The Alien

Greetings from Los Angeles! I'm home, safe and sound albeit exhausted. A quick trip recap and an announcement about the future of the Alien. I left Billings Montana at about 12:00 PM on Friday. Hat night I made it to Nephi, UT about 735 miles away. The next morning I left early and blasted the remaining 600 miles home, arriving last night. Man, this was a great trip. It was one I needed for sure. I feel refreshed and regenerated. I didn't realize how burned out and tired I was two weeks ago until now. This ride has been therapy and I en joyed every minute. For me there were a couple of standout highlights. The 101 from Southern California to Northern Washington was fantastic. I could not have asked for better weather, a better road ... read more

Greetings again from Billings Montana and Day 3 of InZane 2017! Over 100 pictures today of Bikes, Bike rodeo, Pie Auction and Blow out party. Also, video of the slalom race. Mrs. Alien and I started the day with a cup of coffee and the Valkyrie Rodeo. For those that don't know, a bike rodeo consists of several contests of motorcycle control. Events included a slow race in which the rider reaching the finish line last without putting a foot down is the winner and a slalom course where motorcycles navigate a slalom course of traffic cones which are moved closer together after each round of competition. Below is a video of the entire slalom competition. https://youtu.be/vnRZKEdkKFw Later, we boarded the Mothership and rode to breakfast at the Muzzle Loader Café. Meh. Then it was off ... read more

Greetings from day 1 of InZane 17! As promised, you will find a great deal of pictures on tonight's post. I apologize for some of them, as I was playing with different lenses and flashes to get the pictures the way I want them. I think I have the camera dialed in now, so picture quality should improve. By the way, if you are a member of the VRCC and see a picture of your bike that you'd like, shoot me a PM on the board and I'll email you the full Hi-Rest RAW file. This morning both Mrs. Alien, who arrived last night at midnight and myself were tired and the pinched nerve in my hip was particularly painful. We did jump on the bike and ride to Cracker Barrel for a nice breakfast, then ... read more

Greetings from Bozeman, Montana! I am less than 150 miles from my destination for he next week, Billings MT. The only problem is that I allowed an extra day in case anything went wrong. Nothing did, thankfully and my reservation does not begin until tomorrow, so Bozeman it is for tonight. I began my day in a rather leisurely fashion. Had some coffee, chatted with the locals, ets. Then I put some time into the bike. Over the last couple of days, two problems have developed. First, the stitching on one of my saddlebag lids began to give way, causing it to flap in the breeze (this has been audible on a couple of my videos). Second, yesterday, the return spring on my rear brakelight switch broke and was vibrating against the exhaust making a really ... read more

Greetings from Issaquah, WA! It is I, The Alien, bringing you tales of my great motorcycle adventure. Today marks the halfway point of the first third of my trip. Huh? Yeah. Read on for tales of sausage, boats, computer guys, international borders and how I almost died. Here goes: I left Astoria, OR at about 8:00 AM (Yes, I'm slacking off on early departures but I'm on vacation.) Continuing north on US 101, I quickly crossed into Washington. I have not been to Washington state since I was 5 years old. At that time, my Dad took me on a 9 day car trip to Vancouver, WA in his MGB. My Dad is a smart guy and knew that the trip would be no fun for me if I were staring at his glove box the ... read more