Motorcycling XCountry

To summarize my trip, I have to go back 6 years to when I was involved in a car accident that almost killed me.

The car accident was completely my fault, but I never knew that one mistake could lead to so much damage starting from outside in.

I was unable to look at my own face, and not to mention drive a car.

Living life from the other end of the spectrum, was hard to get used to.

When the insurance company sent me the check for my totaled car, I decided to purchased a motorcycle instead of a car.

I rode to conquer my demons.

And that was how it all began.

Ever since then, riding has always been a passion of mine.

It’s hard to describe the feeling that I get when I’m riding.

I would say it’s euphoria, adrenaline, and also fear.

But riding has been one of the few things that keeps me sane in this insane world.

When a blink of an eye is the difference between life or death, it puts everything else into perspective.

Your precise decision is what keeps you alive at that very moment.

Before leaving on this trip, I was working the graveyard shift as a manager at a restaurant in the city.

While working, I started to ponder, are we really just robots doing our part in sustaining our robotic lifestyle and existence?

Or aren’t we all supposed to try achieve something bigger than this?

Once I realized what role I played in the whole scheme of things, my job didn’t seem that important to me anymore.

I quit my job, and two days later I packed up my things, jumped on my bike and went west.

With no real plan of what, where or when, I began my journey into the unknown.

It’s been the best decision that I’ve made so far in my life.

Along my travels I have met many great people and made even greater friends.

I’ve seen places that one could only dream about seeing in one lifetime.

And I’ve felt things that I can’t even put into words.

I don’t know if I got all the answers I was looking for.

Actually, I don’t know if I have any answers at all.

Maybe that wasn’t the purpose of this trip.

All I know is that I had stopped searching when I started to look for answers.

This trip has made me a stronger person and has given me the ability to be versatile.

Now, I can truly say that I have conquered my fears.

Money Spent - $?000.00(still calculating…)

Days Traveled - 57

Miles Traveled - 15,211

Cities Visited - 37

Nights at Hostels - 44

Nights at Hotels - 5

Nights at Friends & Family - 7

Service Done - 3

Flat Tire - 1

Accidents - 2

Injuries - 1

Arrests - 1

Nights in Jail - 2

Pulled over - 3

Tickets - 0

Laundry - 6

Oh yeah… I almost forgot, Thank You All for the encouragement and support that you have given me!

Oct.24-25, Tue-Wed

Knoxville TN - Silver Spring MD = 500miles - 8hrs

The colder weather was hard to get used to while riding.  So I decided to end my trip. 

Before reaching home, I stopped by Silver Spring MD to visit my grandfather.

The ride out to MD, was the coldest riding I’ve ever done.  The temperature was in the low 40’s and with the wind chill factor, it must have felt like in the 20’s.

It go so bad at one point that I had to stop every 60 miles to wash my hands down with warm water to unfreeze them.

I don’t know how I made out to MD, but I got here in one frozen piece.

Silver Spring MD - Tenafly NJ = 240miles - 4.5hrs

If the weather was still bearable, I think I would have kept on going on this journey.

But with the weather getting colder by the day, I had to get home as soon as I could.

The way from MD to NJ wasn’t so bad.  It was just a straight ride home.

I got back to NJ without any problems.  And now, I’m finally home.

Oct.11-12, Wed - Thur

Miami FL

It’s been a insane past few days for me. 

But I’ve managed to stay sane throughout this whole ordeal.

Yesterday, I went to court and saw the judge.

I explained what had happened and that I was on a cross country trip.

The judge in return, gave me a court fine of $314 and a cloud on my record. 

This means that, this incident will never appear in my record unless I get arrested again for a criminal charge in Florida.

Later that day I had to go back to the same building were the courthouse was at, and have the bond reassigned to me. 

Since Rob paid for the bond, it was supposed to go to his home address in Canada. 

But since he’s staying in Miami, he wanted me to pay him back, so that I would receive the bond instead of him.

Overall yesterday was a good day.  I have taken care of everything and I’m ready to leave. 

I still need my credit cards and drivers license.  Tonight, I’m going to pay my arresting officer a visit. 

Hopefully he won’t play any games, and he’ll give me back my shit. 

If he doesn’t, I’m planning to file a complaint with the police department and maybe write a letter to the Miami Herald newspaper calling him out. 

I’ve learned a lot throughout this whole experience.

And have no regrets in coming to Miami or having this happen to me. 

It has definitely made me a stronger person. 

Knowing that I’ve been through just about everything, I feel that now, I can deal and overcome just about anything.

Oct.10 Tue.

Miami FL

Today I woke up early and went to the courthouse downtown to schedule a walk-in appearance in front of a judge.

Since the cop took my only piece of identification, it was hard to convince the court clerk to schedule me in. 

