Hang on a minute, there is an other story

My bike was fixed earlier which took the heat out of the B2 Visa saga.

When the bike was fixed up north the dealership through out washable stainless steel oil filter after instructions not to through it.

So tonight I checked just to make sure rather than getting in Mexico and finding out it was accidentally thrown oil, oil puked out of the oil filter case which it is not supposed to do????

On inspection the oil is full of fine metal and very shiny  , bike done 10 miles since at the dealership.







Back to the dealership tomorrow. 

Andi's Bike Has Fixed

Just came back from Lodi, we received an email from Clawson at 4:40pm, they have fixed our bike. We can leave tomorrow, there is no need to visa extension anymore, WooHoo

Andi is on the way picking up the bike....

The B2 VISA Saga FFS

The VISA B2 Saga, so this is the pinnacle of excellent US intellectual bureaucratic bullshit, read on and have a larf as there quite simply is no other wau to look at it.

Ok, due to my bike needing serious work again we took it in to Fresno as when we leave the USA our warrantee is over.

Clawson Suzuki in Fresno took it apart and established the problem which appears to be incorrect assembly when it was last put back together from its first failure, the parts we established will not be in until November 1st, our B2 VISA expires November 2nd.

We have gone out of our way with USCIS, US Immigration and NZ Consulate, not one of these organisations say they can help ..... WTF you are kidding???

So Monday Oct 29th we go to Sacramento to 656 Capital Ave to the big office.

On entering the building the guard required ID, so we showed him our drivers licence, he needed our passports which we had so no worries at all, shoes off, no cameras so Trevor said hey I will look after them down here, belts etc off no worries and up we go.

We talked to a very nice lady at the counter who booked us an interview straight away, looked like we were making progress.

We also got the information pamphlet for Trevor a fello ADVer so I took that down to the lobby where he was waiting and told him we will be having an interview shortly so will meet him back down there in say 20 minutes.

I went back into the foyer and the same guard said, I need ID ... well that is when the fight started.

Me = Me, G = Guard

G, I need ID

Me, here is my licence again

G, I need your passport

Me, my passport is upstairs with my wife waiting for our interview

G, well you can’t come in

Me, but you have seen my passport only two minutes ago along with our drivers licence

G, but you don’t have your passport

Me, you saw it 2 minutes ago, I am still me and haven’t changed!!.

G, but you don’t have it now.

Me, what, you are kidding???

G, (straight face), please step outside to the lobby

Me, FFS,

G, I will call someone down

Me, thanks

10 minutes goes by... no-one has come down one floor

Me, walk back in to guard, where is someone?

G, no-one came down

Me, well call them again please as I am supposed to be in an interview

G, ouwh ok, please step outside to the lobby

Me .... you’re kidding?? but I will go outside

10 more minutes lady appears

G, this is him (pointing at me)

So the Lady says we can’t find anyone for you, I say my wife is upstairs with my passport that he saw prior, I present her with both our drivers licences.

I say please look for her, this is what she looks like, same photo on her licence as her passport, same for me, she says to the guard you won’t let him through but you saw his passport?, guard says yes but he does not have his passport.

Lady, but you have seen it

G, yes

Lady, why won’t you let him through

G, he doesn’t have his passport with him

Me, stunned look in amazement at this guys lack of logic, common sense is not that common and we now have living proof.

Lady, are you serious?, he (me) can come with me

G .... pissed off as overridden by Lady.

Me, stunned that this shit was even happening

So that is how the efficient US government machine works to help people out, I would expect shit like this from a 3rd world border, different language places but not here in english speaking educated US, land of the free unless you are here.

We have tried our best to get an extension/dispensation for the one or two days we may be over our VISA due to circumstance beyond our control and unforeseen only to yet again be trashed by stupid US rules and regs with NO-ONE from ANY organization having any power to help or take control, we are stunned.

Grump over but my mind cannot comprehend this weird system you mericans have in place, after battling like hell to do everything right at our expense I am now not sure if I want to come back to the US unless shit like this gets changed to normality...it does not have to be that hard.

Horizons Unlimited Travelers Meeting - Cambria

So much to do and see, so many people to talk to and so much information to be gained .... overload head syndrome to start with but we settled in nicely and started going to presentations, absolutely mint!!

Both Ellen and I were presenters too, Ellens presentation was “The stuff no one wants to talk about”, Ellen had the crowd of 70 - 80 people in roars of laughter talking about our scraps on the Denali Highway and White Rim Trail, I was up the front watching many other couples nodding and acknowledging the same sort of difficulties we had encountered in our new normal life which is not ALL beer and skittles.



It was nice to know that Ellen and I had encountered similar difficulties to others and that we were not alone, the key thing is we are now stronger for using it as a learning experience and recoginzing that if no one dies then the rest of material damage can be solved and sorted out and the main thing is to learn and move up a rung on the ladder rather than fall off and throw it all away.

Many other presentations we went to were very informative and great so for us it was extremely worth while and great fun, we also met other travelers heading to South America on pretty much similar time tables as us, we will undoubtedly cross paths and we be support crew, help etc along the way when needed, nice to have familiar faces.

