Goose & Whit's Wild Ride

final mileage: 8700

Good to see you again, Frisco.

Five minutes before this was taken, these bags looked brand-new.

For the most part, my day's journey was pleasant and uneventful, save for one incident. I had been driving for about two and a half hours, just leaving Reno, when all three of my rear bags fell off the bike. The first amazing thing here is that I drove that distance, most of which was at fairly high speeds through the straights of Nevada, without losing them. The second amazing thing is that my laptop seems to be perfectly fine. Lucky for me I was going around a curve, so the bags landed in the shoulder, or the second amazing thing wouldn't be true.

The mileage above is exact - 8700 on the dot - and my trip has also ended exactly six weeks after it started. Would you like to see the whole route? Sure you would, here it is:

Click the image to see a much larger version. I plan to get this map laminated and use it for the same purpose on future road trips.

Looks like dirt, doesn't it? But what you're seeing is the gap between my glove and my jacket sleeve. I was wishing for awhile that I had time to get my whole body looking that dark, but that actually looks pretty nasty.

Right now I feel two competing senses of surreal-ness. It's surreal to be back in familiar territory all of the sudden - my mind is having trouble with no longer being on the bike or sitting in a motel room. And when I look at that map, it's surreal to realize that I actually drove that whole route on my motorcycle. It's all very weird, but at the same time wonderful. I don't think I've ever been more glad to be back home, but at the same time (to answer a question that I've gotten a few times), I don't feel sick of traveling or being on the motorcycle at all. I still love being on that motorcycle, and although I'm going to take a few days to give my ass and wrists some time off, I'll definitely be right back on it very soon. On the other hand, I doubt I'll ever take a road trip this long again. I'd say three weeks max for the trip that I'm already planning for next summer, through the Pacific Northwest and into the upper midwest.

The visor has to be cleaned a couple of times a day, but I stopped caring about the rest of the helmet weeks ago.

In case anyone is interested, the lowest gas price I saw was $2.53, somewhere between Texas and Tennessee. Gas prices are currently at about $3.16 here in San Francisco. Based on rough calculations I think I spent a grand total of about $700 on gas. I required two oil changes (as any diligent vehicle owner would guess) and spent about $550 on maintenance (this is much more than it should have been), not counting the idiotic $90 gas-fetching charge from yesterday. I'm not sure what my total motel bill is, but the average rate was probably about $45 per night.

WASH ME

It was a good trip, no doubt about it. Sure, there were snags and frustrations here and there, but the majority of the time I was really enjoying myself, even when I didn't have Goose to keep me company (and thanks for joining me by the way, Goose - I really enjoyed traveling with you).

Note that I will be posting one more blog entry (besides the one above) in a day or two that will feature a nice end-of-trip nugget.