September 16, 1999

Palm Springs, California

After leaving Portland I made my to the coast of Oregon and headed south towards San Francisco. I was eager to get to San Francisco as I had heard so many good things about it and I was also looking forward to seeing more of my old friends from DC who had moved out there. San Francisco is a great place and it's packed with motorcycles and great food. While I was in San Francisco I was able to stay at my friend Nate's house on Haight street which was very cool. The block he lives on has so many places to eat, drink, and check out bikes that it seems that I could have spent week just checking out this one block.

After leaving San Francisco I continued south towards Los Angeles. Having spent a lot of time along the coast I chose a more inland route and was rewarded with some great roads and beautiful scenery. L.A. itself is kind of icky but the beaches are nice and the roads to the east in the mountains are fantastic so I spent most of my time actually avoiding the city and riding on the awesome roads to east including the Mulholland highway and the Los Angeles Crest road.

After spending a few days around L.A. I decided I wasn't ready to start heading east yet and decided to head down to Cabo San Lucas at the bottom of Baja California. Mexico 1 heading down to Cabo is in excellent shape and the Mexicans are the most courteous drivers that I've encountered. Hell, even the cagers would wave to you as you passed. On my way down to Cabo I put in my longest day in the saddle travelling 745 miles from San Quentin, BC to La Paz, BCS. There are enough (very) twisty section on Mexico 1 to make you wish for 24 hours of sunlight so that you could ride forever. I spent a few days in Cabo snorkeling, lying on the beach, parasailing, and taking fuzzy pictures. The only bad part of going to Cabo is that you have to ride the same road to get back to California, but at least it's a fun and interesting road. I made it back from Cabo to San Diego in two days riding about 600 miles each day.

Once I returned from Baja I rode around some more winding roads on my way to Death Valley when I was presented with an oppourtunity I couldn't pass up. And so I decided to indulge another of my passions and fly a little higher than normal.

Heading towards Vegas and points east.