Face Full of America – Grand Finale

New Orleans Jazz Fest w Foo Fighters

The “Face Full of America” Tour, my (over) 30 day Easy Rider experience, riding my Harley along the I-10 from sea to shining sea, comes to it’s second conclusion this weekend. The first was to culminate in the celebration of my pop’s 80th b-day (POP 80) on April 30, 2012, which doubled as a family reunion. I’ve been living on the west coast for the past god-knows-how-long, and the rest of the family scattered back east, so it was good for us to get together.

To the toppermost – highest point of the Blue Ridge Skyway

Somehow, the FFA tour gets extended, like this week’s North Carolina adventure. Asheville, N.C. is a relatively short putt from Atlanta thru the foothills of the Appalachians (aka North Georgia mountains). On the way, I took a ride on the Blue Ridge Skyway, a road I haven’t been on since we were kids on a family vacation. Turns out I had some old friends in the area and managed to locate David Dietrich, and ol’ school chum, living in what could only be described as a “Floridian’s Dream”, in the mountain and meadow country some 50 miles south of downtown Asheville.

Downtown Asheville turns out to be an oasis of artsy, modern liberalism surrounded by the community of those who “cling to their guns and religion”. It had bits of the Haight, Telegraph Road and Melrose, a sort-of mini Austin, with shops and restaurants that cater to the young and trendy with a hippie vibe ( I know… I couldn’t figure it out either!).

Bottom line – hot babes, cool town. Go.

The Grand Finale

First off, a big thanks to my old friends and family who helped make this ride possible – Val and Jane in Tuscon, Mike Knox in Miami, my cousins in central Florida and my family in Atlanta for lettin me crash at their pads, saving on motel bills and extending the adventure time!

Rami Jaffee playin keys with Dave Grohl and the FooFighters backstage at Jazz Fest May 6 2012

Now we come full circle – thanks to fellow musician and Harley ridin bud in Malibu, Rami Jaffee, for letting me crash at his place the day before takeoff. Now at the end (?) of this adventure, I’ll meet up with him at the New Orleans Jazz Fest for his show with the Foo Fighters (yeah, I know… “Jazz”?) This will indeed be a grand finale to a fantastic experience that I could only touch on briefly in this blog. Sometimes I wish I could download my thoughts as I saw, felt and smelt the wonders of roads less traveled. Like I tell everybody, I dont have “plans”, I have “targets”. And they do move!

The fork is still in the road.
L.A.?
Or South Florida on the beach somewhere????

Let’s see what happens next!

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Face Full of America Si Como No

From Beverly Hills to Beverly Beach

I rode a motorcycle 2500 miles for this?? You bet!!

9 days and 2500 miles later, I land here to relax and recharge for the second phase of this “epic” journey. I come here lookin for something I left behind in the 70s – a funky beach shack motel where I can decompress.
No ghetto birds. No sirens. Light traffic going down a relatively serene stretch of A1A in Florida, on the beach, warm water, mellow but rideable surf (!)… I could get used to this 🙂

Si Como No

The Eagle has landed

That funky beach shack motel turned out to be the Si Como No Inn, a little 8 room motel on the A1A bout 30 miles up the road from Daytona. A surprising little jewel, considering all the Motel 6s, Super 8s and otherwise standard bland (but comfy) motels Ive been in. This li’l Shangi-La is artsy, funky, with an incredible combination of beach whimsy and attention to detail. Just amazing. The pics dont do justice!

The details reveal themselves over time... incredible (see gallery on my FB)

My new office. Yes, this is a working vacay doing web design between 500 mile rides. Now that I”m in Florida, I’m gonna crawl down the A1A and figure on getting to Miami sometime later in the week. After that visit to my ol’ homestead (and I don’t mean “Homestead”), the plan is to ride up 27 to central Florida to visit cousins I grew up with and haven’t seen in decades. After that, on to Atlanta area where my family moved to from Miami in the early 70s. Needless to say, I didnt move with them. Hell, I was making a living playing rock roll (then disco…) 5-6 nites a week in Miami, staying on or close to the beach in whatever town we played. So, no. I wasn’t moving to Marrietta.
This ride to Georgia is on the occasion of my pop’s 80th birthday. After that…???
More details of this last week’s ride, including Tucson, Austin, NOLA, Biloxi (!) and the end of I-10 in Jacksonville are forthcoming.
For now, it’s back to the Beach.
Si Como No

ps. It appears that WordPress is going commersh. The ad below is something new, so I’ll have to migrate this blog to my own website. someday…

POP 80 – Face Full of America

My pack mule '04 Harley Davidson FXSTi softail custom loaded and ready to go Los Angeles to Miami, then Atlanta, then...??

one… more… day. it’s a cold, rainy, wet Saturday in Malibu. Take off is tomorrow early AM.
This is just a reminder that a big reason for this adventure, aside from realizing a long-held ambition, is the occasion of my pop’s 80th birthday April 30th in Atlanta (Marietta) GA.
In between will be stops in Tucson to see Val,  Austin, New Orleans, Pensacola, then Jacksonville (the east end of the I-10). After that, ride south along Atlantic coast to my old home, Miami. It’ll be my first time to visit Austin and NOLA. Y’all got any suggestions? People to meet and places to check out? Could help to have a place to crash for a nite or 2 and really get a dose of these classic blues jazz cities. Maybe even sit in for a jam –

I’m trying to get the email sign-ups (so you can get notifications) to happen on each post page. Until then, go to homepage for email sign up. And please register to leave comments. The comment spam is insane from robot software. You only have to register once 🙂

TTYL
nick

Face Full of America

Fixin to saddle up and ride the I-10 from sea to shining sea. Looking at the Google map, Texas is half the trip! Here’s what’s up (from Facebook Post)-

“Face Full of America Tour 2012″ – gonna be smellin’ the Gainesville green around mid April doin my easy rider thang, rollin the 10 from sea to shining sea on my ’04 Harley Davidson fxsti softail custom, leaving April 1st (ish) from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville FL, down to Miami, then wind around FL to see y’all on my way to pop’s 80th in ATL. After that, maybe Nashville, maybe Amsterdam…”

white picket fence and the means to escape

T-minus 2 weeks and counting ’til liftoff.
From the Pacific to the Atlantic in about 2 weeks (depending) with stops in Tuscon, Austin, Dallas, New Orleans, and Pensacola. If you are family, friend or kind soul on this route, let me hear from ya! I’ll be coming in on a wing and a prayer, so a place to crash for the night would be really cool 🙂
Follow this blog for daily posts and travel vicariously with me on this amazing journey. Sign up for email updates and register to comment (trying to keep the comment spam to a minimum).
There’s nothing like a Face full of America 🙂

cheers
nick

ps to all my clients – dont worry, I will still be working! As long as there is wifi, then progress will be made. Gotta luv PayPal and the information superhighway.

REGARDING email sign up to get notification of new posts along the way, please go to homepage an find the email sign up form on the upper right. Hopefully I’ll figger how to get the sign ups for each post. thx 🙂