need input, from everybody! about the US of A

[mattness]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Why?....New Orleans rocks! Just gotta be smart about what you do and where you go, that's all. Northern Ohio has the islands, wineries, Cedar point(roller coasters), and all kinds of cool stuff to do. BTW....How'd you afford a gen 2 on min. wage?

my bank lady is phuckin nuts!

nah, well she is but, i live at home and work full time. go to school on the side. and it helps when you ditch your car. LOL! its my only bill every month. so worth it. i dont wake up with an adrenaline rush anymore cuz i want one so bad, i have it. i sleep better hahahahaa...

people ask me why i dont just get a car to ride to work/etc. its because i dont want to sit on a chair and have the world pass me by. i want to feel, see, smell, hear, everything. i wanna live while im alive and experience everything. and you can bet your ass im gonna jump off at least 1 bridge on this trip just to mark it off my bucket list.

ohio is the absolute most boring place of all time. no offense. that state is the reason i refuse to do interstate on this trip unless necessary. i actually live like 30 or 40 miles from the ohio border so our landscape is a lot like your guys'.

when it comes to money and jobs, all i can find around here is minimum wage bullshit or close to it, so when i get enough money saved up, i quit and go adventuring. its easy to find a minimum wage job Honda tested me, and interviewed me, and im waiting on them to call me back for my physical. if i get it, i get it, if not, then oh well. its my destiny which is the reason i want to get away from here in the first place. i can see my life folding out before it happens. work, sleep, repeat. phuck that. im leaving to break the cycle and make some memories.

am i scared of debt? ya. am i phuckin up? YA! but i wouldnt change a thing. ive had some good times.
i dont want my funeral service to begin as "he was a good worker" or "he watched tv as well as any of us". im 21 years old and im very aware of how precious time is, ive just experienced too many bad things to waste my time watching tv. hell, i dont even own a tv.

money is replaceable. regret is forever.

ive found that it doesnt matter if im making 7.25/hr or 8.75/hr. im broke by next paycheck anyway. if i wasnt spending my money on a vmax id be spending it on something retarded. my other friends my age dont believe me that i make minimum wage until i show them my check stub. i just dont shop and dont buy anything. when i look at my bank statement its 90% gas stops, with the occasional $1.07 burger king or mcdonalds stop haha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksdBSVAM6g

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

No doubt, we are F L A T here! Ya gotta get off the highway to see anything decent! No offense taken about being boring, and I hope I didnt offend you by asking about your financials.....my apologies. Best of luck with your trip, maybe we can hook up along the route!

 

[mattness]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

I would like to suggest coming thru Sedona Arizona Area. You can take a very nice ride through the canyon up 89A to Flagstaff. There are so many great rides up this way. Just bring plenty of water. And You would have a place to stay for a night. Route 66 does come up thru the switchbacks to Sedona I think not sure though. If you need any information feel to PM me. I have only seen 1 other Vmax up here since iI moved here. unk:

ya ill hit you up on that. ill pass through there and head to vegas haha. i dont wanna go through the thick part of texas unless i have to.

"am i still in texas? yep..."
2 days later... "yep, still in texas!"

-06max ya i know you werent being mean. ive never been to northeast ohio but i most likely will pass through on my way up. only time will tell.

 

[ouchez]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Matt,

Michigan, that trip I spoke of is not at all like Indiana, and a lot of VMAXers to meet along the way.

O

 

[mattness]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Matt,

Michigan, that trip I spoke of is not at all like Indiana, and a lot of VMAXers to meet along the way.

O

dammit >.< looks like im getting a passport lol

so as of now this is kind of what im thinking. 1% done with my planning haha. this credit card is gonna be maxed out

gotta see the hollywood sign and see a rock concert. ive never seen a live show before. i know ( im a virgin

 

[Rollie]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Blue Ridge Parkway , Tail of the Dragon , Stone Mountain , Nashville , Savannah , Barber Motorsports Track and Museum . I'm 30 minutes east of Atlanta , you got a place to crash here.

 

[Fire-medic]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Skyline Drive in Northern VA west of D.C. is a must ride. Some of the plantations in Richmond are pretty cool to visit, but I'm betting there are better ones in Savannah.

