I think I mentioned in a previous blog that when I moved back home one of the first things I did was ask Sam to involve me in as much stuff as he could handle (or as much as he thought I could handle). I had helped Sam one previous time walking fence line in… Read more

What do these two subjects have in common?  I guess that’ll be the topic of today’s blog. On Mother’s Day Mom and I enjoyed the afternoon watching a rendition of Monty Python’s “Spamalot”.  It was put on by the local community and I’ve got to say they did a great job of it (I saw… Read more

The clean-up of 40 plus years of storage begins.  A little follow-up is needed to clarify this; my Dad and Gene  were both pack-rats to varying degrees.  Dad would buy four bolts when only one was needed and the leftovers were thrown into a drawer.  This went on with damn near everything.  Any small bit… Read more

So by the end of March I’m getting ready to leave Las Vegas.  In one day I managed to pack up everything I still had, loaded it into/onto Wes’ pickup and into the Blue Roo (formerly known as the POS).  It was loaded all the way to the gills.  I didn’t realize I still had… Read more

Hello gentle readers, Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve reached out, but it’s been a long and winding road as the song says. Not many, if any, of you know the back story of my bike ride.  I took off riding Baja last spring with the intention of riding all the way to the… Read more

It’s funny, I’ve been meaning to post something over the last week or so to let folks know what’s been going on, but instead it takes a low-life POS (piece of shit) scumbag asshole stealing our bikes to get me to do it.  Ah well… Rosa and I have been riding our bikes just about… Read more

Growing up we always have people we admire.  For me one of those folks was Les Schertenleib. Les and Edna lived just down the road from us so we saw them quite a bit.  Everything from helping them out during harvest to pulling soft-water taffy, or helping to make mince-meat pie. Les was, well, a… Read more

After spending a couple of weeks with Mom and Gene in Tonasket it was time to head back to Vegas. My old POS made it back to Spokane without any issues and I dropped it off at Bill’s Import Auto Repair, a fairly small, modest shop in north Spokane.  They had been recommended as being… Read more

A few days after Aaron went back to Vegas I decided to work my way back to Mom & Gene’s in Tonasket.  I had the choice of taking either my POS or the newer one, but in good conscience I just couldn’t leave it parked in front of my brother’s for God knows how long.  So,… Read more

So Rosa flew back to Vegas on Tues and my youngest son Aaron was due to fly up late Thurs night.  Why you ask?  A fair question indeed.  Aaron is a Senior in high school and is still deciding on which university to attend.  I knew he was interested in San Diego St and was… Read more

So although Rosa and I didn’t ride from Spokane to Tonasket, we did manage to ride every day.  Our rider were only 6-16 miles but they were all good rides and gave her a lot of confidence in herself which she didn’t have prior to starting.  Rosa had told me she had been close to… Read more

It’s been a while since I’ve posted…and more than a few have commented on it, sorry for taking so long! I stayed in CDA for a couple of days.  The combination of a good inexpensive hotel combined with the local scenery prompted me to stick around. On Sunday I decided to call my brother Wes… Read more

I pulled out of Garfield about 8:30 in the morning.  The B&B was in the shade of some big trees so it was a good time to try out my jacket for the first time.  It only took about 20 minutes of riding before it came back off again. Washington is truly home for me even… Read more

Well, I certainly took my time at my big brother’s house.  I have to say that Greg, Jeannie, Tom and Taylor were very patient with me spending a week with them.  But like all family, as glad as you are when they get there they are equally glad to see you head out.  Now don’t… Read more

Before going to bed I pursued Portland’s Craigslist and found an ad asking if anyone wanted a ride from Portland to Pullman.  Viola!  How lucky can you get.  I left the guy a message and kept my fingers crossed I’d hear back. I got up early and saw that “Wes” had replied to me.  He wasn’t… Read more

I have to admit I was glad to have the sunshine in my eyes waking me up this morning.  I stretched while laying in bed and quickly recalled doing my best imitation on that old bag of cement.  What really surprised me was my knee (though banged up) was fine…it was my shoulders and right… Read more

I decided to go through my panniers once again and mailed off probably four-five pounds of weight.  This is an ever-evolving thing. So I left Camas after having breakfast at Natalia’s (no sense in getting rid of all my ballast)…I enjoyed a Russian’s take on biscuits and gravy.  The road was nice and flat and very… Read more

