One boy, one bike

Ten A.M. on a cool summer morning in Michigan. I sat alone in the driveway on my motorcycle wearing an over sized motorcycle jacket. A tent and sleeping bag were strapped to the luggage rack. I talked aloud to myself:

"What the hell am I doing now? This is such a dumb idea..."

Ahead of me laid a week long camping trip across the country, consisting of 13 states and approximately 5000 miles round trip. It would be the first time I had spent more than two hours on a motorcycle in one sitting. I had two choices at that point. One, go back inside and crawl under the covers, throwing away everything I had planned over the past five weeks; or two, start the bike and pull out of the driveway.

2,731 miles later I sat on a stump near Coulee City, Washington. My '82 Suzuki had just died at an intersection on Highway 2. I was at an old abandoned gas station; paint peeling off wood siding; broken window panes; crumbling concrete. I was less than 300 miles from my destination. After twenty minutes or so of piddling around hopelessly wishing my dead battery back to life, a nice lady pulled up and asked if I needed help. She gave me the phone number to a tow service in the nearest town. Soon enough there was a gray haired, heavily tattooed man winching my motorcycle onto the back of a flatbed. He took me about 20 miles into Coulee City to the only parts and hardware store in the small town. We walked in and gave a typical exchange, and I was quickly back on the road. Funny note about how small and old fashioned Coulee City is: the store wasn't yet equipped to take plastic. I had to go around the block to the only town bank and withdraw cash from the ATM in order to pay for the new battery.

Back on the road it was blazing hot and smoky. Wild fires were raging heavily throughout the area. Twenty miles on, Highway 2 took me into another very small town called Waterville, where I decided to stop for gas. At the first red light, the bike died again with the same story. No lights, no starter, nothing. I was directly off of main street, hundred year old brick facade buildings lining the way. There was no traffic to be seen, so I just pulled my bike to the side of the street. Unbuckling my helmet, I surveyed my surroundings. I was surprised to see that I had backed into the parking spot of an auto parts store. I went in and plead my case to the guy behind the counter, who stared back with a confused face. He paused, looked behind me as the door-dinger donged announcing another customer entering.

"Well I can't help ya" he said, "but this guy here is the local motorcycle expert."

I turned to see a gruff older guy in overalls and glasses.

"That's a nice bike out there!" He complimented through a thick salt and pepper mustache and beard.

"Thanks, you should see it when it's running."

I then replayed my story to him, Tim, who found a lot of humor in it. After double checking the battery connections, he assured me I had a dead alternator. He gave me a jump off his truck and advised me to just keep the bike running for the remainder of the day, and rev the engine when at stops to keep it from dying. I thanked him for his help and he followed me for a few blocks to the gas station to make sure I'd be alright. I never made it to the gas station. He pulled up behind me.

"Alright Daniel, I've got a proposition for ya. I'm going into Wenatchee today to buy a '63 Lincoln Continental. Why don't we load your bike into my trailer and I'll take you into the city to a shop my buddy runs. He's been working on Suzuki motorcycles for over forty years. He'll do ya up right."

I couldn't believe the fortune of the the situation I had found myself in. Of all the places I could have possibly broken down across thousands of miles, it just happened to occur in this small town right in front of an auto parts store that my saviour Tim just happened to be walking into seconds later. You can't make this stuff up! This total stranger was gracious enough to go out of his way to make sure I would get to my destination; took me into his home, even offered me a beer and a tour of his welding/motorcycle garage.

So we headed through the mountains into Wenatchee, bike trailer in tow. We dropped the bike at Jack's Motorcycle Repair in Wenatchee and I knew she was in good hands. Tim and I parted ways after thanking him excessively and I found a motel for the night. From the window I was able to snap a good pic showing the heavy wildfire smoke in the area. These were taken at the same time, looking in either direction.

Looking to the East, clear skies

Looking to the West, thick wildfire smoke

The next morning I took a greyhound bus the rest of the way to my grandparents' house in Mukilteo where I could finally rendezvou with the family. It was a great feeling to get off the road and sit down with a beer and homemade burgers with familiar people.

