A Long Ride

I’m going to use a mixture of camping, hostels and hotels. I figure that after a few days of camping, I’ll be ready for a hotel room. Hotels make me lonely though, and hostels are great for meeting interesting people. Then I’ll want to get out on my own and camping sounds good again. I’m just guessing here, but I think that’s how it will work.

For those that aren’t familiar with hostels, here’s a short explanation. I’ve used them a lot in Europe, and a few times in the U.S. They’re cheap and usually clean, but once in a while I find a bad one, just like anything. There are some great ones, too: the hostel in Seaside, Oregon, for example, was excellent. For less than $20, I got a shared room right off the beach in a clean, rustic little cabin. Breakfast is often included, and there’s usually a well-stocked bookshelf and internet access of some sort. I’ve seen prices ranging from $5 for a backwoods location to $30 for a centrally located big city hostel. I have the Hostel Handbook, which contains every hostel in the United States and Canada in a thin pamphlet.

I plan on camping as much as possible, but I’ve never camped while motorcycling, so I’ve been reading up quite a bit, including quite a few online guides. This book looks interesting too. I’ll be careful to not carry too much stuff. I don’t want to weigh the bike or myself down and I don’t want to worry about anything being stolen.

Then there are hotels, which are easy but lonely and expensive. I’ll save them for the rainy days.

This photo is from a ride Elena and I took a couple of months ago.

Photo © pashnit.com

I took a tour of Northern California this weekend with Pashnit Tours. The riding and roads were incredible, but this photo illustrates my favorite part: resting at the top of the ridgeline, enjoying the stillness of nature after riding through it.

I’ve been reading the Road Trip USA book, but quite a bit of the content is also available on their website. The routes shown are two-lane highways, including three that I will likely use: the Great Northern (U.S. 2), The Appalachian Trail, and the Southern Pacific (U.S. 80).

From Bamarider’s Long Distance Tips:

A lone rider, far from home, is a magnet. Everyone wants to stop and chat. I meet people in cafes/diners, truck stops, tourists traps, and campgrounds. Most people appreciate what you are doing. The lone rider sets himself apart from the masses. He is his own master, and that is the heart of his appeal to the ordinary folk. The modern motorcycle has greatly reduced the challenge of cross country riding. My ST takes me to California easy as a 747. At issue is not the machine, but the elements. The lone rider must deal with the savage cross winds of the Great Plains, the booming thunderstorms of Texas, the cold, and snowy Rocky Mountains, the traffic and congestion of the East Coast. The totally unpredictable weather of the Appalachians. Conquering those things alone, makes me feel good. I need that to grow as a individual and as a rider.

On the flip side, the lone rider relates to glorious sunrises and sunsets. Twisty mountain roads that deposit him into spectacular valleys and vistas. I know the quiet solitude of the desert southwest, the open farmland of Iowa. I know about fall in Canada and New England, when the landscape is ablaze in reds, yellows and orange. From the saddle of my ST I gazed out across the Pacific Ocean, yearning for a transcontinental bridge to take me to Asia.

Horizons Unlimited has some stories that make my planned cross-country ride look like a quick grocery run. Their newsletter has stories and photos from round-the-world riders.

I’ve been looking for websites with long-distance motorcycle touring advice and suggested roads. There is a wealth of advice out there, often accompanied with great stories. I’ll post them here as I find particularly good sites or pages. These two are great:

Iron Butt Association’s Archive of Wisdom. My favorite: Leave your drugs and coffee supply at home. It’s this simple, drugs and other stimulants do not work! If you need No-Doze or other drugs to stay alert (the Iron Butt Association includes coffee and colas on this hot list), it’s time to stop for the day and get some serious rest.

Wait, no coffee?

Pashnit’s California Motorcycle Roads. I rode with one of Pashnit’s tours a little over a month ago. His site is an amazing asset for motorcyclists planning trips in, around or (in my case) through California.

This will be scaled down, but I like to dream big.

2004 Yamaha FJR1300, stock except for a slightly larger windscreen. I bought it used a couple of months ago with 4000 miles. It’s much bigger and faster than the 1986 Yamaha FZ750 I have ridden for the last ten years, but I’ve gotten used to it very quickly. The FJR is an amazing machine, great for sport riding or touring, depending on your mood. Elena likes riding on the back much more than she did on the FZ, so much that I hardly ever ride solo anymore.

I’ve been to Switzerland every Summer for the last five years. Elena’s family lives there, and the annual summer vacation is the only time they get to see each other. I love flying into Geneva, taking the train to Vevey, then the tram to her mother’s house. The countryside is stunning, with views of the French Alps across Lake Geneva. I get to speak Italian with Elena’s family and halting French with everyone else (even though 90% of Swiss people speak English better than I do). I grew up poor and hadn’t been out of California or on a plane before I turned 18, so this is all very cool stuff to me.

I love going to Europe, but I started to wonder what America is like. I’ve been up and down the west coast from Canada to Mexico, but the only time I’ve ventured East is when I flew out to see my sister in Huntsville, Alabama. I really want to see what it’s like in Montana, Iowa, and Arkansas and all the rest! Have you ever read Travels with Charley, In Search of America, by John Steinbeck? That’s what I want to do. I want to go across America, meet people and see what I can see. The only problem is that I hate traveling in a car and gas is about $2.50/gallon. So I’m going to ride my motorcycle