for rides. so off to lunch/breakfast we went.

Stripper dogs are the best. Bacon wrapped hot dogs, with beer for breakfast and dinner.

With that done, and a trail already laid by Numb Nutz, and us having completed it, it was time to make BOHICA shirts. So the stencil and the spray paint came out.

Pretty snazzy way to make event shirts if you ask me. cost? a couple cans of spray paint. how? well, the hashers bring a shirt of their choice, and then the logo is spray painted on the shirt. My shirts have gone through the laundry plenty of times, and the logo is still happily bright and clear.

Of course, shorts were made too. This was the first ever BOHICA shorts made. Much to the pleasure of all the guys at the campout. hahahaha It also became the first ever BOHICA (butt)tattoo, as the paint went right through the spandex. god bless harriettes. :D

On to circle, with chewcaca having driven in from Oklahoma to arrive at about 3am on Sunday morning, to drink, run trail and then get on the road to go see his family. hahaha

GA + Y = well, you know the rest.

A future Bohican/Knuckledragger.

After drinking all morning on Sunday, I tapered off some, and decided I needed to get home. 355 miles to go. not feeling the best, but I took off. Got off the mountain, and the heat was brutal. At my first gas stop, I almost puked....got some heat exhaustion, chugged some water and gatorade and made my way out on hwy 155 again, into the central valley. Hot as HELL!!!!

had to stop and rest at my gas stop on IH-5, but got home reasonably early...about 8:30 pm.

Rolled into the cave (my room) and chilled the rest of the night.

I have to say one thing about the BOHICAn's, they truly are the essence of what a hash campout should be. No bitching or whining, they are all very self sufficient, most of them run long distance, if not mountain bike regularly, so no one complains about the difficulty of trails, mtn bike or running....and they like to drink heavily, and get crazy. it's small enough, so the big planning is non-existent, and I always have a blast with them. hence I keep going to visit. To me, that's the secret to a great H3 campout. On to the next one.

A quick shot of the bike on the way down the hill. No more photos from here, as I was just on a mission to get home. Great time.

"May your air be filled with tires" -Bohica

NEEDS TO BE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, the "Tour de In & Out" needs to happen soon! hahahaha



Yep, that's right, Donnie, I'm looking at you buddy!



No matter who I talk to about it out here, all I get is doubt and negativity, over the idea of riding around the bay loop (approximately 110 miles) and stopping at the 8 easily accesible In & Out burgers along the way to eat a cheeseburger (yep, I've dropped it down to a cheeseburger so that these fools would have better incentive) and still nothing.

I, on the other hand, think it's a phenomenal idea....as does Donnie. :D

Time to fast for a day, gas up the bike, grab the camera, map and ride. He who holds down all the burgers, wins. hahahahaha

Now to pick a day.

Mighty Mighty Bostones @ the Fillmore

So a few weeks back I was talking to some friends about ska and we brought up the Bostones, and how nothing had been heard from them, and mostly the guys were saying that they didn't tour anymore. Imagine my surprise when I saw them pop up on the fillmore lineup. So I grabbed 2 tickets to the show. Managed to convince some friends (Correne and Dave) to come out to the show. With a co-worker of mine sharing the other ticket, we were on our way.

Then I get a call from my buddy Shawn asking me to buy him some tickets, since he's on his way, and he'll give me cash at the door. So I get two more tickets and text him. He arrives at the restaurant and says he bought tickets cause he didn't hear back from me. wth?! hahahaha

well Shit!!! So we call Ed, and Stan and they both are game, so now we got 6 of us out at the concert. Couldn't have worked out more perfectly. I was stoked to catch a band that I listened to a long time ago.

Funny, cause on stage the lead apologized for their long drawn out hiatus and promised that a new record is in the mix....as he put it, he became like "Axl Rose" of guns&roses, and he was sorry for that, and how long it took to get more songs out.

With that the show went on, and man it was jammin...