Much of our time in Washington was spend at Dumas Bay running the 2014 Encausticamp with mi Madre. Unfortunately my camera died around that time, and the one thing I forgot to pack was my camera charger.

Unpacking and setting up

The return trip to Michigan was equally as amazing. I took a different route this time so I could maximise my scenery-intake. The weather was perfect most of the way. I only got rained on once, and I was able to find a rest area within a few miles to pull off and wait out the storm.

If I had to pick a favorite part of the trip, it would be everything on the East side of the rockies. Beautiful landscapes with mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys; wild buffalo, elk, and moose.

My first campsite. The only campsite I took a picture of

I'm back at home now, getting settled in. As I write I'm eating chicken alfredo with garlic scape pesto made from the garlic I grew from Grandpa Dick's bulbs he gave me last year. The pesto is fantastic, and Maddie made her homemade alfredo sauce with lots of butter, cheese, and fat. They paired together perfectly.

From my driveway in Haslett, MI to where I broke down in Wenatchee was approximately 2,750 miles. When I pulled into my father's driveway on the return trip my tachometer read 2,089 miles. Somehow I managed to cut almost 700 miles off the return trip.

Getting away feels great, but getting back always feels better. 

The Final Countdown

It's the final countdown! I'm leaving Australia exactly one month from today, on May 22nd. On that day, I will have been in Australia (and Bali) for exactly nine months. In that time, I've traveled approximately 4,600 kilometers, not counting air travel; I've met many amazing people, some of whom I will stay in contact with and hopefully see again in the future; I've experienced countless new species of plants and animals; I've seen a bird the color of the rainbow, a bird that sounds like a howling monkey, and a bird that could damn near swallow me whole; I've seen crocs, a shark, and the world's deadliest snakes and spiders; I held a koala and I held a python; I ate day-fresh crab from the coral sea, I ate kangaroo and crocodile, and I ate strange, delicious fruits picked fresh off the tree; I've snorkeled among the coral on opposite sides of the country; I've walked the beaches, surfed the waves, tasted the wine, soaked the sun, and felt the rain; I've browsed museums in the big cities, and I've smoked homegrown marij - uhh... tobacco with old school mountain hippies; I've slept under twenty two different roofs; And I've had a damn good nine months.

And now starts the countdown....

I will be very sad to leave, but I am also very eager to get back home and back to the real world. I'm itching to get wrenching on my Jeep and to put some seeds in the ground! There are a couple gingers that I miss very much and can't wait to see again, and I know there are plenty of people waiting to see me again.

Anyway, here's some cool night shots of the city that I took.

North Sydney skyline from the park across the street

And a before and after comparison

Back to the starting line

I left Sydney 272 days ago to start my adventure, and now I'm back here to complete the final leg of the trip. But first, we'll finish up in Bali.

We had a couple gnarly rainstorms in our last week in Bali. They were actually pretty exciting; heavy torrents of rain, along with plenty of thunder and lightning.

But we also had plenty of beautiful and pleasant days. For example, the day we took a white water rafting tour. We took a thrilling two hour trip down the Telaga Waja river through stunning rainforest jungles. Surrounding us the whole way were banana, coconut, rambutan, jackfruit, and cocoa trees, along with plenty of rice terraces and tall cliffs. At one point I just happened to be looking up at the overhanging foliage from the cliff above and saw a decent size branch shaking back and forth. At first I thought a large bird must have just taken flight from that branch, until I saw a monkey swinging from the vines, just like in a movie.

The trip back to Aus was fairly hassle free: a six hour overnighter to Sydney and a quick train ride to my Aunt and Uncle's house. Since then I've re-re-acquainted myself with the city, and we've all gone mountain biking at the Manly Dam trail again. That was the third time doing that trail for me, and it was just as fun and muscle-burning as the first two times.

Door to our hotel room at Rumah Roda in Ubud

Mud wasp home in our wall

Cicadas like watermelon juice too...

