2005 Seasons greetings message from Eric On-der-road

This is a combination christmas letter, personal update, travelouge summary and update, and family update, so pay attention to what interests you and skim the rest.

I'm in Minneapolis and I am getting ready for my next motorcycle trip. Before I tell you about that, let me give you an update about the last year.

I spent the first couple of months of 2004 in Minneapolis, after flying back from  Seattle in November of 2003. I arrived in Seattle after a 3 month, 7000 mile motorcycle trip to Alaska, barely getting back before the snow. A friend of mine in Alaska called me 'the last tourist' and asked me to shut out the lights on the way out. In fact, on my last day in Alaska I had to cross a snow covered pass to reach Haines, where I caught a ferry back to the lower 48 along the Inside Passage.

I left my motorcycle in a storage locker in Seattle after the trip and flew back to spend the winter in Minnesota (I know, my timing is off). In April, I returned to Seattle and began a journey down the west coast of the US, Washington, Oregon and California coasts, including heading inland to see Mount St Helens, the Columbia Gorge and Crater Lake. I enjoyed exploring the towns along the Oregon and California coast, as well as appreciating the beauty of Highway 1 and 101 along the coast. I met many interesting people along the way and made some lasting friends.

I pretty much checked out every decent coffee shop with free wireless internet access along the west coast of the US. It's funny, in just two years, wireless internet has taken off so that I didn't have to use my dial up account a single time on my trip. I also was able to find a few pubs and restaurants along the way - imaging eating out 3 meals a day for 3 months straight. I followed the NBA basketball playoffs and timed my evenings to find a sports bar to catch my favorite team, the Timberwolves play in the playoffs.

I really enjoyed some of the great small towns along the Oregon coast, like Newport, Brookings, Ashland and then Fort Bragg / Mendocino and Monterrey in California. I managed to spend a couple of days in big cities - Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, but otherwise I was amazed at the amount of open space and small towns in as heavily populated a state as California.

I found out that coastal fogs are the typical weather pattern along the coast in early summer, and spent a sunless fourth of July weekend in Monterrey, while 5 miles inland it was bright and sunny.

After an interesting trip through Los Angeles during rush hour on Highway 405 (again, I have timing issues), I stopped and visited my friend Randy and his kids. We hung out Newport Beach and the surrounding area and then I headed down to San Diego the first week of July.

I rented a hotel room at a sit by the pool resort and did exactly that, and checked out San Diego. After a couple of days in town and a short trip to Tiajuana, I turned around and made it home in 5 days - in fact, 3000 miles out of the 6000 miles I travelled in 3 months were racked up in those last 5 days.

I spent the summer in Minneapolis, and enjoyed the lush green of the midwestern summer, and the occasional thunderstorm. I worked doing some part time technology consulting, which was I enjoyed, and spent some of my time visiting and helping out with my grandmother and uncle in Milwaukee.

In September, I traded in my old 2002 BMW RT1150 motorcycle for a brand new 2005 R1200GS, which is more of an adventure and on/off road bike than the road oriented RT. I miss the RT and it's a great bike, but the new bike will be better suited for upcoming travels. I outfitted it with new aluminum bags, a GPS and an after market seat. My first trip was to drive down to Texas where I left my bike at the house of my brother. This was in mid-November, and the electrically heated clothing I wore helped keep the chill out when the temperatures got down in the mid 30's, driving through snow flurries and showers.

I flew back to Minneapolis, where I was soon to be left homeless. Well, kind of… I rented out my house for the winter to the parents of my neighbors. They are from Madison and are providing day care for their first grandchild for the first 6 months their daughter in law goes back to work, and they were looking for a place to live in Minneapolis.

I was originally going to leave for my next trip in early November, but I decided I wanted to stay around for the holidays and be with my family in Milwaukee, and pick up a few more hours with my consulting assignments. So now, I am staying on my friend Naedal's couch, while I prepare to fly back to Austin, Texas in early January.

Speaking of family, my grandmother and uncle are doing fine in Milwaukee, and I try and make it down regularly to help around the house and help prepare meals, and to learn how to make yummy bakery, soup and other Mildred specialities. I am beginning to enjoy the cooking, but the baking takes a little more time to learn, especially to Mildred's specifications. They have aides that come to the house in the morning and evening to help with daily personal and household activities and meal preparation.

My brother Todd and his wife Anne are still living in Austin. Todd won a prestigous fellowship this last year and is nearing compleition of his PHD in English Literature. His thesis centers on the theme of gender roles and masculinity in American fiction, particularly Hemmingway, Faulkner and Ellison. He has had several articles published and has started interviewing for jobs, although he has several chapters left for his thesis. Next year will be his prime year for job hunting, although he has started this fall. His wife Anne is still teaching pre-kindergarten in the Austin Public Schools, working largely with non-english speaking kids. My cousin Kim is still living in Sheyboygan Falls, working for a hospital and breaking into the esthetics business (providing facials, skin care, etc) and her brother Brent is still living and working (and playing) in Colorado.

So, now for 2005. I am going to take 5 months and travel by motorcycle down to Central America. I will leave Texas in mid-January and head down into Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. I hope to attend a BMW convention in El Salvador in February and then will continue on to Costa Rica where some friends of mine just moved earlier this year. I hope to visit Panama and then turn around and head back. I have some contacts along the way and in Minneapolis I met a fellow R1200GS motorcycle owner from Guatemala who was kind enough to give me tips and contacts for traveling in Latin America.

I plan on blogging and posting photos so I hope you can follow along on my journey and send me tidings of home via email. I will start blogging in earnest in early January, so be sure to check in and I hope to hear from you along the way.

Peace and love in 2005

- Eric Onderdonk
www.onderroad.com