Buttermilk falls near Ithaca, NY is a cool place to check out and would be on the way from Niagra/Buffalo to NYC. Also, Rockefeller park north of NYC is pretty cool and there's a restaurant right on it - Blue Hill stone farms - that serves food grown/raised in the park (livestock included) which is delicious, but it's expensive. If you're going to be in Manhatten, Earl's diner (on 3rd ave between 34th and 35th) is a cool place to eat and reasonably priced. Also, if you get a chance, try Dinosaur Barbeque in NY, there's one in Rochester, Syracuse and on 125th st. in NYC. They're so good I had them cater my wedding.

If you're into the beach at all, Seaside Heights, NJ and Ocean City, MD are fun places to hang out with good boardwalks.

In Cali, if you go one place, make sure it's Yosemite. San Diego is a cool place that'd be fun to ride around in but I don't know of anything in particular to see there other than the beach. In Los Angeles, make sure you go to the LeBrea tar pits and Peterson Automotive museum (awesome). If you like art at all, the Getty museum is a must see (the big ugly one up in the hills) with Picassos, Rembrandts etc. Santa Barbra is another nice place to just cruise around. Joshua tree park is cool, but I don't know if I'd venture there in the summer, it can get pretty hot.

Since mention was made of Rochester NY, I vote for a meal at Nick Tahou's http://www.garbageplate.com/
and be sure to go to the George Eastman House, he started a company whose products you have used, Kodak. http://www.eastmanhouse.org/
if you like history and photography, this is a great place to see, well-worth the price of admission.

The Hudson and Mohawk River valleys run north-south & east-west respectively, and contain some of the most beautiful countrysides of the east coast of the country. People think of NYC when they say, "noo-yawk," but the state probably has more of its area dedicated as parkland than any other state.

Every schoolchild learns of "Johnny Appleseed," who planted apple trees in the Northeast. Well, the Mohawk River Valley and the Genessee River Valley (Rochester, and one of the few rivers flowing north in the world) are repositories of his plantings. People think "Johnny Appleseed" loved apples, and that is why he planted the trees. The real reason is that in the early 19th Century, as the younng country moved its boundaries further west, there was $ to be made aupporting the western expansion. The largest public works project in the history of the young country was the NY Erie Canal, derisively-referred to as, "Clinton's Ditch," after Governor DeWitt Clinton, who secured federal funding for a man-made waterway roughly along the Mohawk River, where locks were built to make passable the river to boats and barges to move goods from forests and farms of central and western NY to east-coast metro area markets. Areas of rapids were bypassed with canals, and the locks allowed the boats to move along as the elevation changed. Where does "Johnny Appleseed" enter into this? Residents want to have some spirits after a day of hard work on the homestead, and whether it's wine, beer, or alcohol, there has always been a ready market for those who made them. Applejack, an alcoholic drink, was made from fermented apples, and JA used this to advantage, planting groves and making applejack which he sold to the frontier residents. When the boundaries and population moved further west, so did "Johnny," hence, the legend.

The country was still paying-off its debt to European countries like Poland and France, who helped to finance the Revolutionary War, and was in-danger of bankruptcy when DeWitt Clinton proposed the Erie Canal. What the project did was help to pull the country out of danger financially in the 1820's/'30's and allow the boundaries of the country to move west as expansionism opened up new areas to settlement.

To the tourist on a bike, there are vestiges of the Erie Canal all along the route across western NYS, and lots of apple trees supplying fresh apples and just perhaps alcoholic beverage to an earlier visitor or resident. The secondary roads wind thru scenic and picturesque communities, often bearing the suffix, "-port" in their names to remind the student of history their place as a stop on the Erie Canal where the animals pulling the barges bearing lumber and farm produce were watered and changed for fresh ones as the 10-mile per day routine was done.

To the south in western NY, the Finger Lakes, formed from the recession of ancient glaciers of the last Ice Age, resemble parts of mountainous Europe, with picturesque valleys and deciduous trees covering the mountains, older and more-weathered than the Rockies, not as-tall, but providing great scenic paths for an adventurous mcy rider out to see rural country away from the interstates. It's an area called "Little Swtzerland" for a good reason. In the fall, any of the mountainous areas of NY, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, (US 87, declared one of the most scenic highways in the country), and the Allegheneys (often referred to as the 'Southern Tier' of NYS) are multi-colored 'must-see' locations which provide jaw-dropping vistas of beauty around every bend of the secondary roads as you climb and descend as the routes often follow ancient Indian paths as they hunted game in these ranges.

Happy and safe travelling!

