Meeting new friends, and figuring out how amazingly nice complete strangers can be.

[lstzephyr]

I've been too lazy and busy to write a ride report of my trip. I rode my sv650 from Alabama to Arizona by way of Virginia. I crossed through 14-15 states, and visited many friends including many I didn't know I had. It ended up being 4658 miles and 10 days. This is the biggest road trip of my life to date, and hopefully only the beginning.

Now I hope I will have a reason to stop being lazy and start uploading pictures and writing. Right now I need to get some sleep so I can go to spanish class tomorrow morning.

How do I attach multiple pics though? So far I only know how to attach one.

[timk519]

Originally Posted by lstzephyr

How do I attach multiple pics though? So far I only know how to attach one.

Use a service like photobucket or smugmug to save the pics to, then drag the images to your post when you're editing it.

[GB]

As an attachment, you can only attach one picture per post. Get yourself a smugmug.com account and support the opearation of this site

[lstzephyr]

Well, I'm quite poor at the moment so I guess I'll just have to attach pics for now. I'll try and support the site/donate later though...this site rocks!!

So I guess the beginning of this whole trip was in colorado. I had just finished my job working for Aspen Ski Co, had a little money, and a ton of time. I had decided to try to make it to Alabama(where I grew up) to go to an Ama superbike race with my old friend. I packed everything I owned into the truck, said goodbye to some friends and off I went. It was monday.

The plan was take the truck to Tucson, Az and stash it at my sisters house on monday night. Then catch a plane a day later to Huntsville, Al, and pull my bike from under some bicycles in my parents garage on wednesday.
Then run to the Ama superbike race the next day in Birmingham. Watch race.
Come back on monday, pack the bike and take off on wednesday for two weeks and wander the country.
Be back in Tucson in time to sign up for classes and become a college student.
Get a job.

That was the plan.

[Ricardo Kuhn]

Right now I need to get some sleep so I can go to spanish class tomorrow morning.

Tus Fotografias son exelentes...

Muestranos muchas mas por favor

[lstzephyr]

Well I was at a ski resort so of course the night before I left....I drank alot! I had a bunch of fun but it made me get a bit of a late start the next day. I got out of bed at about 10 but was determined to get to Tucson that night. It helped that I told my sister it was going to be late, so I could just sneak in the back door.

I had to go fetch my truck first...there was a little sticker on it saying the sheriff thought it was abandoned and was going to tow it. So I threw that in the trash and went on to the library. I come back out of the library to return some books(2 minutes later) and theres a cop about to write me a parking ticket. I convinced her not to. I then got the hell out of Aspen. It felt very good to be on the road wandering again. I really enjoyed the scenery in western Colorado and the emptiness of Utah. Everything was going great until I suddenly realized I had no idea how to get to Tucson from eastern Utah.

The sky had this crazy glow about it all day.

[Motojournalism]

Looks promising, keep it coming

Dega me algo, Porque tu aprendes Español?
Though I think I might have an idea why

[lstzephyr]

Now completly lost I start looking for a rest stop or something I can look at a map. I eventually find one and talk to a nice woman(who looks very bored) about how to get to Tucson. Its an old map, and very small but it looks like I can take one road...so off I go on that, and follow it for hours.

Turns out the road goes all the way to within a few hundred miles of tucson. The scenery is amazingly beautiful but I'm in a truck, and I had places to go so the rest of this section will be short.

About 6-7 hours later(and a hundred dollars poorer...damn gas guzzler) and I intersect with the interstate and take off in what I think is the right direction(toward Phoenix). I have long time to go still but at least I have a large city to point it at.

Now my truck is old....and I've been driving at altitude all day. I'm not going very fast and not expecting to but Arizona was funny. I literally was flooring it, going as fast as possible for 5 hours straight after I got on the interstate. I topped out at 72. It was almost silly.

The sun had gone down a long time ago and its past midnight. I'm tired but I've still got a ways to go. I start singing to the crappiest loud music I can come up with. I'm sure I was the silliest completly alert driver on the road.

I get to phoenix at about 2. I realize I went 100 miles out of the way. Finally though I find a sign pointing to Tucson, and make for it.

4 am...lost in Tucson- I finally find the museum thats on the same street as my sisters subdivision. I had almost been hoping to get pulled over so I could ask directions. Guess what happened next?! I got pulled over. I wasn't speeding, I wasn't swerving...my plates were so dirty they thought they were expired. Go figure. So with that taken care of I finally find my sisters place...hop the back fence and sneak in all illegal like. I bet if anyone saw me they would think I was stealing the tv...but I didn't wake the dogs or her so its all good. Then I passed out.

