Day 6 – To Edmonton
This morning dawned hot and blowing. And I was alone, thank you very much, so get your minds out of the gutter.
There is very little open at 6:30 in the morning for breakfast in Kamloops (should you ever find yourself in this situation, you may want to keep this in mind). Several establishments open at 7:30am, of course, but I had a long day ahead of me and my goal was to actually be on the road by then. Read more…
Day 5 – To Kamloops
This morning, I decided to grab a quick breakfast at a coffee shop. Of course, given that I was staying at the Fairmont in Seattle, this isn’t just any coffee shop. Belle Epicurean is run by a Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef, and they’ve won a raft of ‘best of Seattle’ awards. A brioche and an egg and ham sandwich on house-made croissants, along with one of the better Americanos I’ve had on this trip, and I’m ready to hit the road. There are really much worse ways to start the day. Read more…
Day 4 – To Seattle
After a shorter night, I packed up and headed out to breakfast at the Wild Flower Cafe in Lincoln City. Dianne and I had breakfasted here last time we were through, so I had a fair idea of what to expect. It’s an excellent thing that I got there when I did, because by the time I left there were at least six parties waiting for tables… Read more…
Day 3 – To Lincoln City
Ride. Eat. Sleep. Ride. Eat. Sleep. This is the dynamic of my current existence. And that’s not an exaggeration.
Despite having set the alarm for 6am, I don’t actually wake up until 7am. Nine hours of blissful, restful sleep is a wondrous thing. Read more…
Day 2 – To Mendocino
I woke up at 6am, got dressed, had breakfast, checked out, and got a cab to the motorcycle store that has been Alessandro’s temporary quarters for the last couple of weeks. According to the service manager, there was no real ‘smoking gun’ that they found. Read more…
Day 1 – To Monterey
So as it turns out, I suspect — once again — I spoke too soon. Raving about the service on one airplane only dooms you to regret every utterance once you get to the other plane. Of course, ‘once’ would be the operative word in that sentence. Read more…
Day 1 – Leaving Edmonton
Even after several years of riding a motorcycle, I continue to be astonished by the degree to which they are the great social equalizer. Ride a motorcycle, and quite literally anyone will come up to you and just start talking. And I do mean anybody. Read more…
Day 12 – Bust
The astute and alert reader will recognize that a narrative thread has been left dangling. They will be wondering what I meant when I mentioned that, starting the bike on Friday morning, the bike sounded louder and rougher than it usually did. Yes, I did mention it. I even spoke of it being an example of foreshadowing. Read more…
Day 11 – MotoGP – Race Day
Ah, how quickly we have to eat our words. Or more to the point, how quickly I have to eat mine.
Sunday is race day. This is, relatively speaking, a universal rule, hence the title of the iconic motorcycle racing movie ‘On any Sunday’. Once again, the day dawned awfully early as we crawled out of bed at 6:30am to get out to the track. Read more…
Day 10 – MotoGP – Qualifying
Saturday is the second day of the race weekend at Laguna Seca. But it’s the day where things start to get interesting. After spending Friday getting Dianne restored to a semblance of normal function, we managed to get her up at 6:30am on Saturday to get out to the raceway. Our theory was that getting there early, we’d beat the traffic and get some decent parking. Read more…