Turkey Day Runaway – A Non-Traditional Holiday Photo Journal

When life throws you a curveball, leave the stadium.

You probably won't find that on a motivational poster, but sometimes a getaway is all you need.

This time I'm armed with the trio of my VFR1200, my usual orange tent (sans its notoriously leaky rain fly), and a DSLR that still won't autofocus. I ran away for the holiday, so for a few moments you can run away too -- hopefully on company time.

As is now the custom, all captions/descriptions limited to 140 characters or less, Twitter-style, since modern attention spans are oh look, something shiny!

Let's roll.

Most trips start at home. Sometimes they end there too, depending on what substances you’ve been abusing.

This one started very early.




Everyone loves PCH. The 7th gen VFR…not nearly as universally loved.




And on the 7th day, there was scenery. And Brian said “"behold, it is good.”"

*Frowns at blasphemy meter reading*




This seal is definitely not the kind that killed Osama Bin Laden. It might not even be seal for all I know.




If you live in one of those places where it’s cold and snowy in the winter, you’'re doing it wrong.




Randomly picked Carrizo Plain as a desolate place where I could camp in peace. Correct on both counts.




5 miles of sand and dirt on a 620lb streetbike is Very FaR. See what I did there???




If you'’ve read any of my other RRs, you'’ll be stunned to hear I drank some Fireball and watched the sun set. I’'m a creature of habit.




Sun set, moon risen, tripod erected. That word never makes me snicker –- that would be immature.




Even though the guys are crazy, even though the stars are blind…
If you show me your 7th gen baaby, I’ll show you miiiiiine




Shoutout to Patrice in Finance who makes everyone Wear Purple on Wednesday.




Two captions ago I inadvertently admitted that I know the lyrics to a Paris Hilton song. Hopefully this photo will distract you.




Day 1 Map:




More to come.

Excited i got in on this report so early.

N!
Free T-shirts?

With a marmot on it?

And .... in!

As a fan of this small fury mountain animals - please, find a way to add them to this report -thank you

Kind regards from Kabul

In like Flynn

Got up at the crack of fuck the next day. It was cold. How fun.




I hated this road so much yesterday I decided to try it again in the dark. Genius.




Walked out onto frosty Soda Lake for sunrise. It was 26 degrees. Did I mention it was cold?




Thumbs up if you're freezing to death!




There are no marmots here. This is unacceptable.




Why did I wake up so early again? Oh yeah, there it is.




All joking aside, Carrizo Plain National Monument is cool and empty. Go there.




Time to go. And by go I mean plug in my heated suit.




I'm addicted to McDonald's breakfast. Cardiologists everywhere are licking their chops.




Pounded pavement and spent the rest of the day shredding Mulholland with a million speeding sportbikes. And this "Lotus."




Then to CoCo Ichibanya for Thanksgiving dinner. Later I'll have fun shitting up my buddy's bathroom.




Went to bar in LA. 'Hawks pummeled Niners in SF. We got drunk. Wowzers.

Day 2:



Still plenty more to come.

Nice trip and great pics!

My buddy Kyle lives here. The lowercase i threw me off so I let the bike idle for about an hour before doing a huge burnout.




Then it was up the Angeles Crest Hwy, which, inexplicably I’d never ridden before. It was nice. Like “"Katy Perry'’s tatas are nice"” nice.




Having tea and looking down on LA. Come to think of it, I’'ve always looked down on LA.




Mount Wilson. I think I had an ex-girlfriend who did that.




And, speaking of exes, this is a series my former spouse wrote. I’'m too cheap to buy a new mug, and too nice to terrorize her Amazon page.




There may have been corners. I may have been speeding. I may like tatas.




Random marmot photo because I can!




Mt. San Jacinto for the night. Thanks to my hillbilly neighbors, I got to hear plenty of Skynard and AC/DC. Ahhh, to be one with nature.




Either trying to stay warm or getting ready to kill some hillbillies. Maybe both.




Day 3:




Still more to come.

Down into Palm Desert for Mickey D’s breakfast. Bye-bye footpeg feelers.




Fighting the urge to drop some acid or eat some shrooms. Did laugh at some weirdos filming a music video. Or a porn, I’'m not sure.




This is a cactus. I suggest you don'’t let it catch on the side of your backpack, which will tear open and your 250mm lens will fall out.




I swear to god I rode through JTNP and when I left, I didn'’t know what a Joshua Tree looked like. I still don’'t. Okay Google…...




If they didn’'t have gas in Amboy, I’'d still be out there walking. This motel is, um, no longer in business.




If you add up the max temperatures the last 3 times I rode a motorbike through here prior to this, it equals more than 350 degrees.




Just about cleared this guy out while definitely not going over 100mph. He stayed around to investigate.




If only my re-flash had removed the top speed limiter…...




I went looking for a backcountry campsite. After getting stuck in the sand 3 times, I gave up. Rehab is for quitters!




On a whim I hustled up to Dante’'s View for sunset. There was a view, but I dunno who Dante is.




Proof of view.




Furnace Creek for the night. Could’'ve made do with an actual furnace.




Day 4:

If you wake up at 4am, you'll be tired. With that kind of wisdom, I'm basically Confucius.




Set tripod, grab wireless remote, have tea. Enjoy the silence and the scenery. Still tired.




I would never take Artist's Drive during the day. But at 7am it's quite nice.




This is Artist's Palette. Much better than Artist's Pallet, which is where you load paintings for shipping.




Photography is not art. Still tired.




I'm sure this is caused by like, rocks and minerals and geology and stuff. Yawn.




Artist's Drive is one lane, one way, and all awesome. Don't crash, but do run it twice before anyone else shows up.




Finally warming up, so down the road I go.




Homeward Bound (The Incredible Journey). I think I saw that movie when I was about 9.




Oh damn, I guess we really do have a drought.




And that's what we refer to as "a wrap."




Up I-5. Five hours of lane splitting in the rain. Home at 10pm. Still tired.

Deuces.




No birds, no stuffing
Plus I always hated yams.
My way to give thanks.

Awesome report! I think Im going to adopt your minimalist report style with quality photos over quantity and not much text.

Did this take place over thanksgiving? If so, you must have left furnace creek 1 or 2 days before I showed up.

Yeah man, this was November 26th - November 30th, so I was in Death Valley on the 29th. Only saw 1 other bike as I recall. Nice pics btw.

Yeah, missed you by 2 days. We got there on the 1st and left the 2nd.

Funny, that's the 2 days i was in DV too.

Another great read! Thanks for taking the time and finding a marmot!

Cheers, canuk_guy

I'm here to help.