Andrea Johnson Photography

 

Harley Highways: Riding Highway 1 and 101 from Portland to LA

Harley Highways:

Shadow of my chaps from my viewpoint on the back of a Harley

We knew it would take time to relax from our hectic schedules, so we began our journey on familiar territory.  Our final week at home was spent purchasing our plane tickets (we’d changed our itinerary several times before actually finalizing it), packing our gear, and clearing out our house for our renter.  On Sunday morning, October 9, 2000, with tear-full farewells from family & friends we slowly rode away from home and began our journey. a

Feeling the rumble of our Harley while riding down the Pacific Coast Highway was the perfect way to relax and wind down. With no particular deadline or destination each day, we had two weeks to meander through the back roads between Portland and Las Angeles.  The serenity and majestic ambiance of the giant Redwood Forest was our first haven.  In order to dry out from the rain, we found a KOA ‘Kabin’ (a basic one room wooden shelter with a mattress on a wooden bed frame and space heater) nestled among the redwoods near Crescent City; we were pleasantly surprised by it’s seclusion.

Photo Andrea on Harley with KOA cabin in band

While parking our motorcycle and searching for a place to hide our helmets during a walk through the woods, we stumbled upon a huge redwood tree gutted out by a fire.  Although this tree had a gaping hole 40 feet high by 15 feet wide in its center, it has survived for over a thousand years and grown to 250 feet tall.

PHOTO:  Dale walking through redwoods panoramic vertical

Continuing on through the national Park Forest reserves, we detoured 8 miles on a dirt road and were surprised by an elk eating peacefully by the roadside ahead.  We carefully crossed a few shallow streams on our Harley before we reached the lush Fern Valley, a beautiful beachside park in the middle of the Redwood forest with the largest and most prolific ferns we’ve ever encountered.

Photo:  Harley &  view of Elk

Ah, wine country… as we rode through the vineyards of Sonoma and Napa Valleys we could smell the aromas of the freshly crushed wine – another benefit of riding a motorcycle. We stayed in a spa (the ‘luxurious’ Comfort Inn hotel!) in Calistoga where we enjoyed  fine dining (buying a bottle of wine and eating gourmet cheeses) while sitting in the mineral hot tub.  The best part of touring the wineries was the way people reacted to us when we walked in wearing our biker leathers. Everyone was wonderful! I think we stood apart from the typical tourists and thus received special attention. We even got invited into private tasting rooms and were welcomed on  tours at Simi Winery and Mums sparking wine wineries.

PHOTO:  Harley Golden Gate bridge

While in San Francisco we stayed at Julie Fenker’s (a high school friend) downtown apartment, enjoying great dining bargains and gratis drinks at the local bar since they knew the bartender.  We scheduled a day to visit the Airtreks headquarters, the travel company we used to book our discounted multi-stop around the world tickets. It was refreshing to discover that all the employees at Airtreks are seasoned independent travelers themselves, who were happy to wish us “Bon Voyage!”

After San Francisco we experienced the most dramatic stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway – the 150 miles from Monterey to Malibu, known as the Big Sur coastline. Here the mountains drop directly into the sea and the road snakes around the cliffs edges creating an exhilarating motorcycle ride. The fog danced in and out of the valleys ,and the moist air was filled with the rich aromas of cinnamon and spices.  One night we found a spectacular remote campsite perched right on the cliffside and enjoyed hearing only the sounds of the ocean crashing into the shore. Since there were no city lights in view we could clearly see the Milky Way arch like a rainbow from the mountains directly into the ocean. It was worth gingerly walking around the poison oak that surrounded our tent since this natural barrier kept the crowds and families away.

View of Highway 1 Big Sur Coast

PHOTO:  Harley & tent at campsite on Big Sur coast

We also toured the Hearst Castle, just south of the Big Sur region – definitely a worthwhile excursion. On our tour we met a group of  7 Swedish ‘cowboys’ – guys from Sweden who were traveling through the US for a year on two rented Harleys and a convertible Cadillac Eldorado they’d bought & mounted with Texas longhorns mounted on the grill.. They’d been traveling like this from Miami, Florida across the United States, picking up mementos along the way. If they look like this after just three months abroad, it will be interesting what we’ll look like after traveling for the next 14 months…

We arrived in Las Angeles after riding 1700 miles on the Harley – it’s surprising how many more miles rack up taking the back roads and the Pacific Coast Highway instead of interstate highways.

