My Travel Adventures, Cars , and Motorcycles: Another Warm Up Blog before the BIG ONE Starts!

Dear Family & Friends,

As some of you may know September 4th I am off on another 9 week motorcycle ride around Europe with my friends Duane and Kim..

Since it has been few months since I have done any long rides I thought I would warm up my riding skills, my butt, and writing style by taking an 8 days ride up to Tacoma, Washington and back.. Seven days of riding and 2300 miles has certainly warmed me up for a ride.. So here goes a warm up on my reporting.

First stop of my ride was in Oakland, CA to visit my daughter Sarah.. It was a great visit..!! I miss my little girls but there are some big advantages to having adult daughters! Sarah and her roommate and I cooked a delicious steak dinner in her backyard and polished off close to three bottles of wine. Can't do that with little girls.. Also wine is certainly a lubricator for adult conversation. Sarah is in the process of starting her own business, another Len company. I am very proud of her and love hearing her enthusiasm and ideas. She has under taken a BIG step in life and I think she is going to do great.

My next stop was Eureka, CA. to visit a great motorcycle theme cafe recommend to me by friend Clement Salavadori.

It was a great stop. Met the owner and he certainly encouraged me to start a retirement business....now if I can only get Bonnie excited about owning a MC coffee shop.

The next day I headed over to the coast to get out of the heat and rode up the coast to central Oregon and cut in to Eugene to visit a motorcycle buddy of mine. Murph has a BMW restoration business and restored my R100S. He does great work at a reasonable cost. Unfortunately he recently ran his motorcycle into the side of truck so both his BMW and body are currently under restoration.. I hope to see him up to full speed on my next visit.

From there I rode up to Tacoma WA. to visit my cousin and attend a vintage motorcycle show at the Lemay Auto and MC museum. I also met a friend of my cousin who seemed like a good guy and I met a friend of mine form the SLO area that was also up there at the same time. One night Kyle and I went out for some good BBQ and discussed the possibility of starting a vintage MC business together... stay tuned.

My cousin and his new girl friend and I went out for a delightful dinner. My cousin and I for some reason had little contact growing up so it has been great to get connected and talk about our lives. Our fathers were brothers and we both had very DIFFICULT fathers to say the least. It made me feel good to realize someone else went through what I went through growing up.

After Tacoma I started south again. I immediately rode west through the Washington rain forest and followed the coast south. Hwy. 101 follows the entire west coast of the USA. A great winding road that encourages sporting riding and meeting new friends.... Below is my new Washington friend..... :(

When I got stopped I tried to explain to the cop Einstein's theory of relativity.. I told him since he as parked still on a planet spinning at 24,000 miles an hour and I was moving it made me appear to be going faster than I was...... He didn't buy my BS but he did take 10MPH off the ticket for creative excuse making..

After that $105 lover note I toned down my riding style.

The west coast is stunningly beautiful so a slower pace gave me time to take it in and take a few photos.

The coast is an interesting ride weather wise. Temperatures varied from 61 degrees to 104 degrees and many times within a few minutes depending on how close the highway was to the ocean..

After this week I am ready to ride Europe!! Stay tuned to lots of reports, first one from the Goodwood Revival!

Jason

The field behind the Lemay Automotive and MC museum. Well worth a visit if you ever get to Tacoma ,WA.

Here are some samples of the motorcycles in the show..

This is a Brough Superior SS100. The most valuable bike in the show. This bike should e work between $250,000 and $350,000 depending on history.. Lawrence of Arabia rode and died on one of these. That bike is priceless.