Paul ([info]ace_combs) wrote,
@ 2005-12-05 20:14:00
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Ride America
http://germz.org/klr650
KLR650 Ride America 2005
Totals in U.S.D.
0318.59 : Grocery & Restaurant Expense
0512.17 : Service Station (Fuel, Maps, Coffee & Juice) Expense
0582.64 : Motorcycle (Gear, Tools & Maintenance) Expense
0790.11 : Lodging Expense
2203.51 : Trip Cost
6556.00 : Miles Travelled (10550 KM)
0000.34 : Cost Per Mile
0048.00 : Days Travelled
0045.91 : Cost Per Day
Notes:
(1) Motorcycle gear (clothing) and tools are non-perishable items.
(2) Food, transportation, clothing and shelter are regular expenses.
(3) No accidents; no tickets; no mechanical failures.
(4) Temperature range: 14 to 95 (F) or, -10 to 35 (C).
(5) Terrain: plain, forest, urban, mountain, desert, coast and swamp.
(6) Longest day's ride: 700 miles or, 1127 KM.
(7) Motorcycle: Kawasaki KLR650, 650cc single-cylinder, stock.
(8) Dates of travel: October 16 - December 02, 2005.
December 3, it snowed. I took the bike for a 50 mile ride; it was great. Then I filled the motorcycle's tank, and crashed. I crashed again, three times in total, within one mile of my home. A petroleum product under the snow, near the pumps? A slight drop in temperature? A change in balance after fueling? All of the above?

December 4, I had dinner with my mother and my sister. I borrowed the mom's car to give the sister a ride. As we drove up LaSalle, I got a (yellow/red) ticket: $105, and traffic school.

December 5, it was 4 F ( -16 C ) this morning. Hmmm...

ace combs

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[info]noromdiam
2005-12-06 03:34 am UTC (link)
You crashed and got a ticket after you got home? Is that what they call irony?

I've been wondering what you decided to do, I'm so glad you got back to Chicago safely! How was your birthday?

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-06 03:50 am UTC (link)
dude. i spent the birthday riding through mississippi (sp?) en route to memphis TN, from baton rouge LA.

it snowed in memphis, and i had to stop someplace. a young gay man was working the desk at the hotel, when i went to check in. he flirted with me, and then cut me an awesome deal on the rate. then he suggested that he bring air freshener up to my room, later on. i decided that the room smelled ok, and didn't call him. but i was very polite, and thankful for the discount.

temps are now 20 degrees (F) below average - even as they were 20 degrees above average, when i left.

terrible storms in the central plains, dakotas to arkansas, left six people dead and 200 miles of I-90 closed. i was cold, but safe, as i stuck to the low road, east, and near the river. seemed like the river should have indicated the lowest elevation - and warmest temps.

it was highway 61 in mississippi, and 51 in TN and KY...

crashing x3 in the same mile sucks...but i can fix that. ticket has me irked, because i need to play the game with the city/state for god knows how long...

thanks!

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-07 02:17 am UTC (link)
additional:

nov 30 blizzard -

http://germz.org/KLR650/klr_snow.JPG

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[info]noromdiam
2005-12-07 02:55 am UTC (link)
Holy shit! I was just thinking last night how I missed snow, not any more!

Also, it sounds like you got it made, with boys and girls making googly eyes at you, you could work it next time to reduce your travel costs.

I'm starting to look into MSP and getting my license, it's a little scary thinking about the inevitability of crashes when you're on a motorcycle.

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[info]kazzibee
2005-12-06 05:07 am UTC (link)
germz i can't believe you crashed 3 times in one day and didn't get hurt... did you get hurt?

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-07 01:47 am UTC (link)
haha. it is hard to tell - at this advanced age - if the aches are anything other than what ought to be expected upon waking in the morning.

but, seriously, aside from a little pain in my right elbow, i am quite fine. thank you. safety gear, too cool.

so, so lucky, after landing on the ice with a 400 pound lump of steel.

to make matters worse, the first "accident" happened while a handsome young lady was making google eyes at me: i turned my head, turned the grip, and turned myself onto the ground - while she was watching. didn't look too cool, for too long.

but i like snow. my mother is german. it was good while it lasted.

hope you're doing ok too!!!

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[info]kazzibee
2005-12-07 02:01 am UTC (link)
moteybikes are scary. ha i too have a little pain (and bump) in my right elbow area.... caused by not-so-sure-footedness during my birthday evening heh.

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-07 02:12 am UTC (link)
...and my toes are intact. unlike your own. heavy boots? it works on the bike.

i like your lj layout and color scheme.

hope you un-swell soon!

