About 12 years ago, my friend Tom recommended I find this ghost town called "New Idria" in the middle of California. It's an abandoned quicksilver mining town about 160 miles southeast of San Francisco. It certainly piqued my interest, and I have looked for it many times. Before the age of Google maps and smart phones and GPS, all I had were some paper charts that were very hazy in that region of the state, so I failed in my attempts. Finally, though, this last weekend, I succeeded in finding my white whale.

It was pretty much a perfect day - the temperature couldn't have been more than 85F, apparently a little cooler than it had been around there recently. Hardly any wind to speak of, and there was no traffic on the important parts.

I was very pleased with my photos--nice colors and textures in some of them. My little shockproof and waterproof Fujifilm Finepix XP really came through for me. You can see that there was a fire there recently--I guess around 3 weeks earlier, some kids torched a few of the buildings. Damn kids. Also hanging around the place was some squatter named "Castro". I guess he comes around on his Quadrunner and shoots his hunting rifle to scare people (I didn't see the guy personally, but these other riders I ran into there filled me in about him). Somebody was shooting guns all over the place though, despite the "No Hunting" signs posted all over the place. This area really does feel like it's outside of anyone's jurisdiction; the road becomes unmaintained for the last two miles into the town.

BTW, does anyone know what this is?

If you can't see this, or it drives you nuts, let me know.

So I got to thinking - this makes this motorcycle #7 for me. I've of course been reminiscing about all the bikes I've had up to now. My first was back in 1992, a 1974 Honda CB360 I bought from some guy in Ballston Spa, NY.

Then, in San Diego, I got this 1986 Virago XV700C (I think there was a C anyway). This was a very special version of this model, in a rare blue color with no "Virago" emblems on it. This was the first bike I went on a long trip on (San Diego to Toledo). Best bike I ever had.

I sold the Virago (not a good move, in retrospect) before I moved to Iceland. Then, when I got back from Iceland I found this 1979(?) Honda CB750K. The engine needed to be rebuilt, but this guy took me from Toledo to DC and back, then all the way up into Manitoba and back down through Vancouver to San Francisco. Here it is in front of a Viking statue in Gimli, Manitoba

The CB750K didn't last too long once I got to San Francisco. I had to have a bike. Anything. So a friend of Sam's, a major(?) in the Marine Corps sold me this 1982 Kawasaki 750. Man, this thing lived a long, eventful life. Almost 2000 miles in one of the first weekends I had it, then I painted it gray. One of the mufflers came off in a trip to Las Vegas, coming very close to hitting a couple of my friends. Then it went down to LA once or twice, and since I've owned it, it stayed in good hands, with many other adventures to follow.

Then I got the FZ-1. Incredibly fast. I got it up to 162 mph. I went on some great trips with this one, too. I have no need to ever go that fast again, though.

The FZ-1 met an untimely end. But I still needed to ride. So I got the V-Star. It was really, really loud. I enjoyed it at the time, but looking back, that might have been kind of meiwaku. Took some great trips, including up to Crater Lake and Portland.

2009-08-29 東京

I think I have seen enough dance festivals in the summer. It's too damn humid to be outside in the summer, especially with so many people. Anyways, Sunday was a very important election, so you could see a lot of election posters.

And I went to Tsukuji Fish market.

So that's my story.