Funny Signs

Despite the fact that my tour of the USA is over, I still have a few more posts to do about it.

As I was riding through the US, I occasionally saw a road a road sign that make me smile or laugh. I would often take a photo of these and I have been saving these until the end of my tour so I could post them on my blog all at once.

I hope that you enjoy some of these....

I am sure that like me, you will have a favourite.

This one just had me laughing out loud....

We all know somebody who might live on this road....

I wouldn’t want to live here....

What? They get their own crossing?....

OK, but what ARE the special rules?....

This sign had me wondering for hours....Appropriate Precautions?.... What are they?....

There is no need to cuss....

We suggest you let them cross, or they might not like you....

There are a lot of Moose here then?....

What a great name for a road....

I will go get my swimming trunks....

Not in July they won’t....

What irresponsible doctor that did this....

I thought they only lived in cities...

Okay, but did you really need to put a sign up outside her house?....

Meant only for hogs with babies....

This one just had me roaring with laughter....

Some people just have jobs that are impossibly difficult....

A popular place with young men....

You have got to be kidding me. World famous?.....

Does that have lots of bends or strong winds?.....

No dinosaurs beyond this point....

This one just cracked me up. I still don’t understand it....

A fantastic sign, because it meant lots of tight bends coming up....

Seen on an Indian Reservation....

This must be a physicians sign....

Many rivers are....

I wish....

I thought Holland was bigger than that....

Well, the police might be down here, but I'm not sure....

A huge strange sign, presumably put up be someone who felt very strongly about this....

No especially funny, but it made me laugh....

No way! You cannot call toilets a “Comfort Station”.....

Isn’t is better to park first?.....

The person that put this here was certainly making a point....

What a unlikely combination. I bet people are rushing to here....

Not a funny sign, but my least favourite of the whole journey....

I would hate to be here during a storm....

What a nightmare it would be to live on this street....

How on earth did this get its name?....

It’s not strictly a sign, but on seeing this, I just had to get a glimpse of the driver....

Finally, my absolute favourite sign.
Ever.
This is brilliant....

I hope some of these made you smile!

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A Book of the Tour

Okay, so the tour is over and lots of people have asked “What now?”

Well, have been giving that some thought and I have decided. Encouraged by some of my blog readers, I have decided that I will write a book about the tour I have just finished.

Apart from experimenting with my blog, for somebody who rarely writes anything, who prefers charts and diagrams, pictures and graphs to actually writing words, that is quite a decision for me. But, I think I have just done something quite significant and many of you seem to have enjoyed my words and pictures, so I am going to give it a go. I like a challenge, so I am going to see if I can do it. I am going to need help, but what the heck, it will be an enjoyable thing to do and it will be a permanent record of where I went and what I saw. If I manage to sell a few books in the process, then that will be a bonus.

I am looking at this being a book of pictures with some words, rather than a book of words with some pictures. That should keep me in my comfort zone.

What’s more, as a thank you to every one of my blog friends that have encouraged me to write more, I am going to give everyone that has ever written a comment on my blog (before today) one of the first copies of my book, for free!

I mean what I say, I really appreciate the support you have given to me over the past few months, so this is my way of saying thank you.

I don’t know how long this will take, but I will let you know every now and then how I am getting on.

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Harley Ride Conversations

Talking to our passengers, seated on the back of our Harley Davidson motorcycle, as we cruise around is one of the joys of a Harley Ride . Do we use an intercom? No we don't. Why? because we don't need one. Its very easy to talk to you if you are a pillion on a bike with us. Here is a Youtube clips that show you what I mean.

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The End Of The Tour

Well that is it. The end of the tour has arrived.

I wondered how I would feel when it was finished and to be honest, I don’t know yet. It felt strange that yesterday I went and bought a suitcase to carry my things back home in.

It feels strange that in a little over an hour I will be collected in a car and taken to LAX airport. It seems strange that I will today be getting on an airplane instead of my bike.

I will miss leaving each morning not knowing where I will end up that night.

I won’t have to look at a map each day to look at where I might go. I will miss doing that.

I will miss seeing new things each day. I will miss exploring.

I will miss the sunshine!

I will miss being on this adventure and I will miss the kind people I have met every day.

I will miss lots of things.

I will miss the ride. I will miss some of the best roads I have ever ridden. I will miss the freedom I felt riding a motorcycle across the USA.

But, I am going back to that special place called home. To where I live.

I will be seeing my lovely wife again. I have missed her a great deal.

I will see my kids soon.

I will see my dog. She will go crazy when she sees me.

Those things are really good. Really good indeed.

I rode 21,475 miles in 27 states in 146 days.

That is an average of 147 miles per day. Take out the non-riding days and the average goes up to 177 miles a day.

I have seen many wonderful and interesting places. I have ridden over high mountains and across deserts. I have been in big cities and tiny towns. I have seen almost no cars in 78 miles of riding. I have seen 78 cars on the road in one second. I have seen extraordinary wealth and extreme poverty. I have seen old things that should be cherished and I have seen brand new things to marvel at. I have been boiling hot and I have been freezing cold. What an amazingly diverse country the US is.