Non stop....

hahaha I ran into the mosh pit, and had my phone camera set to take pics. snapped this one off in the middle of getting bounced around, and running the pit. Some jackass decided it was a grand idea to bring a pint of beer into the pit. : Sherioushly dude,! WTF?!?! hahaha the beer didn't stay in the glass for that long, and I was wearing a good portion of it. but who cares, it was too much fun.

A good closing encour...badass time, and really great show.

a nice mention....

Read this race report from the WS100. Nice little mention. :)

Duran Duran @ the Fillmore

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Mighty Mighty Bostones....

at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Yep, going to see them on the 10th of July. Should be a rockin' concert.

ws100 volunteer experience

This last weekend I went up to Auburn, Ca to volunteer at the medical tent, at the finish line, for the Western States 100. I wanted to get an up close encounter with what this event might have in store. It is one of the more challenging 100 mile races in the states, and runners come from all over the world.

A bit about the Western States 100, it is in it's 35th year of running, and had 399 runners signed up to run it (edit: 238 runners finished). With the 2008 race being cancelled due to smoke from forest fires being to thick, many of the runners that were slated to run in 2008, were actually carried over to 2009. I signed up to volunteer and was placed at the finish line. Some years they have enough volunteers and others, they don't. So I prepared myself for anything. Mostly, figured it'd be a lot of mass casualty scenarios as runners are coming in close groups, near the end. Lots of IV starts, rehydration and monitoring for hyponatremia, vomiting, et al.

I arrived on Saturday morning, while lots of the structures and finish line setups were just being put up, and then went for a quick run in the blistering 103 deg F heat of the central valley. It was fucking hot, plain and simple, with little to no air movement in the valley I was running, it sapped the energy right out of me. My friend, Steph, went for a bicycle ride around Folsom Lake instead, and did 45 miles, and also came in pretty beat.

My shift wouldn't start till about 9pm that night, when they expected the first runners to come in. I was asked if I could work till 11am, as that is the cutoff (30 hours) for all runners. I said I'd see what I could do.

After meeting the friendly staff in the medical tent, we went through what might happen, how the runners are acting when they come in, and what to expect...since this is my first year volunteering there. It was a good time, and then the waiting for the first runner, who was on par to finish in just over 16 hours, so we had heard. List of finishers.

The winner, Hal Koerner, finished in 16 hours 24 minutes 55 seconds. Damn.
The course record is 15:36, if I remember correctly.

It was interesting to see the first 10 finishers (which included the top woman finisher, Anita Ortiz) come in, some of them deliriously blabbing on and on, others acting like little babies, that need to be coddled and throwing tantrums in the med tent, cause they want to be tucked in and shit. really, come on dude! you're fine, you're now trying to take advantage of the situation. make room for the next runner. The womans 2nd place finisher (my new crush) came in and ended up needing some assistance and we kept her in the tent longer than normal. This was her best finish at ws100 and she'd pushed pretty hard. I was happy to see her get up and walk out on her own later on.

I spent all night there, till about 0730, when I decided it was time to go for a break, and was pretty much done for the day, since they had 5 more volunteers that were going to cover the morning portion. I started 14 IV's, and we monitored more than that, as they'd come in, cool off and then weren't able to move anywhere, vomiting, cramping, and needing fluids.

In the middle of the night, I texted my friend Jasper to encourage him. He texted back later saying he'd had to drop (mile 55) cause he was sneezing/coughing up blood. shit. well, I felt really bad for him, but he was in good spirits when he came in, and we talked for a while, as well as the other hashers that were crewing for him.
They went to the bar to get drunk and relax, and I went back to work, this being about 0030 in the morning.

I was almost ready to leave in the morning, when another hasher (Finger in the dyke, from the Long Beach H3 area) came running in. She wasn't the happiest, as she'd been on a sub 24 hour pace, and bonked hard, bringing it in about 25 hours and change. Still, she finished.

