Home Again

• 19 days
  
• 5972 miles
  
• one wedding
  
• one major blizzard
  
• one major rainstorm
  
• two oil changes
  
• one front tire
  
• one close encounter with the Texas State Patrol
  
• one case of gas exhaustion
  
• one hell of a good time!
  

On the road, home can sometimes become a distant memory spoken about like some lost land. We tend to live in a very time- and distance-compressed world where in four hours we can leave our home in Atlanta and Arrive in Los Angeles. The vastness of this great country can only truly be realized when one travels by car, motorbike or even more so by walking. It is within these modes of travel that one can actually get a true grasp of the scale and the magnitude of this country. I remember talking to Kristy after crossing one of the valleys along our route to Tonopah and our conversation centered on the vast scale of the emptiness that surrounded us, where sometimes hours would go by without seeing a single car, and the silence was thick and all-encompassing. Our travels by motorcycle have given us a very unique look at the world around us. We as motorcyclists become part of our surroundings, savoring every smell, every sound, and every action.

We wish to thank all of you who have taken time from your busy schedules to travel along with us, and hope that you have enjoyed as much as we have. I post the following pictures of our full route and a few after shots in conclusion of this adventure.

Kenny and Kristy





A gaggle of felines starved for treats and attention. I believe personally it was the treats and not the human attention but Kristy would most likely disagree.

Thursday -- almost home

We made it to Shreveport, Louisiana, this evening, and are well positioned to make it home tomorrow (Friday) late night. We didn't make quite the mileage intended; we got a later start than we meant to, and then discovered a need for a new front tire on Kristy's bike, which we attended to in Fort Worth. And then spent some quality time in Dallas traffic... no wonder people in Dallas are so stressed out, says Kristy, who works with several coworkers who are based in Dallas.

We saw our first real trees in about two weeks, just after leaving Abilene. Trees and grass! Wow!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

We have started the long trip back to Georgia; so far, as of Wednesday night, we are in Abilene, Texas. We did about 570 miles today! Here are a few high points...

Another rest-stop late lunch/early dinner, this one just before the California-Arizona border Monday afternoon. For this one, we brought along some cup-of-soups, into which we add some jerky, accompanied with pudding and hot chocolate.





A lot of 'big empty' in SoCal, Arizona, and New Mexico Monday and Tuesday.



We amused ourselves Tuesday by taking silly photos. One of these days we're gonna have to get bike-to-bike radio and/or XM receivers.






Tuesday and Wednesday, we started to see a lot of Border Patrol, and El Paso is of course crawling with them. In Midland, Texas (hometown of the Bushes!), we also saw Homeland Security.



I think we'll miss the colors of the desert sunsets.



Wednesday was mostly uneventful, as west Texas terrain along I-10 isn't terribly exciting.



Well, sometimes the Texas State Patrol sees it differently. (Just a warning, folks, not to worry.)

We went through El Paso, which was far more industrial than I expected, and extremely polluted.



There were checkpoints on I-10 in both directions for traffic leaving El Paso. We saw a lot of border patrol vehicles in this area.

The terrain has flattened out here, with fewer foothills and long areas of flat land, and become more prairie than desert. We've also dropped in elevation from about 5,000 to 6,000 feet yesterday and this morning, to 1,500' this evening.





Another late lunch at a rest area, this time with bee-flavored hot chocolate...


We rolled into Abilene well after dark, and mostly by happenstance found Joe Allen's barbecue restaurant, where we had the best brisket either one of us have had in recent memory. We also encountered an axe-wielding bicycle rider, which was a little unnerving... but we are safely locked into a reasonably good motel room with excellent wireless, so the day has ended well.

A few photos from Saturday and Sunday in Santa Monica...

We ran up the coast on Kenny's bike,





and found some of the fire damage in Malibu:




We found surfers!




We found the local motorcycle hangout, and saw many, many bikes out on the road.



Very few Harleys, instead we saw mostly sportbikes, with several BMWs old and new mixed in. Kenny saw a pristine Vincent Black Shadow which he thinks may have been Jay Leno's; alas, no photo.

We saw a bike like Kristy's, but different:



We also saw a couple of really spiffy cars.

There rolls about half a million:


Maybe a little less:


Then we went to Venice Beach, ate at the Venice Whaler Bar & Grill, climbed a sand dune, and walked the pier.







Then we rode the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier, after watching the sunset:











(We also made off with a couple sprouts off one of the jade trees at the hotel, hoping they survive the trip in our little travel cooler.)

update

We're in Deming, NM, but the wireless connection here at the Holiday Inn is so poor, we can't post photos at the moment. Will try again tomorrow. Everything is fine, and we hope to be pulling in to home Friday or Saturday.

Reception plans

OK, here's the plan; we'd like to have the reception on Sunday, December 16, 6PM, at the Kuroshio Sushi Bar and Grille in Kennesaw. Kuroshio has fantastic sushi, as well as non-sushi dishes if that's what you prefer, as well as a really nice ambience and casual setting. Hopefully Kenny Jr can get an evening off so we can see him outside of his waiter role!

This is intended as more of a dinner and opportunity for the extended family to all meet, than a traditional formal reception. I really hope all local family members will be able to attend.

About Kuroshio
Directions, from Kuroshio's site

Google map:

View Larger Map

Friday and Saturday.. it's that time

Friday, we spent some quality time, in the rain, shuttling between Palmdale, CA and Lancaster, CA, getting our paperwork in order:



Someone has been growing out his beard for the entire trip so far, and is about ten days into a full Santa 'do (he did shave it a bit later, have a look at the photos later in this post):



We're staying at the Hotel California in Santa Monica... while it shares the same name as the hotel in the Eagles song, it is almost certainly not the 'hotel' referred to in the song.



This hotel has serious atmosphere, history, and lovely flora...





...we don't get 'Jade trees' like this at home:



The beach today was beautiful, although windy and a bit chilly:









Then... we took part in something big today, a commitment we expect to last for the rest of our lives...











With our officiant, and our witness...



Afterwards, we took a cruise through the Hollywood Hills:







We saw where the stars leave their imprint upon the world:











We saw traces of the rich and famous:





We spent the evening at Chez Jay's, and were entertained by the owner, Jay Fiondella, who was once honored as Man of the Month in Cosmopolitan magazine, and whose restaurant includes a secret, secured room in the back often used for secret dates of Hollywood celebrities. He even sat us down into one of the curtained rooms reserved for celebrities who wish to remain private, presented us with a bottle of champagne, and regaled us for the evening with stories of his life and the Hollywood crowd, from Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack right up to scuffles with Mel Gibson in the present day.