Californication

Lake Ruth


Crazy 88


Foxy

When it rains It poors

After enduring some of the coldest riding of my life, having to sub come to a hotel vs facing single digit temps in the desert and pushing Marla to her highway limits I finally crossed through Reno back into the end of the world. Pitched my hammock two nights in the Tahoe nation forest and got some much needed star time, took my sweet time winding through back roads and even squeezing in a little dirt. Finally I got to spend new years eve sound asleep in my hammock after a cheap local bottle of wine and some star gazing from the edge of a Lake.  So on January 1st I landed in what I thought was going to be my new home town, at least for a while. Santa Rosa

 I was able to score a couch to surf on and my second day in town I made the 35 mile trek to the shop I was to work at. As I should have know the gut pulled my attention aside a few times during my walk through but having been off the road for a while  I had lost the touch. I nailed the  interview and made sure I'd be getting a fair wage. Riding back I was excited but in the back of my mind something was off. The next few days I spent the little cash I had left from the SLC trip on some work clothes and a bit of food for the coming week. I searched up and down the area for a room to rent but to no avail, Cali is a very expensive place to live! My CS host offered up a spare bedroom until I got back on my feet and the universe was coming together once again, or so I thought. Monday The 6th was my first day and I got thrown the usual basket case of a recently painted classic car and a dozen or so unlabeled box of parts a hacked wiring harness and told to put it together. No problem I went in with zero expectations so I wouldn't be disappointed. I got paired up with a retired aviation mechanic who turned out to be a really cool guy also into motorcycles. Meanwhile I got a first hand show at the chaos they called a "top notch Hot Rod shop". 

Throughout the next few days my gut got louder and louder telling me something was out of wack. The old man I was wrenching with had been there for 3 weeks without pay and getting the runaround every time he asked. There were tweakers working there, plenty of managers telling people  to jump from one thing to the next. Lots of pissed off customers coming in and out not to mention plenty of angry faces from the staff. The place turned out to be a complete joke and the owner bankrupt and in legal trouble with more than a few three lettered agencies. After putting in an honest 40 hours worth of work and being told they simply didn't have the money to pay me. Here I am back where I started, except now even deeper in the hole.

At the end of the day at least I'm out of the grasps of winter and back in this diverse and beautiful state. The only question on mind now is North or South?! And thus the Hessian and Marla saga continues.....

West leads the way.......

As one door closes another opens and so the story continues. A few days ago out of nowhere and with a vague explanation I was asked to leave the Ranch I've been living and volunteering at for the last 7 weeks. Apparently I'm not exploitable enough to warrant being fed and sheltered and so my kind hosts have decided to cut their losses. My conscious is clear as I've done everything I committed my self to when I first called about the opportunity though I can't say the same about my hosts. This will most likely be my last try at workway/woofing and volunteering in general. As it seems that for the most part these people are usually looking for slave labor and people they can take advantage off. To top it off I was told I needed to be out of here in 3 days or less. Never mind we had an agreement till the end of winter and now I'm forced to hit the road mid winter with temps in the low 20's and an abundance of snow. What doesn't break you makes you and this is just another lesson I was fortunate to learn. 

As unpredictable as this universe is the very same day I received the unpleasant news I also received an email back from a Hot rod shop I had applied at weeks prior. After a skype session and a few phone calls I've been invited to work in California doing what I know and love. I gave up long ago trying to understand the forces that move everything around us and learned to just accept this crazy ride. "Life doesn't require an explanation just participants" So bags are packed, Marla in tip top shape after a quick fork seal swap and fork oil change, losses are cut, lessons learned and at first light I'll get to do what I do best, hit the road. Riding once again into the sunset and unknown.

 

“I was going to be left alone on my butt at the other end of the continent. But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?”