When I had dinner last night an old-time trucker told me I ought to consider taking a bus from Canby to Oregon City (about nine miles away).  He advised they had some major highway construction taking place and often there was no shoulder to ride on.  So  the next morning I went to the transit… Read more

So here’s a reminder to myself…penny wise/pound foolish…that was how I felt about my stay at the Salem Travelodge.  Yeah it was inexpensive but I really wonder how much another place might have been.  It’s not that the room was crappy or the neighborhood was bad, however my neighbor was a drop dead idiot.  I… Read more

The idea was to take the train to the first stop where checked-baggage could be unloaded…Klamath Falls, OR.  The train ride through the night was fairly comfortable although clad in short sleeves and shorts I was a bit chilly.  Ah well, I’m still fairly well insulated and managed to get some sleep. When the sun… Read more

The next morning Anne commented on the fact that we could smell the smoke from the forest fires burning further north up around Lassen National Park…exactly where I had been hoping to ride for the next several days.  She questioned the wisdom of my cycling there and mentioned the fact that I could take Amtrak… Read more

First thing on the to-do list for the day was to send out emails to a few WS hosts and hope that one would respond to my last-minute request for a place to stay the night.  Nothing like giving them short notice. The ride to Chico was an uneventful day of flat, warm temp riding… Read more

To be clear…Williams is an agriculture hub of this part of California.  I5 bisects the town and semis are continuously getting off and on the ramps.  Not sure where they’re going, but they drive with purpose. As I left the town behind I hit a glider port on the outskirts.  It was a beautiful morning and… Read more

No doubt Marty is going to read this and go “what hills is he talking about”…The hills between Clearlake and Williams.  The damn things just didn’t want to give up!  Thankfully for as busy of a road as it is, it was fairly good to ride.  It had recently been repaved.  The scenery wasn’t up… Read more

After a good night’s sleep at Marty and Debs I thought I was ready to tackle the 45 miles to Williams…instead I stopped in Clearlake and got a hotel.  I started feeling like I had in Mexico when I got dehydrated and sick.  I didn’t want this to happen again.  After yesterday’s climb I decided… Read more

So I awoke just before the sound of a jack hammer did it for me.  I kind of felt bad for anyone who truly wanted to sleep in.  I got everything packed up and took my bags down the stairs, they are heavy enough without adding them to the bike for this tricky decent. I… Read more

I woke up from sleeping under the stars feeling pretty good.  My biggest concern was the nasty little thorns scattered throughout the area where I was at.  My concern was mainly for my sleeping pad as opposed to my tires.  Time will tell.  I’ll remind you that I slept on the hill above the veteran’s… Read more

I got up fairly early and hit the road.  All smiles with the new set-up.  I have to admit I didn’t get too far when I came across this                         All fueled up I took off with Napa as my destination.  It was pleasant… Read more

So a little backtracking is in order for me to begin stage two of God only know how many upcoming rides. I mentioned before that Rosa was interested in riding too.  So when I finally found the frame/bike I wanted to use to replace the Soma I decided it was a good time to get… Read more

The return back to Vegas caught everyone off-guard, including me.  But I don’t regret the decision, as a matter of fact it was the right decision.  For me at that moment, and I’d do it again without hesitation. I didn’t like the way things had ended between Rosa and I prior to my departure so… Read more

Well, this wasn’t exactly a planned event….I’m back in Las Vegas. Rosa and I had been talking ever since we got to her Mom’s house and it became apparent that neither of us liked how things ended between us prior to me leaving. So a spur of the moment airline trip later and I’m back… Read more

On Thursday night prior to the guys leaving we had part of Rosa’s extended family come over to visit.  Much Tecate fell in the ensuing onslaught.  Prior to them leaving, they commented that we should go out to the ranch over the weekend.  No particular plans, just that comment.  So since the guys hadn’t heard… Read more

The only downside to being here with family is a complete lack of wi-fi.  We hadn’t been able to post any updates for a bit. I called Alan the second day we were in town and he said he’d like to come by to see us the next day.  After much discussion between Alan and… Read more

I had been interested to see Pericos as that is where Rosa had been born.  Hate to say it, but I was glad to get out of town.  It was the first town I had a bad feeling about…from just about the moment we rode into town. The remainder of the ride was nothing special… Read more

