The
metal roller that is the entrance to Amie and
Issa’s home made a wonderfully familiar
sound it it went up. Issa was inside operating
the chain and welcoming us inside. It feels great
to be back in one of our favorite cities…San
Francisco.
It feels like we were here only
yesterday. Good friends can make time feel that
way.
With the bikes parked up inside
and the bags off, hugs were exchanged and we quickly
set about the business of catching up on news
and gossip in between glugs of a hearty red wine.
The big news was that Issa had
started a new business specializing in the supply
of hard to find early model BMW parts and things
were already going well.
As we sat, chatted, ate and drank
Lisa and I passed glances and silently thought
how lucky we were to be back and to have such
good friends in so many places.
I think we eventually got to bed
somewhere around 2:00am.
07
to 08-05-2008
With
Amie and Issa at work, Lisa and I set about the
usual business of web site, diary and internet
jobs and getting our hands dirty on little necessities
on both bikes. Nothing crucial but stuff that
we’d put off until now.
09-05-2008
There
were still some last minute changes I’d
wanted to make before tonight's presentation at
Santa Rosa BMW Motorcycles. A few things needed
deleting and others added. We’d checked
over the bikes sorted a few last minutes jobs,
only to face one last problem. It just wasn’t
a good idea for Lisa (post surgery) to ride her
bike the 1 ½ up the highway. We already
knew from experience that both bikes being at
the show make a big impact. They needed to be
there.
Issa
to the rescue. With a few ideas swapped we had
a plan. Issa would ride Lisa’s bike to work
and then ride it directly from work (BMW of San
Francisco) up to BMW Santa Rosa. We’d just
hope that he’d make it through the traffic
in time for the start of the presentation. Lisa
would get a ride in the car with Amie.
..and
so I’d jumped on Tinkerbelle mid afternoon
and headed up the highway 101. Traffic had been
lighter than I’d thought but slow none the
less.
With
the GPS coordinate of the dealership typed in
I’d found the dealership with out fuss and
had finally met up with Suzanna who it had felt
like we’d been talking with for ages and
who had done all of the arranging for tonight's
event. Suzanna was as enthusiastic and as passionate
as she came across on email. I already knew that
tonight was going to work out great.
By
early evening we laid out the chairs, got our
laptop talking with the projector and put out
the food and drink for guest. Lisa and Amie had
just arrived and guest had shown up early.
7:00pm
rolled around and Issa could be heard outside
‘blatting’ Lisa’s F650GS denoting
his arrival with a fanfare of exhaust farts.
Just
before the presentation began I had a quick chat
with Dennis & Chris the owners about the presentation.
Check out what they said below:
With
both bikes parked up either side of the screen
and a100 bums seated on chairs it was time to
begin.
Two
hours zoomed by and all too soon we were into
the question and answers part of the night. We’d
had a blast. The audience had been great, receptive,
interested and enthusiastic.
So
to Suzana (GM) and to Dennis and his wife (owners)
a big thank you for giving us the opportunity
to share our travels. See you soon.
10
to 12-05-2008
We’ve
spent the last few days just getting ourselves
sorted. Friday night had taken a lot more out
of Lisa that she’d wanted to admit. She
was drained physically and emotionally, complaining
that she should feel better by now. I’d
did my best to convince her that her recovery
from major surgery, so far, has been nothing short
of miraculous but I’m just the husband and
my opinion doesn't’t count as she thinks
I’m biased. After all my surgery experience
I keep telling her that I’m the local expert.
We’ve
had some more communications witch Chad the owner
of ADVDESIGNS and have spoken at length about
the possibility of being sponsored with new state
of the art wearable video cameras that we can
attach to helmets or bikes. We’ll meet up
in the next few days to finalize things, but we’re
excited by the prospect.
13
to 17-05-2008
By
10:00am I was already pulling out of Amie and
Issa’s and riding the short 17-miles to
Chad’s. Lisa was back in bed, sore from
‘over-doing it’ in the last two days.
Chad
had heard the bike as was already stood at the
doorway of his office when I pulled in to park
and it wasn’t long before we inside and
playing with clever new toys and special Op’s
tactical camera’s . Oh c’mon who doesn’t
get excited about the prospect of James Bond gadgets?
These
POV.1 cameras are the ‘biz’. My head
was already reeling with all the possibilities
these cameras were going to offer for Lisa and
I to capture and share our journey.
