Roadtrip to California

In the beginning of September, I set out on a long roadtrip from Huron, Ohio to Los Angeles, California. I decided to try my fortune in California. My plan was to ride my motorcycle to Austin, TX where I would sell it, and take a train back to Chicago, IL. There I would meet Annika Krygsman, and continue by car for the next week until we arrived in LA. But, as with all the best experiences in life, things didn’t go according to plan.

Day one of riding took me to North Vernon, IN where I stayed with Lynn Marsh and her parents. The day of riding was pretty good with only one small hitch: One of my saddle bags fell off without me noticing it, and I was unable to recover it. I lost some clothes, and camera cords, but the biggest loss was the bag itself… or so I thought. The next morning when I woke up, I discovered that the title to the bike had been in that bag, and I could no longer sell the bike as planned. The good news is that I had more time to spend with Lynn. So after a morning of fun, I headed back toward Huron. And I made it most of the way before my cam cover rattled loose (again) and I lost all of my oil leaving me stranded. Luckily I was close-ish to Huron, and my parents came to pick me up in their truck. With their help, and that of two random friends I made while waiting for the ride, we loaded the bike up, and headed home.

The new plan was to take a train to Ann Arbor, MI and visit Anne Fennema, and meet up with Annika there. And that plan did work out. From Ann Arbor, the stops were:

Grand Rapids, MI
Chicago, IL
Fort Collins, CO
Gallup, NM
Grand Canyon National Park
Phoenix, AZ
Los Angeles, CA

More details are in the photo captions that follow.

Photos:

Me and Lynn in North Vernon My motorcycle with its missing saddle bag and spilled oil Me and Anne in a spray painted alley in Ann Arbor Anne standing next to what appears to be Slurms MacKenzie Kelsey Modeling the amazing dinner that she made us in Grand Radpis

The entire group that stayed at the Birchnest (Including Timmy and Clay the hitchhiker) George and Kristin were our hosts in Chicago (nice face George) Another rousing game of Kool-Aid Sorry Which led to a game of dizzy-bat. Luckily nobody broke their collar bone. The next day we got gas here. You can see that it was quite busy.

The town was called Menlo, IA We saw lots of this that day, but a lot of it was really pretty. A beautiful Colorado sunset along a state highway Again without the power pole The moon-rise later that night

Anna Pranger took us rock-climbing in Fort Collins And of course we did some hiking there too.

Annika wanted to move into this cave. Gross Eventually the trail opened up into this big meadow where I conquered this giant rock Our route to Gallup included this scenic overlook

Annika modeling the scenery This is not the real chimney rock, it’s just a poser In Gallup we met Jessi Miller And her rommie Jenna And we Larry Fulbright who knew everything about Indian Rugs

He also had a huge collection. Route 66 Nice driving Jessi, who would have thought we would get stuck in that? The four of us went hiking at the crevice This is why it’s called the crevice.

This was the scary part. New Mexico moon rise And a balloon lighting

This was a epic game of Jenga Next we went to the grand canyon. Grand Canyon from the top. We hiked that trail end-to-end and back. (Sorry it’s a little overexposed) Near the end of our trail At the end of our trail; note the Colorado river.

Annika thinking of doing some cliff diving. On the way back we discovered the oasis. We camped for free in the national forest, which was freezing! This is included for the sheer awesomeness of that optical defect.

Lauren (and parents) also prepared a feast for us. Mmmmmmm, cactus Welcome to California! Giant wind farm outside of Palm Springs Pacific Ocean – we made it.