Thoughts from my first time at a Korean spa.

Disclaimer: My experience is that of a first-timer at a single Korean spa and isn't representative of all Korean spas. Results may vary. But that body scrubbing though.

With everything going on with school and my extremely varied work schedule, I made the last-minute decision to go to the Korean spa closest to my house. This was really more of a long-time, last-minute decision; I was offered to go to one with friends last year but the job where I was working at the time got in the way. I think it was better to experience this alone for the first time as I learned that taking it all in required time alone and being lost in my thoughts. I am aware that this account will be mostly descriptive, but the emotional output I received from this activity is very indescribable in itself.

NorCal Revisited Part 5: Motorcycles and hockey do mix with surprising results.

Long time, no see! I'm starting 2018 with the conclusion of an adventure that I started back in July 2017. Yeah, I admit to being that far behind, but I have reasons. I will say that it is extremely satisfying to come back and finish telling this story, especially because the circumstances that prevented me from completing this no longer exist.

The last half of 2017 had been inundated with incidents and events that have kept me away from my blog space (not to mention grad school), but I hope to add to the random stories throughout this year. As for the tales of this vacation from July 2017, let's just say that not long after my ride home in the triple digits (both in temperature and in mileage), my work life went into a tailspin and far out of my control, and that waking nightmare didn't end until September. Anyway, I'm very glad to be back and I'm determined to stay on track the best I can. So, without further adieu, I get to talk about the part of my motorcycle vacation that involved a hockey tournament.

NorCal Revisited Part 3: Reclaiming San Francisco

My homework was done, and I was ready to jump on Eleanor and play! I looked on Google Maps and found out that there was a road that leads out of Petaluma onto some really nice twisties and headed out toward PCH. It was going to be a bit cooler going into this region (around the mid-60s), so I made sure that I inserted my rain liner into my mesh jacket to add more layers to battle the winds and fog on my way down toward San Francisco.

I had no idea what visually stunning sights I was in for as I was riding down these serene, two-lane roads. There were small lakes, seemingly unending hills, and very picturesque land forms as I rode through on a good clip. However, I had to come to a complete stop for this lake area amid the hills, otherwise known as the Nicasio Reservoir.

Once I made it onto the US-101 southbound heading into San Francisco (around 10:30 AM), the fog was so bad that I delayed taking a photo at Battery Spencer until later in the day when I was on my way out. Temps had also dropped down to the upper-50s so getting through the Golden Gate Bridge and into the city where it was warmer was a priority. It was surreal to cross back into San Francisco again from the north; it had been over six years since I had done it, and the third time that Eleanor had seen the bridge. I had ridden across the Golden Gate Bridge on another motorcycle before this, my 2005 Suzuki SV650.

It was quite #foggy riding in. It should burn off for a good pic later. #GoldenGateBridge #SanFrancisco

A post shared by Christine (@twowheeledtourist) on Jul 13, 2017 at 11:07am PDT

I learned a couple things once I made it to Fisherman's Wharf. First, with a motorcycle, you can park for free right in the entrance of the wharf. Second, I need to bring my FastTrak transponder with me the next time I return to Northern California. All of the toll roads are using the system now.

My first stop in the Fisherman's Wharf was the Musée Mécanique, a penny arcade and museum filled with video games and arcade machines from various decades, all of them fully playable. As I had done a decade prior, I threw a few quarters into the X-Men vs. Street Fighter game and beat the snot out of another patron. After that, I ventured outside to check out Alcatraz from a distance as it could be seen in plain view the day I was there.

Hmm. That's not what I think about when I envision a bunch of bimbos in a box.

There were too many food selections to choose from for lunch, and I had a little too much fun taking photos of everything. This may involve multiple visits back up here. I'm not complaining about that.

If it lived in the ocean, it'll probably end up on a roll. The options were endless. Would you like some rolls with your crab, lobster, or shrimp?

A pair of disgruntled giant lobster and an indifferent crab.

That's a long way to swim if you're planning to make any sort of escape.

Getting my clam-on-clam fix with a little help from the squid. This was totally worth the ride down to the city by the bay.

Even the Magikarp couldn't resist all the attention!

Cooked crab...master of the resting bitch face.

I have a feeling that these socks wouldn't fly well at my job. The kids would find it funny, though.

After lunch, I headed over the hilly parts of the city into Japantown to Daiso in an attempt to find a budget Apple Lightning cable to charge my iPad (I had forgotten mine at home). Unfortunately, they were sold out of them so I made my way to the flagship Apple Store in Union Square.

