Wherever I May Roam - One Woman Livin' on a DR650

Did you get the message I sent?

But a little bummed that I just found it today, and missed you while you were in Monterey. Would you like a better tent? I have three, and would be happy to "lend" you one. I'd even trade you straight across for your Derpy one! I'll be in the Bay Area Wed. for a service on my bike, and could get it to you. Happy Trails!!

Heh. I seriously need to start using "derpy" and "derpiest" in my daily vocabulary.

Good to hear all's well, looking forward to seeing what adventures you are up to!!

This is bound to get weird.....I am IN.
FP

Yes, sorry, I haven't had time to respond yet, I haven't had internet for most of a week. I will reply in a few!

Oakland! I am not entirely unfamiliar with Oakland, having spent around 6 months learning urban survival in the area a few years ago. It seems like every time I mention that I’m in or going to Oakland, people get wide-eyed and tell me to watch out for thugs, as though the entire city is composed of nothing but ne’er-do-wells. I get the same response from most people when I mention an interest in going to Mexico. Of course, nobody who says these things has ever been there. Too much television.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">I fully admit that I think this building looks hilarious.</p>
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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">I didn't see too many horses in downtown Oakland...</p></center>I left the bike parked at the Musick Box and spent the entire week walking or using public transportation, which is actually fairly decent in the bay area. I learned my lesson last time, after getting 6 parking tickets when I still had a car. I missed the bike, and had sore feet, but I was glad to not have to wrestle with parking and have to worry about moving the bike every two hours or whatever crazy BS they come up with to milk people for money.

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I met up with and hung out with my good friend Cypher:

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It was fantastic spending time with her again, because she’s awesome! We ate entirely too much delicious vegan food, which seems to be most of what we end up doing when we get together – walking across the city to various eateries, looking at things. I am pretty sure my food budget around Cypher ended up tripling or worse, as I almost never go out to eat by myself.

We visited the Long Haul but it was closed most of the time. I always enjoyed hanging out there. Good people, good place to network, lots of zines, lending library, kitchen. I used to always enjoy movie nights there the last time I was in the bay area.

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In our wanderings we saw a lot of... unique street art:

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The werewolf being chased by the cops and the cupcake lady/elephant shots are part of the same mural, in North Berkeley. No, I don’t have any idea either. Lots of really good acid maybe?

This one is near the People’s Park in Berkeley, and it gets creepier the more I stare at it. From the elderly-faced babies to the dog wearing a sweater(?) just... no.

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There’s this great little store in downtown Berkeley which sells Tibetan goods… the owner is Tibetan and flies home each year to hand-select which items she wants for her store, ensuring that her wares are always unique. My sweater was getting pretty threadbare, so I upgraded to this awesome wizard jacket. It was a bit pricey for my thrift store tastes, but it’s super warm and comfy. Also, pointy hood!

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With all the walking, my shitty $20 walmart hiking boots had begun to degrade from the inside out. I was having to shore them up with cardboard I found on the street to prevent the rubber waffle inside of the soles from digging holes into my heels. I got some pretty good blisters.

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We cruised the goodwills in the area in an attempt to find something more suitable, but had no luck. I did have to laugh at the shoe shoes though:

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">Yo dawg I heard you liked shoes so I put some shoes on your shoes...</p></center>
While wandering around with a mutual friend, Erica, we ended up rescuing a turtle from Lake Merritt. The turtle was a red-eared slider, which is a freshwater turtle. People buy these as cheap pets, but later realize all of the care required and decide to “set them free” in the brackish water of the lake. The turtles don’t survive there longer than a few weeks, as their systems can’t handle it and start breaking down, and the turtle died a couple days after we rescued it. Apparently in the springtime there is an epidemic of this, as we were in contact with a rescue group who had a number of these turtles on their hands. Sad.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">RIP little guy.</p></center>
I returned to the Musick Box to sleep in the evenings, and made some friends there. I slept on couches, and then later in a spare bunk in one of the rooms. We had some great conversations, a jam session that I unfortunately got no photos of, and we watched The Empire Strikes Back projected on the side of the house with a bunch of punks who came to visit, in an event they called “Crusty Cinema”. The neighbors were oddly complacent about this, even with the full theater-level sound, but they drew the line at the dance party afterwards.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">That's no moon...</p></center>
As often happens when I live in these sorts of places, I spent a lot of time cleaning. I’ve been a professional housekeeper before, so this doesn’t bother me terribly, and I vastly prefer it to paying exorbitant rates for the privilege of sleeping. I scrubbed the grey hippy funk out of the bathtub which amazed the folks who lived there – “I thought the tub was just off-white!”. I washed dishes, swept, and cleaned & organized a half-bathroom (which had become a storage closet) as well as the tool cabinet. I also cooked a pretty fantastic stir-fry.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">This awesome van with NY plates was parked outside the Musick Box one morning. I didn't get a chance to talk to the owners.</p></center>
The washer at the house was broken, so upon the advice of some of the house members, I washed my clothes in the shower with me and used the dryer to finish the job. Worked fairly well, and cheaper than a laundromat!