3+ inch grasshopper on the tree right outside our window

Desert Rose

Tegan, Mike and Fee's wonderful, beautiful Staffie/Sharpe mix

Real-life Garfield, the neighbor's cat

North Sydney skyline from the park across the street

Turns out, I look great in a skirt

Actually, it's called a Sarong.

Walking through the Denpasar airport, it was pretty clear we had entered a third world country. Everything was more or less what I expected it to be; Lots of people, plenty of tourists, a buffet of smells, a smack in the face of heat and humidity; And then... a Starbucks. Why does this not surprise me?

After collecting our bags, we made our way outside and found our taxi driver that our hotel had arranged for us. We piled into the fairly new Suzuki van, and drove North for about an hour, to the city of Ubud. The road rules in Indonesia are... insane? hectic? dangerous? non-existent? All of the above. The only traffic lights are located in the downtown area of big cities, or near the airport. Everything else is basically free reign. I think our driver used his turn signal only once on the entire drive. You don't need a big opening to switch lanes or pass a car, you just, basically, go. And intersections? Whew... There is no right of way, even for pedestrians. As you approach an intersection, you see before you a tangled chaotic mess of steel and flesh. Then you're lost in the midst of it for a brief moment before reappearing, unscathed, on the opposite side. Strangely enough, I found myself completely comfortable with all of this, even smiling to myself at the ridiculousness of it all.

The city of Ubud (all of Bali, really) consists of buildings packed in like sardines between each other, and tons, and tons, and tons of rice fields on the outskirts. In town, buildings are literally built connecting to one another, save for an occasional alley that's hardly wide enough for a scooter to bypass. The main streets are about two lanes wide, but you can't really tell because there are no painted lines on the pavement. Traffic consists of about 90% scooter, 10% other, 100% insanity. Police (Polisi) are few and far between. Everyone and his brother is a taxi driver. You can't walk two metres down main street without being approached by a taxi driver. Our hotel (a B&B recently upgraded to 13 rooms) is on a side street that's just wide enough for one car to drive down. There's a traffic jam every time a scooter tries to go one way when a van is going to other. Darta, the owner, his wife Suti, their son Abut, and Darta's parents all live on the property, as well as the staff during their 4 or 5 day shifts. We were lucky enough to get a room on the top floor (third floor) that overlooks the property and part of the 'neighborhood'.

The four roofs in the right corner here are all part of the hotel. Kajeng street runs left-to-right just beyond the tall thatch roofed building, which is the restaurant.

Sunset, looking out the same window

The family and staff are all about courtesy and service, even though everything is very cheap here. When we arrived in the afternoon on Tuesday, we were graciously greeted by Darta and his son Abut. One of the staff helped with our bags as Darta led us up to our room and gave us the run-down of the whole deal. A bit later we headed down to the restaurant where I had an excellent meal of Gado-Gado; A vegetarian meal of veggies, fried tofu and tempe, covered in peanut sauce, complemented by a crisp, cold Bintang beer. We have yet to have a disappointing meal here in Bali.

Just a ten minute walk from the door of the hotel and we're in the rice paddies, which go on and on and on. Chickens and flocks of ducks are hidden randomly throughout the paddies, grazing on the young seedlings. There are a few hut or shack looking structures throughout the fields, which I can only imagine are used for storing tools, seed, rice sacks, etc., or maybe for taking a rest, under shelter from the hot sun. One day, when walking through the paddies, the route we took not only led us through the rice fields, but also through sections of jungle, where the water ran through the channels and irrigation systems set up for the terraced fields. Here we could find wild banana trees, avocado trees, papaya trees, HUGE spiders, an occasional iguana, and a random art gallery or restaurant, which we all thought was quite strange.

This guy was just as big as the tarantula-sized huntsman spiders that I saw in Queensland, only much higher up on the creepy scale. The unfocused black blob in the background is another of the same kind of spider.