Jack Kerouac

Randomness and boredom

Life I've learned is built on a multitude of layers infinitely stretching outwards as well as inwards. You may look at it both through a telescope as well as a microscope. Our fates reminiscent of quantum trajectories in particle accelerators where fools try and get a peek at the big why and how. Yet as with everything the harder you look the weirder and more unexplainable it gets. I can't say that life at the ranch is spectacular or grand, just like everyday life everywhere else it's plagued by its routines. Every so often followed by brief moments of true awareness or introspection thrown in for good measure. Wake up, feed, eat, water, zombie out, feed, eat and dream. I often wonder if I'll ever be able to readjust to the "norm" or if I've crossed a line which cannot be uncrossed. After a year and change of being freed from the cage of security living moment to moment, day by day; staying put brings forth an immense uneasiness and sense of unfulfillment. It's hard to wake up knowing exactly what your day will bring, at least for me. Even so I try to break the pattern where possible, be it spending time with my caged four legged friends, watching a sunset from the back of the hay truck, having pointless philosophical discussions with my adopted kun-fu master feline, going for walks through the snow or wrenching on Marla and day dreaming of crossing that border come spring. My future is unwritten and every new encounter, situation and most importantly choice brings forth unimaginable possibilities. I'm here now without a why but only a sense or feeling that this is a step towards the next step in an endless cycle of circumstances which I'll never understand nor need to. The only thing I see when I close my eyes is Marla and I rolling the length of south America, enduring countless hardships and adventuress to finally peer out into the infinite horizon of the south Pacific from the place which has overwhelmed my thoughts since first hearing of it. Patagonia. One day at a time, that's all we get! everything since and forth is nothing but air.

Sorry Marla but it is what it is

Marla

  So after running into some Utah "mud" recently which is more like quick set cement and the fact that Marla just clicked off 31,000 miles her clutch finally decided to go. First time she has ever left me walking and since the failure was more my fault than anything I really can't complain.    I picked up a EBC heavy duty disc set as well as their heavier springs and the install was a breeze, clutch pull is only slightly harder. Since for the right case to come off the water pump had to be disassembled and I already had the parts I went ahead and swapped all its seals as well. Supposedly they go around 30k or so and I had ordered the parts a while back as insurance. But since my philosophy has always been "If it ain't broke don't fuck with it!" I hadn't gotten in there to mess with them. While down there I also noticed that the clutch cable was on it's last leg and went ahead and replaced it as well. 

   One thing that blew my mind after pulling the case is once again how clean the internals of this motor look. All visible bearings and gears look practically new with hardly any wear or discoloration. This is the third time this case has been out including when it was installed at the factory. The second and last time I personally had it off was back in miami over a year ago when my girl was only 5k. So to see the internals looking exactly as they did 26,000 hard miles ago brought a huge smile to my face. Not to mention reinforced my "faith" in not only Marla but KLR's in general. This also goes to show that these bikes just like the tractors that they are love plain diesel oil and all the hype about overpriced synthetics and moto specific oil is just that hype! Rotella 15W40 from 5,000 miles on and changed religiously every 2k, that's all it takes.

The poor girl has been through alot this passed year and even so has never skipped a beat and has always taken me anywhere I wanted to go. Looking at her sometimes it's hard to believe she's the same pristine machine I started this journey with but then again neither am I. To twenty six thousand amazing miles of the greatest riding anyone could ever ask for and many more to come!

Marla Singer

And to all the KTM/BMW riding KLR haters and bashers out there (and you know exactly who you are) Marla and I gladly give you the double finger salute! Keep your orange, flashy, overpriced, over hyped, badly engineered and over complicated poor european excuses of a motorcycle and all the bullshit that comes with them. When it's all said and done and zombies take over the world Marla and I will be riding around decapitating the walking dead long after your tightly scheduled valve adjustments, disintegrating wheel bearings, dead fuel pumps, blown shocks, self destructing 2nd gears and exploded final drives leave you on the side of the road for zombie food.

Utah and beyond.....

Life after Moab....The only way I know how, one day at a time.......

"When everything goes wrong, that's when the adventure begins"

Sunshine

Pai Mei

I recently got a gig to volunteer and live in a horse ranch outside salt lake city, UT. Something I've always wanted to do is work at a farm/ranch and learn to handle and work with animals. So after being here for a a couple of weeks I'm pretty stoked but at the same being cautious. Unfortunately in this day and age it seems that some people are more than eager to take advantage of an honest person's good nature. Sadly this was the case last time I volunteered in Big Sur California through workaway. The ranch is in the beautiful Tooele valley and surrounded by mountain ranges. Great trail riding is only a few miles away and Marla and I have already gone out and gotten into some trouble. Winter is definitely setting in and as seen in the first couple of shots the day of my arrival was interesting to say the least. More pics, stories and a complete update of the entire blog is in the works. 


"The best journeys answer questions which in the beginning you didn't think to ask."