But after a quick and descriptive explanation on how everything came about, she definitely felt my pain.

She went out of her way to help me out, and scheduled me for tomorrow morning at 8:30 to see the judge. 

Once I see him, I won’t have to come back to this God forsaken place.

After the courthouse, I went to a Washington Mutual Branch office. 

Again, I had to prove who I was and how everything had happened. 

Since I wanted to pull out an extensive amount of money, they felt a little suspicious.  So I was only able to pull out $200.

The manager at Washington Mutual told me that this would be the only time that I could make a withdrawal without a piece of identification, and that if I tried it at another branch, it would be flagged in their computer system.

I got worried cause $200 wasn’t enough for myself or to pay Rob back for bailing me out, and lending me  the money for the room and food.

When I got to the hostel, I started to dig through my stuff and I found some checks that I had stashed away with a credit card that I haven’t used in a while.

With these two items, I can survive for a while.

It was the biggest relief out of my chest throughout this whole ordeal.

Now the only thing that I need to do is get my stuff back from that racist cop.

Things are finally working itself out.

Oct.5 - Oct.6, Thur-Fri

Miami FL - Key West FL = 160 miles - 4.5 hrs

Since I had already made it down to the southern most point in the West Coast, I had to do the same on the East.

Key West was only about 160 miles from Miami. 

But the ride there felt a lot longer than that.  It had something to do with the fact that there’s only one lane on either side of traffic, and the further you go down, there were more elderly drivers.

Everything in Key West was a lot more expensive than anywhere else.  Including the hostel which usually costs no more than $20, it was around $36 for a night.

And the town had a weird vibe to it.  It’s hard to describe.  Well, everything there seemed a bit odd to me.  Wallgreens inside a theater, 7 eleven inside a house, drag-queens popping out of  Denny’s, eating lunch while surrounded by roosters crowing, bums walking around with shit stains on their pants, and just about anything that you can think of to be out of the ordinary in a perfect world, was just normal there.

If I was tripping or on something, it would have definitely bugged me out.

I spent most of my time in Key West doing my laundry, going to the beach, and sight seeing a bit.

Sept.29 - Oct.4, Fri - Wed

Sept.29 Fri.

Galveston TX - New Orleans LA = 370 miles - 6 hrs.

It’s been hard to keep my blog updated, but I’ve been doing my best.  With that said, after Galveston, I went to New Orleans. 

So many people along the way told me to avoid New Orleans due to it’s high rate of crime.  But like anything else, I didn’t listen.  And I’m glad I didn’t. 

On the way to the hostel in New Orleans, it was evident that Katrina had definitely done major damage to the town.  Many areas were deserted, and some pockets in the city were still trying to rebuild.

At the Hostel, I met my roommates Evo, David, and a girl who was working at the hostel.

That night we went to Bourbon St. and got wrecked. 

It was crazy fun, but for some reason, I was thinking that it would have been way cheaper. The prices were similar to what we pay in the city.

Since it was my first time there, I have no idea on how New Orleans used be like Pre-Katrina.  But I can just imagine how crazy it must have been.

New Orleans was one of the most unique cities that I’ve been to so far.

Sept.30 Sat. It was sad to see how much Katrina had destroyed this town.

Block and blocks with of pure destruction with no end in sight.

For some reason, a huge part of the French Quarter was spared including Bourbon St.

Oct.1 Sun. 

New Orleans LA - Pensacola FL = 200 miles - 3 hrs.

After New Orleans, I left for Pensacola. 

Pensacola has one of the most beautiful beaches in the country, and the softest sand.

At night, the moon just lights up everything around on the beach.

Oct.2 Mon. 

Pensacola FL - Gainesville FL = 450 miles - 5.15 hrs.

After Pensacola, I went to Gainesville FL.

Spent one night at the hostel there.

I could barely sleep that night due to the mosquitos in the room.

I couldn’t understand how other people were sleeping while getting bit by mosquitos.

I think I lost a pint of blood that night.

Oct.3 - 4 Tues-Wed. 

Gainesville FL - Miami FL = 430 miles - 5 hrs.

I was glad to leave Gainesville and go to Miami. 

When I got to the hostel, I met my roommate Rob, who just out of coincidence was doing the same thing as I was doing on a motorcycle.  But he started from Canada.

While eating dinner at the hostel’s chilling area, we met Itka and Andrea from Slovakia.

We decided to ask them if they wanted to go riding around town on the back of our bikes.  And without any hesitation, they agreed.

We went to Coconut Grove and had some beers at hooters.

On the way back it started to pour on us.

At first, I got little pissed off that the weather had turned on us, but after a while, I realized that there was no need to be angry and that I should just enjoy the moment.

When we got back to South Beach, we decided to go to a bar around the corner from the hostel, got hammered, and went back to the hostel…