A Journey Begins...

After life events beyond my control, I decided the best option was to hit the road and see where it took me.  I began my journey on an original Kawasaki Concours (ZG1000) that I had bought from the original owner who was a head of the Pacific Northwest COG (Concours Owner's Group) chapter.

Fast!  Smooth. See gauges above.

The bike is a great design, so good, that it stayed the same for nearly 20 years.  It is a 1000cc Kawasaki Ninja with a full fairing, saddlebags, and a shaft drive for an extremely comfortable and smooth ride.  Did I mention?  It's also fast!

One of my first trips was with an old friend from high school, Amanda Thomas.  We had not been in contact for 20 years.  Upon discovering our close proximity to each other (I'm in Seattle, she's in Portland), we decided to take a trip to Vancouver, BC together.

Two things brought us to Vancouver:  1) Amanda is the coordinator for adult education at OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

The plan was to get some good racing in over the weekend and also to research the "science pub" program at the Vancouver's Science World. Turns out they didn't/don't have one.
(They should have Amanda @ Via Productions to create one for them.

2)  Amanda is a huge fan of dragon boat racing and is on a very good team called, The Wisabi White Lightning.  There were dozens of teams from all over the US and Canada.  Vancouver made for a very beautiful backdrop to the races.  Her team did fantastic and placed in the top 3 in the competition!

It occurred to me that I had been in the very spot 25 years earlier during the 1986 World Expo!  The skyline of the city had certainly changed dramatically, but the iconic dome (which is now Science World) and the monorail from that event remain.

We made great time from Seattle to Vancouver and back, thanks to the swiftness of the bike, but also to the custom GPS mounted on the dash (see photo above and more info in a future post).

Little did I know that this journey was to pave the way for many more to come and help to define a philosophy and a lifestyle that I would continue to enjoy for a long time.