Responses

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

I wanted to take the time this week to respond to a few comments, just so everyone knows that I actually do read them!  First, an apology to Jay, apparently the road we are going to drive is referred to as simple "The Dragon" and that "The Tail of the Dragon" is actually a gift shop.  There were several references on the Minis on the Dragon website to "The Tail of the Dragon" and I thought that was an official term.

On the subject of driving, Corey posted a link in a comment to last week's blog for a road in California.  Check last week's comment section, it looks excellent.  The link is to the Google Map for that section of road, and I highly recommend checking out the Street View of it.  I've actually heard that coastline from Washington State right down to California offers some phenomenal driving.  I'd really love to check it out sometime.

Switching over to our earlier discussion on currency; I got a pretty disbelieving reaction when I said that I had a hard time finding Yen in Toronto.  Believe me, I was just as surprised as everyone else.  I assumed that I'd be able to score some Yen at one of the big currency exchanges downtown, but I had no luck.  I'm just happy that I called ahead before going down there.  I have to assume that my inability to procure currency was some kind of strange fluke.  My greatest mistake there was waiting until just before I left to try finding Yen.  Which brings us to Travel Tip #1: Never Procrastinate!  If something can be done in advance, do it.  I wouldn't have thought that anyone in a major city would ever have trouble finding Yen, but there you go.  If I'd gotten on that sooner I probably wouldn't have had any issues.

Going farther back in the comments now, my diving buddy Helmut left me a message on one of the Iceland posts.  If you're still reading this Helmut, I got the message late, but I did get it.  I tried to e-mail you, but I got a delivery failure, I'll try again today.  Hope you are doing well.

Okay, that wraps up the responses that I wanted to get out.  Before I go, a little bit of personal news that does relate to travel.  On Saturday I purchased my first motorcycle!  It's a Honda CBR125R, which is a 125cc (small engine) sport bike.  I believe the official colour is Hurricane White.  I'm very excited about it!  Unfortunately I won't get the bike until Spring since the riding season here is on the verge of being over, so I just had the bike put directly into storage.  Come April though (maybe late March if I'm really lucky) I'll finally be able to get the bike out and start practicing.  There's been some talk of bringing it down to The Dragon, but I'll have to see if I'm feeling skilled enough at that point to make it worthwhile.  The happiest news in all of this is that I told my parents that I got a bike and as far as I know I haven't been officially disowned, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Well, more on my motorcycling adventures later.  Right now I need to go to work so that I can afford to get my bike insured.  Be well everyone!