Coast to Coast (and back?) with an Italian Supermodel

Traveling on a Panigale...........priceless.......

Fantastic story! I only heard about this thread recently and have read it all over the past two days.
It's amazing you're doing it on an 1199.


Bwahaaa, I love this quote.
I bought a Carbon Black last summer. The name is appropriate.

Antihero, your empathy with the com con guys, knowing it was a Darth Maul light stick thingy (my first thought was M82 Barrett/massacre) and the lack of totty shots from Indy :ddog has got me slightly worried about you.

Are you feeling alright?

The time I spend writing / recording / editing and uploading is more than worth the priceless responses you guys keep posting. Keep 'em coming--and I'll try and reclaim some manhood with my adventures in Downtown Detroit (where I am now) soon so no one loses interest. And hint--I'm driving around mostly without any sort of precautionary planning (other than a Strider Tanto), so if I go dark for a couple days, someone call the police!

AntiHero,

Concerning the Game Con types as opposed to the Harley wannabees:

The Game Con types appear to have a sense of humor about it: They know they're wearing silly costumes and that they aren't really wizards. It's not a 'Lifestyle' to them.

Myself? I'd be too embarrassed to be seen with either group.

May appear that way from a distance, but up close the Game Con peep did not have a sense of humor about it. On the contrary, they were serious to the point of being defensive. While I was snapping shots on the street there were two of them standing next to me and each time someone walked by and asked, "who are you?" they replied cynically, "I'm myself!" Reality and fantasy converged for them that night, at least until they made the decision to take the elevator instead of the stairs to their Hilton Queen suite.

AHA! And I found the picture to prove just how serious these Game Conners are:



She became even more incensed when I responded, "Let's try that again, but this time with more feeling." But I didn't wake up with a black eye or a fork in my thigh, so all's good.

Not to poke a stick in a hornet's nest but ADV guys with full adventure GS1200s and gianormous aluminum cases who spend more time at Starbucks than transversing Africa seem not that different from the Game Conners and Hardley Davidson costumers.

Doesn't everyone dream of being better than they really are? Sure, the obese adult Star Trek geeks are probably psychotic sociopaths, but us motorcycle types are merely acting upon our base instincts, which is to put something exciting between our legs.

Hey ! , thanks for putting a pic of my bike in your report.
No, not the Tricolorie, the ST3.
I kinda looked for you and your bike but, as it was Moto GP and lots going on , I never found either of you.
Here's a shot I got of one of the espresso makers taking a turn at wrenchs in the garage area. She was putting a Pangale motor together !

Guilty as charged

Every time I throw a leg over any of my bikes, I put on the appropriate costume and pretend to be somebody else. I could be James Stewart when I wear all my Fox motocross gear on the track - not that I have the skills to match his, but for one brief moment I looked just like him when I cleared the double. Or Jonah Street when I don my Klim gear for traversing thru the woods on my 690. Even looked like Foggy hisself once, when I wore my duc uniform whilst riding my 916 back in the day. Are we posers or are we protecting the most important and vital part of the bike: ourselves

We are all clowns in this circus we call LIFE

BTW - awesome RR

are you scared?

Only of big ears

I never really went into Sat. night in Indy after the whole Game Con essay. It started out reasonably. We had a fine dinner at St. Elmo's Steakhouse, then set out....and at 5am my head finally hit my pillow. In between the ellipses, this:

Chachi giving out his phone number (big mistake)!


Trying to get away:


Giving the nimrods who thought revving their open pipes in an underpass made them cool the universal sign for "jack-off":



And here he is charming the Game Con goobers with hypotheticals:



And here they react to my charm:



Elliot and I saved this girl from a table of drunk date rapists, then walked her to her car. (Somehow I don't think that expression on my face would have made anyone feel comfortable, but it was a good deed.)

Next day was MotoGP. And then I left for Claypool, IN, where I'd rented a room in a farmhouse for the night.

The place was awesome. In part because the setting was so idyllic and charming and in part because the couple hosting me represented an archetypal alter-life that I've imagined living myself. He was from TN and she from Chicago. After using the house for years as a second / vacation home, they decided to sell it all and move in for good. So while I had expected to be living for a day with some simple 'country folk', instead had the pleasure to stay with two cultured, cool, artistic, genuine and super-awesome people I wish I'd spent more time with. If you're ever driving through Indiana and need a place to stay (or if you're just looking for a place to retreat and perhaps do some metalwork, paint or write the next great american-novel, hit them up on Airbnb)!



Over a bottle of wine we shared on the porch I saw my first fireflies flickering luminous moments of sublimity over the cornfields. They looked like tiny shooting stars (I was amused to the point of complete distraction). But we did talk about art and effort and life and the merits of both po-dunk towns and metropolitan jungles. But the real interesting thing that came out of the topic was on public policy. Now, I've never been much for politics. Discussing it, following it, and getting all hot and bothered by it is about as world-changing as talking to your television. The only way someone really makes a change is if they get into politics (and not very many are slimy enough to do so). Short of that, politics is just a source of stress and angst.

My own personal conclusion is that if we want to change the world we just need to focus on what we love and do what we do best. In the process the world will become a happier, safer, more peaceful place because of all the great heirloom tomatoes, interesting needlepoint, indie films, metalwork, BBQ'd sausages or paintings that get created because of it. NPR and Fox News just make people think they're involved and changing the world, but nothing ever comes of it except feelings of gloom and doom, anxiety and stress.

Doing what we love, swinging on swings, riding motorbikes and cuddling the people we adore has a much more positive effect on the net-happiness of the world than agonizing over whatever it is that they talk about on TV or the radio. Just a thought.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming....Indiana is one of those states that no one ever has a clear idea of what it looks like. I didn't, at least. So here's a day in the life of traveling on a bike through the state to help combat Indiana's anonymity:



Yes I stopped on a freeway, took off my gloves, got off the bike and took a picture....just a hint of the apocalyptic future I'd see in Detroit:

Can't forget the real-life Banksy (back in Indianapolis):

Prior to the political conversation that did not in any way make me feel like a Kennedy I ventured into town and ate at this completely unexpected restaurant called Cerulean. I've never been to RI, but I kind of felt it'd look like this:



I had sushi:



Scallops and delicious local swine:



And some overly salty lamb sausage that was tempered somewhat by the cantaloupe balls that gave the impression of eggs and sausage:



The meal was somewhat soured by the douchebag pharmaceutical sales rep who sat a couple seats away at the bar who moved his wedding ring from his left to right hand and then started hitting on anything that jiggled and a few things that didn't. If you don't want to be married, just don't get married.....

And the flipside of Indiana?



Vanilla Pride, red white and blue. Hmmm....thinly veiled racism or just a clever chiasmus with Black Ice? I wonder. Then again, vanilla is brown, so it must be the latter. :)

I've been lurking, in awe of the guy on the Ducati who just goes but this resonates with me in a way that is rare and true. Write a book and share your love of what you're doing with a wider audience that needs to be reminded of these things. You do have the gift.

I'm heading to the Duc dealer tomorrow and will be catching up soon....like the scene in Forrest Gump when he's jogging and slowly builds a crowd, but we'll all be on Ducati's wearing t-shirts that say "Anti-hero Happens".

I like your style, dude.