Days 5 & 6 – Frolics, Fumbles, Friends & Family
Yesterday marked the end of our miniature motorcycle expedition through Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. Today we return to our previously scheduled travels, visiting families and friends. Not to say that there aren’t adventures afoot (because that seems to have a certain inevitability, particularly when I’m involved). But they are changing their tone. And they don’t quite have the same epic scope of time and distance.
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Day 3 – Navigating To St. Ives
I am starting to sense a theme for this trip. And that would be “failure to navigate.” Having struggled for the last two days with where the GPS was guiding me, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions. Firstly, what the computer thinks the route should be when I program it is not the route that the GPS calculates when it gets it into its scheming clutches. Secondly, no matter what route I’ve chosen for its scenic qualities, the GPS always thinks it has a better way. Thirdly, I’m pretty convinced it’s trying to drive me mad.
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Day 2 – Heading To Bath
After a spectacular weekend with friends, we are back on the road once again. Today, we head from Shrewsbury to Bath. We have essentially chunked up our trip, with three nights of visits, three nights flitting about and three more nights of visits. So the next three days have us hotel hopping, as we check out the southern coast of England (which neither of us are terribly familiar with it).
First, however, we have to GET to the southern end of England. Read more…
Day 1 – And So It Begins
We arrived in London yesterday. It was an awesomely smooth and uneventful flight (and we even got to ride in the new Air Canada pods, which was enormously cool). Luggage arrived safely, hotel transfer was smooth, early check-in actually happened, and I managed to get some shut-eye before having to pick up our motorcycle. Previous readers of these pages will know that this can only portend something being less smooth later on. I can only wonder.
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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 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 5 – To Klamath Falls
Day 5 dawned with me on the phone, following up with various issues back at the office, before we got underway. Ah, the joys of owning a small business.
Breakfast was coffee, juice, bananas and a loaf from the Dog River Coffee Company in Hood River. If you ever get the chance, they make a pretty mean Americano. We packed up fairly quickly and hit the road to Klamath Falls. Read more…