Christmas is coming and the Adventure Rider is getting fat! Hahahahahaha. The food out here is incredible, way too much fried stuff but it is soooooooo nice!

My first time in the land of the free and my preconceptions are all TV and Hollywood based. I feel like a big daft kid riding around. There are just so many toys out here and I want most of them. Maybe not the Harleys though, Not sure I could do the Southern California ape hangers thing. Did watch Sons Of Anarchy the other night, it's in colour so it must be true, right?!

Arizona was incredible. I road into town and moved in on a ride shown on ADV. That started a fantastic 10 tens or so. I met Bob, Ken and Steve. Three people who each provided support and help. Bob shared mapping with me and took me out into the Arizona desert. Beautiful trails with huge open scenery. I just rode around enjoying the view, feeling the heat and immersing myself in the fun of riding. After hearing about my suspension woes Ken made a call and put me in contact with a first class guy to get both the front and rear ends refreshed. And Steve! An offer out of the blue to stay at his house. To stay with Steve and his family was a pleasure. Wonderful people with a patience for the dumb questions I was asking. Real home cooking from Katrina, a ride with Steve's son, taxied around to get bike parts and a workshop to do yet another oil change. It was a holiday from the pressures of travel and a pleasure to be within their household.

The weather has played a huge part in my travel over this last year. I don't mind riding in the rain but I have come to realise I need the sun, must be getting old! My original intention had been to head into Utah but the temperatures were not good and snow was real possibility. So I have gone east. Steve told me of a place to wild camp in the Southern Californian desert and I headed that way. I had the best nights camping I have had for ages. One of those times it just goes right. I turned up in the dark, found a great spot, had food under the stars and fell asleep reading a book. I awoke to a flat torch battery and a beautiful view of the mountains. I felt free and at peace. Travel is wonderful, in a way I cannot get across. It just has to be experienced individually.

So now I am in San Diego. I have been for a while. Each time I go to leave I look at the weather to the north and book another night. I got as far as Los Angeles. That lasted one night, not my sort of place. I packed up in the morning and rode back to San Diego. But next week I will definitely move on. I think Christmas in San Francisco, there should be something to do there!

Whilst in Tucson I took the opportunity to see a couple of things. The Boneyard is something I have seen on the movies and various "down with the kids" type bike videos. A scrap yard for the USAF and next door to the Pima plane museum. Big stuff! Big stuff on a scale we just don't have in Britain. It was a great day out. being allowed to wander around the planes and get a grasp of how truly large some of the cold war stuff is. Then a bus tour around the Boneyard itself. Line after line of hard ware. America projects power and with all the stuff it has laying around it clearly shows the power it can put out there. Impressive and a touch worrying at the same time.

Then I went to the Titan Missile museum. The bunker is open to the public for tours and a decommissioned missile, minus warhead is sat in the hole. An amazing sight. Paranoia on a scale I barely remember from my youth. The missile is huge! the guide put its power into perspective by saying that when Neil Armstrong was an astronaut before his mission to the moon the missile was used as a vehicle for space missions. The space that house the warhead was a two man pod for the astronauts.

Big stuff. Big power. Big engines...................

More pictures.

Hmmm, sorry I don't know why it turns a couple on their side.

You bought a new camera in the USA ????? most pics yet mate :rofl: don't need to tell you to have a good one John , take care mate :clap:
Phil

Hi Jon,

Greetings from Johannesburg,

Have been enjoying your tale. I echo the others' comments that stories like yours are wonderful inspiration to us who are not quite there yet... look out for two South Africans called Poodle and Meghan! Lovely couple who are en route to Alaska raising funds for Docs without Borders.

Enjoy the States,

Richard

Sent from my SM-P605 using Tapatalk

Good morning Rich, thank you for reading. I hope your friends have good luck with the weather.

I have moved on from San Diego to San Francisco. The city is very different from San Diego, it shows its history. I really like it here, there is a whole different atmosphere. Alctatraz, the tram cars, the buildings, the bridges and of course the Streets Of San Francisco. Just have to find myself a second hand Ford Torino..............................

Ok so a little indulgence here, after all it's Christmas and all that. This will be my second Christmas on the road, last year was in Namibia after getting the bike back from the boat. A fair few miles have gone under the wheels since then.
I have a lot of time on the bike to think and absorb what is happening to me and around me. Something that living in the working world just doesn't allow. Relax now, no deep hippy stuff is about to come out. I haven't lost it all yet.....................

