Last night, I was so excited that I only slept five hours. This combined with my need to pick up a few more items before heading out meant I wanted to keep my first ride short today (safety first!), but more on that later.

The day started with a welcome text message from Leo asking whether we could grab breakfast before I left. Leo has been kind enough to let me rent a room in his house during the time since I returned to Seattle. He also rides motorcycles and understands the passion behind it. It also means he has ample space and all the necessary tools that allowed me to prepare for my trip — thanks, Leo!

We both had an omelet at Café Solstice, a good way to start a day of riding:

Obligatory selfie in front of Leo’s house:

I must have walked by this locksmith (yes, the one behind the Mystery Coke Machine) dozens and dozens of times while living on Capitol Hill but I never had a need for it until today when I was looking for a mechanism to lock my helmet and suit to my bike. Unfortunately, they didn’t have either, but I decided to make a copy of my ignition key just in case. Believe it or not, that didn’t require any paperwork and cost me just $4 and change:

When I went downtown switch from AT&T to a Verizon Unlimited plan (which might come in handy when blogging on the road), I ran into this gentleman. Robert is homeless and suffers from diabetes. He’s also nifty in how he figured out how to make free phone calls on Starbuck’s WiFi using Facebook Messenger. He recommended me to visit the East Beach in Santa Barbara on my way to LA and who knows, maybe we’ll even run into each other when he goes there on May 17:

Shaniece said I should keep my trusting attitude towards strangers but also listen to my gut in case the situation calls for it. Therefore, I picked something up at the Army Surplus Store that I hope I’ll never have to use (but rather have and not use than the other way around):

Time to pack my bike for the last time in Seattle:

I decided not to rush (safety first!) and catch a later ferry which turned out to be packed with commuters on motorcycles. Tim (left) also got his license last summer. He has only missed six days of riding since January — impressive! Brent (center) shared his experience of owning an Aerostich for 12 years (it also leaks in the crotch):

Heaven on a ferry:

Mike saw my bike (he has a BMW R1200GSA) and chatted me up on the ferry. He shared his passion for offroading and also happens to have picked up the same set of soft bags from Mosko Moto. In fact, he was such an early adopter that his 40L duffle bag is missing the pass through for cam buckles under the tent pole compartment (bummer!):

Originally, I planned to ride to Port Angeles, but luckily I hadn’t booked any accommodations because two people on the ferry recommended I go to the much more picturesque Port Townsend instead. After a beautiful ride in the sunshine, I arrived in Port Townsend around 7pm; my first stop on this journey. It was just in time for the Golden Hour and I decided to stay in a motel to catch up on some much needed sleep so I can feel fresh for exploring the Olympic Peninsula tomorrow. But before I did, I spent a bit of time taking some photos around the town and also fly my drone by the waterfront.

Suspicious seagull acting suspicious:

Port Townsend from above (my first aerial photos from this trip):

Impressions from around town:

This is what you do when you are hungry and all the places in town are closed, including the highly recommended pizza place at the water front. All you need is a coffee maker, a pack of freeze dried Fettucini Alfredo with Chicken, and 20 minutes:

Bon appétit et bonne nuit, tout le monde!

Tomorrow, I will embark on a cross-country motorcycle trip from Seattle, WA, to Brooklyn, NY. Here, I will document my journey, the preparations that went into it, and any memorable encounters and discoveries I will make.

The plan—though untypical for me there isn’t much of one—is to ride down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) from Seattle to Los Angeles, via Portland, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz.

Subsequently, weather permitting, I’d like to explore the Southwest including Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. One of my few fixed checkpoints is June 3 in Houston, TX, for a wedding of Shaniece’s friends. On the way from Colorado to Texas, I’d like to stop by in Oklahoma where I spent a year as a high school exchange student with AFS from 2003–2004 and haven’t had a chance to visit since.

After the wedding, I invited my dad to join me for part of my trip so we can spend some quality father-son time. We’ve had little of that given that he lives in Switzerland and I’ve been living in the US for the past seven years. Hopefully that’ll be a good follow-up to some of our roadtrips to Poland when I was a little boy. One of my most vivid memories from that time was us listening to Cher at full blast and eating hamburger se sýrem (cheeseburger) from a Czech McDonald’s. We talked about visiting New Orleans and Graceland in Memphis, but the plan becomes blurry at this point.

There are many options for how to get back to NYC, e.g. via the Appalachian Mountains, along the Gulf Coast, or down to Key West and then back up. I’ll play it by ear and you’ll be the first hear about if you follow along.

For me, this journey is about taking a break from my professional life as a software engineer for the past 7 years, to discover the gems of this beautiful country, and to connect with people, whether from my past or to meet new faces.

Please join me on this adventure! You can reach me via daniel@gasienica.ch or @gasi if you have any suggestions for places to visit or live along the route and would like to meet up and/or have a couch/shower to offer.

Today, Ray invited me to join him on a ride to Vashon Island and back. Ray and I met at Jenny & Aseem’s wedding which he happened to officiate. We started rolling shortly after 8am—I was a bit late as I am still learning that strapping one’s luggage to the bike takes longer than expected—and headed to West Seattle to catch the ferry from Fauntleroy to Vashon Island at 9:05am. I suggested we take the scenic route via Alki Beach and it paid off. Here are some impressions from our ride:

After Ray left, I saw a ferry employee waving at me by the street entering the terminal. There was a family of ducks that got stuck on the street because of the high curb. In a team effort, we corralled all of the ducklings onto the curb except for one that got away. In an attempt to guide it back to its mom, it fell into the drainage opening. For a split second I was shocked, but then realized I was dealing with a duckling that can obviously swim. The ferry employee also reassured me that the drainage leads to the Puget Sound so it should be fine. Unfortunately, the duckling didn’t attempt to swim out into the open water, so the man went to grab some tools and reunited the duckling with its mom: