There’s not much to say about my motorcycle ride to San Francisco. I’ve wanted to take a long ride on the bike since I got it a little over a year ago and this is the first opportunity I’ve had.

So, not very early on Monday morning, my lovely wife Dellis moved her car out of the driveway to give me plenty enough room to get out of the garage.   I took a couple of cell phone pictures at the end of the driveway, Dellis kissed me, cautioned me to be careful and went back inside.

It was funny when she looked out five minutes later and I’d hadn’t left yet. Look, this was a serious ride and I was still running down my checklist and tweeting that I was leaving.

Quite a few miles between Hawthorne and San Francisco. During the trip, I was mostly alone with my thoughts and now I’m a little torn between sharing my thoughts and just letting them stay bouncing around in my head.

It wasn’t a transformative journey. No epiphanies to speak of, but I do feel that the experience of the ride added something to my life.

Get this, relatively speaking, I took very few photographs along the way. Those that I did manage to snap were taken quickly while filling my tank during the three times that I stopped for gas and the one time I stopped for a quick bite to eat.

In this age of social media, I wouldn’t have felt right if I didn’t share some pictures of my ride, but I really wanted to experience what I was doing without missing out on parts of it because I was too busy documenting the trip instead of just living it.

Did anyone see the Ben Stiller movie, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” while it was out?

Sean O’Connell, the character Sean Penn plays in the movie is a world class photographer.  

Not a particularly great movie (although, it was entertaining to me), so I hate to admit it, but there was something in Sean Penn’s character that will likely live with me from here on out.

I’ve spent the most of my adult life shooting still photos and video. What I witness becomes a part of me and that sentiment was expressed by Sean Penn in the movie.

The thing is, he goes further in that he sometimes does not take the shot. At times his memory becomes the only record of a moment that would have otherwise been shared with the world.

Maybe that’s a bit selfish but, whoa, that really made me stop and think about what I do.

I’ve always been a photographer in some way and I’ve always gotten a kick out of sharing my experiences. That’s been “me” for quite a while. Not thinking I’d want to change that completely, but it has been on my mind.

More and more I’m hearing about the pendulum of social etiquette swinging away from sharing all.

So, that’s where I am. I’m trying to determine my balance point.

I did not take my 5D mkII camera on this trip. I brought the much smaller EOS-M with me, but never pulled it out on the road. My iPhone was all the camera I used on the ride and even then, it was just a couple of shots at the few stops I made.

At the end of my ride up, I witnessed some pretty spectacular sigths and I thought about how awesome it would be to photograph and share what I saw.

As I rode through Oakland on the 580 Freeway, the sun had just set. The sky above was deep blue and that mixed with the orange city lights to make the skyline almost purple.

I cruised across the Bay Bridge into the city and I was completely torn by my desire to share what I was seeing.  My cameras stayed tucked away. The moment passed and I continued my ride.

It’s after 3am.

I’m writing this now, because I checked into my hotel, grabbed a couple slices of really good pizza (and a six pack of beer), chowed down and promptly crashed. (Yeah, how badass, is that? Wait, what? Aww, come on, what do you mean, not very?)

There is some regret in not shooting photos on the trip, but I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to see and experience and enjoy some unforgettable moments.  I would have enjoyed sharing the photos with you, but since they don’t exist, you’ll have to come here and see it for yourself.