Dos Vesperados, Part 2: The Hills, Big Bend, and I can see Mexico from my Scooter. February 10-17, 2016.
The ride to Brad’s address took 4.5 hours, because I guess even when I’m gunning for a place I can’t help breaking for a Topo Chico. Fred and his friend (and host) Brad arrived back from a Tacodeli run shortly after I pulled up. I apologize to Brad if it took me a...
Dos Vesperados, Part 1: The Prequel with Party Ice. February 4-9, 2016.
It’s taken so long to collect this part of the story, the events described have happened over a year ago by now. I hemmed and hawed over whether this was a storyline I wanted to keep for myself, but ultimately I’d always intended to chronicle this segment of journey....
Unofficial Modern Vespa Blogger Touring Summit of White Springs, FL. December 9-11, 2015.
Things had been quiet since I landed in Atlanta in November. In my experience, it can take up to a couple weeks for the fernweh beast to start making noise again. Luckily, if I could hold out a little longer, a December trip to Florida was falling into place. The greatest...
Sea Shells and Southern Homes. Botany Bay, Charleston, and to Atlanta. November 18-21, 2015.
Tim had kindly reached out to his daughter, Nerina, and her family, who graciously hosted me for just a few days before they themselves went out of town. Timing was perfect: rain was predicted all day after I arrived, and I anticipated the excuse to stay in. I got...
GTSing the Outer Banks. Richmond, VA to Oak Island, NC. November 11-17, 2015.
When picking routes, often I start by opening a map and looking for nearby geographical features or land masses, especially new ones. North Carolina’s map revealed a series of long, narrow islands flung far to the east of the main body of land. I would discover later they’re called...
We’ll Come Back For Indian Summer. Richmond, VA. November 6-10, 2015.
Rally time! I landed in Richmond International Airport, full of nervous anticipation to see people, the rally, and my bike again. Fred surprised me at my gate, having landed just half an hour before me. It was all I could do not to jump on him, but with all...
Rocks, Heights, Lonely Highways, and Armani. LA to San Francisco, CA. November 2-5, 2015.
It was time to return Endy2 to his keeper in the city of fog. I rarely like to double back, but fortunately, for those with time it seems there are endless ways to slice the LA-SF run. Notice how the first leg of this is quite short compared to...
More Lazy Egging, San Francisco to LA. October 13 – November 1, 2015.
Another elaborate logistical dance of airplanes, friends, work, and borrowing Pete’s bike was about to go down – you know, the regular drill now. By the end of it, I believe I’d be responsible for about 3/4 of the mileage on his bike, Endy2. I count myself extraordinarily fortunate...
Adventures in Philly, Wedding Crashing in Richmond. October 5-12, 2015.
I’ve sliced Connecticut east-west so many times, I already had a clear favorite route in mind: pass by the Scituate Reservoir, route 14 into CT, smaller roads (Machine Shop Hill Rd) aiming for CT-16. Once west of Hartford staying quite far south, I could decide how to proceed. It’s...
New England Again, the Adventure Continues. July 28 – October 4, 2015.
I was afraid that upon returning to Providence, I would find myself hugely changed against a static landscape. In truth, time does move differently on the road. The events of a few days easily expands to fill the space of what might otherwise be a month of fixed-location human...