15/2 - Friday was yet another chapter in my Couchsurfing story. I hosted Jan, a German traveling through California Friday night after I got off work. He's just like me in that he doesn't plan where he's going to stay long in advance; he figures it out when the time comes.
I hosted him on just a few hours of notice, so before I went home I picked up some beer to share with him. As a traveler myself, I understand how it feels not being able to find a place to sleep for the night. That's why I hosted him, as a fellow traveler and human being. If not for me, he would have slept in his car. The time he was there we just had a few beers and traded travel stories, and I gave him a sleeping bag, pillows and blankets and he slept next to the electric fireplace.
The best thing about it was the fact he was grateful for my hosting him on such short notice. The encounter wasn't long at all, but it still feels great to meet new people and help a fellow human.
My weekend, while not as epic and memorable as the previous one, wasn't bad at all. I rode the Ducati up to Springville, but the smog and haze was so bad it dampened the ride a bit. Considering that, it was great to drive north to Sacramento and out of the smog. It was there in midtown Sacramento where I discovered a German beer garden and met up with my coworker and his girlfriend. It was the first time we had properly hung out outside of work and had a few drinks. It's great to have someone there who's my age.
Continuing my exploration of California, my family and I hiked Rockville Hill in Fairfield on Sunday. Dad and I both used GoPros on our foreheads, and we hiked about five miles. It was fantastic to be outside in the warmth and clear air. It's not often it's as clear as that was in the Central Valley.
Finally, I did some day drinking with an old friend of mine in Davis before making the trek back to Porterville. It was here where I did my best to inspire my friend to do something big with his life, such as travel, to get out of his funk that has bogged him down since he broke up with his girlfriend. He's been very cynical of everything lately, so I told him to shut the f**k up, stop thinking about everything that could go wrong and just do it. Sometimes, inspiration comes in the form of flat-out bluntness.
22/2 - Life in Porterville these days has been enjoyable because I'm spending a lot of time analyzing why I am the way I am. I'm trying to figure out what I really want, both from a woman and with life, and it has been enlightening. This examination of myself has made me more self-confident, and I've noticed I have been sticking up for myself more. Maybe this is just all part of maturing, but I like where it's going.
My latest adventure was a short-and-sweet trek to Lower Coffee Camp in the Sequoia National Forest. There I messed around on the edge of the Tule River with a GoPro on my forehead, scrambling over granite boulders and slowly navigating the brush beside the river. The best part was finding a comfortable spot on top of some granite and lying down on the opposite end of a waterfall that spilled into a large pool. It was there I faced the sky, focused on my breathing while listening to the rush of water and let the time melt away, with everything turned off and me being disconnected, if only for an hour or two.
Monday, February 22, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Travel, inspiring adventure and a shooting star
8/2 - Think back to a recent time when your heart exploded with pleasure, when you burst out in maniacal laughter and sported a giant, goofy smirk.
That's how my weekend went. I spent two straight days on my Ducati, using the GoPro to shoot some truly excellent video on curvy roads in the foothills around Tulare County. While the road southeast of Ducor was a blast on Sunday (at one point I reached a new personal-record for speed), the adventure into Yokohl Valley on Monday resulted in pure, childlike joy and ecstasy, and the kind of laughter inside my helmet that would get me arrested if I did that in public.
The day could not have gone better. The weather was warm and the sky a deep blue. I rode through green hills broken up by fields of yellow flowers; it felt like a Spring day. The road I tore up was devoid of traffic, straight in parts and curvy in others. Today, I was alone in nature, with the extreme pleasure of leaning into corners on a high-performance motorcycle and feeling all thoughts, stresses and real-world responsibilities vanish into oblivion.
While riding the Ducati is an extreme thrill by itself, the GoPro mounted firmly to the side-view mirror makes the ride so much more exciting because I can go back and see the ride from a different angle later. Hopefully I'll be able to edit all of this footage together into a second video like the one from Wales.
But besides lunch and dinner with good friends in Visalia, the final cherry on top was during my night ride back to Porterville. While roaring along in the blackness, I looked up and caught a legitimate shooting star streaking in the same direction as me. It lasted for about two seconds and was much brighter and faster than a flying craft. It sounds incredibly corny, but I think that shooting star was a sign of bigger things to come.
