It’s hard to believe that more than a month has gone by since I’ve been back in San Jose. One of the things I kept hearing was that I had the “sabbatical glow” upon my return. I look back on the time and do realize and appreciate what a special snapshot of time that sabbatical provided. Being able to go to camp and serve up there to heading down the Florida Coast then back to ride across Washington, Idaho, and Montana was a really cool opportunity. It’s one that will stay in my memories for a while.
One of the things that I keep coming back to is that on the motorcycle, you really travel. It’s not about pumping gas and pressing the gas pedal to go somewhere. You’re dependent on the weather, the road condition, the services the town down the road may or may not have. It’s almost like going back in time a bit where travel was a bit more difficult. I do hope to do more muti day moto travel. The Sierra is just about closed up for the winter. It’s going to be raining up there soon and snow is not far behind. I think my ride this fall is going to ride the rest of 101 to Los Angeles and then back up the 1 to San Francisco. That way I can say I’ve ridden all of 101 (or the parts I care about as I did not loop the Olympic Peninsula).
So what’s was the final tally? I was right at about 12,500 miles. Eight Thousand of them were by air, 1000 of them in the car, and 4000 of them on the motorcycle. I used about 80 gallons of gas. The funny thing is that it was 60/40 bike to car on the gas usage. The Vstrom gets 38 miles per gallon while the car gets considerably less than that.
To put it MasterCard style: Luggage and new safety gear: $600, 80 gallons of gas: $220, 10 nights in motels $700, 2 tires & 1 service: $500, too many trips to Safeway: $200, motorcycle trip to remember for a very long time: Priceless. One of the great things about vacations…. they provide much needed rest and mind wandering about the next adventure. Stay Tuned.
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