Favorite Photos

This is a reprint from my other blog Riding

I'm working in Virginia these days. I haven't been able to get one of the bikes here with me yet but spring is starting to force it's way up through the snow, muck and mud. It won't be long before I can't take it anymore. Until that happens I wanted to post a few of my favorite photos. I haven't posted here in quite a while so this is just a way to get my feet wet again.



This first one was taken shortly after got the FZ1. I was doing a job at Camp Pendleton over a summer. I couldn't bring the Vmax with me and I couldn't take a whole summer in beautiful southern California without a bike. I'm not wealthy enough to just by a bike whenever I want but the Vmax had been paid off for awhile and I was still single back then. The other guy in the photo (in front of the orange Vmax) is Rolando. He's a friend from way back and how we ran into each other after eight years is a story for another post. This day Rolando took my on a ride through the Mulholland Hills to the legendary Rock Store and down through Malibu. It was quite a day and a fun ride.



This photo is taken at Wolf's Creek Pass in Colorado. It was a ride a couple of friends and I took from Avon Colorado to Durango. We had another friend following us in his truck. He was so inspired by the fun we were having he ended up taking the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course (after trying out a BMW and dumping it). A few months later he had a Harley. The ride to and back from Durango was a good time.

These two were taken on a trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons. We got lucky in that Lisa, my wife, had a job in the two parks. We had free housing and access to the two parks for two weeks. The picture of the bike in front of the Grand Teton was taken right outside the ranger house we were staying in. Score! The second picture was taken at Hell's Half Acre. That part of the ride was two hundred miles of sheer torture. The route went straight through the flatest, most boring part of one boring state. I included this photo because some of Starship Troopers was filmed there (and it was an interesting chunk of Americana.



This photo was taken while I was working at Crow's Landing in California. This was on California Route 130. It went through the mountains from Patterson California to San Jose passing the Lick Observatory on the way. This was one of the most amazing roads I've ever been on and most times I went there was almost no one to share the road with. I hated to see the job end simply because of this road.



This final one was from a trip I took to Clarksdale and Rosedale Mississippi a few years ago. It's one of those rides that defines in perfect clarity why I ride. You've probably seen the bumper stickers that say something to the effect that "It's a fill-in-the-blank thing. If I had to explain you wouldn't understand." I would amend that to say "It's a motorcycle thing, I can't explain it and am too busy riding to try".

These are more than photos, they are split seconds of perfection caught for my lifelong enjoyment. If you like these you can check out some more on Flickr