What did the constant site of pain and agony do for me...well, the same as the joy and elation that runners had when they crossed the finish line, it made me want to be out there doing the same thing. I have a long way to go in training and need to finish some races first, before even thinking about doing an event like this, but I've been known to do stupider things. So On On to new goals.

The most impressive runner, to me, was the older genlteman (had to be in his mid to late 60's) who was announced as he came in, and they read out his accomplishments for 2008. He had run 15 - 100 mile races, 5 - 50 mile races, and 4 marathons. WTF?!?! hahahaha that's awesome.

My computers have been giving me problems, but I'll be back with more photos of the RTO race, and the last few weekends of adventure and fun. With more coming.

Reno/Tahoe Odyssey Relay Race - prelube

A few weeks ago, we went up to Reno and ran this event. A few months ago, a friend of mine told me they were putting together a hash team for the relay race, so I signed up. We had 12 of us on the team with two vans. I got in on Thursday after driving up from SF, and working the night before....meaning no sleep by 2pm....figured if I got to Reno and started drinking, that I could stay up later. Most of the hashers were in, and we all met at the hotel, after the vans were picked up and we painted all over them, we headed out for dinner and beer.



beaver spit, myself and sister.
Your Bitch, from van #2
Lycktonite and myself, finished work.
Then Mike came in and added the posters to the vans, cause he had a special theme he was going to use through the whole race. Here I was contemplating whether I should go pack up and stop drinking or continue drinking. I opted for continue drinking till pass out, delegate bag packing, be ready to drink the following day. hahaha it all worked out.

Lycktonite and Exxcess. Our hosts in South Lake Tahoe over the weekend.
Myself, sister and Call Girl.
A bunch of bay area hashers.
The evening ended at midnight for me, after being awake for about 36 hours. We had to be at the start by 0900, so not too bad of a start. Our van would be starting the race, and I'd be running leg #4 for another hasher that had hamstring issues. More miles for me. haha

Time to ride.

time to roll out. Riding down to Paso Robles for the BARF rally, meeting up with about 60 other riders and spending the weekend in SOCAL drinking and riding (while sober) in that region.

now to find my camera.

peace out.

What's racing without a party and bbq...

haha, it's not fun, that's what it is. So we've thrown our pits together, and had a great crowd of racers.
Stan (#750), Conan (#849), Chris (#897), and myself (#782)

For lunch, we had invited a bunch of friends from our motorcycle forum, and usually get a good crowd of enthusiasts who come out and cheer us on and hang out to eat our food and drink our beer...hahaha much like hashers.

So for lunch, we fired up the grill and threw on the dogs and burgers. The sun was out, and this was a phenomenal day of riding.

I am very happy with my conditioning and the higher miles of running I've been doing, as I don't feel tired, nor out of breath after running a race or a long practice session as I used to. It takes a lot of muscles to man handle the bike around a track consistently over and over....and it's obvious when the guys get tired, as you can see their lap times slow down, and they don't go into the corners as confident. Not conducive to moving up in the ranks.

Our pit set up. We got a good crowd to come out for lunch.

Bryan Davis, probably one of the fastest men out in 650 Production. :D hahahaha poor B.
Josie loves our weiners. for real.
Group six?! That boy is fast on his bicicleta.
Stan "sexy" Chan
"I don't do autographs, please don't take my photo, or I have to charge money" hahaha ghey.


Marco and his son out cheering on the local BARF racers.
Josh took over the grilling duties.
Da pimps of DC (Daly City), sorry guys, we didn't have any rice cooked for you all. :( hahahaha
Val, rocking out! hahaha
myself, Stan, Conan, Chris.
and finally, Joe from 4theriders.com came over to get a group shot, and we obliged with a little kung fu action, except Chris who was too cool for school, and just used sign language to let everyone know how efeminate he was. :D

Awesome weekend. I am skipping out next round to do some other things I have planned over the summer, as well as the 5th round to go down to Souther California to a hash campout in the southern Sierras.