Prologue

In November of 2007 I got a memo at work that the college was accepting applications from faculty (I’m a college professor and teach Biology/Environmental Science) who might be interested in taking a sabbatical. I tossed it aside, not really having any great ideas at the time and moved onto more pressing tasks; one was preparing for a scientific conference I was attending in late November. While at those meetings I got to chatting with colleagues from CA (they work at the USGS in Menlo Park, CA – which is where I did my post-doc research) about some new research they were conducting and I was eager to lean the technique. It then occurred to me that going to CA to learn this new research technique might be a worthy pursuit for the aforementioned sabbatical application. That was that! I left the meetings and applied for the sabbatical. I do not know when it was, really, but at one point…

…AN IDEA WAS HATCHED!

If the sabbatical was indeed supported, perhaps I could RIDE my 2001 F650GS cross country (from NJ to CA)!

This idea stewed for a few months while awaiting word on the approval of my application. Late in the Spring of 2008 I got word that, indeed my application was approved!

THE BALL WAS IN PLAY!

Plans for this trip slowly started to evolve (often times spinning out of control and then to a complete standstill; taking on various shapes, sizes and forms) until they reached a happy medium between various home, work and life obligations/responsibilities.

When all the dust settled, the trip would involve shipping my bike to Albuquerque, NM (where one of my sisters lives; I would fly there) and riding it from NM to CA (and back to NM). This would give me ~12 days of riding, separated by ~3 weeks in CA learning this new research technique (which was the purposed of the trip to begin with!).

The original purpose of this blog (which I am embossed to actually use – I had teased a friend once about his own “blog”; “…Oh how important you must be that the world wants to read about every time you take a [blank]…”, sorry Rob, I owe you a beer!) was to update my family and friends on my progress, however its main function was to stay connected with my immediate family (wife, daughter and son) while I’m away for this rather lengthy period of time (~40 days in total).

[NOTE: this blog was posted in REAL TIME during the trip (between May and June of 2009) and I have now (Sept. 2009) removed personal info, pics, etc, that are not related to "riding." That is why the tense and prose, at times, might seem a bit "off."]

"The following takes place between May and June, 2009. Events occur in real time….."

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