trip

"Let's go for a ride..."

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We were bored. That was it, basically. And restless. It was September of 1973. We had graduated the previous June from high school, and now were at loose ends, wondering what to do with the rest of our lives. And we wanted to get away from the loving yet ever-present supervision of our parents. In that atmosphere then, myself and Joel, my best friend for

the past 3 years, began putting together a plan for a motorcycle trip. Not just a small trip. A big trip. A Los Angeles to New York kind of trip. I had relatives in San Francisco and New York, and Joel had family in Chicago. Those coordinates marked the beginning of our plan.

First, we had to prep the bikes for the trip. I had a Yamaha RD350, a fast, but not particularly comfortable, street bike that would need a few changes. Joel had a Honda 350-4, a miniature version of the classic Honda 750, smooth, quiet, and perfectly suited for our plans. I added a larger countershaft sprocket, carrier rack, highway pegs, and pull back handle bars. Immediate 100% improvement on the highway. 4000 rpm gave about 75 mph in 5th gear, just right for cruising, with a quick downshift putting you right in the power band for hills and passing. Joel added a carrier rack to the Honda. That was it. It didn't need anything else.

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We left Los Angeles on September 29th, a Monday. We had taken a lot of trips into the city before, but this was different. We were heading for US1 North, the Pacific Coast Highway, that would take us through some of the most beautiful scenery the country has to offer. The names are legendary, and for good reason. Monterey, Big Sur, Carmel by the Sea. It took us two days to reach San Francisco. There wasn't any hurry, and the beauty of the California coast had us stopping for long lunches and breaks at the scenic overlooks along the way. The bikes were running well, with the Honda getting almost twice the mileage of my fuel gulping Yamaha street racer.
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San Francisco was a kick. We spent a full day there, driving down the switch backs of Russian Hill, checking out the shops at Fisherman's Wharf, and wandering around Haight-Ashbury, just because we had heard so much about this area of street musicians,
performers, and nightclubs. After a day though, it was time to be back on the road again.We continued north, through Eureka, Arcata and into Oregon.The road was further inland now, and as we headed through Oregon and Washington, we would travel for hours and see nothing but forest on each side of the highway, kind of like driving through a tunnel, and waiting to come out on the other side.The other side for us was Interstate 90 East, through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.

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Our travel plans were pretty basic. Sleeping bags on nice nights, pitched on the grass of the interstate rest stops. Get a hotel every few days, or if it was raining. Get started early and get a few hundred miles in before lunch. Avoid getting run over by the tractor-trailers.

Two weeks after starting, we were in the Chicago suburbs, being greeted like long-lost adventurers, and fed like we hadn't eaten in weeks. This type of treatment led us to spend three days there, and it was hard to leave these nice relatives behind. Some very nice cousins, and friends of cousins, had taken the time to show us all the things the area had to offer, and that made it even harder to leave. It was great to have someone to actually talk to, riding kind of cuts off communications except for shouting and hand gestures.
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The movie Easy Rider makes a statement about a counter culture lifestyle, biker meets rednecks, etc. If you have done any cycling, you will also know that the movie speaks to the sense of freedom you can experience while traveling down an open road on a motorcycle. Our trip wasn't modeled after Easy Rider, I didn't even remember seeing the movie. When I see it now though, I think about this great adventure we had, at age 18, and how lucky we were to enjoy this feeling of freedom and adventure at this time in our lives. I would like to do it again sometime, soon.
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Trip Picture Album Return
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