Yesterday for brunch I had to try the local favorite, the Loco Moco. I’ve now seen it at several places, so I know it’s not a one-off. This is probably one of the most hearty breakfasts you can imagine; fried rice, gravy, hamburger patty, and eggs.
I rode around Oahu today with a couple of BMW guys, Danny, Will, and ?? (Please help, I didn’t catch it). They all three have R1200RTs that they’ve driven all over the US, including doing the SCMA 4 Corners ride. All three are born and raised locals. We had a great ride up the middle of the island and around the east coast.
My first day in Hawaii went pretty well even though the bike I had lined up to rent broke down the day before. I enjoyed riding the Yamaha R6, the black bike below. It was too fast for these tiny roads. In the area around Honolulu there are a lot of people. I sat in a surprising amount of traffic for such a remote place. I now understand why there are rainbows on the license plates, I saw at least 10 yesterday. I ate Kalua pork at a cute cinder block shack called Keneke’s. The sunset on Waikiki was a great end to my first day.
I’m working on GIS based map of my tour. Here’s a copy with photos from the 4 corners plus Alaska.
Here’s a panoramic shot of the camping area from the Coachella Valley Music Festival. I heard that there were 16,000 people camping, and I believed it.
After taking forever to geotag my photos, I’m ready to upload them. You can see on the map above the state signs I passed. The photo is a link to the Yahoo! map where you can click on the pink dots to see the image that was taken there.
After you look at the state signs, be sure to check out the set Westward Ho! which has images from my drive across the bottom of the US. The California set shows my pictures from guess where.
I’ll add links below once I get the rest of my photos uploaded.
Photo Maps:
Westward Ho!
California
Northward
As you might expect, I have a number of statistics of note from the last few months:
1 motorcycle
4 corners of the US
(Key West, Mexico/CA border, NW most point in WA, E most point in ME)
49 States
108 days
450 gallons of gas
4,500 pictures
20,000 miles
and tons of great memories
Yesterday I spent the morning with two couples on Goldwings from Montreal riding the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. This has to be one of the best and least developed stretches of road along the East coast. And they should stay that way because of their protected status.
The Goldwingers stopped at the same hotel to get out of the rain the night before. By chance I got the room next to them and was walking in as they were going to dinner. I asked if I could joiin them at the Tastee Freez next door. After a dinner that bounced between French and English, they invited me to join them early the next day.
We set off around 8:30 for the last 85 miles of the Skyline Drive. We rode along the ridgeline for a several hours with occasional fog and rain. As lunch approached the weather cleared, yielding great views, many from above the clouds. I certainly didn’t expect to have clouds in the valleys below from an elevation of 3,000 feet.
You may think a Goldwing with a trailer looks pretty funny, but when it comes to space, they have a ton. In my bags I have enough room for a Camelbak bladder and some Powerbars. These two bikes had large coolers that were powered by the bike, so they didn’t have their food swimming in melted water. When we stopped for lunch they set up an entire picnic buffet on the wall of an overlook with a valley below. With self-service sanwhiches and Hall and Oates on the bike stereo, we all enjoyed a tasty sun-filled lunch.
Still having a ways to go to get to my 49th state, I set out on my own after lunch. Without a passenger I can go a little faster. I drove for another 9 hours or so to the end of the Blue Ridge in Virginia. I stopped for BBQ in Galax, Virginia and had the best homemade banana pudding I’ve ever tasted.
This morning I’m about 100 (twisty) miles from my goal, Kentucky. After I cross the border and take a picture, I’ll be able to point south again. I have a couple more parks to hit before this adventure winds down.