Insane or Epic?

This is one of those once in a life time trips. Either you grab life by the balls and do it, or stay home and STFU. The trip has been in the making since the summer of 2007, created by the fearless leader Nick Hill. The goal is plain and simple, ride from the Mexican border to the Canadian border, 1410 miles in 24 hours. That’s pretty much it. I have done my share of long trips but this one takes the cake. I am just picturing it already, the fatigue, the stress, and the irritation of skin from the constant rubbing of flesh against my clothes. This is what I live for... these moments of pure adventure. Not knowing what is going to happen is what keeps me exited and anxious about a trip.

A total of seven insane and dedicated riders have signed up for this trip. Jim Beemer from Orange County is a very good friend of mine. Nick Hill is an insane raunchy stunt rider from past rides and personal friend. He has single handily orchestrated some of the greatest fail trip I have been on, to name a few, Grand Canyon, 6 States, and Tempe Arizona. Then we have our two professional stunters, Ernie Vigil and Nick Apex. I have never seen perfect motorcycle throttle control. When I saw these guys doing wheelies on ice in the middle of the Grand Canyon roads, I stood with a full open hanging jaw. I haven’t met the other two guys before, but this will be there first long trip, so I really hope they can hang.



June 14, 2011

Today the plans on what is going to happen were discussed over homemade burgers cooked by Jim. The meet up spot will be at the US.-Mexico border at 4am Friday morning on the 24th.

Going up to Canada, it will be everyman for himself. If you break down make sure you have spare cash and some tools.
 
Going clockwise, starting from Jim (red shirt), Arizona Monster, Kyle(He is not going, just wanted free food), me (taking picture), Nick Hill, and Sean. Missing is Ernie and Nick Apex. Ernie lives in New Mexico, and Nick Apex lives in Las Vegas. They will meet us in Mexico Friday morning.

 



June 15, 2011

The following morning I woke up extra early and went to the Guatemalan consulate by 8:00am to renew my passport. I thought it was going to be a nightmare but it wasn’t; I was in and out by 9:30. I have a feeling I will be receiving passport on the day I leave or the day before. I don’t want to take any risks when I enter the Canadian border because they might not let me back in. I’m not so much worried about coming back in from Mexico. I jumped the border once back in 1988, I can it again, only problem is, how the hell will I get my motorcycle back?

 

June 17, 2011

That was fast; I received my passport in two days. I have all my legal documents in order. I asked my friends if anyone had a rain suit I may borrow for a week, and of course someone did. I will be picking it up from a new British friend in Pasadena later this afternoon. Ugh, the rush hour traffic. Anyway, later tonight I will be tearing the entire motorcycle apart and rebuilding it. I will be giving her an oil change and cleaning the air filter and tightening all the nuts and bolts.





June 23, 2011

Today is when all the emotions begin to flow through my body: fear, excitement, anxiety, and the feeling that something unfortunate would happen. When the final hour approached to depart, I loaded up my Ninja said a little prayer and said goodbye to my loved ones.
Earlier that day, I received word Jim was not going to be able to attend the trip, due to a very serious life threatening bacterial infection that occurred in his right arm. He was out, and I was bummed but show must GO on!




Two hours later I arrived at the Holiday Inn, a couple miles east of San Diego where Nick Hill and Sean Russell where getting there much needed rest. Nick and Sean arrived at the hotel much earlier than I because I had to finish my work day. While they were swimming and relaxing at the pool Thursday afternoon, I was dealing with customer phone calls.


June 24, 2011 D-DAY

12:00 am
I get a phone call from Jim, “Hey Son, I am really sorry I let you down on the trip, I know I can’t go to Canada but my motorcycle can. I want you to take her to Canada. Would you like to use my motorcycle?” (Of course that is a no brainer answer). “Hell yes, I would be honored.” Jim drove 90 miles from the OC to deliver the motorcycle. When I received the text an hour and a half later that he was outside our hotel with the BMW I was going to ride, I was excited as hell. I walked outside to see this beauty.
 

In all her glory, a 2007 BMW R1200RT fully loaded: GPS, Radar Detector, heated grips and heated seat. This is the motorcycle that most inner city police departments’ uses on the force. So watch out…

5:00am

Now we are really late, we were supposed to be in Mexico by 4am, but a little snag-fu with Nick Apex and Ernie taking a wrong turn, prevented us from leaving on time. Nick Apex and Ernie rode from Riverside to meet us at the hotel by the border. They arrived at 4:45am and they quickly loaded up and we left to start the mission.

The Motorcycles:

Nick Apex

Triumph Tiger

Ernie Vigil

Triumph Scrambler

 

Nick Hill

Suzuki Gsx-r750

Sean

Kawasaki Ninja 1000

Ansoly (me)

BMW R1200RT

5:15am

We are now in Mexico! Since we are behind schedule, we quickly go and cross into Mexico, take a couple of pictures as we wait in rush hour border traffic to cross back into USA. While sitting in traffic, I see some funny advertising signs.






 

5:30am
We are finally out of Mexico and time has officially started. All I really cared about was making it to Canada by 5:30am Saturday morning. So the actual stop time for the 9 gas stops we made I can’t remember. The only thing I can remember is the white painted lines on road.

If I can remember anything from when I took the pictures, I will share. Other than that, everything is a blur.

