"Man Journey" Cleveland, OH to San Francisco, CA

alright a new update to read and enjoy,thanks

 

This is an awesome thread! Your journalism and photgraphy skills are nothing short of superb! Can't wait for your next entry....I really thing you should compile all this into a book or a blog when you're finished. There is a future for you in journalism; trust me!

 

Captainkirk- I am looking in to publishing this online in one format or another. I would ideally love to get paid to travel and write about it so that others can get inspired.

Day 10 coming later tonight (after I go to my FIRST and hopefully the only necessary, job interview).

Thanks for the positive comments all!

 

mestnii, the interview can wait... seriously
:lol:

 

The boy needs food and a roof helmet. seriously!
8O :lol: :lol: :!:

 

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg is it TONIGHT YET??? it is in London!!

 

send him some potatoes!

 

mestnii, how did the interview go?

 

dont encourage him with this talk of "jobs"

we need ride updates!
:lol:

 

ok - update first...then tell us about the interview.

 

Wow! What an awesome journal... Where is the rest?

 

I've done a bit of on-line writing myself. It would be great to get paid for it, but what the hell; I enjoy myself! I've had many people tell me I should publish, but not sure if I'm up to the aggravation & hassle.
Suffice it to say, I know good journalism when I read it. You've got chops...keep it up. This is really good stuff, well written, with a great flowing style that mixes well with your photography.

 

Alright. I am 70% done with day 10 and have been sitting here for over an hour as I can not come up with the next paragraph. I will promise an update tomorrow by 11 AM Pacific Time.

I had an excellent (and challenging!) time at my interview, my brain needs to be recharged.

 

can't wait for the next installment mestnii. Really enjoying the story so far.

 

ah ohhhhh,now after rave reviews he suffers the dreaded Writers Block

 

You can always write while waiting for the phone to ring!

 

great story so far can't wait for the next installment.

 

40 minutes ahead of schedule! Enjoy!

DAY 10

For everyone that did not appreciate their teachers, I ask you to reconsider. We wake up at the same time as the rest of the household: 5:30 AM. While Erica and her room mates run around getting ready, making coffee, double checking lesson plans, I choose to use my time wisely and fall back asleep until 6:20. More tired than I was at 5:30, I get up and sleepily wander in to the kitchen where kids grades, progress reports and talk of parent conferences is flying about. I can barely keep my eyes open long enough to sip coffee. The last to eat breakfast, we are hurried as we need to be out at the same time as everyone else to lock up the place. We say a quick round of good byes and the girls fly off to a long day of teaching.

I stare up at the Nevada sun. It is already too hot for me and the temperature is supposed to keep rising. As much as I believe in ATGATT, today there was no way I was going to be wearing any of that. I embrace the road with only jeans and a t-shirt (and helmet!) as we begin on the tedious task of making our way out of Las Vegas. Heading north on Highway 95 towards Reno, we are exposed to desert and wind. Lots of wind. I manage the first 30 miles of the trip with relative ease, and in comfort as the combination of sun and the air swirling around my body created the perfect mix of hot and cold. It was like those times when you step in to a shower and you have the faucet(s) opened just right for that perfect temperature. Yea, like that. After that, the winds severely picked up. I had ridden through gusts, but nothing like this. I was riding with a hard lean to my left just to stay on the road. Somewhere close to Beatty, NV I am unprepared for an extra severe gust of wind and am blown on to the shoulder as I fight to stay upright and brake to stop myself from flying right off of the road and into the tumbleweeds. Considering this a fair warning, at the next gas station I put on and (partly) zip up my riding jacket. I ask the clerk about the wind and he said it would continue all the way up until Reno, with gusts that can reach 70 MPH. Nice place to put Nellis Air Force Bombing and Gunnery Range.

My gas mileage has been keeping steady at 29, and we were making considerably good time. The next time I took time to look up from the road was on highway 264 heading towards Bishop, California. The scenery was changing. We cruised through desert, dotted by masses of land sticking up in the distance.



The road weaved up and down and led us through valley's surrounded by scenes straight of the Wild West. We passed abandoned towns and houses with corrugated roofs, dirt roads leading to abandoned and sometimes still functional mines, and old, debilitated heavy machinery. We stop at a Nevada historic site and explore a mine shaft only to find out it has collapsed itself closed.



