When I ended my last post, I was speaking about how excited Kristina and I were to take it easy in Buffalo for two weeks before going back to Switzerland to start our new lives together but there was one more surprise waiting for us on this adventure; my dad invited us to visit him in Florida.
It’s no secret that I haven’t had much of a relationship with my father for many years and normally I’m reluctant to accept gifts from him but this time was different. This time he showed genuine interest in seeing me and meeting Kristina and I’ve probable become more open to such things. (“No man ever steps in the same river twice…”) So, before we had even got back to Buffalo, we already had flights booked from Buffalo to Tampa and what was supposed to be two easy weeks in Buffalo quickly became more traveling and an emotional journey into my childhood. Woo-hoo! In the end, we had a good time, I was able to get closure on some things and I was glad that Kristina got to spend more time on the beach and even go sailing. Switzerland is a land-locked country so when she travels, she really likes to see ocean.
In total, we had only five days in Buffalo to get our ducks in a row for leaving again. It was quite hectic as usual but we got it done…as usual.

USA Honeymoon Tour Summary:
Wow, what a trip?! I’m exhausted just thinking about it. It was an adventure on every level; physical, mental and emotional but I would say that the majority of the challenges had were about relationships. After being away from “home” for three and a half years, there were many relationships that needed refreshing; the bond with my birth-country and hometown, with my friends and family and even my estranged father but most of all, Kristina and I put our new marriage through a rigorous test-drive. If there was a weak link, we would have found it on this trip. There were definitely many arguments and dark times but I’m very proud to say that not only did we succeed, we also emerged with an even deeper connection than before.  It made us a stronger unit and helped prepare us for our next big challenge…

More photos here!

By this point in the journey, I stopped taking notes.  We were spending nearly every night in motels or  with friends so it was becoming less adventurous and more like a normal vacation/honeymoon which was good because we were getting tired of being on the road.
The west coast segment became our favorite part of the  trip. In San Francisco we saw the tallest trees in the world. Near Los Angeles we saw the largest trees in the world. In between we road along beautiful highway one ans we saw seals, sea lions, elephant seals, whales, otters, dolphins and even bears but the best part for me was catching up with old friends that I haven’t seen in years.
The hardest part was selling the bike. The process was actually surprisingly simple. I listed it on Craigslist the day before arriving in LA. I was asking for $1500 which a few people thought was too high but by time we arrived, we already had three people interested. It sold for $1500 the next day. I’m pretty sure I only paid $500 for it so everyone was happy but it was a bit emotional for Kristina and me as we watched Levi load it onto the truck.
However, it’s easier to let go of the past when there is so much to look forward to. We’re super excited to begin the next, and greatest adventure of our lives; our new lives together in Switzerland.
We leave tomorrow for Buffalo.

More photos here!

 

Well, things have basically continued as before. There have been many highs and lows.  Since there isn’t too much to report, I’m going to keep it short and let the photos do the talking.

A few important things to note:
“Wiggles – Beyond Thunderdome” is fixed and running great.
We had a great time in Vegas.  We didn’t gamble at all…with money.
We were tired of the road so we decided to find a HelpX host to stay with for a week.  It was nice to do some physical activity and to share the work-exchange experience with Kristina since it has meant so much to me.
Death Valley was very impressive. Even though we got through it before 11am, it was still quite hot. We ran out of gas outside of the park. This was the only time on this trip that had happened. It was surprisingly difficult to get someone to pick us up.
Mono Lake was an ironically nice surprise.
The Sierra Nevadas are beautiful.

For the rest of the photos click here.

Note: I’m a bit behind in posting because I prefer to spend most of my free time with my wife so these events actually happened a week ago. 

When I last posted, we were in the Badlands. We were hoping to spend another night in a more isolated part of the park where we might see some bison. This campsite didn’t even have water so we decided to go to town first to stock up.  That turned out to be a very fortunate decision as it began to downpour while we were in town. The campsite was down a dirt road so who knows how long we would have been stuck in the park.  We were told many times that this was unusual for this area.