I know I am very lucky to have been able to do this tour and I know many people would like to do the same, but cannot yet for a variety of reasons. Many people have read my blog and shown fantastic support and many have written encouraging words. When I started this blog I had no idea how big it would become. I was worried that my writing was not great and I wondered if people would be interested in what I had to say and in the pictures I posted. The kind words of the readers of my blog meant that I would continue posting, nearly every day if I could. Knowing that people were reading my stuff was a tremendous boost. Thank you to everyone that commented on my blog, for it is you that drove me to keep writing. You will be rewarded for your comments and I will tell you about that on Saturday.

Most of all I would like to thank Jackie for letting me fulfil my dream of riding across the USA. Without your full support I would not have been able to do this. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Finally I would like to thank America. All of it and all of its people. It is truly an amazing place with so many marvellous things to see and places to visit. As a nation you have some very special qualities and Americans are a very special people. I have been touched by your generosity, politeness and overwhelming friendship. Thank you America!

There is just one photo for today. Yesterday, I delivered my bike, the Leading Ladies, to the shipping agent in Los Angeles....

My bike has carried me effortlessly on a tremendous journey without complaint and without any major problem. Thank you Leading Ladies, you did a great job!

There was only one make of bike I could ever have ridden across the USA on, and it had to be a Harley-Davidson.

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Motorcycle Philosophy and the Ortega Highway

Day 144 saw me riding from San Diego to Long Beach in California. This was my last full day of riding and I wanted to make the most of it.

I started early as I had a lot to see and my first stop was Balboa Park and the Museum of Man. I was too early to go into the museum as it was not yet open when I was there, so i took a couple of pictures with my point and shoot camera. I believe the tower is called the California Tower....

I tried to go see the Cabrillo National Monument – a lighthouse – as I had been told the views from the point upon which it sits are fantastic. It wasn’t to be though as the US Navy don’t open the road until 10am each day. I am not sure why and the guard didn’t know either, but I just accepted it and turned around, carrying on my journey north.

My next stop was at La Jolla and I looked at the seals before getting a coffee and some breakfast. I chatted to a guy called Joel who had become a motorcyclist a few years later than most of us and he told me how much he was enjoying what had now become a new passion for him. Nice one!

The previous evening, I had changed the ISO setting on my camera to a very high setting for some night photos. Today was an absolute disaster as I forgot to change to back to a slower speed / higher quality so when I looked at my pictures from my last full riding day, they were, well, rubbish!

I have junked most of them and have included just a few here. This is La Jolla and because of my lack of a brain on this day, it doesn’t look at its best....

I went to see the San Diego California Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, near to La Jolla. It is a stunning church with high reaching spires and its white finish to the building makes it seem like the church is glowing...

At Cardiff, I stopped to look at what seemed like a very peculiar statue. It seemed to be a young boy surfing while wearing an army uniform. I got chatting to a local couple who told me the story of the statue. Meant to be honouring the many surfers along this part of the coast, the statue shows somebody learning to surf, but the local surfers complained the figure was in the wrong pose and limp-wristed. Now knicknamed the Cardiff Kook, people have jokingly added items to the statue and this seems to have become a local prank that people enjoy.

The statue is sometimes dressed in clothes, wears a hat, or one elaborate prank saw a huge shark being added about to eat the poor newbe-surfer. Thankfully, nobody has vandalised the sculpture and I like the fact that the protest continues in a light-hearted way. When I was there, the statue looked like this....

I wanted to get some last pictures of the California coast. The ISO problem made them almost un-usable....

The highlight of my day was meeting Steve Johnson and his friend Jack. Many of you will have read Steve’s blog, called Motorcycle Philosophy, and especially read of his recent ride to Alaska and back. We had arranged to meet at Oceanside and we first rode to San Clemente for lunch. We of course talked about bikes, including riding in this part of California, which has the almost unique blend of being able to ride by the ocean and in a very short amount of time, you could be riding in the mountains just inland.

After lunch we set off with Steve on his Honda ST1300 and Jack on his Suzuki V-Strom DL650. I had read about a great riding road called the Ortega Highway, which has a reputation for being one of the most dangerous roads in the US. I thinks that reputation is diminishing now for as Steve explained, a lot more car traffic now uses the road and that has slowed down the sports bike riders. With Steve in the lead I could quickly tell he could handle his Honda very well and he soon disappeared into the distance. I tried to keep up, but I didn’t want to become a part of the roads reputation!

We reached the top of the ride at a place with a terrific view of Lake Elsinore. Here are Steve (on the right) and Jack....

The view of the lake....

All too soon, I needed to head off back down the Ortega Highway and bid farewell to Steve and Jack. It was good to meet Steve after reading his blog. The name of his blog, Motorcycle Philosophy reflects the fact that Steve likes to read and write about the feelings of riding motorbikes. It is the ride itself that he likes towrite about. His blog is great reading!

On the way back down, I stopped very briefly at the Hells Kitchen, a favourite watering hole for local bikers....

I was late to meet another biker who had responded to my blog by writing some comments and we had exchanged a few e-mails. Having agreed to meet at Mothers Bar just outside Long Beach, I had to crank the bike up a bit to get there in time and I skipped a few places I had wanted to see on the way. I arrived at about the right time, but the guy I was to meet didn’t show up....

On my last full day of riding, I did 203 miles.

I have just a few posts left to write about the tour and on Saturday, I am going to be making an announcement....

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