Dom and I got an early start on the day, but Pedro had mentioned the night before that he’d like to sleep in.  With our riding styles that would mean he’d eventually catch up with me.  The hills weren’t too bad, but the scenery started to turn to desert and the temps began to climb.… Read more

Too funny, the hotel we stayed in last night was a pretty swanky place…a place where one takes a girlfriend for a few hours of relaxation would probably be the safest way to put it.  The shower was of note because it had fancy curved glass doors (didn’t shut worth a damn) and a digitized… Read more

So our start in mainland Mexico was a bit confused/herky-jerky….slow.  We got up soon enough, but our room didn’t have a wi-fi connection so Pedro and I went to the office where the connection was good.  I went there with the intention of downloading a bike repair app on my iPhone, because once again my… Read more

So after enjoying La Paz for a few days we decided it was time to push on and take the ferry over to Topolobampo in Sinaloa, Mexico.  Sinaloa will be the first state we’ll visit in Mexico. We bought our tickets on Weds afternoon at the Baja Ferry office not too far from downtown La… Read more

Wow, I didn’t realize this much time had gone by since I last wrote. The three of us took off from Loreto and got to Puerto Escondido…about 25k away.  There was a scenic overlook of the Sea of Cortez and a vendor there was selling green coconuts. For those of you who haven’t tried one… Read more

So we get out of Mulege pretty early, having learned our lessons.  We rode up and down till we finally see the beautiful Sea of Cortez and a small community at Coyote Bay below us.  We decide to stop and get water (a typical thing at any roadside spot) and end up talking with an… Read more

So we started from Santa Rosalia after a good night’s sleep and of course the first thing we did….climb out of town.  Oh by the way, have I mentioned that the roads in Baja have been pretty decent?  It’s true, however the same cannot be said of the roads in most of the towns.  It… Read more

So we got a relatively early start today.  We hit the road at 8am.  I was feeling quite sluggish and can only contribute it to being out of shape, slept like shit (dogs barking, mosquitoes buzzing and head filled with a bit of dread) and didn’t really eat anything for breakfast. Regardless we got out… Read more

WTF??  What happened to the “He-Man, Master of the Universe”?  I’ll tell you what happened, he got fat, old and outta shape! And this is scary for a number of reasons; the climbs we had today weren’t really considered climbs by anyone in the biking community outside of me.  I actually had to get off… Read more

So this morning Will called and gave us his girlfriend’s Mom’s name and info in Guasave (just north of Culliacan). We went to the post office, but through much gesturing and using both Dom’s and my spanish, we learned that we couldn’t simply send the package(s) along their merry way. It seems that Baja is… Read more

Well, here’s the story of the first day’s ride from Guerrero Negro to Vizcaino…it didn’t happen. We started off down the road and I swear to God I was riding a wet noodle. Where did my strong steel steed go?? Apparently even the strongest of steel has a bending/breaking point and I could tell mine… Read more

So yesterday morning I got the last of the things off to donations right before Terry Leavitt (that great American) picked me up to take me to the border.  It was a fairly uneventful drive down to San Diego (but not before meeting two beautiful eyed workers @ Chocolate & Spice…had to have a bite… Read more

Oddly enough I’m leaving behind my biggest strengths in order to do this trip…family and friends.  I have been blessed with an incredible family and die-for friends. My sons, Ryan & Aaron, are the best.  They’ve stuck with me through thick and thin.  I want them to know how much that is appreciated by me.… Read more

Hurry up and wait.  How many times have we all had to deal with this? Today Juan and crew (of one) finished up the repairs on the house.  Place looks great, it echoes because it’s so empty, and dammnit, if I’m gonna sleep on the floor I may as well sleep on the ground camping… Read more

That’s my mantra, I tell myself probably 20 times a day.  I say it right after I thank God for letting me wake up and I say it right before bed.  I guess I say it to help myself believe it. I wouldn’t have changed going home to visit family for anything, but it had… Read more

“The best laid plans of mice and men…” Steinbeck wrote it based off the Scottish writing of Robert Burns in the 1700’s (apparently this thought concept has been around a bit…obviously well proven). Those of you who have been following along know that I was planning on leaving Tuesday morning on the way to L.A.… Read more