The world is a strange mucked up place. It is however beautiful and full of the most incredible people. I have been fortunate enough to see some of its wonders and meet some of those people. I still get overwhelmed by just how I get treated sometimes. The care, interest and help I have received. I can never be able to thank everyone enough and of course I just disappear and move on but I do not forget. I cannot, without help from people I simply wouldn't have got here now. Life is good and to be free to travel through it is amazing.

I have many places that have been special to me but the deserts are always where I feel most at home, the Sahara, the Namib, the Kalahari. The heat and the space allow for different perspective. The Western Sahara is my most favourite place of all. I have been there three times now and I will return again one day. The sand and I have some unfinished business to sort out. I never really know how to put across how the desert makes me feel. Then just yesterday I bought two books from a second hand book store in town. One about the Yukon, a place I hope to visit and the other about the Sahara. In there was a quote from a Polisario Commander that explains it all;

"This may seem like the end of the earth to you, but it is not for us... In the desert we are free, there are no restrictions. We can see forever. We can cast our eyes to the horizon, and all we can see is sand and sky. In the desert our spirits can fly."



Merry Christmas where ever you are. Take care and enjoy the day. Me, I hope to take a walk through the Redwoods.


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Oh goody! I'm thew first to wish you 'Happy Christmas' back John - there's got to be an upside to being a lifelong early-riser sad bastard! :rofl:

Keep thise wheels a'turnin' Big John! :thumbup1:

Simon and Polly (sensible girl, still tucked up ...)

:thumbup1:

Hey whats going on big man ????? them yanks feeding you to many burgers and dounuts :cowboy:

Ok......... Well I am writing again. I have purposefully been hiding from this lately, even more than normal. I will over the next couple of days bring it bang up to date. Lots of things have happened and they spelt the end to this part of the adventure! I left England without a plan. Over my travels a plan never really formed. I had no real idea where I was going or why. I didn't know if I was aiming to ride around the world, I never had a list to tick, I wasn't restricted by a time frame and I have been a very, very lucky man to have had this opportunity.

I wandered homeless and happier than I think I have ever been in my life. I never felt unsafe despite some of the things I got caught up in and I think I came to realise that I always was the person I thought I was. I just had a chance to be that person and not be trapped with the confinement of the modern all encompassing world.
My travels reinforced within me patience, reliance, respect, integrity, hope and love. Both for myself and for all the other people I was lucky enough to meet. I know in my heart I am not scared of anyone, anything, or any circumstance. I realise that sounds incredibly pretentious to say, after all many people have achieved far more than I have, but travel has reinforced in me my ability to be. And now I am stronger and calmer than I have ever been. I am lucky, I have seen things and experienced things that have built on that strength and opened my eyes to a much, much bigger picture.

Riding alone gives time to think. When something wasn't going well I just used to think, as long as the trees were green and the sky was blue it would be ok. I must have said that to myself hundreds of times at the start of this journey. I have talked many times about my love for the desert. Its vastness gives me, at least, a sense of perspective. We sit and worry about our problems, and they are all real for each of us, all important. Then I would ride out into a desert, you know going somewhere I had been advised not to go alone, at some point I would stop and sit. The heat and the space were fantastic. Camp, spend the night and allow everything to be reset. I would spend hours sitting by my tent, the bike always in view and just looking. When you can sit somewhere long enough to see the shadows move or the stars rotate, then you are at peace.

Funny old life isn't it?

On from San Francisco then. I liked it there, another place I want to return to. One of the days I took the loop around the bay going over all three bridges. A wonderful ride under a clear blue sky. America has a pace and intensity all of its own. But there at least in some parts the slower side of life was on view. I spent the Christmas in the hostel and then looked forward to the road again. The Pacific Cost Highway going north. I was in no rush, wanted the scenery and was mindful of the cold. Clear skies in the day and very cold nights. Travel alone again and wild camping, they were my aims.

The Pacific Coast Highway going north is beautiful. I have been asked many times about favourites, favourite country, favourite city, favourite roads and I am never sure how to answer. I can never pick a single out of so many. I prefer to think along the lines of places I would return to. The Pacific Coast Highway is one of those. I will go back there and travel along it again, it is stunning for so many reasons. I got my wild camping in and the nights were indeed getting colder as I went north. I had a personal goal to wild camp on New Years Eve. But alas this was not to be. At around four each day the sun would drop and with it the temperature. I had to have found somewhere and be set up ready for this. Wild camping on this coast was not allowed everywhere and twice I had used the very good Government Sites. On New Years Eve I pushed it too far and whilst sat in the darkness under a carry snow chains sign I knew I had blown it. Damn!

