Monthlong Motorcycle Adventure Part 1: Where and Why
Several weeks ago, I finished an adventure I’ll always remember. It was me, my motorcycle, and 1 month on the road to California. The above image is the exact route I traveled. First, some stats…
- Miles traveled: 5,600
- Vehicle: 2007 Yamaha R6 motorcycle
- Gas fillups: 42
- Number of different places I slept: 11
- Timeline: March 11 – April 11 (exactly 1 month)
It all started with a movie. Back in February I began getting the itch for a little adventure. One night I put in one of my favorites, Into The Wild. I’ll let my good friend IMDB give you a quick synopsis of what its about.
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
I should add the movie is a true story. Now, I had no intention of hitchhiking or giving up all my possessions. However, it did inspire me to start looking into riding my motorcycle from Dallas to California for a couple of weeks. The idea started as a two week trip to San Francisco and blossomed into 4 weeks with main stops in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento.
The trip was to serve three main purposes:
- I wanted to stay in San Francisco long enough to get a feel for what it would be like to eventually move my company there. I wanted to meet some other founders and get plugged into the startup scene.
- I wanted to clear my head and hear some varying opinions from successful people about their thoughts on entrepreneurs dropping out of college to pursue their business. One person I got to discuss this over coffee with was the founder of Priceline.com. Unforgettable. More on that in a future post.
- I just wanted a good old fashioned open-ended adventure, just me and my bike. I had already taken the semester off and I wanted to use the time to the fullest. Have fun and meet amazing people, that was it.
The plan was to leave Friday March 11th and ride to Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, back to San Francisco, and then head back home to Dallas. I would use a mixture of friends couches, Airbnb, and hotels for places to stay. The length of time spent at each location would be mostly up to me.
Why these locations
The original plan was to just ride to San Francisco and stay and ride around there for a week. The extra week would come from travel time going and coming from my home in Dallas. After hearing about the trip, my friend Jillian offered to let me crash on her couch at LMU in Los Angeles for a week. Extra stop, numero uno.
I had become friends with Lance Walley, the CEO of Chargify through our common interest in startups and motorcycles (he rides as well) so he suggested I come hang with him for a day in Sacramento when I would be in San Francisco.
I then realized that the time I planned to leave fell right around Austin’s SXSW. I had planned to attend the last 2 years but for various reasons couldn’t make it. I didn’t want to miss it a third year so I planned to hit Austin first, and then leave from there.
When my dad heard about my plans for the trip, he wanted to join. We hadn’t taken a long moto trip together yet, so I agreed. Unfortunately in order for him to be able to go, I would have to do Austin first, then come home for a few days, and then leave with him. He could only take a week off so we planned to ride the first 5 days together and then he would head back to Dallas. I would then go on to LMU, San Francisco, and Sacramento on my own.
About 3 weeks before I would leave, I began prepping my bike and buying a little bit of gear. Since I would be traveling on a bike specifically designed for racing and not comfort, I needed to make some adjustments. I bought some moto luggage for my clothes, a ‘no drag’ Ogio backpack for my computer stuff, and a large tank bag for miscellaneous items like a rain suite. On the afternoon of March 11th, bags were packed and I left for SXSW.
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The ride to L.A., randomly meeting Matt Leblanc (Joey from Friends), LMU Shenanigans, first advice on dropping out, and more in part 2 soon.