Delicious and fresh Papaya from the markets

The flora here is very reminiscent of what I experienced in northern Queensland. They even grow a lot (a LOT) of my favorite plant that I discovered in Queensland, the Desert Rose. I don't have a picture now, but I'll make sure to get one before we leave.

Monkeys in the Monkey Forest

Full moon out the back window

Thats all for now. We've still got eight days to go here in Ubud. I'll come back with plenty more pictures and stories soon enough.

My Finest Achievement

It's been a bit busy since my last post. We finished our stay at Pentland Alpaca farm after about four weeks there, and returned to the VAC in Albany for my Mom's second workshop there. My Dad and his girlfriend arrived a couple days later in time to celebrate Patrick's late birthday party. From there Patrick and I set out on the road with them to play 'tourist' for two weeks. We've been to the Toffee Factory, Chocolate Factory, and Honey Meadery. We've visited wineries for wine tasting, walked through the canopy of the eucalyptus trees at the TreeTop Walk, and held snakes and parrots at Dinosaur World. We've swam the beaches, collected sea shells, seen the views from the lookouts, and explored the caves all the way up the South Western coast from Albany to Perth.

Young Olive Python, 1.8 meters long

Patrick and a few of his birthday gifts

Chooooocolaaaaate....

Jewel Cave, Augusta: 1.9 km long, sinking 42 meters below surface level, home to the third largest "straw" stalactite in the world

Every single night the four of us play a few games of Euchre. My Dad and grandparents taught my three brothers and I how to play when we were only six or seven years old, and it's become a bit of a tradition to play every time we have at least four of us in one place. So of course, when Dad and Jessica arrived, we decided that every night we should play a bunch of Euchre and drink a bunch of wine. My grandparents are the best Euchre players I know, followed very closely by my Dad, so any victory against him is a great one for me. You can imagine my excitement when Jessi and I beat Patrick and Dad three games to one in one night. I think I would consider that my finest achievement in life.

Finding crabs and things at one of the beaches

Bearded Lizard at DinoWorld. I found a bigger one of these in the wild at the chook farm in Merriwa, though I didn't pick it up because I had no idea if it was harmful or not (close-up pics in one of my first posts)

Scottish Highland cows at Pentland Alpaca Farm

Monty, the Major Mitchell Cockatiel 

Roxy, one of two very friendly dogs at Pentland

I somehow managed to get very close to this butterfly before scaring it off

All snuggled up after wine and Euchre in Augusta

Bit of a sunset at Marmaduke Beach, just West of Magaret River

We had a bit of car trouble with the rental, which brought us to the city of Mandurah to switch out for a new car. This was a bit of a blessing in disguise because not only did we get a vehicle upgrade, but Mandurah turned out to be an awesome town. And we got to see dolphins!

We took a ferry tour out through the canals and channels, the banks of which were covered in multi-million dollar vacation homes, and tons of wetland wildlife.

This one was kind of big. Guest and staff quarters all on the property. All of the houses had their own boat jetty.

Camera-inception?

Some bit from some crustacean I found on a beach

My first attempt at henna tattoo art

Gettin' my 'hurr did' (notice the Euchre deck on the table)

Watching the sunset near Margaret River

On the TreeTop Walk near Walpole

At the lookout over Conspicuous Cliffs

Today we spent most of the day at an awesome beach near Mandurah where I'm pretty sure I got stung by a jellyfish, visited a museum, and finished the day by grilling prawn and crocodile kebabs. And, of course, plenty of Euchre.

We'll continue up the coast to Perth until Saturday, when Dad and Jessica fly back to the states. From there, Mom and John meet up with us again and we fly to Bali for two weeks. Originally, when I was planning my Aus trip, I wanted to hit Bali/Indonesia as well, just because it was so geographically close and I won't have a better chance in life to do it, but a tight budget had since convinced me to stick to the mainland. However, now that a trip to Bali would include time there with family, and I got a nice cash bonus for my 21st birthday, I've decided to buy a plane ticket. We'll be there for two weeks