I entered New York State on Friday, April 17.
Arrived in Toronto the next day.
North American route is over. Along with it, some other things also came to an end. I now know that I'm leaving this continent and riding back home is not a plausible option anymore. The luxuries and conveniences of being in this side of the world are going to fade away slowly. One specific characteristic of this journey is that it began from Los Angeles, a city that symbolizes the ultimate edge of western civilization. As I move forward, this system of values and everything that comes with ...Read More
Tomorrow will probably be the last day of riding in the US. I'm now in a hotel near Cleveland, a city on the shores of Lake Erie. I'll take HW 90 all the way up to the Niagara Falls, where I'll be crossing into Canadian soil.
After leaving Madison and Savaş behind, I headed towards Chicago. I was coming close to a crossroads where a few phone calls were waiting for me. Ada's birthday, mom and dad, then finally an old friend who lives in Indiana. Fırat and I have known each other since we were little boys and somehow grew ...Read More
We stopped at a cafe in York, Nebraska. Savaş realized that my skidplate was touching the exhaust pipe so I took out some tools. It was nothing major, but when you do any kind of repair in a cafe's parking lot, you are bound to get some attention, even in a place like York. That's how we met Mr Hartfield, a tall swimming instructor planning to do a trans-american bicycle tour... He must have felt some connection to what we were doing because he took out ten dollars and called it our 'coffee-money'. Normally we would kindly refuse it, but ...Read More
It's midnight. I'm inside my tent. I don't know the name of this place but we are camping next to a lake. There is some cellular reception so I wanted to say hi and post a picture of myself in my sleeping bag.
It seems that the geese are also resting somewhere around this lake. I can occasionally hear their voices. We've been seeing them since Nebraska. They are migrating north, facing the same strong winds we do on our bikes.
Thank you all for your encouraging and nice comments. I am doing most of this trip solo, but it feels great ...Read More
The day started with quite a scene. Bintuğ took off for Los Angeles in the morning. No actual tear drops were shed, but we got as emotional as two biker dudes could get. Wind and cold made our eyes a bit wet but all was fine. Knowing that we would not be seeing each other until fall, we hugged, and of course tapped each other on the shoulders for what appeared to me as 48 times... This is a good indication of the inability of Turkish males to communicate emotions. It gets the message through without making a big scene.
[gallery ...Read More
I'm looking for a word... It's not exactly 'geography'. It's more like the movement of it. Not just the tectonic movements over a given time, but also the movements on the surface of it. Water, wind, roads... I feel like the roads we're riding on are prerecorded movements mimicking those of the land. Highway 70 goes through the Rocky mountains following Colorado river. For about 4 hours, we rode along the river following every curve of it. This must be a motorcycling dream.
Today was our last night with Bintuğ. Tomorrow morning, he'll be returning to Los Angeles. His companion made ...Read More
I'm beginning to get mileage anxiety. I will need to be in Toronto in 10 days due to shipping arrangements. The weather is not at its best. Surely, we are not in California anymore... The more we approach the northern inland states, the colder it's getting... I can't imagine what it will be like in Chicago or Toronto.
Today, I did some of the best riding I've ever done so far. Wrapped in our warmest layers of clothing, we crossed the indian reservation between Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. There are strong winds all around the place. On a bike, ...Read More