Day 11:
We were mostly lucky avoiding rain clouds on our way to the Black Hills Forest but not entirely.
When we did arrive, we first saw Mount Rushmore. It was impressive and sad at the same time.  It’s amazing what humans are capable of but where we choose to focus our energy can be so misguided. And now we have the Crazyhorse Monument. I highly doubt it was the Native Americans who funded it (they don’t reveal the donors on the website) and I highly doubt that they will get the money from the admission fees. Yes, it cost money to enter these monuments and  there are huge parking and tourist structures at their base. All of this destruction of nature in  what is supposed to be a  “National Forest”. How can it be legal? Meanwhile, it’s very illegal for me to simply spend one night outside of designated camp site.  They can permanantly destroy entire mountains for profit but I can’t enjoy the nature unless I have money. Priorities…
Next was the Needles Highway, a scenic byway that a biker we met in the Badlands told us about. (He took our picture and said  he was going to hang it in his office because we were his new heroes.) What he didn’t tell us was that it cost $10 just to drive down the road. We reluctantly paid it because to go around was even worse. In the end it was almost worth it. It was quite beautiful. On the way out of the park we saw the Sylvan Lake Resort; an impossibly beautiful place probably with a price tag to match. Again, who is profiting from all this tourism in our parks? All I know is that the price of a tent plot is still quite high and there are more people driving their entire homes into the parks…often with their car being pulled behind…with a storage box on the roof of it.

Day 12:
We had lunch in Deadwood and camped in the shadow of Devil’s tower. It’s a very small park since it’s really just a single tower in the middle of nowhere but this simple tower is anything but and it’s packed with wonder. I didn’t include many photos because it’s too easy to spoil the wonder of this one since it’s only one object.

Summary:
By this time, the endless days of driving were giving way to one destination after another. We would soon get overwhelmed with new, awe inspiring sites. Our health issues were beginning to clear up but they were still present along with our ups and downs on the road.

For more photos click here.

 

On the morning of our departure, Kristina and I were laying in bed speaking about our excitement and our fears of the journey that lay ahead. Kristina´s only fear…bears.

We knew the first leg of our journey was going to be mostly riding for long hours. There just isn’t much to see between Buffalo and Nebraska.

Day 1:
We hit the road with high spirits. At a gas station near Dunkirk some loud, salesman type guy  started speaking to us. We told him our story and just before he pulled away he stuck a 20 dollar bill in my hand and said “Congratulations”. Because we couldn’t find a place on the lake, we camped in a small forest in an old rail yard.
Because we were avoiding the highway, we only covered 160 miles.  We knew we were going to have to do better than that in the future if we wanted to cover 7000 miles in 2 months so we went to sleep with doubts and the warnings of all the naysayers in our heads.

Day 2:
We slept well and we woke with new hope; determined to do better.  I recalled the many times on my adventures that there were naysayers.  There was always more than one person eager to tell me why I couldn’t or shouldn’t do something.  I’m still not sure what people get from this behavior but I’ve noticed that it’s always the people that have never done something extraordinary who try to convince me not to try. The ones who have done similar or more extraordinary things are always eager to offer encouragement. It’s important when considering your next adventure to listen to the knowledgeable people and disregard the naysayers.
We made 170 miles that day; still not good enough.  To make things worse, I had a huge scare when I closed the seat (it lifts up) and there was a huge puff of smoke and the sound of sizzling. Thankfully, it was only the power port that I rigged to the battery that burned. I’m still not sure what went wrong. The new one is still working great.
We spent the night at a lovely wildlife refuge with the egrets. It was raining on and off and the wind was so strong it took both of us to set up the tent.

Day 3:
We met a woman at the grocery store. We discovered that she  studied painting in Geneva. She gave us 20 dollars as a gift. We now realized that people like our story and started thinking about making a sign.
Again we only made 120 miles. At this point we’re really wondering if the trip we planned is possible and if it is possible, do we want to do it?

Day 4:
We woke up in Nappanee, Indiana, a town known for its Mennonite and Amish communities. We had some time to kill because it was raining so we took the opportunity to speak to an Amish couple which was very cool for us because we both had an interest in there lifestyle but what makes it even more interesting is hat we discovered recently that both of there religions have there roots in Switzerland and that in some places they still speak Swiss-German. Super cool! Maybe one day I will be able to speak to them in there first language!
Later that day we met an interesting lady who came out of her house to see  if we wanted her to take a picture of us. She brought us into her house so that we could use her packing tape to protect the new sign we made. So if you ever run into Franny who lives at 420 LSD off of Greenleaf on Stone Lake, HIGH on a hill (her words)…tell her we said “Hello and thanks”.
Kristina was showing signs of a urinary infection and it was becoming very uncomfortable for her on the bike. At one point she said “Everyone keeps telling us how they wanted to travel but never did; for me it’s the opposite.”  We went to a hospital and got her a prescription for antibiotics.
To make things worse, I had recently got a really bad case of poison ivy on my arms and because I have to adjust myself often on the bike, it spread to my genitals which, after putting calamine lotion on it, leaves me with a condition I like to call “Zombie Dick”. It may as well be dead, anyway.  And for the icing on the cake…I was getting an outbreak of herpes. (Something I’ve had since I was a kid.)
So, to sum it all up…It was raining, Kristina had a burning pee-hole, I had zombie dick and herpes and we had only made 60 miles that day.  It was fast becoming a failed adventure and a horrible honeymoon.