Things that aren't awkward: motorcycle-specific parking meters are only $0.35 an hour. Bless you, #SanFrancisco. Things that are kinda awkward: this photo if you're familiar enough with my life story. At least it's not red. 😅 #motorcycleprobs #Yamaha #FJR1300 #K1200RS #somestoriesarenotmeanttoberepeated

A post shared by Christine (@twowheeledtourist) on Jul 13, 2017 at 1:38pm PDT

I spent a little time perusing this two-story, open air store and had the chance to plug my iPad in to get a little juice while I surfed the Internet on a display MacBook and took a break. It's a pretty cool location and it was packed with all sorts of visitors. I ended up getting out of there with a Lightning cable. (Tip: You have a 14-day return window if you buy anything from the Apple Store.) This is great for those people who just happen to be out of town and are forgetting anything.

Tangela is here to inquire about the new MacBook Pro.

Switching gears from technology and back to motorcycles, I rode to BMW Motorcycles of San Francisco to check out the store and ask for some assistance in topping off the oil on Eleanor. She tends to burn a little more oil than normal because of her mileage and age, and I was receiving an oil light on my dash while I was near the Nicasio Reservoir. It's a level, not a pressure, sensor. The service manager there wasn't too busy and helped me out in the service bay. I even got a t-shirt and stickers out of the whole deal. I'd definitely come back and visit again.

After that, I made a quick stop to the nearby D-Store to see if there were any good deals on motorcycle gear before riding back to Battery Spencer to get that view of the Golden Gate Bridge. By the time I got there (about 7:30 PM), the view was just perfect.

I made it back to Petaluma around 9 PM and had to find some creative parking on the street. The roads are severely banked here so I had to be careful where I put my kickstand down. In reference to the title of this blog, returning to San Francisco and some destinations that I have not seen in ten years brought closure to what were tumultuous times in my life. In many ways, even being back up here was a cleansing experience.

My next stop the following day, the Corbin Seats World Headquarters in Hollister, CA, would bring some of that healing energy onto my trusty Yamaha FJR1300 in the form of a completely restored rider seat.

That parking angle is just slightly unnerving...

NorCal Revisited Part 1: Riding through the broiler.

I had a chance to escape from Los Angeles life for a while, so I jumped on a very much repaired Eleanor and headed up north to the Bay Area to recharge myself. However, to pull that off, she and I had to blast through a little bit of hell...more like 430 miles of it.

My return up to Northern California will be the first time I've done so since 2011. As I progressed through this trip, I was able to revise a few stories and memories that had stemmed back to 2007 and a previous life.

The traffic wasn't anything unexpected leaving LA on the 405 North. Temperatures on I-5 started off nice in the 70s, but as soon as I reached the Grapevine region, it had suddenly risen to the 90s, forcing me to pull out the evaporative cooling vest to supplement my Fly Racing Flux Air Mesh jacket that I had chosen to take up with me instead of my standard Aerostitch Roadcrafter jacket. To top off the set was my Camelback Rogue 70oz Hydration Pack filled with ice water. There was no logical way that I could survive the temperatures with my standard, in-town gear, so out came the hot weather accessories.

The ride up was hot and uneventful. Eleanor had no issue blasting past the trucks and the cars, maintaining constant speed the whole time. I was really happy with my shorter Cee Bailey windshield that I had replaced my old one with, and its additional thickness and weight kept it from flopping around in the gusts. I only stopped a few times to get gas, soak my cooling vest, and refill my Camelbak. However, I did take one special break in Gustine/Santa Nella, CA to Pea Soup Andersen's to revise a memory from a previous journey to the location in Buellton. Thanks to that trip, I now have officially been to both locations in California!

Hot soup during this time of the day? If it's split pea soup, hell yes!

Exterior of Pea Soup Anderson's in Santa Nella/Gustine, CA.

I made it to my first stop, Dharma Trading Company in Petaluma, CA, by around 2 PM (I had started riding around 6:30 AM.) to visit my friend and pick up the key for my lodging. She had kept a sign that I had sent to her a couple years back that was passed on to me by another friend. Considering that she works for a dye company, it was so fitting that she had this displayed prominently in her office.

I was zonked after that 430-mile ride, so I had a fried chicken sandwich at the nearby Pub Republic before heading back to the house, unloading my gear, and relaxing.

Once my friend came home from work, we walked through Downtown Petaluma and had some Mexican food. Honestly, the food was pretty forgettable as the shrimp did not have to be that salty at all. But we did stop by a 7-11 to get Lotto tickets and an It's-It ice cream treat. This is one of those regional things that I had heard of but did not get the chance to try until now. I think it will be slightly mandatory for me to have at least one of these every time I come up to visit. Besides, every good motorcycle ride has to end in ice cream. That's a very well-known unwritten rule!

