Epic PCH Motorcycle Ride Report

Last Saturday, I rode my motorcycle home from Marin County... the loooong way. I have wanted to ride the PCH through Big Sur for a while now, and finally got the chance. I was on the road about 12.5 hours and 465 miles, and it was a great adventure; my longest ride to date.

I stopped an annoyingly large amount of times for pics. If I had been riding with anyone that day, I think they would've left me behind about halfway through. Here's a bit of a photo journal of it. (click on the pics for bigger sizes)

I left San Fran at about 5:30am. The above pic was taken on Conzelman Rd, on the north side of the Golden Gate bridge. The fog was so thick, you wouldn't even know the Pacific was there, much less an enormous bridge in the background.

Below, a little daylight allowed me to start getting half a view.


A few more early morning foggy pics:



Before long I found myself in Carmel. On a whim, I turned off PCH at Ocean Ave, followed it toward the water, and rode through this quaint town set back in time.


Carmel by the beach is gorgeous. The sun finally decided to make an appearance about now.


One thing I love about riding a motorcycle, but didn't expect when I started, is people come up to you and start talking about your bike, their bikes, your destination, whatever. People who would normally pass me by, will stop and talk to me because of this wonderful connection. This is Paul, and he and I had a great conversation by the beach about motorcycling. I chased him down later to get this pic of him in his sweet 50 year-old Cadillac.


The beach on the south side of Carmel.


Leaving south from Carmel is the beginning of the twisties (curvy roads). This sign promised good times, and boy, it delivered! They should just put a big sign up with a smiley face on it, 'cause that's what it gives you.


The heavy fog came and went throughout the day.



One of my favorite bridges of the day: Big Creek Bridge. First is close up, second in mirror, and third is distant.




I'll wrap it up with a few random coastal shots.





Monday, I'm making the trip back up to Skywalker Sound for more Clone Wars stuff, and if time allows, you can bet I'll be on this route in reverse.

I finally bought a new seat with gel inserts, so hopefully the long rides won't keep me squirmin'!

Simon's Cat 'TV Dinner'

I've become a big fan of the "Simon's Cat" series. Here's the latest. FYI, this is EXACTLY how my siamese cat Asia acts. And as usual with these, the sound effects make the video.

Star Wars, Now In Mandarin

I printmastered my first foreign version of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" mix today. It was a lightning fast mix; only three days! Star Wars is cool in Swedish though. The Dolby guy came in and monitored all the outputs with me, and I learned a lot about his side of the process.

More good news is that I've been asked to work here again next week. I'm dubbing the Taiwanese Mandarin version then. (I was to have a week off between my two weeks here) So, tomorrow I ride home, then the next day I ride back. That's a lot of riding just for 20 hours at home, but it's worth it to see Chana and the kids.

More sound news later. I gotta go. I'm getting hungry for oranges.

Chana Update

Just wanted to give an update on Chana's condition. She's getting around better today, though she's still hurting.

Thanks so much for the prayers and thoughts. When there's more, I'll let you know.

UPDATE: The X-rays are negative, so Chana will be taking it slow and sure. At least she won't have to deal with bone mending!

Please Pray For Chana

Yesterday, Chana took a fall from a tree (what can I say, she's still a tom-boy) and injured her ribs, neck and back. She is able to move about with extreme difficulty. At first the pain was merely severe, and she thought it would subside in time. It has steadily gotten worse and has become agonizing.

She has been x-ray'd, and we're still waiting for results. Unfortunately, I'm in Nor Cal on a job and can't be home until Saturday. Our family friend, Hannah is still with us, but she leaves on Saturday. She will be a great help until she leaves though, so I'm thankful that she is there. Of course, if I get news that Chana is in need of serious attention (hospitalization, etc), or just wants me to come home, I will be home before that.

Please pray for Chana's recovery. Please pray that there is nothing seriously injured, and she will be able to return to normal health immediately. God is the God of healing, and we believe He still does miracles. Please pray for this.

Thank you so much.

Mark

Dancing Across The Globe

I saw this on Melanie's blog. If you spend a gazillion dollars on travel, or own your own airline, you too can make a video like this.

The Clone Wars & Skywalker Sound

I am happy to say that I have been hired by Skywalker Sound to work on the animated feature, The Clone Wars. I've been brought on to help with the foreign language mixes. We are creating about two dozen foreign language mixes for this world-wide release. I'll be re-recording the Swedish and Catalan versions, starting next week.

Excuse me while I geek-out a bit; it is such an honor for me to have the opportunity to work on anything officially Star Wars related. After all, it is the most storied and legendary film franchise in history. I'm truly thankful.

**Educational Tangent**
I have to admit, I'd never heard of Catalan before. It turns out that it is understood by about 11 million people, and used mostly in Spain and remote parts of France. I would've missed that question on Jeopardy.

It's a two week job, so not necessarily a long-term position, but one thing leads to another, as they say.


This comes at a good time, because the start date for my other "next gig" has been delayed again and again over the last several weeks. That one will happen, just not in my time frame it seems. (as soon as "Escape From Planet Earth" starts for me, I'll fill you in on all the details, and I'm also planning a video blog series based on it)

So, right now I'm just prepping the Suzuki for a long-distance run up to Marin County. It should be a beautiful ride up the coast.

Be sure and check out the Star Wars site. There are a lot of great videos to whet your appetite for this movie. From what I've seen, it looks incredible.