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">Posted on one of the doors, this ad was hilarious... "Are they mad or are they erotic prophets of the future?"</p></center>
On May 1st I visited the Occupy "May Day" protest with my friends.

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Say what you will about politics… I think it’s great to see a large group of people – and there were thousands who showed up – who actually seem to give half a damn about the economic injustices of our society. I definitely think the Occupy protests could be done better, make more effort on outreach and education to teach people about the issues instead of just shouting about them, less random defacement of property and breaking windows, but I think it’s interesting to watch and see where they take it.

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The idea behind this protest was a general strike, and worker's rights. All the other occupy issues made a showing too, everything from anti-establishment, anti-corporation, and general "fuck the police" sentiments abounded. "Economic Injustice" is certainly a large, tangled topic, leading to a chaotic gathering.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">The large stick is a may pole. I like the contrast with the guy in the suit...</p>
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At least some people had a sense of humor about it...

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While there, I saw a bunch of people rush a cop car and was entirely too close when the cops retaliated. A guy got hit in the head with a cannister. Medics tended to him and helped him get out of the crowd. I would have tried to help instead of taking photos, but he was well-tended to, and they even had ‘bouncers’ forming a wedge to help the medics get through the mass of people. I think he just had a slight concussion, nowhere near as bad as Scott Olsen, the marine who suffered a skull fracture from a similar cause at a previous Oakland Occupy rally.

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I marched with a group halfway across Oakland to a mix of random club music and 80s pop. I couldn’t stop wondering what people in the nearby businesses – particularly those who don’t speak much English – must think of these black-clad people with riot shields just marching around to “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. How the few signs that we had didn’t really explain much of anything. There was a real lack of direction, a lack of message to those who don’t already agree. Why not more labor protest music? More chanting, or group participation, instead of passively listening to a stereo?

I felt a bit like the movement was turning into a bit of an echo chamber, and it was disheartening. Lots of energy, but no focus.

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<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_EErAqUogSo?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_EErAqUogSo?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">I don't know much about video editing, though I'd like to learn more...</p></center>
Later on in the day there was a pig pinata, and I believe it was the guy who'd earlier gotten hit in the head who beat the shit out of it to massive cheers. Somebody grabbed the face of it and handed it to me, and I took a picture of Cypher wearing it:

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As the day wound to a close, my friends and I started to head back. Many of the protesters had filtered away by this point, and the cops were realizing there was a lack of cohesion and confronting those who remained. We later heard from others at the Musick Box that a friend of theirs had been knocked off her bicycle and beaten pretty severely, and that others were being lunged at and grabbed, pepper sprayed, etc. Protesters were throwing bottles and bricks at police, but it was pretty tame as far as Occupy in Oakland goes. I was happy to have left when I did. Being arrested at an Occupy protest these days seems a bit fruitless, maybe I’m a sissy, but I prefer to pick my battles.

I did find a pile of vegetables in a paper bag, abandoned on top of a newspaper stand though. Score! I took them back to the Musick Box with me and donated them to the house’s food pool.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">Anybody who says there's no such thing as a free lunch has never been to the bay area...</p></center>
Cypher and I said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, to meet up again sometime in the future.

Is it just the computer I'm at, or does this thread have no pictures? I do see a video above, but that's it.

The pics turned out great for me. Looks like fun but wow, this was back in May? I didn't realize how "behind" your report was! Of course now I'm more eager to see what you've been up to.

I just read through all 8 pages. You have a great personality. Looking forward to reading more.

Take less stuff and more money! As long as "somewhere" is in the first world and isn't 200 miles from nowhere, you can always buy an extra shirt or stick of deodorant or food or whatever, but packing around extra crap you never use is a real drag. Especially if you drop the bike... ugh!

I generally separate things into categories, like "stuff for the bike", "clothes", "camping gear", "toiletries", and "electronics".

