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 | | Sept 14 - Boulder - late afternoon
1800 miles, 2 poached campsites, rain/hail storm, $250 speeding ticket, spectacular sunset, 10 tanks of gas, a sore ass, and the cliched biker and bike picture minus the bad ass scenery.
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 | | Sept 14 - BUSTED - Nebraska near the Colorado border - afternoon
I don't really look at it as a speeding ticket, but rather a $250 picture.
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 | | Sept 13 - Iowa, near the Nebraska border - A reward at the end of a very cold and wet day - dusk
Iowa was the best and worst state. The worst because I had to ride through 3+ hours of rain and hail freezing my sorry ass off and the best because of this spectacular sunset that I got to see.
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 | | Sept 13 - Leaving Chicago - morning
A big shout out to Ellen, Stan, and Hot Tho-mos for showing me a great time in Chicago - such a good time that I started riding at noon. I had to pull Stan out of bed to get this picture with me.
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 | | Sept 12 - Jersey Pride
I never knew that people actually read these things, I figured they just look at the pictures. Well, my bridge and tunnel friends got a little upset about the Jersey quip - from one Jersey girl, "Piss off! You are a shit writing that stuff about Jersey! I am pissed. What about all of the beautiful things you saw that you didn't write about."
OK OK - I'll give you the Delaware Water Gap, George Washington Bridge, and I've heard very nice things about Hoboken. |
 | | Sept 12 - Somewhere in Ohio - noon
Arose at 7, made it out of the campground and found a Kinkos to do some work - on the road again with clear skies.
My parents yelled at me for taking pictures while on the bike, so there might not be too many of those anymore. 'till the next has station!
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 | | Hubbard, OH - Just over the border - 9.30 pm
Well, I arrived safe, sound, and unnoticed at some random RV campground. An early night, I find myself in the same tent as in Khan Tengri, except that somehow a slug and giant spider found their way inside and I have the soothing lull of I-80 to woo me to sleep instead of 50 mph wind gusts of CII.
So far so good, about 500 miles down today. Tomorrow I should make Chicago. I-80 through PA was pleasant, no po-po or traffic, just tons of trucks. Not usually very worrisome, but on a bike it's a different story - I counted at least 18 sets of treads on the side of the road. If I'm behind a truck and one of his treads blow off, I'm toast.
A quick note to New Jersey - Who do you think you're fooling with the 'Scenic overlooks' Last I heard a parking lot off the highway with a broken picnic bench, weeds sprouting from the asphalt, and oil drums with Everest sized heaps of garbage overflowing, was called a Rest Stop. Who do you think you are, Vermont? Scenic Overlook my ass. |
 | | Sept 11 - George Washtington bridge, crossing from NYC to NJ - afternoon
The GW - gateway to the beautiful state of NJ.
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 | | Sept 11 - Trading in the Corner Bistro for TGI Fridays - NYC to Boulder on 2 wheels
Well, it's go time. Last I left off with this was from Khan Tengri Base Camp. After riding the heli back to the interim camp in the green valleys of Akkol, they had a big party for all the rescue teams, climbers, Kazakh press, etc. . - complete with Kazakh girl bands, the deputy mayor of Almaty, smoke machines, and lots of Vodka.
The picture underneath the bike is the morning after. Last memory of the evening - dancing with Julia, a member of the Kazakh girl band 'The heartbreakers', excusing myself from the dance floor at 3 AM, and then tossing my cookies in the bushes. I awoke at 8 the next morning to pack up and get on a 9 o'clock 14-hour bus ride of HELL back to Almaty. I looked like, well, you can see what I looked like. However, I was better off than my Icelandic friend Freyr, who woke up with a golf sized lump on the side of his mouth, not knowing how it got there. Yes, all had an incredible evening of Kazakh hospitality and the lethal 3 dollar liter of Vodka. Unfortunately I never saw Julia again.
So it's Thursday, September 11, 2003 and I'm about to embark on a 4-day motorcycle ride to Boulder. The only requirements are to stay alive and be at a Kinko's Friday morning to work and maybe Monday. It's a bit sad leaving New York - where else can you run into a guy you flew on a Russian helicopter with in Kazakhstan while walking down Broadway, haphazardly meet a couple that just finished a 4 year around the world motorcycle ride who you read about on the internet just a day before, and have your friendly neighbor, whose luggage you lugged up five flights of stairs just months before, not let you into your building because you forgot your key, despite that she can see my drivers license matches the mailbox - yes, you know who you are and I am still bitter about that.
Anyways, thought I'd take the Contact dispatching system and do some pictures and dispatches from the journey. So, you're all welcome to follow along on my mini adventure across America.
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