Apparently there is a hole in this rock.

[lstzephyr]

After a day of watching tv, I caught a plane to Huntsville.

[lstzephyr]

They had some crazy bus contraptions in the Washington D.C. airport. They were two stories tall but had nobody on the bottom bit. Seemed like a huge waist of space to me...just put some stairs from the terminal and use a normal bus.

[lstzephyr]

I finally get to Alabama after a few connections, completly bypass the baggage check as I brought nothing more than a backpack with me, and walk outside to find my mom sitting waiting for me. How cool is that?

As soon as I'm back to my parents house the first thing I do is drag my little blue Suzuki Sv650 out of its winter hiding place. It's great to be back on a bike.

The next day its all packed up and off to my buddy's place in Birmingham. My mom wanted to take a pic since she thought that the bike wouldn't be more packed up than this...if she only knew.

I gotta go cook because my sister is hungry, but hey its free housing...so I can handle cooking. Back later.

[lstzephyr]

Originally Posted by Antontrax

Looks promising, keep it coming

Dega me algo, Porque tu aprendes Español?
Though I think I might have an idea why

My spanish is very very very bad.. but if you're asking me why I'm learning spanish(which is what i think you are asking) then its because i want to go on a trip through south america. This trip was a "shakedown" of me and my wits. I want to see the world eventually.

[lstzephyr]

Originally Posted by Ricardo Kuhn

Tus Fotografias son exelentes...

Muestranos muchas mas por favor

Sorry you got me. I have no idea what you said. I've only had one day of spanish class, and I'm behind on my studying. But soon...I will understand.

[lstzephyr]

Everybody is fed(me included), the dogs are passed out on the couch and the cat is well...its being catlike, so its on with the story! Where was I? Ah yes it was a dark and stormy night...wait no thats later.

So I took off to the south to meet up with my old friend(known him almost 16 yrs) and to catch the Ama race. I'd ridden this route a ton of times, so it was earphones in, and just cruise. I got to birmingham quickly but I did notice my back was beginning to hurt(damn clip-ons). Not a good sign if I'm to ride to Arizona. I get in touch with my buddy and he says he is unable to let me in etc for a few hours. No problem says I and off I go to take some pics of birmingham at night.

Now I just discovered the night setting on my camera before these so I'm quite proud. Also thanks to a advrider for a tip on where to upload some pics. Which I'm still having trouble with....uno momento. AHA!



I stopped for some ice cream in this cool little shop outside downtown. The looks I got were very enertaining. I was happy to be a "biker" again with all its little benefits. A little kid walked by and just got so happy, pulling on his dads pants and yelling "A motorcycle!!"



One of my favorite places to take pics at night is on top of parking garages. Its pretty enertaining to just slip by the gates too...the baracades are probably perfect for a car.....



Eventually he gets back and I get let into the college dorms. By now its quite late...and I just pass out on the floor with the intention of catching the practice on friday. Nice comfy floor, which will be a common thing for me soon.

[lstzephyr]

I wake up the next morning and walk out to my bike. I'm pretty happy until I notice a parking ticket on my bike. There is enough space to put another half a million bikes in the uab garage but they ticket me...go figure. So anyway i take off and go to barber. The practice is pretty cool. Its a beautiful southern day too!



Its all pretty laid back and slow in between the different practice sessions. I wander around a bit, look at the bikes, and just relax in the grass. Its quite different than being in colorado and a big change in just 4 days.

On my way back into birmingham I stop by the Ducati, triumph, bmw, ktm dealer. I got to test ride a f650gs, a monster, and a 2007 tiger. I really really liked the f650!

I always like going to big gatherings like this. I started out going to these races before I owned a bike. Now that I own one it does change the expierence slightly. Its alot of fun.



The rest of the weekend was very cool, mostly involving tons of very good racing, lots of hanging out, good food, sleeping on the floor, and naps in the grass.



This is my old friend. I may be poor, but he's poorer. So one of the reasons to go, was so he could go. He said he'd pay me back eventually, and thats good enough for me.


There was this funny blow-up cathedral thing in the grass. I'm not quite sure why its there or what it was used for but we were both laughing at it. Maybe it was for a sunday service?



So of course I went and took a look around. It was actually very cool in there, the thing had some air conditioning or a leak or something.



There were a ton of people there. I've never seen that many people at that race in the three years I've gone. Its good if you ask me.



It also seemed like a very deep field. I don't know how many were racing but there were a few.



All in all a good weekend.