Will this ever end?

Probably not.

I am planning a DesignR1 Full Circle UK/Ireland tour in the near future. There are interviews and articles about this ride to get done and I am certain that I will revisit many of the people and places I saw on this Full Circle USA tour. So....

I will from time to time place photos and updates on things. After all, this blog is now a familiar place for me.

I returned to LA to visit Richard Clark and Rak at Mediaworld logistics on Arbor Vitae near LAX airport. I met Richard at The Wheelie School just north of London. It snowed that morning so we were generously offered another go by Paul the owner/trainer. Richard, like myself, has a UK and USA business and curiously I just learned on this visit that they use ACT! software. We are hoping to do some dirt biking together here in California. He has experience, I have never ridden off-road so perhaps I'll get back to Phoenix and chat with T.E.A.M. Arizona riding school about a little training in that sport. What the heck, I haven't broken a bone in over 3 years!

Thanks to all who followed the ride and I wish you a prosperous, happy future. Don't forget the kids.

Some Statistics and many thanks

I must thank Jacqueline Zimmermann an ACC in Riverside California who has been a great support throughout the whole tour. Jax has handled phone calls, made appointments, visited camps, ridden in some of the toughest conditions and all in support of me, this tour and the children who benefit. She is an extremely capable ACT! consultant and a wonderful person. Thanks a million Jax.

I also want to say a huge thanks to Bob and Dan Ogden of Swiftpage for their sponsorship and featuring my tour on their exhibition stand in Washington DC. I use Swiftpage and they are the most helpful company one can imagine. Thanks again guys.

Miles = 15,004.5

33 States, 4 Provinces, Mexico

2 Speeding tickets

6 Hole in the Wall camps visited

22 different donators listed (so far) $2,175 raised

14 weeks +1 day = 99 days

Approx 350 gallons of fuel, I oil change + ¼ litre of oil

Best Fuel = 52.3mpg (USA) =62.8mpg (UK) = 4.5L per 100Km

2 rear tyres, 1 front tyre

1 chain and sprockets

75 nights in motels

15lbs lost

Top speed = 189mph indicated

Full Circle comes full circle

Words and photos by JK

Tuesday July 22nd The final day. I had agreed to meet the Sage folks about noon to pop some bubbly and celebrate the DesignR1 Full Circle USA charity ride. Before that official ending I wanted to see the newest stretch of Phoenix road. The Loop 202 had only opened on Monday and I was keen to see the desert views on the east side of town. It was a smooth, quick and easy ride as I headed east, swung south then west and scooted up the I10 and 101 to Scottsdale and the original starting point. I arrived at 12:15pm on Tuesday July 22nd 2008 with exactly 15,004.5 miles on the clock. I saw a huge clock/temp gauge that read 110 degrees at 11:30am on my ride. At Sage it was much hotter. Believe me.
I went inside where Ryan Zuk, media contact for Sage, found me wandering like a lost soul. He grabbed an office and brought me water as David van Toor walked in to shake my hand. David is SVP, General Manager CRM Solutions at Sage Software and he is the man that made my journey possible. Without the support of Sage I wonder how far I would have ridden. He teased me about being able to stand upright and then we had a brief conference call with reporter Jane Larson at The Arizona Republic newspaper. I’ll be visiting Jane next week for an interview and to go over photos from the trip. Ryan also informed me that the Scottsdale based photographer Jean-Louis Husson (www.feathertech.com) was planning to have me do his Black Chair interview for the Scottsdale Airpark News business magazine. I felt very privileged and we arranged to visit Jean-Louis the next day to plan the article. Jean-Louis has the finest French accent (it really makes English sound exotic) and his Black Chair interviews are done for charitable causes. His artwork (which inspired his website name) is amazing for its crisp ingenuity and detailed finesse. His immaculate studio reminded me of my dreamy art school days when I would have died for such a place to work.
After a tasty, pasta lunch with Alex and Ryan I popped some undrinkable cheap bubbly and threatened the others with it in plastic USA flag tumblers. The flag tumblers were to tease Garrett Fulton mending in Minnesota. Debbie Cates, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing, Alex Taylor, ACT! National Channel Manager, Jeff Gregorec, Vice President of Sales for SageCRM North America, and yours truly gagged on the awful jungle juice and posed for Ryan as he snapped away with my camera.
Thank goodness I have so many follow-up jobs from the trip or I would wander the halls in a stupor. I just expect to swing a leg over “old faithful” and ride on forever. Never mind…my business partner Rainer will find a never-ending supply of work for me…it’s his special talent.
I would like to thank my business partners Rainer Hoffmueller (CEO) and Mark Hammer (Worldwide Technical Director) for their patience and support. I want to thank all the DesignR1 team too. Larissa Urutia and her sister Gwendolin, Cindy Sturdevant, Michael Kadlub in Cleveland (that bad boy always teases me), Greg Ferber and Kevin Ryan our super programmers in Salem OR and James Burlew our friendly tech support man in world famous Sutherlin OR. I also hope that the awareness raised about Sage and ACT! will, directly or indirectly, bring work to all the skilled ACCs and in particular to all those ACCs that showed such kindness and enthusiasm and support. And, of course, the biggest thanks to all the thousands of workers at Hole in the Wall Gang camps and offices and to all of you that donated towards the children. Any suggestions for lunacy on a bike will be considered with all seriousness by me for next year’s ride.