My presentation was DR650 setup keeping it narrow and setting up for longitudinally challenged humans, this was a great success sharing our information with others, as I hate public speaking I kept it low key and more interactive with our bikes being that people could sit on them etc, this worked very well. 





After three days of presentations, meeting great people, talking bikes, travel, destinations it was time to leave, destination Fresno to do a LOT of bike work.

We packed up and were pretty much the last to leave after getting photos with various people, some famous, some just like us.

Famous people .... Ted Simon ... not us!!!



Dr. Frazier



Grant and Susan Johnson, Hubb Mum and Dad!!!



A HUGE thanks to Grant and Susan Johnson and ALL the helpers plus all the presenters who really make the event, we came away buzzing and not wanting to leave, something that seems to happen quite a bit when traveling..

Here are some general pics of people and bikes

Iain and Debs in their sidecar



Ellen in a Ural



Ellens dream bike with a MTB!!



Another international traveler



An owl



Sun going down through the trees



Finally, Iain and Debs, Craig and Sharon, Will English and us

Spelt it short cos I can’t remember how to spell it. 

So, we arrived safe and well, bloke hugs and chick hugs were had, very welcoming. 

Bikes were rolled into the dark corner of the shed so as not to bring the neighbourhood down with Two Dodgy Kiwis yello terras.

Showers were in order, washing done, wine consumed and big catchups about life.

Warren and Chris had two new additions to their family since we were last there, Ziv their daughter is 4 and Nadav who was about to turn 2 years old the day after we left.

Ziv, the boss!!



Chris and Nadav,



The last time we caught up with Warren and Chris was 2007 after World Ducati Week so big changes since then for them, well done guys, we look forward to seeing you again.

Warren had some time off work which was mint so we went out and did the blokes thing of hovering around motorcycle shops looking at everything we couldn’t afford ... it was fun, we were treated to a cafe racer that started its life as a but ugly Suzuki 650 Intruder, this thing put a capital G on Groovy!!!





Also spotted ... NEVER leave home without your camera 



My Phone

Earlier in the piece (coupla weeks back) my Sonim phone had a wee woops, I contacted Sonim asking to get it fixed, they sent back the form saying no problem, just need proof of purchase and the usual stuff ..... ouwh no, my proof of purchase is 10000 miles away in NZ !!!

I wrote back saying any chance we can bend the rules being we are RTW bikers and don’t have my proof of purchase with me, I also added I would welcome their inspection to verify it had not been badly treated/abused etc.

Sonim customer service rang back and gave me three names, a phone number and an address to go to just out of San Fran, we contacted them and headed to the address as it was only 20 minutes away.

Large glass fronted building looking down on us is what we arrived at, we had been sent to Sonims Corporate Office .... ok.....lets go in.

Warren and I were introduced to Christoph who said sorry about the trouble with your phone, he looked at it and said hang on I will be back in a minute, he returned with a new 3300 phone and gave it to me ...... hmmmm.

My morning started out as how to get my phone repaired to here is a new one and sorry for the inconvenience, also the 3300 was a slight upgrade on my XP3.2 Quest Pro, these guys took customer service to a new level, thank you Sonim.

Given the above this is a shameless plug for guys who steeped out of the daily system to help a stranger in need. If you guys are looking for an adventure biker style phone take a good look at Sonim, up to 24 hours talk time and 800 hours standby time (over a month on standby!!).



It has LED torch and waterproof as well as many other features that make this a damn good phone for adventure biking communication.

Thank you Sonim!!!, find them here.

http://www.sonimtech.com/products/xp3300force.php

Or their home page with plenty of other goodies to choose from

http://www.sonimtech.com/products/

Warren and I headed to In and Out as my treat for him running me down to Sonims office then back home to make sure Ellen hadn’t bought too much on the net, the afternoon was simply stunning so we made the most of it going up to twin peaks tower lookout point over San Fran.

Some views from the top, famous San Fran Golden Gate Bridge



Alcatraz (Spanish for Pelican)



San Fran central, looking down Market Street



Mumblings of a coffee echoed amongst the crew so we found ourselves sitting outside Martha & Bros which Warren recommended ... and he was right.



After that we headed home for a B B Q and wine, talk about living it up and a good evening was had by all.





View from their kitchen



The following morning we hit the exit button and back to reality, destination Cambria to the Horizons Unlimited Travelers meeting ... Yay!!!

We headed down 101 along the seaside then turned inland to pick up 9 and down through twisties and trees, outstanding bit of road I must say.

When 9 finished we carried on down on 1 again, would have to add at this point we believe (some) Californian drivers take the cake for being the most arrogant, selfish and disrespectful drivers we have ever encountered doing 28 mph in a 55 mph zone passing pullout after pullout and sign after sign saying slower drivers use pullouts and holding up lines of traffic at least 30 cars plus that we could see ..... WTF ... CHP need to deal with these people.

Back to the usual program now, Cambria was in our sights and we were happy to get off the road.

Arriving at Cambria we took a wrong turn, Ellen tried doing a U turn and failed laying Chiwi down for a rest.

We registered and got setup, we were in heaven, surrounded by motorcycle travelers from around the world.