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[info]joybon
2005-12-06 06:48 am UTC (link)
Crash Schmash.
Welcome home.
(welcome there)
: )

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-07 01:54 am UTC (link)
hey, thanks.

I MUST ESCAPE CHICAGO.

i cannot believe the "coming down" after the ride. it took roughly 48 hours to sink back into a deep depression. but, that's a part of the education: comparison, only through which do we appreciate the virtues specific to places, and individuals, i think. but, ok, enough education.

seriously, looking back at the travel pics, my soul opens. i long for the vista, again. the cold weather, darkness, and such are not helping. every year it gets worse. 38 winters in the north are enough.

i think now that i should have looked harder for some employment in florida, or texas. sigh.

p.s. thanks for the wonderleafy reference.

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[info]joybon
2005-12-07 02:53 am UTC (link)
Australia may be an option : )
Why do you like in Chicago if you hate it so?
Have you finished your MA now? Did you sort out the Strauss discrimination stuff?

Sorry, didn't mean to jolt you back to that world...

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errata
[info]joybon
2005-12-07 02:53 am UTC (link)
that would be 'live in'

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-08 12:09 am UTC (link)
uni is out there hanging, unresolved. my frustration/anger with the situation was no small part of the impetus for the trip. at the moment, i have nothing to show for the years of effort that i have invested in my education. were time not an issue - say if we lived 400 years - i wouldn't worry. but it's just not so, is it. as i struggle against the academy, the professor and administrator continue to collect their salaries and invest time in their pensions; i just get older.

probing au or nz might have been a better move - better than riding around the usa. but - rightly or wrongly - i would feel, still, better about exploring the "down under" with a connection of some kind: work or school.

if you have advice, please pass it along. please,please,please.

long-term plans in chicago seem to be at cross-purposes with the idea of getting out. short term plans seem to mean low prestige and low pay (again). i just don't want to spend another year of my precious life working in a jail, or driving a taxi, etc.

D-U-D-E-!

Time to eat; food is real, and happy-making. Small pleasure or no pleasure!

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[info]joybon
2005-12-08 12:52 am UTC (link)
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/gdia/degree_prog.htm

http://info.anu.edu.au/StudyAt/_Graduate_School/Study_Fields/_polsci/overview.asp

Just two ideas : ) The universities of Melbourne and Sydney are also very good. If you like beautiful bustling cities they might be better. Canberra is very small and snug.

ALSO Australia pays PROPER award wages...MUCH better the USA!

For example, my job at the Australian War Memorial is over $20 an hour. Academic tutoring $80 and Legal research $30.

AND we have clear blue skies! And GOOD FRESH FOOD and WIDE OPEN ROADS and WARM WEATHER.

AND the HOWARD GOVERNMENT...OK, so maybe New Zealand is a better option...

What citizenship do you have?
I just think that you should go where you are happy, that's all. Write a list of your top 5 lifestyle requirements (friends, bars, bookshops, roads, food, jweather, language ETC) and then find somewhere! I don't know - I have no advice except - work out what makes you happy (and it sounds like you already have a pretty good idea) and then DO IT!

thems fighting words...

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[info]elaine4queen
2005-12-06 07:01 am UTC (link)
i love the break down of expenses etc - so male! heh.
soemthing very interesting about all the crashes... glad they were minor. i guess it's a perception of risk thing (home now, no need to have the radar on, oops!)

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-07 02:09 am UTC (link)
totally. i really couldn't afford this trip. but, then again, i really couldn't afford not to take this trip. i tossed out the expense/map thing for anyone else who might be considering a similar journey.

also, when i am asked why i haven't done more, sooner, the reason should become self-evident upon an examination of the expenditure. i just can't afford this stuff.

i dunno. i bought the least expensive, easiest to maintain motorcycle; i stayed with friends and relatives; i borrowed austin swinney's tent and sleeping bag; i ate carrots/bread/seeds/water when on the road. still, it adds up.

if i had the money, i would still be on the road. if i was still on the road, i would still be happy.

are you sensitive to weather? do you find that particular environments affect your mood? what do you think about travel? curious.

i think that you are right on about the risk perception. i think too that i was/am in a state of denial about where i am at - and what sort of rules apply here.

america feels small now. and the city feels tightly-packed. i guess it is. but something weird happens to animals of all sorts when they are confined in the same tiny space. it's not healthy.