Camp Soaring Eagle in Sedona AZ

Words and photos by JK

Monday July 21. An early start on coffee and leftover spaghetti bolognaise is not ideal but who cares at this point in the journey. The end was very much in sight with all the mixed feelings that ending could conjure. We had arranged to meet the Camp Soaring Eagle builder, Mark Morris, at 9am, at a scenic overlook on Hwy 89A called Oak Creek Canyon Vista. As I looked at all the pine trees I doubted the romantic name. Wrong again Kingstone. There really were oak trees in the canyon and the views are spectacular. What a beautiful place this part of Arizona is. Sedona is deservedly famous for its beauty and as Mark led the way on his Yamaha Star 1100 cruiser through the twists and turns downhill I actually felt that this area may very well be the prettiest place in the whole of the USA. 21/2 hours ride from my office and I had never seen it! What a duffer I am! I’ll be riding here again and that’s a promise. We took Hwy 179 through the huge road works in Sedona and to my joy I noted that roundabouts are proving ever more popular. Great for motorcycles, far smoother and more traffic friendly than those horrid 4-way stops, roundabouts also allow for many roads to converge without chaos and queues. The R1 is OK in roundabouts but I wished I was on the KTM 990 Adventure I had test ridden from Bernies in Mesa AZ. Now THAT bike is FUN in roundabouts! Just a note, Sedona is an artist town and apparently McDonalds have turquoise arches here to fit the local traditional colour schemes!
We arrived to a warm welcome from the staff at Camp Soaring Eagle, the latest camp to join the Hole in the Wall Gang organization and in my opinion the camp with the most spectacular setting of all with its huge red bluffs and rock formations. I kept looking for Indian smoke signals from the top of the cliffs! Jennifer Perry, Rick James, Pronto Parenteau, Mark Morris and Juan Morales, Director of Facilities, happily listened to my stories and gave me my medicine… coffee. Rick James is the son of the founder Max James and is the Director of Community Outreach. He and Pronto, the Camp Director, drove me around the site and explained the plans and designs. A lot of experience and thought has been poured into this camp and both parents and children will see the benefits of considering all their needs and desires, not just their medical needs. I liked the sound of the entranceway with 60 foot bluffs to imitate the entrance to the original Hole in the Wall and the feeling that here they could leave all their cares and fears behind and enter a world of safety and seclusion. I want to visit again in a few months to see the progress. All our best wishes and serious praise to the James family for using their business success to the benefit of children less fortunate. The millions of dollars they are spending to bring joy and health benefits to these kids is an example to all. Boy do I wish I could have raised more money.
After an hour or so we dashed off to Phoenix airport and the more familiar hot, flat, raked-gravel landscape I have come to view as home away from home. Tomorrow was the conclusion of my tour and I wanted to do a ride around Phoenix to finish off since I had not done so at the start.

A pretty big hole I'd say...

