Whizzing Through America: Living Memories Tour, Pacifica

I've already written about the ongoing joke my wife and I had about writing a travelogue called "Whizzing Through America," just because she had to stop frequently to use facilities. Now it is just my excuse to ride my motorcycle. Last summer I RV'd with my parents, largely still to be written, but did have a motorcycle ride before the RV and after as I rode home. Both of those rides involved long days of riding and very little writing as I had arrival deadlines. Since I'm allowing myself a little more time this time, I've decided to visit the places that I've resided, in California, Texas, and Ohio. I'll even include one place in West Virginia, my mother's parents' place as I stayed there for at least three summers as a teenager helping them out.

Since my SPOT automatically renewed, I might as well be getting some use out of it.

This is where I live now, for the last year with my son, daughter-in-law, and for the last six months my granddaughter: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=37.59462,-122.4616&ll=37.59462,-122.4616&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

The previous year and a half, I lived here alone. Believe me, company is better.

We bought the place as a healing place and while it didn't achieve that, it had some good living memories, however much overwhelmed by one of dying. Yes, I lost my wife while we lived here and that is the memory that refuses to die. But that being said, I'll now turn to other memories.



One of the reasons we bought the place was its ready to move in condition. Then we put a hardwood floor down in the Living Room / Dining Room and redid the guest bathroom.

Since the place is actually smaller than the place we moved from, with a slightly larger yard and more of that usable, we had to buy a storage shed. I have over 20 boxes of my reading books in it on top of the books I have on the shelves that Marilyn and I made in a wood working class.


The place came with a zip line. Marilyn went down it a couple of times, most recently Easter of 2007. It was a great celebration complete with a chocolate Easter Bunny topped birthday cake for my oldest daughter and the mandatory chocolate Easter Egg hunt.

While most of the plants have seen better days before being under my care, we had the place looking quite nice for my youngest daughter's wedding thanks to landscaping. (My son and daughter-in-law are doing a much better job than I ever did, now. Although, my son has it in for a few of the bushes and all of the agapanthus.)


One of my daughters' projects was to take my absolutely no maintenance front yard consisting of dead sod and making it a low maintenance planting of ground cover and hardy plants, all but one of which are also deer resistant.


One of my son's major projects, just recently completed, was to filter all of the gravel in the auxiliary parking area and place a better plant retarding ground cloth under the gravel. We moved a few loads of dirt and other debris to the dump.

Coming up next: Fremont. If you think the above memories are few for the number of years I have lived in Pacifica, just think how drastically I will need to reduce/summarize almost 20 years worth of memories.

A lot to post, but not tonight...

Blisters and all my youngest daughter and her husband have made it to my oldest daughter's and her husband's place in Pasadena. The lack of the Spot "OK" message the last two nights had to do with the terrain, trees, and inability for the Spot to find the satellites. They are going to spend at least one zero day, i.e., no walking, there and may be buying more shoes. As much as they are spending on shoes, they may need more money than planned to complete the trip. I suggested that they press the Spot "OK" button every day, even the days they are staying at their RR&S.

Yesterday I moved one step closer to my cross-country motorcycle ride by getting my motorcycle serviced. It sounds great again and rides very smoothly with a new rear tire. I also got a new jacket. Not only is my leather jacket too big, it isn't really suited for summer weather riding. Indeed, with the wind blowing up the sleeves, it wasn't all that suited for less warm riding either, especially with the zipper problem with the lining. My new jacket has multiple vents including scoop features along both upper arms and shoulders. It is also very adjustable. Wind will only be getting in where and when I want it to.

As far as the rest of this post, there won't be one. However, I do have a lot of Honest Tea bottle caps that I want to share in some future post. As Ambrose Bierce has said, I like their "predigested wisdom." I also have a couple Toastmaster speeches I've given without posting and my opening remarks from the time I was Toastmaster, basically the emcee of the meeting. I also have a couple more twoems, which I tweet into Twitter via a text message from my cell phone.

PCT Start Video

This is the video of Andrea and Neil starting out on the PCT. Below is today's Spot location:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=33.1098,-116.4755&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

In Pasadena

A short post before I head out to dinner at "The Nose," http://thenoseknowswine.tv , and to talk with the owner Stefan Yim.

The ride down was uneventful but windy. My upper arms are feeling the effect more than my legs. Except for the three stops for gas, it would definitely have been my fastest trip. I could barely keep up with the cars and they were mostly going 80+.

I pressed the Spot "OK" button when I arrived. The Google Map and Satellite Picture is at this URL: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=34.1663,-118.136&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Enjoy your day! I have!