The next day required me to take care of business and get some grad school homework over with. Read on...

The 2013 SoCal Holiday Excursion Recap: Part 2

**This is a recap of my vacation back to Southern California from 12/28/13-1/9/14.**

It was nice to wake up to this morning view again. I had woken up to many mornings like this when life was a lot less complicated. It was 48°F the day I took this shot, and I was out in my shorts and flip-flops. For the normal Californian this would've called for Ugg boots at the minimum, but the Midwest life had hardened me enough to not bat an eye at the calm breeze nipping at my legs.

Today was a cruising day with me and my dear friend, Veronica, so it was a lot more on two wheels and a lot less with the camera. Somewhere in between all this, we had old ladies in minivans waving at us on Pacific Coast Highway and the men wondering what these two women, one on a cruiser and the other on a sportbike, were doing riding together. It was like old times when we'd just hop on our rides and travel the familiar roads of home, for no apparent reason than to appreciate the natural beauty that we had access to day in and day out.

I did get to watch the sunset from a familiar point in Redondo Beach and spend some time clearing my mind. Sometime around dusk, we even made young boy smile as we let him sit on our motorcycles while his parents snapped pictures. We even revved our engines high before we left the beach and that little boy was super excited over that. He even got to wear Veronica's helmet in the process! It's always fun to entertain the kids, and they get a kick out of knowing that I'm a girl on a bike.

This Triumph stays "in the family," and that's an order. Yeah, my personal cheerleader, I'm talking to you.

Another day comes to an end, and that the sunset continues to remind me that it's time to rest, reload and give life another go tomorrow.

The following day was New Year's Eve, and to bid farewell to the last day of a tumultuous 2013, I had an impromptu skating session at Toyota Sports Center. The sheet of ice that TSC had set aside for public session turned out to be where the roller hockey rink once stood. I had played there many years ago, and found some of the best teammates I've ever played for there. It was a bit strange to take those turns on what had once been a sport court surface. As a bonus, I had a couple old teammates stop on by and say hello as well. After a decade of playing in this building, it's a place that will always be a part of my life.

It's nice to see a Stanley Cup banner in the NHL rink nowadays.

Even the drinking fountains were water bottle friendly!

After skating, it was back up to the house for the annual New Year's Eve party. This was the first time in five years that I was able to enjoy this family tradition in California with the people who are important to me. By the time this day came around, I was so tired due to the jet lag that I had to duck out for an hour and take a nap during the party, but I was alive enough later on to welcome in 2014 with everyone else. Also, it had fulfilled a personal promise I had kept to myself for several years that, when it mattered, I was not going to be in Ohio on New Year's Eve. I have my family to thank for that as well.

So I'll rest here with the warmth of a fire and the skyline of Los Angeles in my midst. For the first part of 2014, I can start a part of my life over again and find that energy I need to push on toward a new goal.

The 2013 SoCal Holiday Excursion Recap: Part 1

**This is a recap of my vacation back to Southern California from 12/28/13-1/9/14.**

Seeing the familiar lights of Los Angeles from the window of that Southwest Airlines on that dark December night brought me to tears, and I sobbed with relief as the plane landed on the tarmac of LAX.

I was home again.

It had been six years since I had walked on my own familiar turf during the holiday season, and with the clouds I had anxiously waited to leave behind in Ohio, I was going to enjoy every second of it. After a relaxing evening with family (which included random conversations with Siri while eating leftover ribs), I hit the ground running on the first full day of my stay in Southern California.

2012 Ride-In Report: Columbus, OH to Asheville, NC

As much as I wanted to do the proposed route in my previous post, time and budget constraints put us on a more direct route to South Carolina. To get down to Greenville, we decided to take US Highway 23 South all the way down. For most people in Columbus, this road, which includes High Street that runs right through the city, is more known for being the main road north toward the cities of Delaware, Upper Sandusky, Toledo, and Ann Arbor, MI to name a few. When it's taking southbound, you would encounter Circleville, OH, Ashland, KY, and if you take it long enough, Asheville, NC. US-23 has been the source of a few of my other adventures in the opposite direction, one of them I write about extensively in a previous blog post, "Ride Report: Hockey Heaven is in...Michigan?! My journey to Perani's Hockey World."