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[info]elaine4queen
2005-12-07 09:39 am UTC (link)
i can never afford to do anything i set out to do, so my technique is not to look at my money at all and just do it. this has worked sort of, as long as you don't mind a bit of debt, but debt can be harsh to carry.
it's not that your expenses sheet was not interesting, it just made me smirk, a bit like jeeff's cockroach map http://www.citynoise.org/article/1259/by/jeeff
mind you, ok, you can't do much about the money you had to spend on fuel, but for everything else it's all money you would have to spend anyway on being alive, so then it is just the equasion of the work issue - if you would have been earning and now you are not then the days cost you that as well. if you wouldn't nave been earnng in that time you may as well be 'elsewhere' if you want to be. the tricky thing is having time and money at the same time, now that is an issue. people who travel a lot have to get the money thing sorted out. weirdly, in principle, i could be anywhere just now, cos i am on benefits, but having been/being ill i am fairly cagey about how to do that within what my needs are now :-(
i could certainly do with being in a different environment in some ways, but unfortunately 'i' am not just me in a petri dish perfect body, and i bring all my ailments with me. i have a couple of short trips planned for the new year, so we will see - i feel a need for some less urban vibes.
being happy on the road or even on holiday and not when you are home is pretty common, because, of course, you have to face the limitations of your real life. but on the other hand it always gives me a perspective on how i want to solve problems/tackle situations/resolve issues at home
sounds to me you need to strategise to get to live somewhere or in some other style that doesn't overexpose you to sardine style living - is that an achievable goal? lots of people do it, after all. i am thinking about similar questions myself. i like my flat, i appreciate my friends, london is sort of conceptually important to me (if that makes sense!), but i have a yearning for the countryside which is becoming more insistent.
but i might just need a holiday!

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-07 11:58 pm UTC (link)
right on, again.

many people seem not to be particularly sensitive to the environment in which they exist; but some of us are very sensitive, indeed. it's important to know what you can expect to leave behind - and what you will bring with you - when you try to change.

i made it a point to study myself, on the trip. i am prone to sudden, and dramatic, shifts in mood. mercurial. though my temperment is not, i think, caused by some chemical imbalance, but rather it is (seems) to be related to exposure to ugliness, violence, waste, etc. american cities are full of the stuff. it is stupidly simply, but i would stand a much better chance of finding some happiness - just leaving. school and my family have connected me to this area, thus far.

i was looking, on the road, for someone, or something, or someplace that felt right. nothing "clicked" in that specal way. but at least i have a better idea of what certain places "feel" like. this was an expidition, searching for a acceptable site to colonize.

well, cheers. here's to that hope of a better place. absent that hope, then what? if life is nothing but suffering, and then death, why not just die, and avoid the suffering? i don't imagine that there are many people who can afford to do what they want, when they want, thinking such things. but those of us who are forced to do what we think is wrong, for people we hate, find such thoughts familiar. and it's too dark.

the old saw "you can be anyone you want to be, and do anything you want to do," is quite damaging. maybe, it's about realistic goals - being honest about what is possible, given the nature of the time and place and person. hmmm. this is turning into the long talk over coffee that i am not having with someone in real life...sorry...

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[info]elaine4queen
2005-12-08 08:44 am UTC (link)
" it's important to know what you can expect to leave behind - and what you will bring with you - when you try to change."
never a truer word. the 'escape to the courntry' urge is such a cliche here, but people can often be disappointed, largely, i think because they bring their own discontented mind with them wherever they go!

whenever i go anywhere i imagine myself living there, but there are lots of conditionalities - i could probably be anywhere if i was in a good relationship, but i would still need to make friends. There would have to be appropriate employment, because lack of that can bust up a relationship anyway. if i went on my own there would have to be some kind of skeleton crew of human contact, and not everywhere has sentient thinking people up for grabs (sadly).

self invention is all very well, but we are tied to quite a lot of things. i, for instance, will never now be a child prodigy, but i also have to be realistic about what i can be as well - there are circumstances under which i flourish and those where i seriously droop. and if you are considering major changes it is worth being self aware enough to make ones that at least have a cat's chance of making you happy.

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[info]jeeff
2005-12-07 03:44 am UTC (link)
hey paul, i've thoroughly enjoyed hearing and seeing about your adventure. i'd love to do the same one day. ps. stop crashing.

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[info]elaine4queen
2005-12-07 09:40 am UTC (link)
god, you're good! have you ever considered a career in advice?

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[info]ace_combs
2005-12-08 12:13 am UTC (link)
haha. thanks jeeff. if i can help in any way, please let me know. i would like, very much, to try a trip with a group of "cool" people.

i will come to canada in the spring. work up chia, and stuff. perhaps make a maple-wood motorcycle with a green-bottle gas tank. oh canada. and stuff.

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