i’ve asked for the respective days off from work for this road trip in may, so.. moving forward!

next action steps:
choose my sleeping places for the nights, make reservations as needed, awaiting touring/traveling book, draw up/print out a roadtrip checklist, go through class’ checklist, go shopping for gear + supplies as needed (don’t forget a camera, pen and paper and/or portable recorder !), pack up, and ‘wait’ :D 5 years ago

i am stoked and anxious concurrently about the zoom class. i have much more planning and preparing to do in anticipation of the class and road trip to/fromreno-fernley.

to get more ideas for the road trip preparation of the bikey and myself, i ordered the essential guide to motorcycle travel from amazon today.

less than two months to go ! 5 years ago

ok, so in pursuit of another related goal of getting myself to a rider training class at reno-fernley in nevada, i have found a few possible routes per recommendations by some folks on BARF . since reno-fernley is about at least 4 hours away from me, it looks like the rides to/from will be road trips !

this route makes use of the 4 (a 6-hour ride), while this one makes use of the 49-89 (an 8 !! hour ride).

now that i have an idea about an interesting way to go/come back from there, i can enroll in the class :D 5 years ago

year in and year out, i keep telling myself and others that i’m going on ‘that motorcycle ride’, that ride for the weekend or a day trip or a possibly week-long trip where i hop on my bikey and ride off into the sunset (or sunrise?) to go explore the world and my inner self.

and i still have yet to do this. what’s holding me back?

for awhile i’ve admired a friend of a friend, matt, who only owns a motorcycle (or three) and no car (last time i spoke with/about him) (i too do not own a car now), and takes the opportunities over the holidays or for work travels to make a motorcycle trip. there doesn’t seem to be any hemming or hawing—he just does them. i wish i could be as decisive.. or as brave.

one of the biggest trouble i have is the concept of traveling alone on my motorcycle for stretches of roads without civilization. as a girl, i am wary of the dangers of doing this, of getting hassled, kidnapped, mugged, and/or other terrible things :/

for this reason, one of my other goals include learning self-defense. it is lame for me to whine and self-pity myself when if i can do something about my situation/the obstacle, i know. i used to take karate classes in college, but i’ve long since gotten rusty with those skills.

otherwise, i have no qualms about going. well, other than somehow overcoming my laziness factor.

once, in 2002-2003-ish(?) i went on a group ride with some motorcycling coworkers up in marin(?) county in northern san francisco bay area. that was pretty fun. i might try to do that route again on my own. i should look for the maps that were handed out for that trip in my mementos box. 5 years ago