You want to pack enough bike repair stuff so that you have the tools for any maintenance you're capable of doing on the trail, but no more. It's pointless to carry all the tools for a complete engine tear-down if you don't know how to do one. Generally you at least want something for common problems - all the stuff you'd need to fix a flat (irons, pump, patch kit or spare tube, wrenches), safety wire and zipties are invaluable. A good tip I read on here is to do all the bike maintenance with tools from your repair kit, and you'll quickly figure out which tools you need to add and which you never use.

With clothes, I generally plan on doing laundry at least once a week, and my tolerance for wearing the same clothes more than once has increased as I've been doing this. I think I currently own two pairs of pants, one skirt, a handful of shirts (a few too many really), bathing suit, 3-4 pairs of undies and socks each. If I were buying new clothes and had the budget, I'd get that microfiber stuff that dries really quick, that way you can wash it in the sink and not have to sit around a laundromat for hours.

With toiletries, don't go crazy, and bring small sizes. If you run out of shampoo, you can always buy more, but the odds of you going through a whole bottle of anything on one trip are pretty minimal. Save the space and the mess when it explodes. Don't forget sunscreen! I looked like Rudolph for a few days on a recent outing, face got all sunburnt!

Once you have your gear list, pack it up on your bike and go on a weekend camping trip. Next to the gear on the list, make a mark if you used it or not... this will help you separate what you actually end up using vs what you think you might use. Write down any things you wish you'd brought.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237723

Here is a massive thread, where people show off what they're bringing camping and how it fits on their bikes. Might help with the packing aspect!

Once I get this thing up to date I can try to take photos of my current setup, I did get some better gear when I got back to Portland, haha.

There's also this thread:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264996

with women's specific packing suggestions. I tend to fall on the more tomboyish end of the spectrum and don't bother with girly girl stuff on the best of days, but I did find a few good nuggets of info there!

I was creeping along! It took me over a month to go from Oklahoma to Portland, haha. I prefer it that way though! It's all about the journey, not the destination.

Good luck!

Here we see the wild hippy in his natural habitat... Shhhh, don't startle him! Now we just lay the trap of pot-laced brownies, so that he can be tagged for study and released back into the wild...

Ahahaha. I'm glad you're enjoying it! I definitely meet some unique individuals...

Hi Karen! I'm happy to have you along!

I'm using the camera on my "phone", a Droid X2. I don't have it hooked up to a provider - no interest in paying monthly bills - so it's basically a tiny computer with GPS and camera. Same goes with the videos. I have a little Kodak point and shoot, but it takes about the same quality of photos and is harder to have on me at exactly the right moments, so I gave up on it. I'd love to get more into video, but that'll have to wait for finances and a notebook computer to edit on.

DR650 girls unite!

I'll probably hit you up in the next couple of months, at least for the campsite info (tho it would be fun to meet and chat!) - I've got plans to visit Yosemite and southern california again sometime in September.

Don't be too blue, I didn't start writing this until well after I'd gotten back to Portland, so you're not any more behind than anyone else! I appreciate the offer muchly, but I've upgraded the tent after I got back here. I should have thought to start writing this thing earlier, damnit! Hahaha.

It's a perfect word for many things I encounter in life...

Weirdness is my specialty!

The photos are hosted on my personal webspace, feyala.net, while the video is hosted at youtube. Can you reach that website, or is it blocked on your computer?

So very, very behind. Luckily there were a few lulls after I got back so it's not all constant thrills! I'd say this is a little over halfway to current.

Awww, thanks!

check out sites and books on bicycle touring that recommend gear (there are many), the gear I use for that has worked great for MC touring too

Enjoyed reading your RR, Hope to bump into you one day, I've been on the road by myself on a KLR650 for 2 months now, and put about 6000 miles on the odometer, got to slow down a bit.
Heading to Crestone CO today, time for some R&R hopefully the campground has a site left for me.
Happy travels, be safe

I'm in. Just read the whole thing. The areas you passed through after blythe on 78 were farms fed by the Colorado River, which you passed over in Blythe and then you were right next to it going through Palo Verde on 78. Those big hills off the right were some mine (secret government facility?). And of course all the dunes were Glamis.

I'm sure you figured all this out when you got to slab city, but thought I would put it in there. Just did that drive last week. Have fun on your adventure, I enjoy reading about it.

Amen to that ! Wonderful read and pictures !

I zoned into this story while at work in my cubicle. Nothing like a good mind-break and reading about sun, rain, ocean, the elements and new people. Oh the joys of a trip! Great for you for getting out there by yourself!

"Siri, take me to the protest so I can fight against this economic strife...but route me to Starbucks first."

