Upping The Proverbial Ante

I certainly don't want to imply that our adventures through the northeast were in the least ordinary or mundane, they were in fact pretty thrilling and quite beautiful. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine are some of the areas I've been wanting to ride through for quite some time, and with their uniquely lush, rolling hills & abundance of bodies of water, the area certainly lived up to it's reputation. We didn't experience much hardship on this trip; things seemed to flow pretty easily and naturally. Maybe it's just that as time goes by and more adventures are checked off on the tally list, the whole experience is getting easier... which is not necessarily a comforting thought. Many of the challenges of riding long distance in unfamiliar areas have become almost expected and some of them have even started to become less of a challenge.  By this point, we've learned how to read the clouds a little better, what kind of rain gear to carry, when to just stay put & wait it out, where to stay when we're ready for a shower, and regardless of the advent of GPS, to trust our instincts with direction of travel, the timing of each day's ride, and when to jump on the thruway for the sake of getting to more of the good stuff.    I'm not a seasoned professional yet, just seeing new things is still absolutely thrilling, every ride is still most certainly "worth it",  & it's certainly not loosing a drop of it's appeal, but I think the point is that the proverbial "ante" has been upped.    

While I didn't really recognize it at the time, I believe this is the reason I was so hell-bent on riding through at least part of Canada. At least there I'd have to learn to look at the tiny numbers on my speedo next to the MPH, convert the gas prices to gallons before I could understand them, and might encounter some people of (at least slightly) a different culture.  And it was most certainly interesting, not at all what I expected, and absolutely worthwhile. After all, the most interesting person I met on the entire trip was that Canadian farmer who rode up on his old Honda 250.. a real character. 

So I certainly enjoyed the trip & all else aside, I was definitely looking forward to a little break from work and city life.  But the question now is, what's next?

It's been a couple of weeks now since returning home from the northeast & for the first few days I struggled to re-acclimate myself to daily life in the working world.. it's always a little depressing to come home.  I had been looking forward to this trip for months and now that it's come and gone, I've been trying muster some kind of excitement for what's next to come.  I had originally planned to ride the "Haul Road" (originating in Seattle, then from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, AK) this summer, but with the relocation, it has become pretty impossible. 

So, with no adventures planned for the immediate future, I've shifted my sights to longer term planning. Planning for the trip that will require my attention for at least the next year.  I've been thinking and talking about it for a couple of years now, and I still can't quite wrap my brain around the reality of riding through Mexico, Central and South America all in one big madcap adventure.  It's certainly been done by others before, and absolutely feasible, but the planning for this trip is so diverse & challenging..it's downright mind-boggling. 

I've created and designated a website solely for the purpose of organizing my thoughts as they relate to the various facets of this planning & you can check it out by clicking the Tierra Del Fuego flag at the bottom of this post.  I've been pretty active in updating this site, as new thoughts, information & research occur almost daily, but there is still much information missing. I hope that this site will become the hub for our planning progress, and a resource for others that wish to join us or future adventurers looking for information. I also hope that, while still in the very early thought process, it becomes a useful vehicle in the future for donation and sponsorship.   So stop by & take a look to learn more about what's going on.. & check back in the future for updates and developments as the planning process continues!

Vamanos a America del Sur!

Trip photo gallery

  /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\Ok, and here's my photo gallery...   Follow the LINK

North American Update..

Not that it means I've seen nearly everything there is to see in any of these places, but merely riding through them affords me a small amount of bragging rights, right?

favorite

Here's my favorite from Matthew's slide show :D

The Map.. 2,737

                                                          ...Or something like that.. 

Trip photos..

------>  -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Here's a link to Matthew's trip photos.. it's a slideshow!-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- 

 I'll be posting mine on the blog and there's a video in progress, too! 

 Stay tuned!

Thanks for all the confusion, canada.. Homeward bound...

[ With Matthew & I parting ways from the cabin in New York, I decided to at least get SOME Canadian time in & cut through from Buffalo to Detroit along the northern shore of Lake Erie..  Border crossing was fairly effortless although time consuming.. I made my way across, trying to stay off the major highways & found myself in a completely foreign, yet perfectly mundane farmland adventure.  I'm not sure why I was so hell-bent on traveling through Canada.. maybe it was just that I couldn't fathom riding through Northern Ohio again as I have done so many times.. Or maybe it was that I was looking forward to the challenges brought by a (slightly) different culture, street signs in English and French, mileage in Km & gas sold in Liters (or, Litres).. None of which were really all that strange.  But nevertheless, it was certainly interesting. I met a couple of unique characters along the way, most notably a farmer who pulled up during a smoke break on an old Honda 250 Custom... he asked me the same questions over & over, and just couldn't get over the technological monstrosity that is the GS.. .."she's a big ol' girl, aye?"  (yes, to my surprise and amusement, they do actually say "aye" after everything in Canada.. I'm not sure why, but I was under the impression that it was an expression blown out of proportion by our ethno-centric american culture..   turns out, not so much!)    

  I was trying to make it all the way to Windsor by Friday night but an impending rain storm on the horizon and a ever-increasingly sore ass convinced me to pamper myself at the Comfort Inn of St. Thomas, Ontario.

 Saturday morning I knew I had some miles to ride if I wanted to get home by Saturday evening, so I set out on the road at 8am & didn't stop until the first 120 miles were out of the way..  Finally across the border after a pit stop at the duty-free a bit after lunch time & I was now in the thick of the homeward marathon..  

 (Detroit is even more of a shithole than I ever imagined)

  400+ miles later I had reached the maze of freeways & toll plazas that is the approach into Chicago.. it wasn't until then that my retrospect kicked in & the entirety of the trip came flooding back in waves..   and now it was coming to abrupt end.   Total mileage for me was 2,737 which included travel through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Ontario & Michigan.  

  Stay tuned for a map, more photos & a retrospective look at the trip Motopsychosis-style..