It’s been a month since the Motorcycle Cannonball gang left the Santa Monica pier. They have been very long days. What used to be a daily adventure of traveling with our “herd” to the music of motorcycle engines perfuming the air with scents of ancient exhaust has now become the grind of schedules, deadlines, and predictability. We’ve all stepped back into our private lives and the worlds in which we function. Back to reality.
For Lonnie, his reality is in Sturgis and, as the owner of Jurassic Racing, he’s back to his job of restoring vintage bikes. The weather has turned cold and the snow will come soon. His warm memories of the Motorcycle Cannonball will get him through the winter with a smile.
Web Wizard Ken of Alleydude.com has settled back into his routine of designing websites from the Michigan home he shares with his wife and 2 children. After some 20 odd days of frenetic calls from the road at all hours of the day and night during the Cannonball, he reports that there’s nothing to get too excited about these days. During the run he was frustrated with not being out there with us, and having to sit and wait for information to come dribbling in, but we needed someone to stay put and be the grownup of the crew. He was it. Now days he still tends the Cannonball site and tries to keep things here interesting for our visitors.
John and Rachel are snuggled up in California, still discussing the experience of meeting so many motorcycle maniacs and the adventure of traveling with a different breed of people than they’d ever met before. Motorcycle enthusiasts are not the same as car people, and the Classens came to know this early on. Many of our conversations during the run started with “Okay, explain this to me…” in regards to why riders reacted in a certain way, or didn’t react. The run was a learning experience for both John and Rachel in so many ways. They left Santa Monica with a whole new bunch of friends, all of whom have a deep respect for John’s skill as a route master and Rachel’s skill at wrangling her husband. John has a great talent for finding the best back roads and amazing motorcycling routes, whether he understands motorcyclists or not.
As for me, well, each day’s a new adventure. Still in Northern California, I have relocated to a new city, taken stock of my life and started my own version of a bucket list. I’ve stopped talking so much about the Cannonball, feeling selfish in my memories of the magic I experienced. I was one of the luckiest gals on the planet to have been allowed to travel along with the most talented bunch of vintage motorcycle mechanics in the world and to share the road on a daily basis with the riders as they met the challenges of making this phenomenal, historical journey. It was the best 20 days of my life, and I said so every day of the trip, but how do you adequately describe such things to those on the periphery? I’m not real sure, but I am going to try.
We will be posting Cannonball stories here, and Lonnie has lots of videos, so we’re going to share our adventures with everyone. I made great friends on the run and my plans include hitting the road to visit some of them. I wonder if John is available to map me out a route with great twisties that doesn’t include rain?
It’s been a month since the Motorcycle Cannonball gang left the Santa Monica pier. They have been very long days. What used to be a daily adventure of traveling with our “herd” to the music of motorcycle engines perfuming the air with scents of ancient exhaust has now become the grind of schedules, deadlines, and predictability. We’ve all stepped back into our private lives and the worlds in which we function. Back to reality.
Web Wizard Ken of 
John and Rachel are snuggled up in California, still discussing the experience of meeting so many motorcycle maniacs and the adventure of traveling with a different breed of people than they’d ever met before. Motorcycle enthusiasts are not the same as car people, and the Classens came to know this early on. Many of our conversations during the run started with “Okay, explain this to me…” in regards to why riders reacted in a certain way, or didn’t react. The run was a learning experience for both John and Rachel in so many ways. They left Santa Monica with a whole new bunch of friends, all of whom have a deep respect for John’s skill as a route master and Rachel’s skill at wrangling her husband. John has a great talent for finding the best back roads and amazing motorcycling routes, whether he understands motorcyclists or not.
As for me, well, each day’s a new adventure. Still in Northern California, I have relocated to a new city, taken stock of my life and started my own version of a bucket list. I’ve stopped talking so much about the Cannonball, feeling selfish in my memories of the magic I experienced. I was one of the luckiest gals on the planet to have been allowed to travel along with the most talented bunch of vintage motorcycle mechanics in the world and to share the road on a daily basis with the riders as they met the challenges of making this phenomenal, historical journey. It was the best 20 days of my life, and I said so every day of the trip, but how do you adequately describe such things to those on the periphery? I’m not real sure, but I am going to try.