Day 5:
The emotional roller-coaster continued. In the morning, we realized that Kristina’s coat was missing. After some back-tracking, we deduced that it was probably stolen. The new “Just married” sign was procuring us many honks and waves and we were given free produce at a roadside stand.
We tried to camp at a park outside of Chicago. We could have hid easily but the sites out in the open were much better so I made a poor decision; I thought that it might actually be beneficial to not hide and to simply be honest with the authorities when they come. Who would say no?! Robocops, that’s who. We were just about to go to sleep when they arrived. They never got out of there car. They simply spoke through there loudspeaker and when we approached the car to speak to them they said “This is not a negotiation!” We tried to explain to them that we have a lot of gear to pack up so it will take a while. They responded with “You have two minutes or we take the bike.”
That night we stayed at a motel nearby. It was the worst motel I’ve ever stayed at.
It was time for a new strategy. We decided to only camp legally for now on and to spend more money in order to ensure that the good times outweigh the bad.  Looking back, I can tell you it was a great decision.

Day 6:
By this time, my poison ivy was so bad that I cut Kristina’s socks to make sleeves just so I could hug her. By this time we had given up on the idea of going to LA and back to Buffalo. The plan now was to just get to LA, sell the bike and fly back. It was a bit discouraging but it only strengthened our resolve. We were determined to make more than 200 miles in a day.
That evening we found a campground on my GPS. When we got there it was empty; a full-sized campground completely empty. It didn’t look good but when we knocked on the caretaker’s door it ended with us getting a free room in the bunkhouse with showers, kitchen, wi-fi and laundry.  A big thanks to Kent and his family at Cedar Grove Camp!

Day 7:
We broke the 200 mile barrier! That was the good news. On the shitty side, the State park we slept at had tons of mosquitoes and we barely slept. We woke up with our butts on the ground repeatedly because our mattress had holes in it.

Day 8:
In my notes for this day, I just complain some more about the poison ivy, Kristina’s urinary infection and the mattress. We took another motel room to try to ease the pain. A strange lady in the room next to us took a shining to Kristina and left us some food in a bag hanging on our doorknob.

Day 9:
Things were turning around. Thanks to a new ivy scrub, my rashes were finally starting to dry up. The landscape was changing. The roads were smooth and straight with few stops for miles. In fact, things were so spread out that I was worried we might not come across a gas station in time. We were finally making good time and to top things off, we arrived at our first destination….the Badlands.
We spent the night in their campground and took a short tour just as the sun was setting. We were in heaven.

Day 10:
The badlands are an ideal place to visit on a motorcycle. A strong, smooth road passing through a moon-like landscape of delicate bluffs. We did do some hiking and the chipmunks were super cute but to honest, it became a bit repetitive. The best way to get to and view this park was on iron horse-back and because of this there were many other bikers there. We got many compliments on our courage to ride such an old bike so far. One guy even called us his new heroes. He took a picture of us and told us he will hang it in his office.  =p

Summary:
We’ve traveled over 1500 miles through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. It’s been both immensely difficult and hugely rewarding. The hard part is over, now it’s one natural wonder after the other.
The first part of a good journey is often a humbling experience and simply prepares you to appreciates things more. I can tell you this, I definitely appreciated the Badlands and I definitely appreciate my wife and I most certainly will appreciate the part of this journey that more closely resembles a honeymoon. =)

For more photos, click here.

 

 

 

 

Finally, after months of paperwork and stress and many wasted dollars, Kristina has arrived in the USA! I took a bus to meet her in New York City.* We stayed there for three days so she could see some of the city. We had a great time but she suddenly became very sick and we nearly weren’t able to take our scheduled flight home. In the end, she bit the bullet, took the flight and even made it to a family reunion the next day. She’s my little soldier.
We’re very happy to be in Buffalo and finally feel relaxed. We still need to get married, start the process for me to become a Swiss resident and plan a cross-country road trip but now that we’re together again, everything seems much easier.
Welcome to the USA, my baby!

*Traveler’s Tip: Never take Megabus if you have to be somewhere on time.

For more photos, click here.

Home. What does it mean? It’s such a simple word and, at first glance, a simple idea; as if it’s something absolute like “up” or “apple”. It’s just where you live, right? How long do you have to live there? Can you have more than one? How does family play into it?  These are questions I’ve pondered very often over the last few years as travelling constantly challenged my concept of “home”. Kristina and I have also spoken  a lot about home, lately. We are trying to begin a new life together and because of circumstances out of our control, we haven’t had much say in where we live in the past six months and it’s been a major source of stress for us. Finally, since announcing that I’m returning to Buffalo, people have been asking how it feels to be going home and this question has tripped me up every time. I couldn’t really find an answer, only more questions. “Is that home?”  “How do I feel about it?” I’m probably over-thinking it but it’s been such a recurring theme that I had to write about it.