Words and photos by JK

Sunday July 20th. The ride up to the Grand Canyon was very pretty and Jax urged me on to ever greater speeds on this empty road. Honestly officer, it was all her fault! I was pretty shocked as she usually puts some strict controls on my distance and speed but I guess she was seeing why sports bikes exist: to cure all known illnesses! Wahoooo. We paid our $12.00 each (why don’t bikes get better prices since we take up less room?) and pulled over to chat to some Harley riders queued up at the side of the road just past the pay cabin. They were from Austria so I got to chat to them in German. The poor guy could not work out how a Canadian/Brit in America could speak Bavarian-German with an English accent using Austrian Zillertal slang. All of a sudden a park ranger patrol truck stopped in the other lane (blocking all traffic behind him), and yelled through a loudspeaker “All bikers return to your bikes immediately”. What? Was he mad? An Austrian chap walked over and, sounding like Arnold Schwarzeneger, asked what the problem was. We were not impeding anyone. The Ranger told him “You are committing an offence by walking over here”. Baffled the Austrian returned to us and passing comments about never allowing any American male to have a badge we all rode off. I managed to slip the leader my card and hope to hear from him soon. They were very experienced travelers.
What can one say about the Grand Canyon? It is awesome and I do not use that word like your average USA teen. It is so overwhelmingly grand that after an hour or so one is ‘awed-out’…
We saw a cute little squirrel eating pine nuts and Kleenex tissues! We guessed it was preparing a nest. How tasty can a used Kleenex be? Better than Cheerios I suppose. As rain threatened yet again we decided to head out for Flagstaff. It’s funny how the memory plays tricks on you. I remembered seeing Hwy180 east signposted to Flagstaff very close to the Grand Canyon entrance and well north of Williams. But riding back south towards Williams it seemed forever until we got to the Flagstaff turn off. At that junction I topped up the R1, looked askance at the lowering sky and hit the throttle hard towards Flagstaff. We did get wet again. And cold. But that run was very good fun! The first motel with a Jacuzzi got our vote and it was very conveniently situated for eating and getting off to Sedona the next morning. After thawing out in the spa (and laughing at this cute little boy dive-bombing his siblings in the pool) we found an Olive Garden to eat. Well, we actually found a freezer masquerading as a place for people to sit and eat until the icicles on their arms prevented the lifting of cutlery. Americans seem immune to this phenomenon. My guess is that a restaurant has 15 seconds to trap its customers (much like a stand at an exhibition) so the sudden effects of super cool temperatures after the blazing heat makes them quickly decide in favour of that place out of blessed relief. 15 minutes later they are frozen to their chairs and going nowhere until they pay up. The manager explained that they have no control over the heating/cooling. The food was great and the staff tried so hard to please us at a busy time. I guess that’s what one wants…that and non-arctic temperatures.
Now my real rant begins. My rant at Flagstaff. This town is NOT pretty. Railroad meets loggers meets cowboys. No chance. Pity, because the town is set in a wonderful place with lovely forests, skiing in winter, and spectacular settings close by. At 11:20pm, just as sleep was essential, they started. The jack-hammers outside the motel. I asked them what the deal was as the whole blasted street was motels and there were people pouring out of their rooms in disbelief. Out-of-town contractors. Town Hall instructions to drill and hammer all night because there was too much traffic in the day. But the road would still be coned off next morning so why bother at night? There is a serious shortage of brains at Flagstaff’s City Hall obviously. A different room helped ease the pain. I chalked it all up to a minor “adventure” and a good excuse for another rant about humans being the worst thing to happen to earth. I’m such a pleasant fellow…

Blowing hot and cold

Words and photos by JK

It was 118 degrees when we left the motel in Parker. The R1 was pretty close to overheating whilst we waited for traffic lights to change and my right leg was getting well toasted unless a cross wind blew the heat onto my left leg! The ride up Hwy 95 to Lake Havasu was beautiful and I finally understood why I see more boats being towed by pick-ups in the middle of the desert than any sea-side resort! The river was stunning and it looks like a great place to enjoy water, sun and hot temperatures. Lake Havasu City was only founded in 1964 and apparently the McCullock chainsaw guy bought London Bridge unseen in a hurry. It seems he was disappointed as he thought he'd bought Tower Bridge or something. Anyway, there it stands doing good service in this town for a lot of boaters and holiday people. We had a bite to eat as the friendly waiter told us the story. We headed north again to the I40 and on to Kingman. We were fuelling up in Kingman and I saw a well-clad biker roll in on a Buell 1125. I’ve sat on one at the motorcycle show in Phoenix last October but I’ve yet to see one bought and running on the road. Unfortunately the all new Buell got bad press for its fuel injection glitches when it first appeared. Erik Buell is a very innovative engineer (example: the petrol is stored in the aluminium frame) and his new Austrian built Rotax V-Twin engine was a radical departure from the Harley norm. I spoke to the rider (an audio engineer from Hollywood also named Eric) for his impressions. He LOVES it! He did mention allowing time when starting up to let the electronics “do their thing” and then it was fine. The handling should be awesome as that is a strong trait of Buell bikes. We said our goodbyes and headed towards Williams where we planned to stop for the night. As we rode to ever higher elevations a huge black cloud loomed ahead. We got soaked. The temperature dropped 40 degrees in 2 minutes! We were in the middle of nowhere with no shelter, no turn-offs, nothing! By the time we got to a petrol stop it had stopped and we were blue with cold. From one extreme to another! There was nothing for it but to slog the last 20 miles to Williams and find a warm hotel. Once that was done we enjoyed cruising the streets of this cute town and had the BEST ribs in the world at the Route 66 restaurant. Live music made for a pleasant end to the 216.8 mile day. Tomorrow: the Grand Canyon!

