Around the world on a GS850G for a cause

[shirazdrum]

Oct, 20th – Oct, 26th. Coast to Desert

If you are enjoying these updates, please support the cause by making a donation. As I have mentioned before, I will pitch in $2000 out of my personal travel funds if the collected donations surpass the $1500 goal for the month of October. All donations for this month will go to the “Centro de Recuperacion Nutricional Infantil Bethania” in Jocotán, Guatemala. It is a private medical center that treats about 400 malnourished children each year. They are desperately underfunded and your help is a matter of life and death.
I’ve been in need of a set of practical riding gear which would be waterproof, light weight, comfortable, not too flashy and most importantly 4 season. San Luis Motorsports had just the thing and after 5 hours of trying on different gear, I narrowed it down to Tourmaster jacket and riding pants. Steve Myrack, the owner of San Luis Motorsports, was generous enough to provide the gear for a deeply discounted price. If in San Luis Obispo, don’t miss this shop, they have a great selection.
The weather is changing as I travel further south, it is getting dryer, warmer and the population seems to grow by the mile. Now I know why so many people move to California. You can’t find nicer weather anywhere else.
I left SLO for Bakersfield on Friday and rode the Hwy 58 west. In 3 hours, I went from deep blue waters of the Pacific to the barren outskirts of the Mojave Desert. It reminded me of my beloved birth place Shiraz. There is something about the solitude in the desert that is hard to describe; the sunsets, the wind, the ever-changing sky line… I’m in love with it all over again.
I met Bill Rea, another GSer in Bakersfield, and stayed with him for two days. For the last 4000 miles, I’ve been trying to find a place where I could do my valve adjustment. I was getting more concerned every day, and I turned out to be right.
Out of 8 valves, 5 were so tight we couldn’t get a feeler gauge in to measure the valve lash (i.e. gap) and the other 3 were out of spec as well. We measured the shims a few times and got 6 of the valves to spec with what we had but we needed two more shims. After calling around and a look around the city, all we found was one shim and were out of luck on the second one.
It might sound horrifying to some “By the Book” mechanics but we had no choice other than to grind one shim down, fractions of millimeters at a time, to get the perfect clearance on the #2 Exhaust valve.
A Dremmel, a cutting disk, and patience like Bills did the job as he made the meticulous cuts and fixed the problem. We also fixed my wandering speedometer, tightened the steering, fixed the kickstand switch, and re-routed the throttle cable behind the forks. Bill also is a great cook – hence his username “Chef1366”. It was an honor to be their guest and I appreciate their hospitality.
I have a lecture in Barstow so I will be heading South/East for a while, stay tuned…

[shirazdrum]

[chef1366]

It was a pleasure having you. Please feel free to stop by anytime.
I'm glad I could help you and the cause.

[shirazdrum]

Oct, 29th. And that’s how it goes…

To be a revolutionary, you first need a revolution. —Ernesto Guevara
I have an addition to this famous line; to have a revolution, we first need an evolution.
We live in a time in which the world has never been healthier, wealthier, or more advanced, but absurdly, the condition of the poor has not improved for centuries regardless of our advancements. With blood-sucking organizations such as the World Trade Organization or International Monetary Fund leaving nothing for the poor and only caring for their own power, Leonard Cohen’s song mingle in my head, “The poor stay poor and the rich gets rich, and that’s how it goes, and everybody knows…”
Does everybody know?
November is bladder-control awareness month! We have a month dedicated to not ****ing our pants but shamefully and shockingly, there is no month or even a day dedicated to the number one cause of death: Hunger. No pretty pink ribbon, no merchandizing propaganda from Energizer, no bracelet to be sold at gas stations and sadly no one seems to care.
Hunger-associated disorders kill 36 million people each year worldwide. This is more than coronary heart disease, stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases, lower respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, trachea, bronchus, lung cancers, road traffic accidents, prematurity and low birth weight, COMBINED.

Let me rephrase that because it is vaguely important. Hunger-associated disorders kill more people than the 10 major causes of death, but our government is more concerned about banning artificial sweeteners because it increased the rate of bladder cancer in laboratory rats that were fed large doses of saccharin!