The route north took me through Redwood country. Trees are cool, really big trees are incredible! Muir Forest is just outside San Francisco and a walk through the redwoods was on the cards. I had tried to get there earlier but with the holiday season it was packed. Also further up the highway is the Valley Of The Giants. These trees are just fantastic. Their ages and size are mind blowing. To think of them sat there patiently growing whilst us ants are crazily buzzing around underneath their boughs! And I was told somewhere up there was the scenery chosen as the Forest Moon of Endor for the proper Star Wars films. Never saw an Ewok though................

The road led me into Seattle, like San Francisco another waterfront town with history. A hostel in China Town for a few days to get the gear back in order and a mooch about. Lots of homeless and lots of missions. The skies were crystal blue and the wind was very cold. The views were amazing. I spoke with someone on the roadside about the light. Somehow along the coast it was crisper, the colours and views were more intense.

Seattle up to the Canadian Border was just a small hop. I expected quite a grilling at the border about my onward travels. I had been led to believe they would want to know my intentions, for how long and where I was intending to go. But nothing of the sort, a cutie for a border guard and on my way................

Kettle's on mate :D

Cheers Phil. I will bring t' bags, no worries.

So........ Canada! Well whilst there was never a plan there was and still is an idea about Canada. The North American continent as a whole has a lot of places and events I want to see and do. the Alcan 5000, the Dempster Highway, Alaska, the Dalton Highway, the Yukon, the Moab, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the trans American Trail and lots more! In short not just a few months visit but enough stuff to fill a few years and needing more stability than I have at the moment! My aim in Canada was to see about work and how to get it. Check out the lifestyle and generally do lots of homework so an informed decision could be made at a later date. I really had no idea how this would pan out. I had one contact there and a place to stay.

Well I only visited Vancouver and did a couple of day rides out from there. It was cold, too cold to go far and camping was really out of the equation. Within the first couple of weeks I had found out most of what I needed to know and it got me down a bit. A lot to be honest! My last twenty years working in England count for nothing abroad. I sort of knew that but to be told quite so firmly was still a shock! I was very, very lucky in that I had some fantastic people to stay with for my final week and I cannot thank John and Laurel enough for their hospitality. John and I bounced things around and they both kept up the encouragement when I was obviously not happy. Being able to talk things over with them helped me to look past my disappointment and think properly about what was best to do.

I had a few choices. I could keep riding and go all the way round the world. This I am sure I could do and I thought it would be at least another two years on the road. But I just don't have the enthusiasm for Russia and Asia. I know that is odd to say as I have never been there but that's how it is. I am not one for a tick in the box and saying I rode around the world would be just that to me. The next choice was to start wandering around Canada and keep asking questions looking for work. More easily said than done at this time of year. Another choice was to go back to the warmth of America, travel for six months and return to Canada in the summer to look again. The issue now being money and how fast I use it up living out the time. The option that kept getting to the top was to return to the UK and plan for getting back to Canada, any part of Canada and not be restricted to the Vancouver area. Research it, organise it and get it sorted properly not just bounce from one decision or piece of information to another. Being in the UK would be good for funds and give me a base to work from. Something more than a tent! When the cost of shipping the bike back to the UK came in I reluctantly decided it was the best option.

So as said before this part of the adventure is over. I am not happy! Not happy in a way I cannot even explain. I am in the UK, I have been for a couple of weeks now and I just don't like it! I want a very different way of life. I have seen it, experienced it and I know I want it. My bike is on its way back. I think that at least when I have it and my gear again I will feel better. But for the moment I am just here.

I never had a plan, but I have one now. I am going to work hard to achieve it. At the moment I am not sure what the best options are. I have some ideas and am going through them.

I am not going to finish this on a negative note so I will get some pictures up over the next couple of days. Canada what little I saw was incredible and inspirational for so many reasons. I will be back!

Pictures! Canada was just such a fantastic place. It was of course cold. Vancouver city was wonderful and I enjoyed walking around taking it all in. There cannot be many places you can sit for a while and watch the sea plane service running up and out over the river. I took a ride out one day to Hope, the place Rambo First Blood was filmed. A stunningly beautiful area and still looks like the film. The depth of green out there is incredible. The trees rise up the valley sides and then into the snow line. What starts as a dusting of icing sugar along the tips becomes solid white.

I also took in a bike show and a boat show, Toys everywhere all with a hint towards the weather and conditions Canada lives with. My last day involved taking lunch by a river and watching the Bald Eagles fish. Not just one but birds all along the river bank. An atmosphere of calm and the outdoors I could drop into at anytime.