San Francisco to Seattle on a Harley Davidson

I remember the morning that I picked up the Harley very well. I was up very early with excitement! I arrived at the Harley rental place (coincidentally only 8 blocks from where I was staying) at around 9:30am and joined the back of a queue of 6 British guys from some up north. And one by one (except two of them) they all had problems with their credit cards and had to call their banks. I was beginning to have doubts as they would soon be trying to take out £1,000 as a security deposit......But once it came to my turn it went through with no problem, phew!!

So there I was sat on a £30,000 motorbike that weighed 400kg's without, my luggage or petrol! Luckily I found it quite easy to ride with the massive weight disappearing moments after movement. The only thing I had to get along with was the gearbox, which was truly awful! However, what the gearbox lacked in smoothness the '110 cubic inch Screamin Eagle Twin cam motor' made up for in amazingness! What a sound! Like Thor gargling with nails! Very impressive!

So for my first days riding it was around 185 miles up to Fort Bragg where I'd rented a small cottage. The ride up there was so pretty and I passed through some breath taking redwood forests



As you can see I've just figured out how to put pictures into my blog too! :D

My second days riding was a rather longer one, 385 miles in one hit. The most I've ever done in one go was 240 miles from Woolacombe in North Devon back to Walthamstow in East London. However this was one straight road with no junctions. It took me the best part of 8 hours and it was dark by the time I got to my next destination, a small town called Coos Bay. The room was rather nice and there was a pool but it closed soon after I arrived, and I was very tired, all I wanted to do was sleep!

I woke late the next day and went to eat breakfast, wasn't that great...I was on the road by 11am and in Portland, Oregon around three hours later. The hotel I was staying (The Northrup Inn) was stunning (I decided to treat myself) Portland itself almost doesn't feel real, like it's just been created in a computer simulation. Everything looks perfect, there are seemingly no homeless people, crackheads or crazies. A bit too sterile for me. However the hotel had a free cheese and wine night and ate wonderful hummus at a Lebanese place, oh and had the most amazing Guinness float (that's Guiness with vanilla ice cream!) Much yummier then it sounds!)

The next leg of my journey ends me up in Seattle where I will be staying with my good friends Daniel & V. But that story is for another time. Till then go safe Y'all!


Good things about the Harley Davidson Electra Glide:

The sound of that engine! Blat blat blat!!! :D

There was plenty of space in the panniers

The stereo was good. It adjusted the volume automatically according to my speed!


Bad things about the Harley Davidson Electra Glide:

The breaks were shockingly bad! Like really really shit! I think they were made of tin, or possibly something a bit heavier?

The gearbox was out of a tractor. Getting it into neutral was sometimes just to difficult so I would remain at the lights with the clutch in and the engine vibrating like some awful American motorbike!

At anything over 70 mph it drank fuel pretty quickly!

It does do 100mph (I checked) but you wouldn't want to do it for any length of time as it was a little scary!

Be sure to wear a flower in your hair :D

San Francisco is a wonderous place! I arrived at practically midnight, got my bags and went outside to hail my first ever yellow cab! (Very exciting stuff you know!) I didn't sleep much that night and in the morning was up early to go and explore! I found a great big health food shop nearby and they made me a humus, avocado and alfalfa sandwich with tofu! Utter yum! Then I went back to the hostel to wake some friends so we could go and explore! Most of the day was spent around the Haight Ashbury district, and we had a small picnic in a big park full of people who wanted to sell us mushrooms and bubble hash (what evr that is?)

The next night I found a goth bar four blocks from where I was staying so I decided to go it alone....Although when I got there I asked the dude on the door if I was in the right place....He said:

'No, this is a transvestite stripper night'

'Hummmm, well the poster said there was a goth night here?'

'Oh yeah, I'm not sure where that is, somewhere round the corner maybe....We have strippers on at 11 & 12...'

'OK, well thanks..........'

And I walked off....Not quite what I had in mind if I'm honest...So I went looking for another bar......I found one, it had many motorbikes outside.....No girls inside though...Hmmmmm. And outside a poster with a half naked guy on it and a phone number.....I think I can safely say that I found the gay district o_O So off I went a few more blocks up and eventually did find a bar that seemed to be more to my liking. The barmaid was so drunk, but chatty and very funny! After my first drink she asked me what I did back home (sometimes its easier to said barman then blood bike controller) so I said barman. She replied with, oh in that case would you serve that guy over there as I can't see anymore! So I served this guy and charged him some money and used the till, it was all very funny indeed!

