Blog
Blog
Epic Road Trip 2017 (Day 3)
I took a quick hike before hitting the All American Road and heading for Salt Lake City. Highway 12 is one of my favorite stretches of payment ever and if you ever get a chance to ride it, you need to take it! Before breaking camp, I made a quick trip to the Rim Trail to catch some of the hoodoos…
Blog
Epic Road Trip 2017 (Day 2)
After an unexpected delay, I spent the second day traveling from the North Rim to Bryce Canyon National Park. It's a short drive (slightly over 100 miles), which gave me time to hike among the hoodoos. Day 2 The second day of the trip was a bit more eventful thanks to my phone deciding to brick…
Blog
Epic Road Trip 2017 (Day 1)
Well, I survived the first three days of Epic Road Trip 2017. My phone, however, did not. More on that later. So far, I’ve visited the North Rim and Bryce Canyon National Park for the first time and enjoyed an awesome stretch of highway called the “All-American Road” - that’s Highway 12 in Utah…
Blog
Epic Road Trip 2017 (Day 0)
I thought I’d give a little more detail on this trip ahead of time - before I start the actual trip and posting all the awesome pictures from the adventure. At the time of writing, it’s T-minus 6 days until I leave. At this point, I don’t really remember where I originally saw the idea, but as soon…
Travel
Devil's Highway Shakedown
At the end of June, I took my shakedown ride to make sure everything was in place. Back in April, I had the first real test ride with this configuration and found a few things lacking. This time, I was prepared. I set out from Phoenix toward Safford so I could tackle the Devil's Highway a second…
Travel
Epic Road Trip 2017 (Prelude)
It's that time of year again, when the temperatures in Phoenix soar and the highways out of the Valley and leading to higher elevations (and cooler temperatures) slow to a crawl (especially I-17, but that's less of an issue for me since I don't touch the Interstate system with my moto tires if I…
Travel
Have Fury, Want Saddlebags?
I did it! After a lot of trial and error, I found a set of luggage that works with my 2013 Honda Fury. The sissy bar and bags held up for the Seattle trip, but I didn't like them for long-term. After a lot of hunting, I discovered Saddlemen. I've got a great Saddlemen Sport Tunnel Bag that fits…
Travel
Fall Colors in Arizona - 2015 Edition
Every year I've lived in Arizona, I've made time to head up to Flagstaff to see the leaves change. There's some great deals to be had at the ski lodge between seasons and the gold looks pretty amazing mixed in with the evergreens on Humphreys Peak. This year, I picked a different part of the…
Travel
How to Road Trip with a Honda Fury (Part 2)
I thought I would update my set up for the Honda Fury and I love it when my hobbies intersect. After getting some great information from a guy I met while I was checking out Avenue of the Giants in Northern California. He rode a Honda Fury, as well and was outfitted with saddle bags and a tall…
Gaming
It's the Journey
In the past, I've always stuck to a storyline and minimized the time to travel between two places because I thought the players would find it boring. After riding my motorcycle for 3,500(ish) miles, I gained a new appreciation for travel and just what it can mean in an RPG context. I think these…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 19)
Well, I made it. The final day of my travels. This was the longest of all the days of riding (possilbly equal to my jaunt over to Vegas in terms of mileage), but it was going to be hot and I didn't want to go over 20 miles out of my way to stay in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. I was ready to be home. …
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 18)
Today was my last day on the coast before I made my way inland. I traveled 283 miles from San Simeon to Palmdale, California, with a little backtracking to check out the Elephant Seals I had passed up the day before. It was worth the extra miles. The seals were surrounded by a massive crowd of…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 17)
Today I traveled through San Francisco and down Highway 1 for 240 miles to San Simeon. I started the day early so I could avoid San Francisco traffic and was able to get some great early morning shots of the Golden Gate Bridge before crossing and having a light breakfast and coffee in Montara. I…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 16)
Today was one of my longer days of riding. I started the morning in Eureka, California and wound down the Pacific Coast Highway (with a slight detour onto the Avenue of Giants) 246 miles to Novato, California - a north Bay area town slightly further than my original planned stop in Petaluma. I…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 15)
The next leg of this trek winds 216 miles down Highway 101 to Eureka, California. Checking the route, it looks fairly tame except for a couple twisty spots. What I wasn't expecting was the pea-soup thick fog of southern Oregon. The day started with a stop at The Kozy Kitchen, a local diner, to…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 14)
Luck was with me and the wildfires in northern California didn't force me to reroute. Today, I traveled 231 miles from Astoria to Coos Bay, Oregon along Highway 101. From here, I start the long ride down the coast from Astoria to Santa Barbara, picking up Highway 1 after I cross the Golden Gate…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 13)
Today I started the return trip south, making my way over to the Pacific Coast Highway starting point in Astoria, OR, about 170 south and west of my hotel in Seattle. It was an easy trip and I finally had to break out the rain gear I'd been sure to buy. Rather than try to navigate the jungle…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 7-12)
I spent the next several days checking out Seattle - everything from the Waterfront to Bainbridge Island and even a ghost tour. I located some great breakfast places and over the weekend I recuperate, sampling some Seattle brews from Airways Brewing Company. Friday brought me back to a little…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 6)
I started the day off with breakfast at the hotel in The Dalles. I walked out of my room and across the courtyard to the restaurant and had to stop for this shot. I wish I'd had my good camera, but I didn't realize what I was about to run into. With fuel in my body, I got fuel in the bike and…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 5)
Day five took me across the entire state of Oregon, starting in Klamath Falls and ending up in The Dalles, with a slight detour around Crater Lake. I must have traveled through nearly every environment imaginable, but the the roads were cake compared to the last several days. Once I had…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 4)
Day four took me from Lake Tahoe, CA to Klamath Falls Oregon, a total of almost 300 miles. It was a whole lot easier than the previous three days, but the scenery was no less spectacular. It was interesting to watch the mountains change from the solid, steep granite mountains of the Sierra Nevadas…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 3)
Day three had me completing the first crossing of the Sierra Nevadas, then looping back across the same mountain range for a second time through the Sonora Pass. Tioga was relatively consistent in how steep and windy it was (which was both), but Sonora was a much more gentle climb which finished…
Blog
Epic Road Trip (Day 1-2)
After getting my first motorcycle, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I decided to road trip more. I started with some day rides on the weekends and it's culminated in what I have come to refer to as “Epic Road Trip 2015”. Probably not as epic as it could be, but its 99% back-roads, 1%…
Travel
How to Road Trip with a Honda Fury
I had my first test ride at the end of June when I tackled the Devil's Highway in Arizona's White Mountains. Two days, 550 miles, and elevation ranging from 700 feet to nearly 11,000 feet. The fact that it rained on the Devil's Highway aside, it was a great ride and good first test. To start,…
Web Dev
Continuous Deployment with Ansible & Codeship
If you are a developer and you like to automate the boring stuff as much as possible, these are two tools I highly recommend. I recently stumbled across a very strange problem that took some creative Googling to resolve. The problem occurs when I tried running my Ansible playbook (using Ansible…