The question remains: Why should we care?
Remember the hurricane Katrina victims? They had faces. They had media coverage. They had the whole world watching. We still failed to give them their most basic needs. Now imagine a family in Ethiopia or Haiti with no media coverage, no Wal-Mart to bring water, and nowhere to turn. Their story could be YOUR story. All it takes is one heavy cloud, one strong wind, one earthquake.
I don’t have superfluous expectations, I know that change won’t happen overnight but you can have a share in it. If we all sit down and do nothing, nothing will ever change. It takes one step, one dollar, one person at a time. The first step is raising awareness and every single one of you is capable of doing so. Spread the word. Send this message to everyone you know, whether via Facebook, MySpace, forums, or email. It takes less than a minute of your time to care and the result is undeniable.
You can refer them to my website at www.motorcyclememoir.com. To make donations to reach the goal for the month of October, please visit the donation page on this site and make it a reality.
Revolution starts with evolving our resources and ideas. We are far away from revolution. Let’s evolve, revolution will follow.

[mighty13d]

and subscribed.

[shirazdrum]

Thanks Matt.

Here's a video of the trip so far. (picture video, i'm still trying to find a good video camera for the trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q71yGjFG-YA

[tkent02]

What route are you planning for the rest of the way around?

[almarconi]

Very cool video...drive safe. Looking forward to more updates.

[shirazdrum]

South through Arizona then Mexico.

[shirazdrum]

Nov, 8th. Windmills of my mind

First, I would like to thank Cynthia Qusipe, Matthew Hanscom and Debbie Medina for their generous donations.

Bakersfield to Barstow on Hwy 58 is only 130 miles, but it was the worst 130 miles of my journey so far. Wind blew at a vicious velocity bringing clouds of dust that made the highway invisible at times. My mouth filled up with sand, and my goggles didn’t seem to be effective in protecting my eyes. I stopped after every dust storm and cried a river to get the sand out.
Stretching from the Colorado River on the Nevada border to the highly populated Riverside, San Bernardino County is a barren piece of land at its best. Boasting to be the largest county in the lower 48, the northern part is also one of the poorest I have visited so far.
My presentation was supposed to be on the 9th of November at the Barstow library, but to my surprise, the newspaper article claimed it to be on the 6th. Nevertheless, the library staff were super and helped with everything I asked for. I enjoyed chatting with them for hours. They are providing services with what little they have to a town of over 30,000 and doing a great job of it. To accentuate how poor this town was, I had found Wi-Fi in Chicken, AK with a population of only 27, but it was non- existent in Barstow library.
In Barstow I stayed with Eva Cox, the daughter of Tom Cox of the Poet Motorcycles (one of my sponsors) and had a great time. We celebrated her roommate’s birthday that evening, and I woke up the next day with a head the size of a basketball. I lost the edge on drinking I suppose; I used to be good at it!
I was praying for low winds on the way back and for most of the way it was fine, but as I approached the windmills outside of Mojave, it got stronger by the second. An electronic sign read “High winds. Campers and RVs not advised”. I have seen some strong winds in my lifetime, but none compared to what I went through in that 20 miles stretch. The wind pushed and shoved my 1000lb bike to the other lane with no effort, and all I could do was hang on for dear life or pull over to set my balls back in place.
I’m back in Bakersfield for Spanish lessons. My plan was to attend a language school once I entered Mexico but I decided to get a jump start here in States. I will get back on the road shortly and will head for Arizona. Stay tuned…

[Skateguy50]

Great read and great cause.

I used to do local bread pickups from whole foods and drive them into various homeless shelters in Boston and always thought I could do more. I live to far out of town to continue that, but my old church still gets it all delivered. Anyways you are providing us all a way to help out by supporting you and your cause.

Things are tight now as with others but I will set something aside and send it along.

[PKcb650]

Overpopulation.

[shirazdrum]

Lack of education = Overpopulation. Over population is not a cause, it's a symptom.

[Skateguy50]

I think the problem with a lot of people is a mix of lack of compasion as they can not relate as it is highly unlikely they will find themselves in one of those countries in need of food. A LOT of these people are born into it, so if you are born here in USA you will have a harder time relating.

Then once you educate people enough to see how it isnt the fault of these kids where they are born people feel small and incapable of helping or expect the big agencies to do it for them. However the truth is I dont trust most of the big government programs or any big program so its nice to see you doing this as I would prefer donations to direct causes where I know the money is directly going to those in need.

Keep putting the word out.

[PKcb650]

The optimum number of people to live on this planet is 1.5 to 2 billion.
Currently 6.8 billion.
Natures methods of population control = famine, disease, war.
Fighting mother nature, are you?