Some Like It Hot...

Words and photos by JK

We left Chula Vista and trundled along to Hwy54 east to Hwy125 to the I8 east to Yuma AZ. WOW WOW WOW! When I was planning this trip I guess I had never skipped over a section of the map as quickly as I had the I8 from San Diego to El Centro and Yuma. Why? Because I had ridden the I1o parallel to I8 from Phoenix to LA and quite frankly if you enjoy chewing tin foil or following Winnebagos with 85 year old drivers on turned-down pace-makers then take your zimmer-frame and walk that motorway. To assume that this would be the same was a mistake. The rock formations and scenery from this I8 road are unrepeatable must-sees. The heat HAS to be experienced in its own right from a crotch-rocket in full leathers with a pillion. Simply insert your head into your microwave and set on full for 90 minutes. Enjoy. How on earth Jax survived is beyond human comprehension. Me? I'm a duffer imune to all hardships bar mosquitos! Was it worth it? I would die before I forgo that ride. Regrets? Not stopping for photos every 2 minutes! We had a good burger at La Posta where an off-road biker confirmed Jay's suggestion that Tecate was a better border crossing, arrived in El Centro for fuel, a cool drink and friendly service and set our heat-blistered horizons for Yuma AZ. We stopped part way for water and I snapped the Sahara style sand dunes. Some trucker sought shade under a tree. If you can imagine a traffic jam of SUVs on Mercury drive to Yuma. The surface temperature on the side of Mercury closest to the Sun reaches 427 degrees celsius, a temperature hot enough to melt tin (Ha! Nothing to my leathers!). We cooled off in some fast-food joint in Yuma and set off again to ride two-lane Hwy 95 the 81 miles through flat, hot desert to Quartzsite. More fuel, a spectacular sunset and bone weary we set off for the last 35 mile ride in the dark to Parker. At a cheap motel we sank into a swimming pool and stared at a huge full moon. We didn't make it to Lake Havasu and London Bridge so that would be Saturday's ride.

Speedy Gonzales...

Thursday July 17th was as hot and sunny as usual in SoCal. One is NEVER allowed to be blue. One must ALWAYS grin and flex ones perfectly honed muscles built on some Flexerciser and display perfect teeth as one displays boundless energy derived from some product sold out of "Golden Glow". Blow that for a lark. I was desperate to wake up with a slight hangover from a screaming good night at the pub and see a bit of drizzle soaking the shoppers in anoraks... ding...rant over.

It was a rush to leave the Riverside base-camp and with just 10 minutes to leave Jacqueline decided she wanted to come and see Havasu and the Grand Canyon too. Within 10 minutes she had reorganised things and grabbed a few clothes and was ready for the off. What a whizz-kid.

We made good time down to Irvine and rolled onto the pavement outside the Sage offices just minutes before Greg Goldstein rolled up on his super-duper, mile-munching, crowd-killer Kawasaki 1400cc Concord. Fully kitted, this is the machine a SENSIBLE biker would do 15,000 miles on around the States. Good thing I'm not sensible.

We ogled Chad Gardner's chromed and flamed Harley. I think Chad has done a very tasteful job on this bike and the throw-back acknowledgement to the great hot-rods of America (I love those hot-rods) is excellent. How fitting that a PT Cruiser slid past as I snapped a pic!

As we lined up for photos two Sage chaps joined us with their bikes. Vimal Reynolds has the Suzuki Gixxer 750 (ultimate sportsbike choice?) and Jason Whittaker the superb handling Suzuki SV650. Linda Brizendine came past as did other Sage staff and all wished us well. Chad and Greg talked shop and we hit the road for San Diego. Greg popped a beautiful power wheelie on the on-ramp to the I5 and I could hear that big bike's power. Of course I was going to wheelie too but Jax would have ended on the tarmac...

