Wanna come along?
Fair warning, I can only
take one of you with me.
That's ok. I'll travel by map.
I was given the option of rental insurance.
It would cost $60USD for the day.
But I can get motorcycle rental insurance
from my own agent for about $20CDN.
(Which is about $3.75USD, I think.)
Sweet. Good deal.
But when I went to pick up the bike,
I was told I needed to put down
a $3,000 deposit.
Might as well make a down payment on your own bike.
My view for the next few hours:
I'm making my own vrroom noises.
I passed through a few picturesque towns.
I could've taken hundreds of photos
and regretted that I didn't have more
time to do so.
You'll just have to be content with these
two shots I took In Carlsbad.
It looks very California.
I did take a few opportunities
to take photos of sand and sea:
I can't wait to see the Pacific coastline next year.
California is the only State
in which lane splitting...
Well, it's not exactly legal...
but it's not illegal too.
They'd defined it...
just haven't said what to do with it.
So... let's just say that it's
kinda allowed.
As long as no one opens their door.
I then passed about a mile of cars.
I passed the bottle neck,
within about five minutes.
(I never did see why four lanes were blocked,
I was too busy watching the cars around me)
In a car, it would've been well over
an hour before I'd gotten through.
Man! This is the way to go!
Sweet! Everyone should drive these.
I parked the bike and checked with Betty.
For whatever reason, Betty refused to help.
She kept telling me I was.... nowhere.
I pulled out my map and...
Well, it's more of an overview of
Southern California.
It wasn't detailed enough to help.
You were probably somewhere between LA and the Mexican border.
I was going to go on a boat.
With your flippy-floppies?
No, not that boat.
(Pretty, though.)
That one looks pretty neat.
Yes!
One of the cool things about the ship/museum
is that the guides all served aboard her at one time.
That's really great. Probably lots of great stories.
Most people won't mess
with a bike or a biker's stuff.
Probably because one percent
of the bikes you might mess
with might be the last thing
you mess with.
I know I wouldn't take that chance.
The Vought F4U Corsair.
Love that plane.
Used primarily in WWII,
it was made famous by
Greg "Pappy" Boyington
who received both
the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross
for his 26 enemy planes shot down
while commanding the famous
Blacksheep squadron.
Cool! I just finished a
good book about some of the men who flew the Corsair during the Korean War.
I'll try not to bore you too
much with airplane photos.
I'm partial to jets,
so that's what I mostly looked at.
Can't blame you there. You're not boring me at all.
F9F Panther
I was surprised at the way
the wings folded on this one.
Never heard of this plane before.
Pretty ingenious how they can get so many of those to fit on a carrier.
He was really interesting.
He discussed the mechanics
of landing a plane on a carrier.
And he would know...
since he's done it himself,
on this very carrier.
How cool is that???
Incredibly cool. I'm amazed at what those pilots can do. Amazing more of them don't kill themselves trying to land on such a small deck. That's moving.
Except sometimes, in rough seas,
the stern might be going up and
down by twelve or so feet.
Have a lot of respect for a person
willing to do that.
I can't imagine even attempting that.
F-14 Tomcat
Made famous by
Tom Cruise in Top Gun.
I feel the need...
If you can't finish that line,
then you need to see the movie.
Stat.
The need for speed! I can't hear "F-14 Tomcat" without thinking of that movie.
(Don't mind the blatantly 80s music.)
What's wrong with blatantly 80's music?
Highway to the danger zone...
A plane touching down
had to grab one of them
with the tail hook in order
to stop.
So, you know, they won't skid off the edge.
The deck is too short
for aircraft to be able to
take off without assistance.
So to get 'em going,
they attach the front wheel
to a device that is driven
forward by a steam catapult.
Interesting. I didn't know that.
And one time, I actually got
"Is that near Minnesota?"
Dude... it's your country.
You don't know where North Dakota is???
You've been in North Dakota. "Forgettable" is probably the best way to describe it.
Come to think of it....
I really can't think of a good reason
to care where North Dakota is.
See?
So... "Where you from?" She asked.
"Canada." I replied.
"Where in Canada?" She said.
Oh boy... here we go... fingers crossed.
"Winnipeg." I said.
"I'm from Calgary. (Alberta)" She responded.
I had to go all the way to San Diego
to meet a fellow Canadian!
No wonder she was so nice and polite!
And Betty was dead.
She didn't even turn on.
(I am so used to that.)
Kinda hard to miss that one. I guess he's a skilled pilot to land it on the deck of a carrier.