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Liking Less
Less was good. I did less today as well. I was only riding another 150 miles. Destination: Tahoe. The route was simple, just Highway 89/267 all the way to my final stop. Yesterday I started taking more pics, but there just wasn’t a lot of fall color up until about Chester. I’m not sure if… Read more
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Less can really be more
Every vacation should have a purpose. It is even better is when that purpose is realized and fulfilled. We vacation to take time off to rest, for new experiences, to connect with others, etc. The past few years on my “trip into the woods” I’ve set out to experience: to ride, take pics, and ride.… Read more
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So small in a big place…
I got to meet up with a buddy of mine from the Bay Area who moved up to Eureka about a year ago. Adam was one of the first few folks I met out here that rode bikes whom I had known from the usenet group rec.motorcycles. We had breakfast, kicked some tires, and caught… Read more
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Mini Sabbatical… two years later
Wow… it seemed like the big and little sabbaticals started out right about the same… I left packing to the last minute, got out way later than I wanted to, and rode 101 all the way up to the final point for the night. It’s not the most scenic of routes, but it does have… Read more
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My Replacement Friend is in
Thanks to the miracle known as eBay my replacement friend arrived about a week ago. What is it do you ask? A gently used Powershot S50. I paid $90 for the camera and $30 for an extended battery so I’ve got an essentially new camera for about 1/2 the cost of a new one. Yeah… Read more
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Fall is coming…
Yeah… I know I live in motorcycling nirvana. California has tons of mountain roads next to the ocean, desert, forest and twisty roads that cover just about all of it. To top it off, the weather is just about perfect year round somewhere in this state and it’s often accessible from San Jose. I had… Read more
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Why can’t I just get the next Powershot S50?
It’s been a great camera. We’ve taken a lot of pictures together and have been a lot of places, but it’s time to move onto bigger and better things. The camera almost always comes with when I’m on the bike, so being compact is really important. An SLR is too big. I’ve looked for it’s… Read more
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Panoramic Photography
Being one that likes to take landscape shots, at times you just cannot convey the depth of the scene in a 4×6 shot. You can’t really get a good sense for the skyline or how for instance the mountains fit into the mountain range…. The great thing about digital photography is that you can do… Read more
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Last Stop: San Bernardino Mountains
The So Cal road trip is soon coming to an end… I’ve seen the beaches. I’ve fried in the desert. Now it’s time for some reprieve in the mountains. I leave the north side of the park and head west to the San Bernardino Mountains. The desert is subject to flash flooding in the winter… Read more
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Joshua Tree National Park
Today’s goals were to see the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve and get to Joshua Tree National Park. I drove back through Lancaster and out to the poppy reserve. From looking online this place was to be spectacular. Hillsides were covered in poppies. The California Poppy is the state flower and has a distinct bright orange… Read more
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Two Wheels to Four
Southern California is a place I’ve not often visited, almost disproportionally for as much as I travel in this state and for as long as I’ve been here. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I’m prejudiced against it or if it’s just never appealed to me. I often think that it’s full… Read more
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The big Three-Oh
Wow… Time does pass so fast. I’ve been finding myself taking a step back and realizing that it is not so much that I feel old, but just reassessing how fast time passes. I used to remember in school that a week was a really LONG time… now weeks seem to slide into one another… Read more
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Sprint No More
Finally… I have a phone I can use. Back in 2001 I finally got a cell phone. Yes.. I was one of the last few hold outs it seemed. Even my folks had phones. I signed up with Sprint as they were one of the few phone companies at the time where I could use… Read more
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Pigeon Point and Linux
I had one of those “I’ve got a few hours to play with” on Sat and decided to take the bike out for a short ride along the coast… Like most folks have said, it was a great weekend to be out. Unlike the newbie ride of a week ago, the weather was perfect. Clear… Read more
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Borrowed Time
One of the things I really enjoy about this time of year is that now is what summer should be. Fall has only two kinds of days: days that were meant to be in summer and days that should be in winter. This weekend was such the summer day. Highs between 75 and 80 with… Read more
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Falling in love with Highway 88
Wow.. the summer has flown by. So much to do, to see, to experience. Summer is my favorite season, hands down. I remember back in 2003 taking a trip up to Lake Tahoe just to take some time reflecting on life and getting away from the Bay and all the rat race that it entails.… Read more
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V-Strom Reno Gathering: Going back to San Francisco
As soon as I got into the room I knew I was not going on any of the group rides. Most left before 8 and it was a long day getting there. So, I did just the opposite. I slept in late, got breakfast at the casino (which is an experience in itself), and went… Read more
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V-Strom Reno Gathering: Getting There
The V-Strom and I have known each other for about two years now. One of the big differences between the community surrounding this bike and the last one, a 2001 Vulcan 750 is that the local Vulcan Rider group was really strong. I remember going on more than a few group rides with SFBA-VROC. The… Read more
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Dad is 62
Sabbatical is becoming a more distant memory. I’m back at work and in the swing of things again. We just announced the availability of the project I’m working on: Flex 2. It’s only in the alpha stage, but we’re releasing it on the web via Macromedia Labs. Also the Department of Justice approved our merger… Read more
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Back at Work
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… Read more
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Morning Calls Early
Today began early, really early. I woke up about 4:30 and started packing. I needed to be on the road by 6:00 am to beat the heat. It was going to be 100 in the valley and that was a ride I did not want to do. A diet coke down, the tire pressures checked… Read more
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The Long Leg
There is something about having a good hotel breakfast. I’ve been staying at hotels with the “continental” breakfast which is fruit and stale pastries, neither of which are great morning choices for the two wheelin diabetic. This place had the full spread including the South Beach preferred bacon and eggs! Today was going to be the… Read more
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Defer, Defer, Defer
It’s hard to believe how fast the time goes. It’s now time to return home for real. I need to leave today to make it to San Jose by Thursday. I’d like a few days to chill out before heading back to work. Like the other days I’m headed out for a major adventure, the… Read more
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Bumming in Seattle
I’ve got the weekend to chill out in Seattle before heading back to San Francisco. I’m not sure at this point which day I’m leaving as the weather is true Seattle: rain. Andy and I were planning on camping, but sitting in a tent with rain is not my idea of fun nor is it… Read more
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Big Sky Country
It’s time to see a new state! I just have that itch today. Today’s route runs right across the Idaho peninsula over into Montana then back into Idaho and staying in Spokane for the night. Total mileage is about average for the trip, right at 300. The weather looks great. We start out with plenty… Read more
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I’ve seen what I’ve come to see!
After last night I was perfectly content to sleep in and hang out in the hotel a bit longer. Throughout this trip The Weather Channel and I were becoming good friends. For the most part the weather looked good for the trip as long as I did not get too far east or north. I… Read more
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On the road again….
After three weeks of traveling around the south and days in Seattle where I was not riding, it was time to put miles on the bike again. This leg of the trip is the real meat of the riding where I’m going to see what I’ve ridden so far to get to: the back country… Read more
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Slack Day
Originally I was thinking of making today a motorcycle travel day, but after spending 13 hours on planes and airports, that was not going to happen. I needed to get the rear tire replaced, so I spent most of the morning over at EastSide Moto sitting at a desk with my laptop reading and responding… Read more