The rest of San Francisco was just as much fun! I went to the horse races on dollar day with Rachel (a girl I had met at the animal park in Bolivia) and Rana (a girl I had met in the hostel in SF) and I also went to have a glorious picnic with Rana, Megan & her friends.

The next stage is a 987 mile Harley Ride up the west coast to Seattle :)

Leaving Parque Machia

My last few days at the park were spent training two new Israeli guys, Tomer & Idor to walk safely with Sonko. It now seems an age away that Helen & I were here in the rainy season before Sonko moved cage, and when he was having issues in going home at the end of his day (sometimes leaving us out in the jungle till 9pm in the darkness and the rain) For a quick second I wish I was walking Sonko when he was only a happy cat, but then I realise that you've got to take the rough with the smooth in order to fully appreciate life. Those days were amongst the hardest I have ever had to conquer, but I stuck with it and that made my relationship with Sonko even more special.

Leaving the park was much more painful then I envisaged, quite literally! On my last work day I woke with a pain in my sternum which by the time I had eaten breakfast was getting to a stage where it was difficult to breath deeply. All the same I climbed up the mountain path to Sonko's cage tensing my muscles on the way up as it seemed to help with the pain. As I arrived Tomer & Idor were standing by Sonko's cage and he wouldn't come out (he has never done this to me before, he always wants to come out of his cage) But when he saw me he came out. Looks like he was waiting for me to arrive! Aw so sweet! Once I was there I realised that I wouldn't be able to walk Sonko for the first walk because of the pain so sent Tomer & Idor by themselves (it had been four days of training and about time they did this alone) They lasted about 20 seconds when Idor fell and wacked his knee and Sonko jumped Tomer, they called for me and I jumped out of the hammock and was there in moments. I ran to help Tomer who was behind a tree. Sonko took one look at me and meowed! He was a little excited seeing Tomer all by himself and jumped him, but now with someone else (me) there too he quickly calmed down. Idor turned up behind us a few moments later in a bit of pain (welcome to the jungle boy!) So I walked with them both up to Candy Cane junction and down to the first creak where Sonko is usually much more relaxed. They carried on and I took a shortcut back to the cage (the rest of loop 1) where sat in the hammock waiting for the guys to return.

They returned at around 2pm but the pain by this point had gotten worse so I had to lay the last walk out as well. I am truely sad for this :( By the time they returned I was having trouble breathing and was in a lot of pain. The Ocelot walker Alize always passes nearby on her way out of the jungle at the same time as we finish up for the day so I called for her to wait for me as I genuinely needed help (I actually didn't know how I would get out) Every step hurt like hell! Alize took my rucksack and followed close by on what is usually a 10 minute run across a hill and down what we call 'The Mountain' then down 'Frenchmans Hill' till we reach the bird enclosure. This took around 30 minutes and took every ounce of strength in my body & soul. By the time I got to the vets I was ready to pass out. Nelly was the first person I encountered (she works with the vets) she took one look at me and went to get help. The vets took one look at me and went to get a car to take me to the hospital. Frank (the volunteer coordinator) and Luis (one of the vets) came with me.

At the hospital we had to pay them before they would look at me, and then they took some blood to check for any infections. After they gave me a lovely sedative and asked me for a stool sample to check for parasites. After around 4 hours in the hospital they returned with an answer that I had parasites and gave me a prescription for some tablets. Luis through it away and gave me some proper tablets form his surgery. I was still in a lot of pain but had calmed down a lot. the following day the pain had not really let up so I decided to leave early to Santa Cruz where they have proper hospitals. I left that morning and arrived at a hospital in Santa Cruz around six hours later where after I paid them some money they gave me a similar prescription but intravenously and I started to feel better.

I spent two days in a wonderful Santa Cruz hostel surrounded by great people, hammocks, toucans and better food. Then I was to embark on two six hour flights to get to San Francisco. It wasn't terrible but I wasn't able to eat anything on either flight, however the flight attendants were very nice and caring. I arrived in San Francisco just before midnight, quite excited, a little thinner with no appetite.

Please stay tuned, the next part of this story will be typed up tomorrow :D