Just as Greg had told me, just 10 miles down the road as we neared the coast the air temp dropped about 10 degrees and it was very pleasant. We rode briskly (ahem) and were soon enjoying some really good mexican food in La Jolla. After lunch we sat on Greg's bike and man that thing is a home away from home! Thanks for the support Greg. We'll ride again.

We hit the Mexican border soon after and in the chaos and traffic I missed Jax urgent signals to take the last-chance u-turn. Into Mexico we went against everyone's good advice. The Mexican border guard was helpful and we entered Tijuana for 5 minutes. Our hurried snapshots at the queue do not reflect the 1.2 miles we rode to get to this Mardi Gras scene! WOW! The roads are terrible, the signposting worse, the chaos absolute and the vehicles decidedly dodgy looking. We scooted back to the border past endless queues of waiting cars. A not-terribly-pleased official of the USA (Jax had no passport as we had agreed NOT to enter Mexico...I plead a single brain cell) begrudgingly let us in "this time"... as if I'll ever do that again!!!!

We looked at the border motels but Jax was not comfortable at the scene (clueless here would have stayed in a bark-roofed adobe hut and been oblivious to street gangs!) so we whipped a little further away from the border and found a delightfully clean hotel up in Chula Vista. Thanks Jax! Your street-smart was invaluable! Tomorrow we were set for London England...

Hollywood, Wed July 16th

Words and photos by JK

If there is no rest for the wicked then I must be a very bad boy. Between emails, visits, phone calls and planning I never really rested on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday! In fact it was a rush to make the 6:30pm meeting with ACC Michael Moldofsky (http://www.activesales.net/WhoWeAre.html) to see Hollywood. Michael has been around this famous town long enough to give a good tour. Some serious driving in his BMW made the evening really great and the English fare at the Cat & Fiddle capped off the sights. I'm sorry but Hollywood, it seems to me, is seriously short on glamour. It has an atmosphere for sure but too much of it is of the shabby bad-taste strip-mall junky neon busted pavement ilk. Where Michael resides along the cafe strip on Melrose was great however! We snuck up some twisty hillside with very chic houses covering many eras of "in" and snapped a few pics of the Hollywood sign. I have made a suggested improvement in my photo above. Then we rushed around the streets past the star-studded pavement (apparently Michael Cane was stomping concrete that day), Pirates (presumably from the Caribbean) and Marilyn Monroe non-look-alikes. We saw, as Michael put it, "the good the bad and the ugly" until dark drove us back onto Hollywood freeway and Hwy 60 back to Riverside. It was a great treat so thanks a million Michael!

At 11:30pm that Hwy 60 was packed! I could hardly believe it. I thought I was on the flippin' M25 on a British bank holiday! Home late and I had to be off in the morning to meet the boys at Sage in Irvine for the last leg of my Full Circle tour. To add to my joys, I had a wasp hit my chest at about 45mph whilst riding back from Lake Hughes and it wasn't fast enough to kill it so the little blighter got 3 or 4 stings into me before the wind took him away. By Wednesday night I had a red patch the size of a saucer and a hard white patch where I was stung so many times and the itch was unbearable. See why riding slowly and carefully is dangerous! Speeding is the only safe way to ride...trust me.

Tuesday at Painted Turtle Camp

Words and photos by JK

Sunday and Monday I was emailing and planning to set sail again for San Diego and beyond when I got word that the Hole in the Wall Gang camp up in Lake Hughes CA could receive me on Tuesday. It was a 200 mile, hot round trip and I was suffering one of my low-energy days so I want to apologise to the camp Director Jeremy for my slow wits and apparent low level of enthusiasm. Jeremy, his assistant April and Scott, who studied acting at the Globe Theatre in London amongst other places, showed me around and made sure I was braced with cold drink for the hot ride home. There are fine facilities to care for the kids and the basketball gymn donated by the Lakers was very impressive. One little touch I thought was very kind can be seen in the photo of the bedroom. Those traditional quilts are donated and then given to the visiting child as a memento of their week and their new-found friends. That is a lot of money and hard work and it just goes to show how many kind souls there really are in this world. Well done folks.

I also visited the Harley's Rock Inn as suggested by Robert Mersky and I spotted the old pick-up in the shade. I'll get one like that one day. The rock formations as you leave I15 onto Hwy 138 are amazing if quite small. I believe they are called the Mormon Rocks. I liked the frog one. The old collapsing cabin and the rusted western windmills seemed to epitomise the old west in many ways.

That evening we ate Thai in Riverside. Good food but BAD thai telly shows! Wednesday will be Hollywood photos.