Jammin Global

February 28 - March 4, 2010

With the bike all setup and packed, the last few days before leaving the house was as expected hectic. Moving out of the house I lived in for the last 4 years required help from friends as there was more to throw away than expected and I guess I couldn't bare to throw away so many useful things. The house, car (Mini Cooper) and sport bike (Suzuki GSX-R600) were sold and besides the DR, the only possessions I was keeping were my Definitive speakers, racing leathers and one suitcase of photo albums and things that couldn't be thrown away that was going to be shipped home to India.

I had been selling as many things as I could on craigslist and ebay over the past few months, liquidating all my possessions but there were still so many things of value that I felt bad about throwing in the trash. Anything useful was donated to the Salvation Army and I got my friends to take a lot of things like furniture and posters.

My good friend Allen helping clean out the kitchen. Besides the garage, the kitchen is what I'm going to miss the most, being a cook. Felt bad throwing away so many spices and other cooking items :( The last few months leading up to the trip start I tried to finish up all the food in the kitchen, but I could only get so far.

Almost empty kitchen. So many good memories from parties and Thanksgiving dinners here.

Kristen is a pro photographer in the making and she wanted to do a photo shoot with the bike playing with lights and such. Her and Allen helped me a lot in the last few days getting things out of the house and helping me organize. She also helped by taking a lot of my furniture and movie posters.

One of my favorite songs and I love the guitar solo in the extended version.

Taking away my movie posters

Making runs to Salvation Army giving away useful clothes and other household items.

Getting rid of my trusty Sidi Vertebrae Tepor boots. 5 years old and about 60,000 miles on them. My riding friends couldn't stand that I had holes in the boots, haha. Wringing as much value as possible out of them.

Setting up the bike in the garage for her photo shoot.

Kristen having fun with the bike and playing with back lighting.

One last dumpster run and bye bye Mini, great car for the past 5 years.

My close motorcycle friends at my farewell party. We've been on some great rides around the US and I learnt a lot from these mentors of mine. I hope to do them proud.

Saying good-bye to all my friends from work and around Chicago. They've considered me the crazy biker for riding to Mexico and Alaska and for bouncing off the concept for this trip amongst many of them for the past few years. Everyone was happy to see my dream come into reality. That's it, no more possessions! Feels great to off load everything.

Next: Journey Start Photo Shoot

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