The
base unit has a small screen giving us a real
time view of the video being captured. The lens
is the size of a lipstick and is attached with
5 feet of cable with a built in water-proof mic.
There’s no hard drive to worry about bumping
as the whole unit is ‘solid state’
and records straight to SD card. This thing is
dust proof, water proof and shock resistant. There’s
even a remote control, which means we can throw
the unit into the back of our riding jackets,
attach the lens to our helmets and operate the
camera (stop and record) from the wireless control
we’ll mount to the handlebars. James Bond
eat your heart out.
Back
outside we were busily sorting out where to the
mount for the ‘RAM-mounts we’d use.
With RAM-mounts fitted around the bike we’ll
be able to swap the lens position from our helmets
to the front of the bikes filming the rider or
down to the side of the bikes or front wheels
for alternate shots that will give a different
perspective. I was like a kid at Christmas.
The
remote was already mounted to the handlebars and
Chad had even sorted out a new holder where we’d
attached the POV.1 base unit to the handlebars.
3-hours
after arriving I was sorted and ready to film.
Chad was as excited as I was to see the results
of what we’d film. I did my best to thank
Chad for his incredibly generous support and his
trust. That’s really all he has. He trust’s
that we’ll capture footage that he can use
to promote his new product and give regular feedback
as to how this unit holds up in the real world.
If it does have as well as it looks, it’ll
be fantastic.
As
I blatted down the road from Chad’s I’d
already hit the record button and was filming
my every move. OK it wasn’t gripping stuff,
from the road onto the on-ramp of the nearest
highway. It didn’t matter, I was grinning
from ear to ear as smooth, crisp and clear footage
displayed on the high res’ screen of the
base unit. I couldn’t wait to get back and
show Lisa. I already knew that Issa was going
to fall in love with our new gadgetry.
18-05-2008
5
years on the road! OK, where’s the time
gone?????
19-05-2008
This
is really not good!
Our
day went south from the start. All our plans for
the day and the job list got ditched this morning
at 9:00am. We’d sat down to check emails
only to find 9,000 emails in the in box and another
4500 in the spam!! We’ve been hi-jacked!
Basically
a firm who professionally spam email have hijacked
our account (they use it as the sending address)
and spammed thousands of emails, who in turn see
it as spam and of course reject it. The problem
for us is that all the rejected/returned spam
emails get delivered back to our email address
at 2ridetheworld.com.
By
early evening we were getting nowhere and feeling
decidedly panicky. Yahoo couldn’t help or
didin’t, simply suggesting that we change
our email.
I’m
not writting too much more I’m to pissed
off. We have to get this sorted!
20
to 21-05-2008
OK so we’re
back in Davis and staying with Sonnet and Steph…and
thanks to Steph and Koobus back in South Africa,
making some headway.
Basically
Koobus has set up our email on a different server,
which we are using to filter all our mail before
again redirecting back to Yahoo and our 2RTW account.
This means that now only simonthomas@2ridetheworld.com
and lisathomas@2ridetheworld.com written exactly
will work.
It’s been a bloody nightmare.
Again, Steph, Koobus we are indebted!
22-05-2008
At
some point I knew that either the real world would
coming crashing in around Lisa’s head or
I’d have to play the sensible husband role.
Lisa until yesterday was still adamant that she
could ride post surgery and that she’d be
fine. Our friends were all agreeing with me, which
is a strange thing in itself, that Lisa was’nt
ready and that even trying wasn’t just over
ambitious but down right dangerous.
So against our better judgment we helped Lisa
onto her bike yesterday and rode exactly 2-miles
slowly around Davis.
By the time we arrived back at Sonnets apartment.
Lisa didn’t need anymore convincing. She
was drained, sore and aching from the effort.
Sometime Lisa needs protecting from herself.
So, the decision has been made. I’ll leave
Lisa here and ride alone to Salt Lake City BMW
and then to Happy Trails up in Boise and run both
the presentations alone. I’ll then ride
back down to Davis and pick up Lisa before we
head over to Colorado. This will give her another
r10-14 of recovery.
It’s
going to feel very strange to Leave Lisa. We’ve
been togher now almost solidly for 5-years and
in our relationship of 16-years apart for only
a few day here and there.
23-05-2008
It
had been a slow pack up my heart wasn’t
in it. I’d done my best to convince myself
that I was excited about 2-weeks of freedom. C’mon
who was I kidding? I was already missing Lisa.