Plenty of vitamin D

Yesterday afternoon I went out to mow my back yard and decided that I didn't want all those broad leaf weeds, with their seeds, in my compost pile. I then proceeded to get my gardening gloves that Marilyn bought me one of the times we went to Sloat's Nursery, on Sloat Ave. across from the San Francisco Zoo, a weeding tool, and marched over most of my backyard lawn on my knees. After about two and one half hours, my green bin was about 2/3 full of noxious broad leaf weeds. I didn't even dig them all out as I still mowed the lawn, got cleaned up, ate, fed the cats, and still made it to Toastmasters. Ever since I saw the professionals mow the yard, I have been doing what they did, mowing it twice. First I go back and forth one way and then back and forth perpendicular to the previous direction. This mowing also required back and forth over one section diagonally to the previous two directions.

This morning I fertilized the fuchsias, filled the bird bath, put shredded newspaper over the grass clippings in the compost pile, and watered the plants, including the compost pile. As I was doing that, I noticed some more broadleaf weeds that I just had to pull. Again I limited myself to literally one handful as I had a variety of indoor tasks to complete and packing for my motorcycle trip south.

At one time I was going to go along the coast and camp in the Big Sur area but since the timing of my trip requires that I be down there on Tuesday, returning on Wednesday, and I want to get at least one day of visiting in, I'm now just planning on a leisurely one full day trip all the way there tomorrow, Saturday. This will be a closer simulation of my planned cross-country ride in June. It will also tell me whether or not I'm in shape to ride long distances or whether I still need to exercise more.

As I'm planning on exercising more anyway, whether I need to or not is moot. I am up to the third level of the Pushup Pro but am not yet doing the full number, unless I do two sessions. (Most often I only do one.)

Gas prices are shooting up around here again but I'm still going to ride my motorcycle. It gets around 35 miles to the gallon driving California Expressway speeds where the Prius gets around 48. While I don't get to listen to anything, I still have more fun on my motorcycle.

With all of my time outdoors yesterday, I got so much vitamin D that I had to put aloe gel on my face. I'm still taking vitamin D supplements with all my other supplements but probably should look into what getting too much vitamin D might do to me.

Someone sent me instructions for linking Twitter and Facebook as a way to post Spot "OK" location messages into Facebook. There is a technical problem with the Facebook application, which has so far prevented me from completing the steps. Once I can complete it, I intend to use the Spot more on local walks and other motorcycle trips besides the big one this summer.

This is as far as I got on the San Andreas and Crystal Springs trails on April 1st. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=37.5628,-122.397&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 I have some pictures posted on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008035&id=1288023430&l=308b96d1c6.

Well back to the preparing...

My kind of shopping...

This could also be called: "buying while I can," which is really my kind of shopping, buying. Basically I went to REI and bought a couple of things, well four things but writing about two of them would be too much information. The two things I bought that I will write about were the Spot, for my motorcycle trips later this year and possibly next, and a Halo head covering for use under helmets. Well, bike helmets but I will use it under my motorcycle helmet to help keep my hair from going all directions.

My father has planned a 10,000-mile round trip RV drive to Alaska in his Roadtrek this summer. I am planning on going along. To get to the start, I will be riding my motorcycle another 2,000 miles each way. So, I am buying stuff that will allow me to make this trip, future trips, and preparatory trips, not that the Spot is directly related to that. I am shopping for saddlebags as well, small enough that I don't have to make any physical changes to my motorcycle. This will give me a sissy bar bag, an eighty-five liter backpack, and two approximately 11"x10"x6" saddlebags. I still haven't figured out how to attach the backpack. It is not going to be on my back but backwards on the passenger seat. I also need to figure out a wind and rain cover so it doesn't get beat to death at my motorcycle speeds.

If you are interested in receiving a Google Map email of my location on this and other trips I may take, you can either comment on this entry with your email address or, if you know my email address, send me an email directly. I will be doing some research to see if I can get the Spot's postings directly into Facebook. If I figure it out, for those who aren't yet my FB friend, I will let you know how to become my FB friend and keep up with my travels that way. (My recent experience with Facebook is worthy of another blog entry or two.)

Just one more unrelated comment, which I was originally not going to post. Last week I applied through my current mortgage vendor to refinance my mortgage. They declined my application for a 30-year note that was at a lower rate than my current 15-year note and also over a third less monthly payment. They "sell" the mortgages they write to Fannie Mae and Fannie Mae doesn't buy mortgages that don't have associated income streams. My investments, severance package, stellar credit rating, and payment history on a substantially more expensive mortgage doesn't count for anything. I have written President Obama on this but do not expect anything to come of that. After all, most of the bailout money is going to people who caused the problem rather than to help people who can benefit the most, and thus help the country the most.