all work and no play Shining

Dead Calms and Doldrums

That certainly sounds like a recipe for the doldrums, and here I am. There are dishes to wash, counters to clean, and sometimes groceries to get or laundry to do. That is normally the side-work of living life, and is poor fodder for the central theme of anyone's life. Surely, being back on the road will be a salve for the doldrums. Hell, it's a solve for the doldrums in the early phases.

Perspectives: Backwards and Forwards in Time

The end of the year is a natural time to reflect. Usually I even write a blog post, looking at my previous year's post and seeing if things turned out the way I planned, then writing a new one to forecast the coming year. Having done that several times, patterns become apparent. The main one … Continue reading Perspectives: Backwards and Forwards in Time

Putting It All To Bed

Desert Adventures At The 40th Anniversary of The LA-Barstow-To-Vegas Ride Before The Long Trip To End The Year In Baja. And here we are. Mexico. The trip never really ends, but the chapter called "Road Trip 2023" is over for me. It was not without incident, but that's what makes for memories I suppose. The … Continue reading Putting It All To Bed

That Time I Went Racing On My Street Bike

I was going through my portfolio and came across this piece from 2019 when I took an $800 beater motorcycle and rode it 450 miles to race it in a parking lot on the beach before turning around and riding it home. It just seemed like something fun to do, so I did it. Below … Continue reading That Time I Went Racing On My Street Bike

The Tilly Orifice

"The Tilly Orifice" might sound like a poorly named lesbian bar, but it was actually a crucial field modification for British fighter planes. See, in WW2 the famous Spitfire and it's counterpart the Hawker Hurricane both used the renown Merlin engine. The Merlin was a wonderful design but the carburetor that fed it fuel would … Continue reading The Tilly Orifice

The Long, Straight Road

Leaving Bisbee was the beginning of a 2,000 mile loop, all of it centered around the normal errands people do around town. My town, however, was a helluva lot bigger: like half of the American Southwest kind of big. Since this was business and not pleasure though, it meant using the interstate, aka the superslab. … Continue reading The Long, Straight Road

When The Situation Dictates

So you need to leave San Gabriel and do the Silverwood lake stuff. Then hit up Bisbee, Stellar camp, SF, storage, and to Vegas. Lotta pictures, keep length down. So...many...miles. The last month has been a blur of bouncing around and taking care of different errands. While it's hard to complain about being able to … Continue reading When The Situation Dictates

When Troubles Come…

Well I've got a bit more time now, so let's do more than just dump some photos in here with little context. The short story is I decided to ride north to the Lost Coast, and area I've been by many times but never explored. Fate intervened again and I ended up in the Los … Continue reading When Troubles Come…