In the first set of CA the white areas you said you did not know what they were, those are salt farms, sea water is pumped in and let to evaporate and the salt that remains is mined.
Excellent write up on your tour! Good photography work as well...
Your photos of the San Francisco airport brought back some memories from my flying days. It's not uncommon for the controllers in the Bay area to vector two airplanes pretty close together. They get mutual visual confirmation from each plane, get 'em lined up on final, and cut 'em loose visually. Several times I'd be coming down final at a distance of a few hundred feet left-to-right distance, and sometimes exactly beside another plane! One plane or the other would usually move ahead of the other since the airspeeds are seldom exactly the same. (Passengers that didn't fly much probably got their heart rates up a bit!)
Just like flyin' formation in my military days! Yee haw!
Dang Eric you are one bad mofo! Makes me honored to know such a hardcore dude.
Oh and just FYI.... The okc BMW store guys are a-holes. The main service guy is cool but the sales people are well I will tell you my story next time I see you.
My dad has this bad boy and he loves it. He is so glad that he got the BMW over the Harley he was considering. Congrats on your new bike. Looks like a ton of fun!
thats why i've got loud pipes.... LOL just kidding. stock pipes on the BMW. lets not get that argument going again.
theres not a whole lot thats "safe" about motorcycles. The stuff i've done makes running 80 posting on facebook look mild. Not to brag, but when you become accustom to certain higher levels of risk, other things seem hardly noteworthy. I did try to keep it to the looooong straights with no traffic where hands weren't needed to steer, and visibility was in the MILES. i.e. limiting the possible risk to only myself, and not others.
I promise i evaluate all risks i can think of when riding and if i choose to accept some that don't necessarily put others at risk... well, i'm a big boy and i'll accept the consequences if my judgment is wrong.
gsarg - that bike is sweet. the big boss at work has one. Very cool - same motor as my bike, just less ground clearance. I think BMW's are a little ugly still, but they serve their purpose soooo well that it makes them look much better
BTW Josh... my ridng experiences are NOTHING. I'm just a beginner in all this... all my skill added up from the last 10 years on bikes is weak when I get on ADVrider.com and look at what others are doing...
Theres a guy doing a RTW (Round The World) trip on (i think) a 48 panhead with a Springer front end and a RIGID FRAME. This is his SECOND RTW trip. The first was on an old Indian!
Then, theres a group of 4 guys from Poland... they trailered THROUGH RUSSIA because to them Russia is BORING... they dropped off on the south side, and just yesterday made it into a remote part of AFGHANISTAN. The terrain is wicked and gives me chills looking at it. Some of the MOST BEAUTIFUL TERRAIN unseen by the western world.
Please read the whole thread. Its ongoing as they're there RIGHT NOW and you should refresh it every day.
oh yeah, if anyone wants to join, we've got a group running to Arkansas for the weekend THIS FRIDAY - Sunday - anyone is welcome to come. Hotel is about $60 / night.
and... we have a group heading down to the international Motorcycle Show in Dallas at the end of the year (november?) - usually go down saturday, have fun, drink at the hotel, then ride to the show the next day.
anyone is welcome on all our rides..... even harleys