The first half of the route before we really entered the mountains and steep inclines of Kentucky dealt out some unbearable heat. Temps were well into the triple-digits and just bearing down on us and the bikes. Although I had a lightweight, mesh jacket on, the evaporative cooling vest came out in Kentucky and stayed on until we reached Asheville. If you've never used one of those, you're missing out on instant relief from sweltering temps.

Aside from the hot conditions, the only other issue we encountered was the top speed of Matt's 2008 Piaggio BV250 scooter on uphill climbs. I think we've seen its limits when dealing with elevating terrain, but it did its best chugging along at a maximum 48-52MPH at wide open throttle. It also helped that we were on a quieter highway on a Sunday.

The seemingly mountainous areas were only separated by state signs.

Beautiful sights from the partly cloudy overlooks in higher elevations.

The uphill climbs were doing a number on the mileage and top speed on Matt's Piaggio BV250, so an extra 1-gallon gas can was in order in the mountainous areas.

More touring with one of the strangest bike duos around!

Tenneesee!

There's not much to the route; just take US-23 southbound, and if you're crossing state lines and not encountering any Canadian border guards, then you're going the right way. Despite that simplicity, it was a beautiful ride through the mountains of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. For more information about US Highway 23, click here.

Also, if you ever have the chance to swing by Asheville, NC, I suggest spending a couple days to see what this beautiful city is all about. There's a lot of promising restaurants out here and more famously, the Biltmore Estate, the largest privately owned home in the United States. I hope to find my way back here for an extensive review.

Holy cr*p...can I just go on vacation now?

I do apologize for the slight online absence as of late. Long story short, there's been a lot of craziness and stress to go around in my part of the universe (to say the least), and it only took a freak severe thunderstorm to knock out power at work, send me home early, and then have me camp at Barnes and Noble because I've now joined the hundreds of thousands of Ohio residents who don't have power at their homes for the next few hours. Free Wi-Fi is a wonderful thing when you have a laptop and will travel!

With that being said, the end of June heralds an event that I always look forward to (and have written about many times over the years): the Women On Wheels® International Ride-In. This year's in Greenville, SC, less than 500 miles from Columbus, OH. And for the first time in a couple years, Matt gets to join me on this vacation!

As tradition would call it on my blogs, if I don't get enough time to write about the happenings about the trip, I will, at the minimum, reveal the projected ride there. This year, Mann and I will take advantage of a few extra days off off work and attempt to fulfill a personal goal of mine that has been several years in the making: ride through all 48 continental states on Eleanor, the still very functional, high-mileage Yamaha FJR1300AWC.

As of today, I have crossed 43 of them, and the remaining five all happen to be in the SE corner: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. So, to cross into all of these states, we're proposing a approximately 900 mile detour, or rather, the "long way" to Greenville, SC.

As for the straight-forward way to Greenville, it's something I've done before. In fact, I've ridden to Spartanburg, SC (about 40 miles away) for a long distance lunch and to complete my first, documented Iron Butt SaddleSore 1000 in 2010.

Here's the proposed map of the journey. We're looking at two, 550-650 mile days and a quick 300 mile jaunt into South Carolina.

  
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Iron Butt BunBurner 1500/SaddleSore 2000 Report

"To be insane, you must have discipline." - Hudson Leick

This report has been completed in between my two stays in Elko, NV and Oakland, CA after an Iron Butt adventure that involved four time zones, 45 hours of travel, and nearly 3000 miles on the motorcycle. Here's a little recap of my travels.

Eleanor's all geared up and ready to ride!

Departure from Columbus: 12:30AM EST, 6/30

Final Stop for BB1500: Rawlins, WY, 9:30AM MST, 7/1

Final Stop for SS2000: Elko, NV, 7:30PM PST, 7/1

The route was very basic: I-70 to I-80 via I-29 from Columbus, OH to Green River, WY. According to Google Maps, the total came to 1520 miles, enough for the BunBurner ride (1500 miles in 36 hours). I originally planned for this route to be a shot for the more extreme BunBurner Gold (1500 miles in 24 hours), but due to severe closures on I-29 in Iowa due to flooding in that part of the state that I didn't know about in advance, my connection from I-70 was delayed so badly mid-day that I was trapped in the state for nearly two hours, eliminating the possibility for Gold. However, the extra 200 miles I covered trying to find an alternate route brought my final destination for the BunBurner a lot closer.

And I ride, and I ride, and I ride...

So after a broiling run through most of 100+ degree Nebraska and 285 miles to go on the BunBurner 1500 attempt, I had to call it a day after getting caught in the middle of a severe storm that had winds nearing 50MPH and throwing me around on Eleanor near to Big Springs, NE. The tradeoff? A nice dinner with steak and second round with a regional favorite, Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Yup, it's genuine fried bull junk. If you've seen some of the other stuff I've eaten, this would probably be quite benign.

