The OMC was incredibly warm and welcoming to us last year, so we promised to come back armed with a photo presentation the next time we were in town. It was an intimate evening of story-telling and sharing laughs with club members, several of whom have become friends via social media over the past year.
Enjoying some family time with my cousin who recently moved to Monterey
It's VERRRRRY nice to have friends with memberships at the Monterey Aquarium
We spent a couple of days with my favorite cousin who recently moved to Monterey with her family.
The Africa Twin and Transalp were in good company with the Ural and it's two cross-country riders - guess some things "run in the family"
And then rode back up North for a presentation at Adventure Designs in Hayward. We had stopped in there last year for a tire and they were extremely kind and generous. They even did an interview with us during that visit, since we wouldn’t be able to hang around and give their customers an in-person presentation. Luckily for us, Kyle from Adventure Designs is a pro at editing audio/video footage and made us sound and look great :)
These guys have EVERYTHING for any kind of moto adventure! You'd think Roel and I have everything we need, already, but we drool while wandering around Adventure Designs. I needed some more reflectors for my new Hepco & Becker Gobi Cases... check!
Since we had a bit of time now, we wanted to repay their kindness and have a chat with a few of their customers during their open house.
Well, a few turned out to be more like 80-100ppl and it was a blast. It shouldn’t be surprising that a family owned business that is as awesome as Adventure Designs has a really cool and diverse customer base, but I wasn’t prepared to have so much fun with them. Everyone had great questions, they were all encouraging and every person in the audience was passionate about motorcycling. We were meant to be there to inspire others, but I walked away inspired and uplifted by the stories others told us after our presentation.
For example, Cliff decided to take up motorcycling at 53, as part of fulfilling his dream trip to Patagonia. As if that alone wasn’t enough to inspire one, he had a crash at an intersection before his trip, breaking his leg in two places, but he didn’t let this get him down and he didn’t even waver in his pursuit of his dream. He just got back from Argentina last week. Check out his blog for some fascinating reading and have a look at the rest of his website for some really helpful links and information.
And Duffy, a friend we made last year at the Oakland Motorcycle Club, came again this year, even helped line up our presentation at OMC AND joined us at Adventure Designs. I think he enjoys chatting in Dutch with Roel :) Duffy is a man after my own heart and is willing to take risks to ensure that he is not wasting time being unhappy with the way his life is going. I love that!
Sorry for the blurry shot - we stole it from someone elses cellphone...
At the conclusion of our presentation at Adventure Designs, Chad, who owns the business with his brother Karsten, presented us with a set of Heidenau K60s to ride “South” on. They are such generous guys and apparently they attract extremely generous customers because just as we were about to leave, Chad came over and said a customer of his, wishing to remain anonymous, had given us an early Christmas gift: the Sena 20s and the backpacks to pair with the GoPros so that our voices will be heard with the Go Pro footage. Incredible.
If this Mr. Anonymous is reading this... THANK YOU - we are super excited to put this equipment to use as we head South!
So, perhaps there will be a bit less hand-written blogging and perhaps a bit more riding-video-blogging. What do you think?
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