The days are now starting to blur with each other. All of our human idiosyncrasies are now out in plain view for everyone to observe and comment on.
Welcome to a retirement life, as I now continue to live it. If you want to know the real reason why I’m here, it’s because of the excellent motorcycle ride training that I get just by riding with these guys. I would probably have to pay thousands for the same thing back home
If I was say, a real life motorcycle racer I would practice daily; for something like, 6 hours a day for 6 days a week, with only Sunday as a rest day. Here now in Spain I get to ride for 14 days straight without a rest day. The roads we are on were chosen to sharpen our skills. The scenery, food, friendships are just a value added benefit. There’s no where else I know except for Mexico where we could ride like we did these past few days. And I get to do it with far superior riders than I.
After Todd and I fueled up our BMW 850 motorcycles, we thought of only two things, good food and how far is it to Spain’s coastline. We looked, turned google on to avoid highways and then hit it.
Todd and I were the only survivors today on team Alpha. The other three tapped out for various reasons. Ducati Chris stayed up most of the night with free flowing human waste exiting both ends. I know. I know. Too much information but, how else can I make my point. The day before he carved those twisty roads on his Transalp Honda 750 like there’s no tomorrow. Chris does track days and it shows.
Canadian Jim also tapped out earlier on because he thought that the pace today would be too excessive. Another awesome rider however, he is riding a BMW 750, which needed a slower pace today.
Our ride didn’t start out fast however, the Spanish gods willed it that way. We were blessed today with perfect weather, near perfect curves on roads with grape stuff all over the vines. Good bye olive trees and hello grape vineyards.
We stopped for pictures after seeing the farmers tractor and trailer full of freshly harvested grapes. Delicious and sweet tasting. I rode by a farmer who encouraged me to reach in and grab a handful.
VALENCIA SPAIN: DAY 3 – Before you could say paella and hum the national anthem of Spain in Spanish; we were well on our way to enjoying the first course of our meal in Valencia.
This morning or was it yesterday? We left the historically beautiful renaissance town of Ubeda and ended up at Jumilla Spain, a town known the world world over for its black feet hams. If you’re vegetarian then skip this dispatch.
Our hotel rooms for the night resembled a low-cost, concrete-paneled three storied apartment building first developed in the Soviet Union during the 1960s. Appropriately rated at just one star. The beds in the rooms were similarly designed.
Once I found out I was roommates with Chris for the night I said to myself hell no. Chris is known for a wicked snore that even kept JuanJo up. And little did I know that he would come down with an internal 24 hour bug.
Jamón is at the heart of anything Spanish and cuisine and Spain’s regions vary in their food traditions.
Jamón Serrano is a cured country ham made from conventional pork. From the mountains of Spain, people used to pack fresh hams in sea salt and then hung them on rafters to cure. A year to eighteen months later those jamones are ready to cut and eat.
No cooking required, these hams are carved into paper thin slices and then served up with a glass of beer or Spanish wine.
The ham above is about ten feet from where I am now sitting. We are waiting until 8:30 pm for the restaurant to open.
DAY 2 – As the crow flies between this morning and now is 148 miles. We took twisted roads, paths and highways that led us through a national park, most of the times further away than our final destination.
The parks roads we rode on were mostly empty roads and all around were vacation homes that were all for sale.
Our rooms on day two were rated at four stars. The upscale rooms featured such as end amenities as heated floors and soaking tubs. High-end, lush linens and towels.
Deluxe pillows and the most comfortable mattress in the world. Beautiful views of a medieval castle right across the street.
When the interior of the hotel’s center dome is opened, one can open their room window and creat a vortex effect that cools the entire space.
DAY 1 – Yesterday I easily found faults with everything. The windscreen on my motorcycle buffeted my head and helmet; the handgrip’s were vibrating, even the cracking asphalt didn’t meet with my approval.
And it all came down to the rain, the straightness of the road and the lack of any speed on our part. I rode with two smaller motorcycles the first day. And today on day three those small motorcycles are being traded in for larger ones.
Ubeda was a wonderful destination to stay at and to experience. It was also a varied experience for each rider. Some riders who arrived earlier on got to enjoy the excellent cuisine but, only if they arrived before 4pm.
Todd, Juanjo and I were able to enjoy a five course meal for 29 euros that started out with a melon juice shot glass and either a mackerel or a sardine wrapped around a cheese ball on a toothpick.
Now if that’s not to your liking then there was a second option that I now forget.
And then the fabulous meal continued from there, paired with all sorts of ride questions, olive oil questions and the history of what we just rode through today.
Everything closes down from 4 until 8 pm. So, some people had drinks and tapas in a medieval castle setting suitable for a King.
Bill caught up to us around 4 pm once he was able to get his new helmet. His old one was stolen from the parking garage. This morning he is the first to get going. Bill is also trading in his Honda 300 for a larger one.
I looked around with wonder. To my amazement, it all looks exactly like Mexico in the smaller towns, except for the cartels of which Spain seems to have none.
If you leave town for a little ways by foot or vehicle all you find are a hilly landscape that, has for centuries been groomed for olive trees, as far as the eye can see.
UBEDA – Manuel the street sweeper now pulls up. I’m sitting on the hotels half wall. We began a chat. Soon I can’t shut him up. Here’s just a partial of what I learned or heard. Only buy the Extra virgin olive oil.
Anyway, like I was sayin’, says Manuel olives are the fruit of life. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There’s uh, olive -kabobs, olive tapas, olive paella and the list went on. That is about it.
We have options as in the way of riding a blue, red or even a green route. Blue is the normal route and green is the bypass route and red normally offers more challenges. We rode one section of red and then the rest was all blue. And we made it back in time for a meal.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Valencia? This gorgeous Mediterranean city is the third-largest in Spain, an expat hub, and the perfect year-round holiday destination. But what is Valencia famous for? Valencia is famous for being the cradle of paella, Las Fallas festival, and the City of Arts and Sciences.
Valencia is known as the City of the Holy Grail. It is home to the largest fresh produce market in Europe and the largest producer of oranges in all of Spain.
And like Paella is a symbol of belonging to a family and the dish carries the important Spanish value of family in the day to day life; this ride with my gpskevin friends is also about belonging as in the sense of the motorcycle community itself.
End
Trawlercat Chronicles 