This weekend was another example of why going on an adventure doesn't need to be far from home. If you manage to uplift your mood to the extent I did, that's a successful day. These past two days show how a simple ride on a motorcycle out in nature is cleansing to the spirit, like kayaking on Loch Lomond on completely still water amid silence. That was the feeling of happiness, yes, but it was also the most free I will ever feel.
Needless to say, I was emotionally drained after that ride.
In other news, I'm set for Mexico, maybe Chicago next month, and a new trip: England. Kaichi High School invited me back to Brunel University in London to help a group of students get comfortable speaking English for a week. I got the time off from work, so barring something serious, I'll be in London again come June.
I'm slowly but surely gathering materials for the Coast Guard application and studying for the ASVAB. It's kind of enjoyable to take math notes again and learn about formulas regarding electricity.
My mother sent me an article the other day about how travel helps you reach your full potential. You gain so many new perspectives and meet many different people, but it's first and foremost good for the soul. It's probably, in my opinion, the most important person in my age group can do for themselves.
Today during lunch I told a friend of mine that taking out that student loan so I could travel and go to school ended up being worth much more than $50,000. All of those memories I have from that year are priceless. Taking out that loan is something I will never regret, which is something I did not think possible just a few years ago.
If you really have that itch to travel, there's always a way. It doesn't need to be expensive. During lunch today, I hope I inspired my friend to look more seriously into accomplishing her travel fantasies. If I accomplished mine (for now) then she, and other people, can too. But to do what I did, you have to be able to uproot yourself and go to a completely unfamiliar place, something not everyone can handle...
That's how my weekend went. I spent two straight days on my Ducati, using the GoPro to shoot some truly excellent video on curvy roads in the foothills around Tulare County. While the road southeast of Ducor was a blast on Sunday (at one point I reached a new personal-record for speed), the adventure into Yokohl Valley on Monday resulted in pure, childlike joy and ecstasy, and the kind of laughter inside my helmet that would get me arrested if I did that in public.
The day could not have gone better. The weather was warm and the sky a deep blue. I rode through green hills broken up by fields of yellow flowers; it felt like a Spring day. The road I tore up was devoid of traffic, straight in parts and curvy in others. Today, I was alone in nature, with the extreme pleasure of leaning into corners on a high-performance motorcycle and feeling all thoughts, stresses and real-world responsibilities vanish into oblivion.
While riding the Ducati is an extreme thrill by itself, the GoPro mounted firmly to the side-view mirror makes the ride so much more exciting because I can go back and see the ride from a different angle later. Hopefully I'll be able to edit all of this footage together into a second video like the one from Wales.
But besides lunch and dinner with good friends in Visalia, the final cherry on top was during my night ride back to Porterville. While roaring along in the blackness, I looked up and caught a legitimate shooting star streaking in the same direction as me. It lasted for about two seconds and was much brighter and faster than a flying craft. It sounds incredibly corny, but I think that shooting star was a sign of bigger things to come.
This weekend was another example of why going on an adventure doesn't need to be far from home. If you manage to uplift your mood to the extent I did, that's a successful day. These past two days show how a simple ride on a motorcycle out in nature is cleansing to the spirit, like kayaking on Loch Lomond on completely still water amid silence. That was the feeling of happiness, yes, but it was also the most free I will ever feel.
Needless to say, I was emotionally drained after that ride.
In other news, I'm set for Mexico, maybe Chicago next month, and a new trip: England. Kaichi High School invited me back to Brunel University in London to help a group of students get comfortable speaking English for a week. I got the time off from work, so barring something serious, I'll be in London again come June.
I'm slowly but surely gathering materials for the Coast Guard application and studying for the ASVAB. It's kind of enjoyable to take math notes again and learn about formulas regarding electricity.
My mother sent me an article the other day about how travel helps you reach your full potential. You gain so many new perspectives and meet many different people, but it's first and foremost good for the soul. It's probably, in my opinion, the most important person in my age group can do for themselves.
Today during lunch I told a friend of mine that taking out that student loan so I could travel and go to school ended up being worth much more than $50,000. All of those memories I have from that year are priceless. Taking out that loan is something I will never regret, which is something I did not think possible just a few years ago.
If you really have that itch to travel, there's always a way. It doesn't need to be expensive. During lunch today, I hope I inspired my friend to look more seriously into accomplishing her travel fantasies. If I accomplished mine (for now) then she, and other people, can too. But to do what I did, you have to be able to uproot yourself and go to a completely unfamiliar place, something not everyone can handle...
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