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 it, will slowly degrade to the point of becoming unrecognizable, meaningless. This is neither something to look forward to, nor to complain about. It's just something to go through and be aware of.
Two weeks into the trip and I'm already losing some conveniences that were a part of my life ...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 up to be very similar people. That rarely happens with childhood friends. Normally, when you look at the face of an old friend, you see the how they'd been 20 years ago. There usually isn't much to share other than old memories. That's not the case with him.
I had to ...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 I immediately accepted his offer even though we just had our 'grande latte's before he came to the scene... I think I know why I did that. There is a part of me that wants to accept and be accepted by strangers. No matter what the situation is, my first ...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 to be able to share.
Good night.
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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.
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At that point we were quite sure that we made it to the other side of the Rockies. We couldn't be more mistaken. It took more than a few more hours to get to the summit. Road conditions were OK, but everywhere was covered in snow. It'd been ...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 this transition much easier for me. We had great time together.
Surprisingly, I'm having a hard time catching up with the documentation of the trip. I think all of these habits will settle in a week or so... Here are some recent photographs:
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And here is a short video ...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, you need to arrange your lean angle correctly. At one point, I found myself trying to read the geography ahead to judge the direction and strength of the wind i was about to face. It felt very 'real'.
[gallery type="slideshow" link="file" ids="1266,1265,1264,1263,1262,1261,1260,1259,1258,1257,1256,1255,1254,1253,1252"] Read More