THE END - Cambridge, Massachusetts

I don't know where to start because this is my last post which will conclude our 6 week motorcycle road trip. After a bit less than 5,000 Miles I feel content and ready to sell my bike and move on to my next adventure. I never thought I would actually fulfil one of my childhood dreams, and to do it in a seamless and smooth way.

San Francisco is one of those cities you can spend a year living in and still not know right from left. However you can visit for one day and feel right at home. We were very fortunate to have close family to stay with, and friends that opened their house for us too. The week in San Francisco was great, we got to see all the touristy sites like Lumbard street and pier 39, and except for the coolish weather it was a perfect time to walk around. Dovid met up with us in Oakland, where we stayed at his close friend's house, and spent the time planning the logistics of ending our road trip. Even though our initial plan was to continue to the East coast with the motorcycles, we all agreed unanimously that ending it in Cali would be our best option. I do have to mention that Dovid made a huge effort and took of work especially to go on this road trip, and even though we had our ups and downs we are all extremely glad we made this adventure fun, exciting and unforgettable.

Our home base for the week was in Morgan Hill with Daphna and Peter. Staying with them wasn't only comfortable but almost necessary due to the fact that Peter helped us tremendously with our motorcycle issues and made our life easier than expected. They both made endless amount of time to accommodate us and make us feel right at home, and their 2 little pugs helped out too. Even though Morgan Hill is around 70 miles south of the city we still found plenty of things to do and we're very happy to have amazing hosts. They should be coming to Israel in October so I am looking forward to seeing them back at home as well.

"If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on." Lance Armstrong

When I used to work in Vail, Colorado Uri and I were on the phone at least once a day. Our conversations were sometimes short and at times lasted for hours. I always believe in having very few close friends and having one that served side by side with me back in the army made our friendship even stronger. Honestly, and we both agree on this, I couldn't ask for a better partner for this motorcycle trip and that being said I am so glad we made it happen. There were days years ago in 2010 when Uri and I used to sit on our lunch break in the army and talk about our life's dream which was to cross America on a motorcycle. Many people have done it so why can't we? Then, we both were in very different worlds, even from each other. When I finished training I was sent off to commanders school down south, and Uri in the other hand was moved to a different section in our mother unit. At that period there were times where we didn't speak to each other all week, but I remember every time I finished the intense week on base I used to meet up with him in downtown Jerusalem, even if it was just for one beer. There is a word in Hebrew which I couldn't find the exact definition in English, "Or-ga-ni-ut", which was used endlessly in the army. The best definition I found translated it as "Integral", a complete unit; a whole. Essentially the meaning of the word means operation of a group of people together in any environment with least amount of misunderstandings and the highest amount of coherency. On our voyage we both noticed the our level of "Organiut" is the highest it can ever be, and would joke that a married couple could learn a lot from us. 

 

In order to tour the city we decided to stay with a close friend of Dovid's in Oakland, as I stated above. They were very kind and nice and we enjoyed our stay there too very much. Oakland is located east of SF and right on the other side of the Bay bridge. Having a close place to sleep for the night made it possible for us to ride into the city after or before rush hour, and spend time absorbing the whole scene there. I wouldn't state this as a failure, but we didn't get to see the Golden Gate bridge due to various reasons. The more cities we saw on our tour, attractions and activities in them became more banal. Uri always used to say half jokingly as we were riding through a new city, "another city.. high risers and people going to work - nothing different from the last".

I am writing this last post sitting in a small coffee shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It took us 36 days to get from East to West, but less than 12 hours from the Pacific to Atlantic. We landed yesterday in Logan airport on a flight from San Francisco and have been trying to keep our spirits up. I will spend the rest of my last month on the States working with Uri and when the time comes fly back to my little country. And like all bikers greet each other on the road, I'm gonna conclude with The Wave - Peace.