“Yes I’ll be fine”! “Yes
I’ll watch out for the nutters on the road”!
“Yes I’ll email and not stay up too
late at night”! “..and no I wont talk
to strangers”! OK, now I wanted to Leave
before Lisa made my head explode.
I headed off down the road, finding the I-80 that
I’d stick with all day. I’d hoped
to reach Elko but my late start and heavy traffic
meant my normally rideable 420-mile target was
beyond reach.
I’d had a pretty uneventful day, that is
up until 100-miles West of Winnemucca. A huge
articulated truck had overturned just minutes
up the road and the traffic was already backing
up. I’d been watching the guy in the eye
blinding day glow yellow bike suit and his crotch
rocket in my mirror for the last 5-mins. The traffic
guaranteed a biker conversation.
‘Wuz’ introduced himself with the
energy and verbosity of a circus ring master,
complete with bushy mustache. An ex-police officer
and current member of one of the largest motorcycle
groups in the world, The Blue Knights, Wuz was
en-route to Winnemucca where he was meeting other
blue Knights (all ex or serving police) before
heading to Boise in the morning.
What a character! Wuz is one of those guys that
seem’s to be able to fit what would take
the rest of us two weeks into 24-hours. Wuz is
also the familiar voice to anyone attending the
Bonnevile Speed week. The hallowed ground of all
things super fast. The announcer who each years
voices the energy and excitement of a few 100
contestants all looking to challenge themselves
and the laws of physics.
I’d asked Wuz for a contact card, he promptly
gave me 16. Yep, 16 different cards each with
a separate job title, phone number and logo. He
had them all stuffed din sequential order in a
long box, He’d done this before.
Finally
the police had managed to clear enough space to
get the tow truck through and and 1 ½ after
we’d stopped we were once again on our way.
I already knew I wasn’t going to get to
Elko. Perhaps I’d meet up with the mighty
Wuz again Winnemucca.
The black skies were going to release any second,
I needed to put my head down and get a move on.
I picked my speed up to 85mph and counted my blessing
as I dodged torrential downpours to my left and
right.
That yellow one-piece bike suit was unmistakable.
Wuz was just ahead (try saying that fast after
a few beers) and pulling into the motel I’d
seen from the highway. I followed suit. And so
began a great evening with new friends.
To make a long story short, Wuz had booked a double
room and offered for me to join him and I’d
accepted. 20 or so of his blue knight riding buddies
had already arrived and so showered down (yes…separately…get
your mind out of the gutter) we jumped back on
our respective bikes and headed into Winnemucca
for dinner. They wouldn’t let me spend a
dollar.
So guys,…and the ‘mighty Wuz’
thanks so much for your hospitality and a night
to remember, it’s just a shame you didn’t
get to meet Lisa.
24-02-2008
Not
writing much, too tired.
I left Winnemucca this morning at a good time,
and then got rained on the whole day before reaching
Salt Lake City. Stopped to take a few photographs
of the mountains around SLC, put my glasses on
the handlebars and then watched them fly off and
bounce down the road at about 60mph, after forgetting
to put them back on. Shit…Lisa is going
to kill me!!!
I’d arrived at the BMW dealership by late
afternoon and was made to feel very welcome by
Keith and the staff. The whole dealership is larger
than I’d imagined for some reason.
This evening I’ve accepted to stay with
Keith and his wife Mychelle at their home. Not
sure I like this sleeping alone stuff?
Keith and Mychelle are great people and have made
me feel very welcome.
OK, that’s it I’m going to bed it’s
now 1:30am.
25-02-2008
That
was pretty cool!
It’s again 1:45am in the morning and the
presentation went really well. I had 82attendees,
which isn’t bad as Keith confessed to only
having promoted the event in the last 2-weeks.
Here's
Lisa's out-takes...brillinat.
The audience were great fun and the projector
and kit hired by Keith and organized by Jason
was the best we’ve used so far. The quality
and bulb strength meant that the all the detail
and incredible colour I see when looking at the
computer screen was showing on the big screen.
Seeing your images displayed 10 ft by 8 ft is
pretty cool. They looked great.
We even managed to film Lisa giving her apologies
before I left Davis and included that as the intro
to show. Have a look at the clip here at check
out the ‘out-takes’. Lisa hates being
in front of the camera. Priceless!