With all of this walking around, I’d nearly forgotten that my gas tank was full of FAIL. I’d been in contact with an ADVRider, Nixels, as he had a post up on the Tent Space thread which promised a garage and tools, two things sorely lacking at the Musick Box. I needed to drain my tank and fish out the rubber pieces, and hopefully figure out the cause of the hiccup.

I left Musick Box to lots of hugs all around. They were sad to see me go, I was told I was always welcome there and to come back soon, and that I’m exactly the kind of guest they wish they got more often. I get this a lot. There must be an epidemic of people who show up to these communal living situations and just eat all the food, get drunk and pass out on the floor without ever doing chores.

I headed over a few blocks to Nicky’s place. He had to shout and wave me over, as I didn’t notice him at first. These were the first ADVRiders I’d ever met, so I wasn’t entirely sure how things would pan out. Nicky was awesome. I had never removed a seat or tank before, though I had worked on my car when I had one and wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty – I could have figured it out if left to my own devices, but I was glad to have knowledgeable help. I was paranoid of spilling gas on the floor, to which he replied that “There have been much worse things spilled on this floor than gas”. Fair enough.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">It's amazing how much it looks like a bicycle without the tank and seat...</p></center>After getting the tank drained, I flipped it over, and we noticed that one of the previous owners had jury rigged the petcock with RTV silicone. After scraping the silicone off and unscrewing the petcock, we discovered why – there had once been a gasket over the junction, but it had broken some time ago. I cleaned the petcock filter, which was pretty clean already, and Nicky guided me to unscrew the carb’s float bowl, so we could see if there were debris inside. There were a small number of particles, but nothing that seemed major enough to cause the hiccuping problem.

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Nicky drove me around town in search of parts. We visited a small, independently-run shop where the owner, upon hearing my petcock problems, offered up a fatter, more pliable o-ring which he said should do the trick without needing a gasket. When I asked him how much I owed him, he just shook his head and laughed, “I’m not going to charge you for an o-ring”. Fantastic! There needs to be more people like him.

We reinstalled the petcock, which seemed to seal well. After testing it with a small amount of gas to make sure the joint wasn’t weeping, we filtered the gas with a “funnel tunnel” to ensure that there weren’t any scraps of rubber left in the mix.

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I took the bike for a test ride, and there seemed to be a bit less coughing. Nicky took it out, but couldn’t find anything wrong at all. Oh well, hope for the best!

He asked me if I needed any gear, and I mentioned that my boots were in pretty bad shape. After disappearing for a bit, he re-emerged with a pair of very nice Aerostitch boots he said were too small for him. He let me have them for cheap, and the dumpy walmart cardboard contraptions were left on the street for somebody else who needs them more than I do.

We went to dinner, drove halfway across Oakland to get some cheap, delicious mexican food from a truck. Lots of great stories from Nicky about his travels, his work, and his outlook that mishaps are simply a way to meet nice people: “I wonder what nice people I’m going to meet today”. I love that sort of positive attitude! Life is really 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it...

Larryboy/Rob came home, and we swapped some cheap living tips and favorite places. He listened to my stories of Slab City and suggested I check out Saline Valley sometime. I mentioned that I thought he should go to <a href="http://wastelandweekend.com">Wasteland Weekend</a> and hang out with the Mad Max people, as I want to do later this summer. Lots of great conversation. He also had a spare pair of women's motocross boots that he thought might be my size, and offered to ship them to me once I get back to Oregon. Awesome! He recommended that I stay at a place called Usal Beach on my way North...

I got to sleep in a bed for the first time since I left Phoenix! I slept like a rock.

I consider my first meeting with ADVRiders a success! Thanks again for everything guys!

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Slow is where it's at. Also, fewer things break and you spend less on gas! Though fast is fun sometimes too...

It's great that you're getting out there and living life though! Enjoy Colorado, you don't need no steenking campgrounds! Keep the shiny side up! It'd be fun to meet up someday.

Excellent! I didn't start taking notes until well after Slab City, where I realized if I didn't write something down before I got back, I'd never remember it all. (This is why I got Frank's name wrong. ) I remember thinking the hills were some government thing due to the barbed wire and some signs along the road? Also mines aren't usually so... symmetrical. THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE! J/K

Thanks for the extra info!

Glad to help with your escapism, and thanks for tagging along!