 

[mattness]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

damn you medic youre really selling new york to me.

-rollie - plan on it

 

[DakRatFink]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

If the water ever subsides you have a place to stop on your way through the Dakotas.

 

[Lew L]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

The mountain passes of the Sierra Nevada are much like the tail of the dragon but faster and climb to almost 10,000 ft above sea level. You can zig-zag up and down a couple of them in a day. And them you could ride around Lake Tahoe-- and absolute jewel.
Good luck on your trip---- Bring MONEY.
Lew

 

[Hatter]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Not a hell of a lot to see here in South Arkansas, but I have a couch here if you need one.

 

[The Beekeeper]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

On your return leg maybe some of us could meet you this side of the bridge and ride back down with ya...................

 

[Fire-medic]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

damn you medic youre really selling new york to me.

-rollie - plan on it

You did a good thing when you decided to announce your plans. Now you can investigate online suggestions you get and plan a rough itinerary. I bet you meet lots of people who are envious of your trip and who help you out along the way.

I was at my friend's bike shop & a guy came in on a 1000 cc Suzuki, looking for a battery. He was Italian, came here, bought a bike & was working his way from NYC to CA, where he was going to sell the bike & fly home. He had his girlfriend w/him. He spoke English & French & Italian, his girlfriend spoke Italian & Spanish, and my girlfriend spoke English & Spanish, I speak English & some French. I had invited him to dinner, we had a dinner party with wine, antipasto, beef entree, & dessert. There was a lot of translating going on but it went-off well, and at the end of the night, as they left on their mcy, I am sure they had a good opinion of American hospitality from their time as our guests.

I bet your trip will reveal to you the kindness of strangers, and provide you with many memories.

A smart phone, some spare memory cards, and a credit card for emergencies are your best friends. Try to keep a spoken diary of what you see and photograph so you can make an electronic travel diary after.

 

[ninjaneer]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Daytona Beach can be a trip... The Space Coast, then leave for a better destination....

man dude, if you're gonna visit daytona beach, and the space coast, you might as well hit the keys and then slide up the gulf side and go over the skyview bridge in the sarasota area, stop over in destin in the florida panhandle, and then hit n'awlins, la.

and you gotta make it all of them southern appalachian runs

 

[CaptainKyle]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

If your around the Tampa area I could lock up my dogs for a night & give you a couch. If the money & timing is right I could hit Texas with you and show you around there. 6th Street in Austin is a blast at night time & the riding is great outside of town.

 

[BLKMAX]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Wow! Do it and you'll never have to look back and wonder "What if". After you hit Hollywood, drive up highway 1 along the coast, hit the avenue of the Giants and visit the majestic redwoods. Then head back east on highway 36. Some of the best motorcycle roads ever! You'll love it!

 

[Miles Long]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

I've toured 44 of the 50 states (including Alaska), and I have to say, as far as scenery and riding conditions go, My # 1 choice of states to visit............

 

[yankee in texas]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Spent a year playing "Easy Rider" from what I can remember he's a few places you might enjoy.

1) Mt Charleston Lodge - 45 min from Vegas Hwy 95 7700 ft Elevation
(702) 872-5408 Sit out in back - reminded me of Europe.

2) Key West - Mallory Sq for the Sundown Celebration then head over to the Hog's Breath Saloon for a nightcap.

3) Upstate NY - Head up through the Finger Lakes then take Hwy 81 to Pulaski head west around the shore of Lake Ontario have lunch at Rudy's
just outside Oswego then drive to Niagra Falls. (See the Canadian side)

4) Texas Hill Country - 45 min from San Antonio. Cruise around the Hill Country area then drive to City Park in San Marcos. Rent a tube from the Lion's Club and spend the afternoon drifting down the beautiful San Marcos
River. WARNING: The river can get congested with inebriated sorority girls if nudity offends you - go to church!

Enjoy..........

 

[gpzTurbo]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

I'm making notes of all this for when the wife finally leaves me.... haha

 

[MtnMax/Magniac]

Re: need input, from evrybody! about the US of A

Your map looks like you might already plan to do this, but you really should cross from Montana into Wyoming over Bear Tooth Pass, going south from Red Lodge, MT and then west through Cooke City into the north entrance to Yellowstone, then out the east gate of Yellowstone to Cody, WY. Some of the most gorgeous riding in the country. And you should see the Buffalo Bill Historic Center & Museum in Cody.