__________________

Coquille To San Fran

Umpqua highway To Bandon

On packing up in the morning we headed along the Umpqua highway which was loaded with twisties and a neat ride, a quick stop in Roseburg for food and supplies and we hit the road to Bandon, we took a dodgy wee back road called Coos Bay Wagon Road which turned to shingle and a bit of mud and was beautiful with trees, river waterfalls and all, an excellent accidental choice.... no pics tho  

3pm in the afternoon, we arrived a place called Coquille. It was sunny and warm, considering the forecast, we decided to call it quits early so we could take the advantage of the sun and dry the tent out before putting all our gear.

We had a few visitors come and chat to us who were interested in the bikes which was cool.



Were we set up camp was right next to blackberry bushes and they were choca with berries, Ellen and I scoffed ourselves silly ... we looked like a coupla kids in a candy shop.



The berries were perfect and beautifully flavoured, after tea (dinner) we walked into town to get some yoghurt for breaky so we could have blackberries with yoghurt. 

The walk into town and back proved to be a heap of fun and really interesting, we stopped into a second hand shop could have been anywhere in New Zealand.

There is a big mural on a wall too, very well done.



I stopped to pat the horses .... their hair was hard than our horses in New Zealand



On returning to camp we had a visit from Mr.Plod, just checkin us out, once he established who we were he said he would come back and keep an eye out for us, that was really neat. 

In the morning Mr.Plod’s offsider came over and said gidday too, very cool of them to look out for us.

I also spotted two leafs suspended from a strand of spiderman wire ... I would hate to see the big mofo spider that spun it!! 



Magic 



We managed to pack up in the dry but with ominous clouds watching down on us closely, the road to Bandon was a nice back road and mum nature did give a wee shower or two.

We carried on down 101 to Golden Beach where we had lunch at a romantic toilet block, it was miserable and wet, we both layered up one extra as the fog and rain was chilly, our mission was to get down to the drive thru tree which we did.

At that point our day took a huge change when we met up with Craig and Sharon from Oz on a KTM990 Adventure who had travelled throughout all Europe, the Stans, Russia etc so were a wealth of info.





We had a chat and decided to set up camp together which turned out to be very beneficial as the campsite inside the Redwood National Park was $35.00 fookin dollars ...hmmmm.



After trying to get to a closed camp we backtracked five miles where we set up, great chats, food and travel stories were talked, everything cool about adventure travel!!!

Before we all set off the big Redwoods were calling, stunning autumn colours.





And of course another big f#$*^@g tree



The following day we left our own ways knowing we would hold them up, we also knew we would catch them again at the HU meeting in Cambria.

In the morning we set of for the “Avenue Of Giants” (nothing new for Ellen and I cos bein short everything is giant), this was a nice deviation from 101 heading south to 1.

The is "The Immortal Tree" which has withstood floods of epic proportions, monster fires, the human axe and asian eyes  .... note the fish up the tree was the flood line   



We did the touristy thing .... both of us





Highway 1 was recommended and calling our name, the road was tight, twisty and beautiful and comes highly recommended.... no gravel tho.

Camp was beside the sea at a place called Westport and we had about an hour before the sun went down so a walk along the beach was in order... here is a pic of my bum!!!



The beach, first beach side camping we had done on our trip



This is also where we met John and Rebecca, we had passed them twice earlier in the day, twice they pulled over in pullouts to let us past.

Ellen and I saw them at camp setting up so being appreciative motorcyclists we went over and said hey thanks for letting us go past safely earlier .... and it all went from there.

With the ice broken from their good natured driving earlier and our thanks it was easy to make new friends, chats were had around the camp fire (again) Rebecca kindly took care of the smoke which followed her all night ... onya chick!! 

Turns out they live and work on the road in their fifth wheeler and the setup they had was mint.



Later that evening another ADVer pulled into camp, we had a quick chat and offered to halve our camp as we had the only flat bit of grass and with the cost it was sensible to share too. 

Fog rolled in thick and fast and was heavily laden with moisture, our tent in the morning looked like it had been through a rain storm, everything was damp.



Justin (the ADVer) insisted on paying for our camp too to help our budget (we still owe you that coffee Justin....come to Ushuaia to get it), very nice indeed, Justin was also heading to the HU meeting as well via a different route to us.

Heading off with our soggy tent under wraps San Fran was our destination to catch up with Spidey (Warren) and his good lady Chris.

1 was clear further down after riding in pea soup for an hour or so, I keep an eye out for Ellen all the time and she kept appearing then disappearing with differing thicknesses of soup in the air. 

The last part was very windy pushing and shoving us all over the road which made it difficult, you either get no wind and fog or wind and a view ... take you pick of poison. 

San Fran wasn’t too bad to get into with Mrs.Garmin sending us pretty directly with all avoidances disabled, the famous car chase streets providing some great stop start rider training for Ellen and making me keep my mind on the job.

Spideys house is on a step section so I made sure I was parked and ready for Ellen in case her landing didn’t work out, coming from the top down made it easier so no dramas there ... luckily cos we were both tired from fighting the wind earlier. 

San Fran next.