As it turns out, everyone’s definition is different and mine is still evolving. The last three years have had a huge impact on my version of “home”. More and more the childlike image of a square with a triangle on top is giving way to a fuzzy Picasso.

“Wherever you go, there you are.” – ?

I have found that, for me, there is a definite correlation between how comfortable I feel and whether or not a place feels like home. Perhaps they’re even one and the same. When I was younger, like most kids I had some issues and I felt most at home in my room and not even always there.  As I got older, I moved out and could make a place feel like home after my stuff was around me and I got used to the place. While on the road I was proud to tell people that “Home is where I open my bag.”  Why this change? I’m convinced it’s because I became more comfortable with myself and the more comfortable you are in your own skin, the more easily you can feel at home regardless of where it is or who is there…or not there.

With that said….

Here I am, back in my “hometown” of Buffalo, New York, USA after three years of being in Europe and the adventure is showing no signs of stopping. I felt a bit like James Bond while leaving Europe. I never renewed my resident permit like I was supposed on account of not expecting to ever care so for two years I was in Europe illegally.  This is something they have no idea about until you try to leave. If they looked closely at my passport they would have seen that the last stamp I had was from three years ago. They could detain me and make me miss my flight, they could make it difficult for me to ever come back, they could fine me or any combination. This is partly why I left from Paris. The Latin countries are known for being a bit lazy when it comes to checking this stuff. Nevertheless, I was very proud of my performance. I played it off very cool and gave them overly complex answers so they would tired of speaking to me. I was so satisfied with myself that I decided to go through a second time! As it turned out, I had forgot to put my multi-tool into my checked bag. I wasn’t about to give it up so I was escorted out of the secure area so that I could find a solution to the problem. It would cost another $100 to check my other bag and the post office was closed. Believe it or not, the rep  told me to simply ask a passenger who still had bags to check if they would put it in their bag and give back in NYC. As an American I was shocked by this. “Really?!” I said with a stupid smile. “OK”. There was only one couple in line at the moment. “Excuse me, are you American?” They answered “Yes” already looking skeptical of the scary stranger with the big beard. I simply could not convince them to take my tool for me. I held it out in my hand, “Look! You can see what it is. How could it be something dangerous?!” At this moment I realized how paralyzed Americans have become by the “War on Terror”. To the Europeans, it just made sense to give it to someone else. To the Americans, it was a bomb! Defeated, I thought of one final option. If all goes well, Kristina will be passing through this same airport in a couple months so I slyly stashed it in a potted plant and rand to catch my flight. As I had hoped, the customs agent simply looked at the stamp that the other officer had given me and let me through again. As I walked onto my flight, I thought “Wolf…Bill Wolf…Bitches”

Three years is a long time and I was actually hit with a bit of a culture shock on my way home. The first major difference I noticed was the commercials on the plane. They were speaking to me! AHHHHH! For three years I could ignore advertisements easily because they were in another language. It was the only benefit of not speaking the language. Now they aren’t  just speaking to me, they’re YELLING AT ME!, too. Next was the squirrels in New York City. I know this sounds strange but the squirrels in Europe are super shy. You hardly ever see them. Then there was the e-cigarettes. Everybody has them! It seems so Sci-Fi to me like I’m in The Hunger Games. And finally, the beards. When I left three years ago, I thought the beard trend was already fading but it seems that everybody and their mother has a beard now. I like it. When I’m speaking aloud in public I still might glance around to see if anyone is looking at me funny because of my American English. The three years of absence must have made my heart grow fonder because I felt nostalgic when I first saw the city. It’s looking pretty good! The best part of being back is without a doubt seeing my family and friends again. It’s strange to be away from your family for so long that you can actually see the difference in age. My nieces and nephews have practically become adults. I’m sure they see the age difference in me, too.

But it’s bittersweet to be back in the Buf. Because of some amazing, ridiculous and very stressful complications, the love of my life could not come with me. She had to celebrate her birthday without me. I had to go to a wedding without her. I missed her very much during the July 4th fireworks and countless other moments. It’s quite a long story why and I will spare you the details but the lesson we learned is that truth doesn’t always set you free; especially when it comes to government agencies. (The anger and frustration of that experience is what left me with few qualms about lying to the customs agents when I flew out of Paris.) Now, Kristina has her second interview at the American Embassy in Bern on the 21st. If all goes well, we will be united on the 23rd in New York City. I can’t reenter Europe for another two months so if they deny her again then we will have to meet in some other country. The only thing that’s certain is I won’t sleep easy until we are together again.

The adventure continues…

For more photos click here!