With the Sierra's off in the distance,



we make haste until we reach:



To be honest, the state sign came of out of nowhere, and was so shot up that we blew right by it until we were able to safely stop. Misha spins his car around in a circle on the side of the road, and leaves the music blaring as he climbs out to take his turn in front of the sign. This was it. As far as state crossings go, this is as far we were going to go. We took some time to relax and look around, appreciate how far we've come.

We are now entering the most fun stretch of road of the entire trip; California 168. It begins as a gentle, sloping ride towards the mountains lasting a few miles. It nicely eases you in the a steep, twisting climb, which ends as abruptly as it started. A short descent leads in to a valley populated by cows, what appears to be a hot spring, two farmhouses, and a 13 mile long straightaway! The next climb appeared fuzzy as it was shadowed in a haze. No matter how much I moved, it appeared as if the mountains were equally as far away as before. Like I was riding on a giant treadmill. The road suddenly took a sharp, upward turn to the right and I was about to be treated to the grand finale of California 168: the ride through Inyo National Forest. If you have ever played the earlier Need for Speed series, then I need to say no more. If not, let me elaborate. The road is narrow, barely wide enough for two cars, twists up to a peak, and descends, winding down through hills and valleys. The road follows the lay of the land so naturally, filling out every dip and bump as you rocket through perfectly banked turns, some of more than 180 degrees. This section was the most technical and put to use everything I learned about riding to date. By the end of the 37 miles that is Cal. 168, my clutch was feeling maladjusted and the tires were missing a whole lot more rubber. I recommend that EVERYONE take the time once in their life to ride the full stretch from the Nevada border to Big Pine, CA. I have never “slain the dragon” so I can not compare, but I must warn everyone to be cautious as I considered this a challenging road and found up myself on the wrong side of the yellow line twice. With the mountains we saw at the state line fast fading in my rear view mirror, we ride through the Sierra Natl. Forest and Mammoth Lakes up California 365 to Lake Tahoe.



The scenery along this portion of the ride was as varied as the people inhabiting San Francisco. We saw small-town America, a hippie commune traveling by bus, endless forest and lakes. Out of all of the waterways that we saw, Mono Lake caught my eye the most. Just having passed a town of no more than 200 people, I was careening down the mountain road, eager to pick up the speed I lost in the 25 MPH zone. As I rounded a corner, a vista of watery expanse opened up in front of my eyes, delighting my senses. The lake expanded out to my left, reaching the horizon and melting in to the sky. The varying hues of blue in the water had an iridescent white coating that reflected light out and made it appear as if the lake had a slight glow.



From then on the California landscape changed again as we rode through excessively green, sunny pastures filled with hundreds, if not thousands of cows. I remember seeing a commercial for “Real California Milk” with the happy California cows. Let me tell you, these cows have to be the happiest cows in the world (maybe with the exception of some in India) as they roam countless acres of grassland and tan in the sun.



Ever closer to S. Lake Tahoe, our destination for the night, we have one more pass to cross: California 89 – Monitor Pass. This road starts right next to a forest fire brigade station. The signs entering the pass read “Snow Chains MUST be on during season,” and “If flashing, road is impassable.” Sounds like fun. The road carves its way through rocky outcroppings and lifts you up and over the valleys filled with happy California cows. At a pull out, I stop to take a breath and take in the vast spaces of open land. At the highest point of Monitor Pass, I could see for miles. The only things obscuring my vision were the clouds and the curvature of the Earth as vast mountains in the distance were swallowed up by haze from the sky.


Elevation: 8,300 ft.

The fresh air filled my lungs and the long day finally started to catch up to me. The rest of Monitor Pass is secluded as it winds back down closer to sea level. I took a leisurely pace, coasting through most of the down hill sections with the clutch in. After roughly 3,000 miles of hearing the same XJ noise at 5K RPM, pulling the clutch in and coasting at idle was as if I was being thrown in to silence. All I could hear was the whirr of the speedometer cable as the bike let gravity take over and pull it down in to S. Lake Tahoe.

 

very nice,awesoem pics o the pas and far off moutains,lakes ,etc. really enjoyed that read thanks

 

I feel like moving back to California.