By the morning it cleared beautifully and it was easy to get to WY to finish off the final leg. I was glad that I waited for that sunrise because that portion of I-80 was some of the most scenic portions of interstate I've ever ridden. I had missed the pretty part of I-80 in Wyoming when Matt and I moved to Ohio in 2009 because we connected from I-25 from Fort Collins, CO instead of from Reno, NV.

Crossing the WY border during the final stretch of the BB1500. Yahoo.

After completing those final 285 miles for the first certification, I had over 12 hours to ride 500 miles to earn the SaddleSore 2000. That was completed quite casually with a stop for ice cream and a rest stop in Utah. I ended up in Elko, NV with a total of 2050 miles and three hours to spare.

This is gorgeous, and it was only the rest stop!

A member of the local wildlife. It saw my camera and took a stand.

Some additional notes...

My two biggest challenges were boredom during the long stretches of road and the heat wave I experienced in Nebraska. While I rode through the night, there wasn't much to see, so staying alert really involved a lot of good music and comedy routine selections. The same thing applied during the day; lots of songs and switching between channels on my XM radio. Also, with hours and hours on the saddle, I had to use several methods of keeping myself from getting too sore. Some methods included standing on the pegs while moving a crawl in work zones, engaging my BrakeAway cruise control mechanism, dangling the legs, and perching my feet onto the passenger pegs. As for the heat, my evaporative cooling vest saved the day, but the dry heat (100-105 degrees with crosswinds) made the last stretch of road a bit fatiguing. Keeping my CamelBak filled with ice water was a lifesaver as well.

I was lucky that the weather on the second day was relatively mild. Riding through the last portion of Nebraska into Wyoming was actually quite chilly with temps in the 50s and a crosswind. I had to use my Gerbings heated jacket liner and gloves for the first three hours of travel until it warmed up enough to just ride with my thicker Aerostitch Roadcrafter jacket. By midday I was back with the mesh jacket and didn't even need the cooling vest at all.

Contrary to popular belief, I did NOT drink any coffee or have any energy drinks during this entire journey. I had long days but I was able to sleep 6-7 hours a night which was sufficient and just enough to keep me from waking up groggy. The big key was keeping hydrated with lots of water and stopping at regular intervals.

The ability to ride through those miles comes with time. If you're thinking of doing these kinds of rides, work up to them and practice, practice, practice!

I think my vacation can start now...!

Trip Draft: Columbus to San Jose, CA (6/30-7/13/11)

All right folks, it's June and that means it's less than a month to my annual ride to the Women On Wheels® International Ride-In, wherever the heck it is.

This year, I get to ride west back to my home state of CA to the northern coast of San Jose. It'll be my chance to return to the Golden State for the first time since February and it'll be the first trip home for Eleanor since she left in late August 2009.

I don't have a lot of time to take off for this journey, and with this year's Ride-In being clear across the country I have to cover a lot of ground and attempt to get to the West Coast in four days or less. I have covered this distance before (in reverse from Los Angeles to Columbus), taking a little over four days so this won't be too much of a stretch. To try to make the push a little more rewarding, I will attempt a second Iron Butt run, either a BunBurner 1500 (1500 miles in 36 hours), BunBurner Gold 1500 (1500 miles in 24 hours), or a SaddleSore 2000 (2000 miles in 48 hours). After my successful SaddleSore 1000 in August 2010, I know that I am capable of this task, and I think the comfort adjustments I made to Eleanor will be a huge advantage in eating up the distance.

On the return, I will be crossing through several states I have not ridden a motorcycle through (or been): Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Wisconsin. This trip will bring my total number of states crossed with Eleanor to 43, leaving Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to finish the Continental 48 states on the same motorcycle.

Here's the current itinerary:
6/30 - Depart from Columbus, OH
7/1-7/2 - Green River, WY (BunBurner Gold 1500 7/1, BunBurner 1500 7/2)
7/3 - Reno, NV
7/3 or 7/4-7/7 - San Jose, CA
7/8 - Navarro Redwoods State Park, then ride to Portland, OR (or as far as I can in that direction)
7/9 - somewhere between Spokane, WA and Billings, MT
7/10 - Chamberlain, SD
7/12 - Milwaukee, WI
7/13 - Return to Columbus, OH

Approximate distance (assuming no by-ways or tourist-like stops...yeah, right) = 5700 miles


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More to come soon as plans develop. This year's ride will be a doozy, but it'll be lots of fun!