Expedition Recovery

10/11/16 San Diego, CA to Mesa, AZ 417.6 Miles ridden. While up late last night doing laundry I chose to go ahead and take the opportunity to go to MRDA champs in Texas. I got up and told Lauren thank you for having let me stay and apologized for being gone so much during the visit. She said it was fine but I felt bad about how little I had actually done with her during my week stay. I ate the last two muffins Boo had given me and packed all my gear up. I got the bike loaded and got on the road about 11 am or so. I set the GPS for Mota Skates in Fountain Hills, AZ and set an extra stop for the post office along the way so I could mail home a flat rate box of stuff. It took a bunch of time but at least it got done. I pretty much rode straight through with a stop about ever 110 miles or so for fuel and a rest. Got in to Fountain Hills, Arizona at almost 7 pm and, as expected, the shop was closed up and empty. I went for gyros just up the road and then sought out the cheapest ...

9/30/16 Tamecula, CA to Santa Monica, CA  125.1 miles ridden.  5:15 am is a remarkably early wake up when going to bed at past midnight. I was able to get up and out on the bike pretty early and rode to have breakfast at a little place called the Landing Zone Cafe in Lake Elsinore.  Had a good ride up over the mountains on California State Route 74 but was tired enough to nearly fall asleep riding a few times. The road itself was twisty and would have been a dream ride if there had been less traffic and I had not been so exhausted. Multiple stops for photographs and my book on tape just simply were not cutting it to stay awake, even through the great curves. I finally made the call to switch to some music in my head set and used some Five Finger Death Punch and Volbeat to fight off the heat and fatigue. With the music blaring I made a push on to Santa Monica without incident.  In Santa Monica I was greeted by Tessa and her wonderful do...