Luggage

Stopped by REI this morning and bought a duffel bag for the trip.  As shown in the pick above, its The North Face Base Camp duffel bag.  I decided to go with the small, which should fit nicely on the back of a motorcycle.  The size of the bag is also going to force me to pack light.

I wonder how many Justin Timberlake T-shirts will fit in there?

Motorcyle Horn

I'm not sure if you have ever heard a motorcycle horn before.  Think of it as a cross between the sound a clown's nose makes and a dog squeeky toy.  Basically, when I hit it, I turn around and act that it didn't come from me when I hit it because its so damn wimpy and somewhat embarrassing (its a man thing).

Well, let me tell you, for it being wimpy and embarrassing, that thing is effective.  I've honked twice now.  First when a guy in front of me wasn't paying attention and didn't see that the red light turned to green.  The second time was tonight.  Someone decided to pull out in front of my on Leary Way in Ballard and then proceeded to go around 20 mph (Its a 35 mph road).  So, after a few blocks, I hit my wimpy horn.  Lone and behold, it worked!  The car moved over and let me pass.

Now I'm trying to figure out what is more embarrassing.  Hitting Old Blue's wimpy horn or being someone who responds to the horn?

To compensate for the lack of posts, check out this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21CtfYmqYnM&feature=player_embedded#!

I'll take a poll, of us three (Danny, Nick, Charlie), who do you think dances most like this guy?

First Ride

I survived my first ride last night. I went home after work, got dressed, put on some Bruce Springsteen for inspiration, and headed off to Nick's apt.

Getting the bike going was a little difficult, but all in all, once I got moving I felt pretty comfortable right away. I decided to take things a little easy and start slow by driving from Cap Hill, through downtown, then off to West Seattle, all at night. Everything went pretty well and I accomplished several things, including:

Running my first red light, performing multiple California Stops, first illegal turn, going the wrong direction on a one way street (on purpose), having my first "oh shit" moment (seeing construction zones can be difficult), first hand wave to a fellow motorcyclist, first compliment on the Nighthawk, first major maneuver around a obstacle at a high rate of speed, and first time going 10mph + over the speed limit.

It was a good trip. All in all, I might be hooked and I now understand why Nick is always so giddy after his rides.

Let the riding begin

After two really long days, I passed the written and field motorcycle tests today.  Scored a 96 on the written and a 89 on the field.  My original plan was to grab the Nighthawk and go for a ride, but I'm too damn tired.

Just to limit Nicks posting material, he scored a 100 on both tests.  Which translates into a score of 10 for us actuaries.  I think my score is around a 7 or a high 6.  Either way, this once again proves that he is more of a man than me.  Even with at J. Timberlake shirt on.....

JT

I got bored of studying for Exam C yesterday, so I decided to swing by the thrift store to pick up a few things for the trip. My plan is to bring mostly thrift store clothes and ditch them as we go so that I don't have to carry along stinky clothes or try to wash clothes in the Mekong. I got a pair of jeans and a few shirts, one of which you will see below. What kind of ambassador would I be if I didn't have a JT shirt?

Riding a motorcycle is pretty tiring....

Day 1 of my motorcycle course is officially over.  No crashes, but I did kill the engine about four times.  Overall, my body is really tired.  Sitting on a bike for that long is much more difficult than I imagined!

On a different note, I finally found a mexican restaurant in Seattle that I actually like.  I wandered into this place during the lunch break.  It sat on a stretch of road that was dominated by "adult" stores, so naturally, I decided to eat there.  I went in, went to the counter, and quickly realized that no one there spoke english.  Better yet, I was the only gringo in the place.  I threw out some rusty spanish and ended up with a delicious lunch.  I'm definitely headed back there tomorrow.

Motorcycle Course this weekend!

Watch out people, assuming I pass this course this weekend, I will legally be allowed to drive the motorcycle on city roads!  So if you see someone that looks like me, driving a blue motorcycle and wearing a funny looking helmet, its most likely me.

Pop Quiz

Name the official language of Cambodia?  First person to get it right gets a date with Nick.

(No cheating)