DAY 23 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY / JULY 23, 2008

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July 23, 2008 - xxxxday - Day 23
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 240   - Total Miles - 5221
(-staying at  former 4th grade student's Paul Livingstone's home  -)
(CA)
- HEADING NORTH IN CALIFORNIA - ECLIPSE THE 5,000 MILE MARK -

  One of the little cats here jumped up on the bed this morning, likely expecting to see one of Paul's daughters. When he saw me, he had a look on his face like, "Who the hell are you???"
***
  I was up around 6:30ish, and spent a relaxing morning typing, writing, and chatting with Paul. He was wearing a dhoti around and said he's been wearing one since he was fifteen. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhoti) It's traditional east Indian.  It's a kilt-like thing only down to the ankles.
  I had a wonderful breakfast of some super fresh bread that Paul had gone out to get and three cereals mixed together in a bowl of almond milk.
  Paul worked around the house as I wrote on the kitchen table. Our paths would cross occasionally. I wrote and wrote as late at 12:30 and then knew I had to get on down the road.
  I told Paul, when he came down from playing a sitar on the big hill in the backyard, "This will be the most dangerous part of the trip so far."  And I was referring to how, on that greatly steep hill, we would manage to move the bike off the driveway area and out onto the street pointing the right direction.
   I straddled the bike, thankful for the super strong kickstand, and could not budge or nudge it upright. Paul pushed and we managed that. Then began a process of very very slowly backing it out onto the street at the correct angle to eventually have it facing down the hillside.  Paul pushed and I duckwaddled backward, and after a series of maneuvers we accomplished the task. 
  At that point there was no way I could get off the bike, and so Paul put on the back pack and handed me the tank bag. A fellow coming by took a couple pictures of us, and I was off.
***
   I wear two pins on my vests. One reads, "Question Authority". And the other has the word "WHINING" which is crossed out. No Whining.  I believe strongly in both those goals. However, it's tough sometimes on a difficult riding day, where things are hard, luck is bad, and there are problems, not to fully write out those things in these notes without appearing, at least, to be whining.
  James Biddle, one of the journal readers sent me the following quote,
"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." -G.K. Chesterton
   And I am surely in agreement with that.
  With all that in mind, however, it would still not be fair to readers, or give a real impression of a trip like this, if every single thing and every day  was sunlight and daisies. I have been as accurate as possible to date, and will continue to try to be so. So without interpreting some of the following as whining, here's a little rant, if you will.
   It was sure not my best day riding. There were at least four times when I came close to having an accident. The first three were my own fault, because of my inattentiveness. The last one was a truck driver who decided he wanted to enter the lane where I was riding.  None were really close, but all four were closer than I would have liked.  I was also grumpy today - again likely because of my fault in not hydrating or eating right.  It was somewhat hot on the road (again because of not drinking enough), and I just didn't LIKE the roads: the marked lanes didn't follow the grooves in the road which is always a problem for me.  There also at least SEEMED to be a lot more trucks out on the highway. The pace of the cars and trucks was higher and more intense today than I can recall.  The roads were also less cared for - a number of potholes that I had to pay attention to  - instead of being able to watch the scenery. And those crease lines in the road - deeper and longer than I recall on any other highway this trip - just gave me the heebie-jeebies more than usual.
   I seemed a bit more tired today, and was surely more skittish and less confident on the bike.  I had heard through one of the discussion groups about a biker recently on a multi-state trip who was killed changing lanes so subconsciously  I was much more hesitant about doing so.
  You know, one of those days where not much at all went right. I was filling my little water pouch at a restaurant late in the day at a gas stop, and had neglected to close the end of the little tube. So as I walked back to the table where my stuff was there was a river of water and by the time I noticed the oversight there was a little lake by the floor of the table. I apologized profusely and said I'd mop it up, but the friendly folks there wouldn't let me, and they did it promptly themselves.
Whether all of the above was felt and happened because I was missing my time in Mexico or somehow sorry I couldn't spend more time to learn things from Paul, I don't know.
  And hey, there is a just plain natural up-and-down flow that body rhythms possess, and I've certainly been due for a down mood day. I have no complaints - these last 20 or so days have been entirely 'up' days, and if part of this one was a little body-rhythm challenged, I can live with that. And anyway I KNOW  from experience that it won't last past a good night's sleep, and I'll come bouncing up.
  Still, with all the ranting above done, I can look back on a day of riding along the mountain tops. The gold-ferned and green-treed mountains were beautiful against the blue sky. The views for the middle part of the day were all down on grand monster valleys or up to the giant peaks.  I rose from a thousand feet or so up a couple thousand, and on the ups and downs could feel my ears continually popping.
   After the first 50 miles, and coming out of the Angeles National Forest, the second part of the day was all mostly farmland and considerably table top flat out to the horizon. 

   I arrived in Fresno somewhat around 6:30ish. Far later than I would have liked. I had gone out of my to come here to meet Trish, an on-line pal from a motorcycle group I had been in when I owned my Suzuki Savage. We clicked together on line with ideas and interests and became friends.
   Over at Trish and Bob's, where I arrived late for the planned dinner, I met their friends, May and Jean … They ride a big yellow scooter. May is in her 80's.  Jean, a spry guy who's also older at least in years, rides that scooter everywhere. Even made a trip to the east coast awhile ago. With a top speed of 75, he says he really has to be more careful than on a motorcycle.  He noted as a word of caution to me to be careful to ride on the outside part of a lane when passing a truck because a truck tire exploding is equivalent to a half stick of dynamite!  That made an impression on me!
  So did the yellow tomato!  A yellow tomato!  I had never heard of such a thing… It tasted like a tomato, but it sure did look funny to me.  Along with that Trish had prepared a delicious eggplant parm with soy cheese. The friendliness around the table and the food on the table filled my tank.
   I met Ed, security guy for the Best Western, when I came out cover the bike.  He owns a shiny gorgeous black Kawasaki 2006 Mean Street. He had a license plate reading "MEAN V2", referring to his engine.  It was parked next to my bike. We talked motorcycles a bit, and I told him about Koy's comment back in Lubbock about riding and "windshield time" helping with problems.  It turns out Ed just went through some tough times recently with his wife passing away quite unexpectedly. He noted, "You can spend the money on a motorcycle and blow all the problems away with the wind, or spend it on a psychiatrist. I recommend the motorcycle, it's a whole lot better."



Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)



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