Dale & I on Highway 1

During our last week in America we were busy making final preparations and visiting family and friends. Our home base was Dale’s parent’s house in Montclair, California and we visited:  Desert Hot Springs to see Dale’s brother’s family, Hermosa Beach (stayed with Louis, a fellow Harley rider and past traveler I met on the Rick Steves tour when I did my photography work): Manhattan Beach (stayed with Zach and Jennifer, past managers from Blackbird resort in Belize): and Huntington Beach (stayed with Kitte and Erik Dudley, long time family friends). We can’t remember the last time home cooked meals have tasted so good, and how nice it is staying with family and friends – and we were only on the road for two weeks beforehand!

We tried to reduce our pack sizes from 40 to 25 lbs or so, but without throwing out the tent, sleeping bags, cooking utensils, and medicine we just couldn’t do it! I’m sure after a few months we’ll have to throw out some clothes anyway).

Our final farewell on U.S soil was on the evening of October 29th, 2000.  After an expensive shared shuttle van for the hour trip from Ontario to LAX we boarded Air New Zealand for an overnight flight direct to Papeete, Tahiti.  We were both excited and nervous as our plane took off; together we were embarking on a loosely planned 14-month trip, though we’d never traveled with each other for more than three weeks.  Many people had asked us what we hoped to accomplish by our journey; in truth we weren’t sure.  We didn’t have specific goals other than to experience a different way of life through travel and to hopefully become better people as a result.  The only thing we knew for certain was that we looked forward to the unexpected and creating memories to last a lifetime.

PHOTO:  all our ‘stuff’

We tried to reduce our packs from 40 lbs to 25lbs, but without throwing out the tent, sleeping bags, cooking utensils, and medicine we just couldn’t do it!

2000-2001: Overview of a 14-month personal journey

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The following text and photos originally appeared on the Airtreks and BootsnAll websites in 2000-2001. The stories are a combinations of writings from a 14-month personal journey during which I decided to launch my freelance photojournalism career.

The Dream:

Haven’t we all dreamt about escaping to an endless summer tropical paradise? Wished we could spend more quality time with our soul mate? Wanted a break from our predictable routine?

Andrea & Dale Johnson decided to see what would really happen if they turned those fantasies into reality. It was too late for their honeymoon (they had been married for 5 years when we began our trip) and too early for retirement. Nevertheless after spending several years and long hours in corporate jobs they began to question why they were working so hard. Their motto had always been ‘work to live, not live to work’, but they’d discovered how easy it was to get caught up in the rat race.

What began as a vague dream gradually began to materialize into a specific goal. For a year and a half they saved money for their trip, discussed destinations they wanted to see, and committed themselves to a departure date when they finally revealed their plans to family and friends. Before they had a chance to second guess their decision, they quit their jobs, rented their house, and set off to experience a different way of life by traveling the world for 14 months.

A brief Overview:

We began our journey searching for something elusive; only now after looking back on our trip it’s clear to see how the purpose and meaning of our travels evolved. On the day Dale & I quit our jobs, we were suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that we had the next 15 months free to explore the unknown – it seemed like such a long time. It was the year 2000, the new millenium, and I had just turned 30 : t was the perfect time (if there’s ever such a thing) to make a fresh start, and to focus our energies on discovering what was really important in our lives.

Instead of keeping separate personal daily dairies about our thoughts and adventures, we chose to write a series of journal entries – short stories with photographs – which we updated on our website. This way we didn’t have to worry about having a paper diary lost or stolen, trying to regularly write individual letters and emails to family and friends, or worse yet – being asked to summarize 15 months in 5 minutes. Also, by composing these stories each time we finished exploring a different country, it forced us to take the time to reflect upon our thoughts while they were still fresh in our minds. It wasn’t always easy writing together, and it took much patience to type our handwritten copies of text and download our digital photographs on various cybercafe computers around the world. However we felt compelled to share our stories with others – and for ourselves recording our adventures serves as a reminder of the life changing lessons we learned through our journey.