Ah yes, more than a fair bit of that as well, and it's a bit ludicrous for me to see people mired in the status quo, who would be lost without it, protesting the hand that feeds them. I suppose if it were only people on the fringes or the poor and downtrodden it'd be a much smaller protest, though. It's really unfortunate that there isn't more diversity of voices. I want to hear from the lady running the small Vietnamese diner on the corner, about how her business has been affected by onerous regulation brought about by her competition bribing (oh excuse me, lobbying) politicians, I want to hear from the homeless, the underemployed dad who has to choose between feeding his kid and gas to get to his job.

... But this is about the ride, so I should really shut up before I get going. This is one of those subjects I can talk about for hours.

I got up and packed at a reasonable hour (before noon). Watched Nicky make "Zorbex" (not sure of spelling?), this hydrophilic paper he sells to libraries to restore waterlogged books. Neat stuff! We'd used some of it in the funnel the previous day with the hopes of absorbing any water that might be in the gas.

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I headed out with Rob, who was going the same direction to work. We'd talked about lanesplitting the previous evening, and I mentioned that I'd never done it before. Well, he gave me my chance! We didn't split much, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking! Practice for Mexico I suppose...

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">Awww, look! My bike made a friend!</p>
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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">Looking back over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge</p></center>I took Sir Francis Drake Blvd over to Highway 1, to follow the coast. It was a rainy, drizzly day. The hiccup was still happening, mostly in third gear, on deceleration or steady throttle, but almost never while increasing speed. Damnit!

Even through the bad weather and bike issues, the scenery was gorgeous. Redwoods, pastoral countryside, and green rolling hills. The ocean was grey and moody. There were several points where hawks and other birds would fly just ahead of me in paralell, giving me a peaceful, serene feeling. It was good to be riding again.

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Heavy fog rolled in, and the fog, cattle guards(!!) and rain made the road less than ideal. Lots of debris - mud and rocks from recent small slides - randomly dotted the roadway. I went ridiculously slow all day, rarely making it over 30 in the corners.

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I got as far north as Point Arena, when I realized I had made plans to visit a friend of mine earlier in the week - in Union City, south of Oakland, not north. <strong>D'OH!!</strong> I stopped for lunch around 5-6 pm to re-evaluate my plans, reroute myself, and call my friend to let him know I was coming. He seemed surprised that I would turn around to meet him, but I do try to keep what promises I make.

I took the 128 east from the coast, which even with the drizzly weather was a fantastic ride. The road was gentle and forgiving for the most part, well-maintained, with lots of squiggly curves to keep me busy, but not the sharp, harsh corners that I'd been fighting all day along the coast. It was like a breath of fresh air to be able to go a bit faster without tempting Certain Doom. The last 10 miles nearest the 101 were more of a challenge - there were numerous hairpin turns which kept me on my toes and the corners were not as well marked, but I still had fun. I was a bit pressed for time, I wanted to get back to the 101 before darkness hit, as I didn't want an instant replay of the deer encounter back in Big Sur.

I sped along the 101 south through the bay area again, and made it to Union City around 1 am. Had a nice hot shower and slept well in another Actual Bed.

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<p style="font-size: x-small; text-align:center;">Total distance: 330 miles. <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=oakland,+california&amp;daddr=39.19319,-123.75538+tooint+arena,+ca+to:38.14285,-122.87667+to:union+city,+ca&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=38.233865,-121.68457&amp;spn=3.063392,4.938354&amp;sll=39.053318,-123.365479&amp;sspn=0.757173,1.234589&amp;geocode=FUzZQAIddkq2-CkD7aooi32FgDFnk3U11RW0cQ%3BFWYKVgIdjKSf-CndgOHiqauBgDHY0oNCn2903w%3BFX6zUQId75eg-Cl9d0jW1xiBgDEpSDLwMOZcdQ%3BFYIDRgIdAg2t-CkpPrxzFM6FgDH_OVlAPe7RIQ%3BFXqbPQIdTLu5-CmT6odRvJGPgDHuimS8bN6sWw&amp;mra=dpe&amp;mrsp=1&amp;sz=10&amp;via=1,3&amp;t=m&amp;z=8">Larger view</a></p></center>The next two days I lounged around, hung out with my friend, watched Alien: Resurrection and caught up on writing my paper journal and email. I wandered around hardware stores with my friends in their quest to install a natural gas outlet for their car.

In my unending battle to get rid of the hiccup, I changed spark plugs, one of which seemed really greasy and had a slightly bent tip.

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I also noticed that my carb boot was cracked... maybe the hiccup was a vacuum leak? Oh well, I'd replace it in Portland...

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Ha! Evil carb boot cracks - now yer gettin' somewhere!

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