The switch in the middle of the photo, is for the missile launchers!

This is Mount Shasta. We are now in the northern part of California along the Oregon border. This is where the scenery becomes beautiful. The trees are tall, green and thick, and you can smell the freshness in the air.

No driver?

June 25, 2011

After a very long haul and about 1100 miles into the trip, time began to take toll on us, fatigue and stress were the leading factors of our soon oncoming demise. Ernie was the most affected. On top of this trip, he drove his Van from Albuquerque New Mexico and picked up Nick Apex in Las Vegas Nevada to meet us at the border earlier that day. He lacked about 10 more hours of sleep than the rest of us.
Ernie picked a very nice spot in between two gas pumps to lie down and “die”. I could see it in his face; he was done. Stick a fork in him. We only had 90 miles left to the border and it would be a shame to quit now.

Our bodies had endured the elements in the past 22 hours. They were so weak and desperately seeking sleep that 45 degree Fahrenheit weather felt like 20 degree weather. Nick Hills body was so beaten that he believed there was ice on the road. If you took basic science you would know that water will not freeze until temperatures reach 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The Beemer had a temperature gauge : ) .This was truly the challenge; the last 90 miles….



My hand began to form blisters!

 

 
Thank you Malcome for the rain gear. +1 for you sir


A bugs life!

Leaving our final gas stop for the night, every time I looked to see how many miles we had covered in the last 90 mile stretch, it felt like nothing had changed since the last time I looked. Have you ever looked at the clock and felt like time doesn’t move as fast when you watch it? Well it felt like that times 100, some what like 1 tick forward and 3 ticks back. It was PAIN. But then, all of sudden I see that magical sign that I have so desperately been looking for the past 23 hours.



Canadian Border



We made it boys in 23hr 19 minutes



As quickly as we came into Canada, we left to find the nearest motel.

We check into a hotel and as soon as I unload everything inside. I found a nice spot on the floor and instantly went numb and straight to sleep.

Six hours later we have our first official meal, PIZZA!

Leaving the little town before the Candian border, we set course to spend the oncoming night in Portalnd Oregon where we met up with ICON employees. Ernie and Nick Apex are sponsored by ICON and it was only fair that we visit them.

We got to Portland around 10pm, left the motorcycles inside ICON’s garage and walked a couple blocks up to have an amazing dinner and beer. All it took was one beer to get me drunk, I was so dehydrated and weak that my body’s regular resistance to alcohol was not present that night. TWO BEERS please. ICON was so generous they picked up the tab.








June 26th 2011

We woke up at about noon, and headed to Acropolis for an awesome steak dinner. What more can you ask for other than a nice set of awesome boobswhile you eat a steak dinner for $7.99?






3:00pm
Well it was decided that we were going to bust an all nighter and ride home, STRAIGHT SHOT from Portland Oregon to Los Angeles; that’s about 968 miles of riding on top of the 1806 miles we did the last day and a half. We were in for another brutal day.


Again… I have yet lost track of time when we stop, everything becomes a blur and my memory only decides to retain eventful moments. One of those moments is when we stopped at a gas station right before Weeds California (I think), I snagged a very vivid photo of the bike as I lay my back against the concrete wall of a mobile station, tired and exhausted.




Its play time now! Sean Russell is an associate editor to the a very popular motorcycle magazine, “Super Street Bike”, and he is going to take a couple of pictures of our two professional stunt riders, Ernie, and Nick Apex having fun on their motorcycles. We found a nice empty strip of forgotten road next to a cow field and they let all mayhem loose. It was pretty cool watching Ernie and Nick wheelie those Triumphs, especially the burnouts.





Nick did such a bad ass stopie (front tire stays on the floor as the rear tire lifts up in the air). Some of the locals came out to see what was going on in their quite town, they soon began to cheer and ask for autographs.












June 27th , 2011

Not much happened coming back home, it was as boring as spending a Saturday night with your grandma. Around 3:00am to 6:00am, my mind started to lose it. I rode about 100 miles standing up because I was falling asleep. I lost the group for a bit because they were speeding/racing down the curvy parts of the I5 at more than 90 mph plus. I just didn’t want to crash so I took it cautiously going speed limit.

The sun finally rose on us in Sacramento. It was a Monday morning so early morning rush hour in the city was a big burden to deal with especially with the lack of focus we have from no sleep.

We kept on trucking….

Finally, 100 miles left to reach Los Angeles. We pulled into a gas station that we made our home for a couple of hours. We fueled up, ate Mc Donald’s and gathered all our last bits of strength to put that iron horse between our legs an make it to our sweet homes. This was the last time I was going to see my old and new buddies for a while. They became, somewhat family. After spending five days with these guys you begin to feel a sense of brotherhood. We said our goodbyes as men ( we cried like little girls).

 

 

 

I’m finally home at 1pm. I took a shower, checked in on FB, and passed out for the next 18 hours.


Overall, this was once in a life trip. I can finally say I accomplished something extraordinary that no simple Joe-Smoe can do.

This trip summed up,

"Once in a life time trip; never again!

Bring on Coast to Coast! (San Diego to New York in 72hrs)". - Ansoly


Special thanks to:

Jim
Nick H.
Ernie
Nick B.
Sean
Anna
Lucy
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