Our writing style and subject matter changed over the course of our trip, reflecting our mindset. On the first leg of our trip, while riding our Harley down the Pacific Coast Highway, we tried to wind down from our previous hectic lives but found it difficult to shift gears so quickly. Dale had no other choice but to focus all of his attention on safely navigating our motorcycle along the twisty roads; my mind drifted to thoughts of what we were leaving behind, last minute preparations I kept remembering, and worries about what the future would hold.

When we reached Tahiti we finally started to relax, though most of our energies were focused on mastering the daily logistics of independent travel – food, lodging, transportation – that was a challenge in these relatively expensive islands. In Fiji, a country we’d briefly visted on our honeymoon, we decided to slow down our pace to see a more in-depth view of traditional Fijian culture. When we met up with friends in New Zealand – who were on a brief vacation and trying to see as many places as possible – we reverted back to sightseeing mode. In addition, since New Zealand’s geography, people, and recreation tastes reminded us so much of Oregon, we found the temptation to live the same lifestyle as we were accustomed to at home was irresistible: we splurged on wine, lodging, and adrenalin activities.

It wasn’t until our fifth month of traveling, when we arrived in Australia, that we really found our own rhythm. Although we continued to cover a lot of distance quickly, we realized the truth of the famous quote, “It’s not the destination, but he journey”. We still had our security blankets – we met up with friends in Sydney and also while sailing around the Whitsunday Islands, but we now felt ready to leave the comforts of western society behind for SE Asia.

Palau, a former U.S. territory, wasn’t really a great departure from familiar cultures. Nevertheless, we managed to find creative ways to travel independently in a place where most visitors are booked on expensive package tours;. Our flexibility allowed us to turn our 10 day scheduled stop into a month filled with activities and people we’ll never forget.

Our first foray into eastern cultures was during our stopovers in the Philippines, Sabah, and Brunei. We were initially uncertain of our abilities to just wing it in these new cultures, so we booked a few package tours. This backfired when I came down with Dengue fever, a scratched cornea, and toenails that fell off after trying to stick with unrealistic plans.

During the first 8 months of our trip we spend a good hunk of our money on activities –especially scuba diving. In Indonesia we reunited with Jay – a fellow traveler and friend we met in Tahiti who has been traveling the world for the past 6 years in search of perfect surf. Here we learned the art of doing nothing – and enjoyed it. As a consequence we spent little money (we averaged $18 U.S. dollars a day for both of us – our previous combined daily average was between $50-$90 a day) and began thinking of travel as a way of life rather than just an escape.

The hospitality of strangers made our stay in Singapore and peninsular Malaysia memorable. By month 11 of our trip we were tired of constantly being on the move, so when we discovered the ideal mix of scenery, budget accommodation, food, activities, and people on a small island in Southern Thailand, we stopped to stay awhile. Listening to our instincts, we stumbled upon a situation that was meant to be: We ended up working as rock climbing instructors and website designers, which allowed us to become temporary locals and helped us to recover from past budget blowouts.

Our most challenging times were immediately after the September 11th terrorist attacks I America. Family and friends – worried about our safety – asked us to come home, while simultaneously we found a $1,500 discrepancy in our bank balance. We stayed put on the island in Southern Thailand waiting to see the world’s response to terrorism and investigating how our careful budgeting had gone awry. Fortunately we resolved our money problem but we still had to come to grips with our situation – we only had enough cash to continue traveling for a few more months.

Nepal proved to be a fitting final test of the skills we’d learned on the road thus far. During our month-long trek from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp, we overcame 0physical and mental challenges we cold have never envisioned, immersed ourselves in t he most foreign culture we had encountered, and learned to appreciate living life simply. To recover from the rigors of the Himalayas, we returned to Thailand to rest for two weeks before boarding our flight home on Christmas Eve, 2001.

Not once during our journey did we wish we were back at home rather than the place we were currently traveling. Each country provided a unique flavor in the smorgasbord buffet of the world we sampled. The more dishes we tasted the more our appetites were wetted; instead of satisfying our hunger to explore our experiences merely awakened new cravings.