Lets start off with Lukas. I met him today at a KTM/Adventure dealer in San Diego and we talked for about a half hour while he was fixing his bike and I loved every second of it.
Lukas is from Vienna, Austria, is barely 35 and has been traveling on his KTM motorcycle for over 2 years already. He plans another 2 years. His goal is to travel the world alone on his bike while stopping along the way — but he is doing it the long way and claims to have traveled 50,000 miles already. Check out his bike — looks like its been through a cataclysmic explosion. Its like his home. He blew an engine and few things in Baja, Mexico recently so he came back to San Diego to order new parts. He is doing the work himself outside an awesome adventure dealer/repair shop.
I loved talking with Lukas. His Facebook is “Around the world with LukasM”. He is camping, eating local foods and is living for the ride. His next leg is from Northern Mexico down to Ushuaia, Argentina then up the east coast of South America. That alone should be at least half a year or more — my guess is a year the way he is doing it.
That kid will be an asset to any company in the world when he is done. The amount of issues and decisions he has to make are likely life and death, comfort and pain, budget savings vs excess. Lukas is building lots of experiences and will be a better person for it.
Good Luck Lukas.
Because I skipped my northern leg of upper New Mexico and Arizona, the Grand Canyan, I have extra time to use. Well, I’ve been hanging around San Diego for the past few days. Very happy to chill in hotel and wander every so often into the city area. I was also planning to head to Palm Springs/Desert Springs, but decided against that too. Not so excited to go to desert and stay at a resort thing — thats not my thing to do. I need some activity.
What have I been doing in SD? Well, walking a ton but really in the same area — not doing major tourist stuff. I have not visited the war ships. I have not visited Coronado Island — although I plan to take my bike there tomorrow. In exchange, I have hopped on my bike once a day and just went around the outside of the city and coasted around. Visiting BMW and motorcycle dealers is my lame idea of fun while surfing the highways and byways of the outskirts of the city. I did that in Phoenix too.
Today I went over to an adventure motorcycle shop, meaning that they don’t sell crotch rockets or Harley’s — they sell KTM and BMW type bikes. Coooool bikes that can go around the world just like my BMW R1200GS which I am in love with. So that is where I met Lukas. Ok, full circle.