The Ansel Adams (Not) Edition of TRT

South Africa, 2022.  We’re often asked if it was a real elephant.  Yes it was.

The dining and living rooms of Corona Adobe. Somehow, CA has become very popular as a B&B since its booked almost solidly between now and May 2023

Global Energy Summit in Vienna, probably 2018 or 19. Arnold  Schwarzenegger gave a great speech.

The end of the road for Casa Loca. I will always remember the date: February 25, 2004. Remarkably, all four of us survived with Karen’s broken back the most serious injury.  It took us six months to recuperate, but eventually we did.

On my first delegation with LA Mayor Garcetti to Asia. We were signing an MOU with a Chinese counterpart.  2015ish.

Catching up on work in the kitchen of a local family in Flambella, Argentina during my first “Chasing the Dakar” trip in 2010.

We stayed with this family in Mongolia and slept in our first khurr. Mongolians are herders, moving their livestock from location to location pitching “camp” at each stop. One of our favorite places . We’d go back in a heartbeat.

Hugging my favorite meal in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2011

It’s hard work, but someone has to do it. At our palapa, Little Big Sur, in the jungle south of Puerto Vallarta. Probably sometime around 2008.

And all the house fell down. Standing in front of what was Casa Rana, soon to become the Corona Adobe in 2012. We built two more stories, a pool and observation deck on top of the original 100 year old adobe that we purchased in 2010.   During this period, Karen was supervising the construction on a daily basis and I’d fly in twice a month to “help out”.

KR and me checking into AA before our flight to Buenos Aires to start our 3-month motorcycle ride. We were all bright and shiny.

Standing in front of the White House during one of my first “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” trips searching for funding for LACI.

Two classics. Buenos Aires 2005. fw

May 2015 in the Alps. Much of the Alps were still closed, so we had to board a train that went through to the “other side.”

Riding in the Alps, still one of the all time best motorcycle rides. 2015.

The other side of the world — Boca de Tomatlan, waiting for the taxi to Little Big Sur. Must be after 2010 as the “new” pier was in. When I went to LBS this past December, this pier had fallen down and they were building a new “new” pier.

Adventure camera woman! Chasing the Dakar Rally, somewhere in Argentina, 2011.

A big part of the 2011 South American trip was spent waiting for our motorcycle to arrive in Buenos Aires. Here, our panniers are packed and ready to go.

Skip forward several years to Christmas/New Years 2013. Now Voyager stands in the rain while we figure out how to get from Guatemala back to Mexico.

Pushing NV onto its second flatbed truck of the day in the foothills of the Andes. Chile. 2011

Little B&B in Valparaiso Chile.

Ahhh, what a day this was! Picking up NV II at the dealer. April 2014.

KR looking at the map, down a dirt road north of El Serena, Chile. We were lost and off the highway. We were trying to figure out how far it was to a town on the ocean. Answer was about 40 miles.

Fast forward to 2022 in. South Africa. We were about to start our two-week tour.

The world at our finger tips. 2016 ish. We’ve found that actually seeing the great wonders of the world is a whole lot different than seeing them in a picture. Besides the Taj, we’ve seen Machu Picchu, the Great Wall, the Pyramids, and lots of less know wonders.

Kidnapped Pinada on a Mexican highway on our way to Guatemala. Around Christmas time 2012.

One of the reasons NV I  went to a new owner shortly after this trip is that he required frequent road-side repairs. Here, I’m trying to rebuild the fuel pump/filter in Acapulco. 2013.  Notice computer on the ground as I’m reading an online repair manual.

High-up in the mountains in the small country of Lesotho, Africa. 2022

Karen with an Ethiopian family just outside Addis Abba, Ethiopia. 2016.

Traditions lost. Grid Girls on the way to the start of the Monaco Grand Prix. Sadly, they are no longer a part of the show 🙁

Opposite end of the world. Lago Verde, in the Andes, probably in Chile, maybe Argentina

Karen is never afraid to mix with the locals. Here she sits with the locals in a tiny town in the Altiplano in Peru.

We spent about three weeks on the Altiplano at 14,000 ft. It was as cold as it looks.

While Karen was mixing with the locals, I was trying to get warm at the local (only) restaurant. Their specialty, guinea pigs, were running around on the kitchen floor. I decided I wasn’t that hungry.

A single solar panel can change a family’s life. This small houses sits on an island of reeds in Lake Titikaka, Bolivia. We stayed with a local family and saw the impact of having electricity in the house was.

Another office, this one in the Italian Alps.

This may look like Egypt, but its really Mongolia. Mongolian camels have much longer hair, to protect against the wind and winter I assume.

Great day. My partner, Neal Anderson, and I on the day we opened the $60M La Kretiz Innovation Campus as Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator’s new home.  Getting this built was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  Neal did the heavy lifting of negotiating a 200+ page lease agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.  LADWP largely financed its construction and leased it to LACI for $1/year.

Back street in Beijing.  Far far away from the normal tourist places.

Great wall has to be seen to be appreciated. Pictures do it no justice.

One of the best nights ever. The Mayor’s delegation to China has dinner in a restaurant almost directly under the Great Wall.

Riding motorcycles isn’t all fun and games, especially as the Old-Ometer gets higher. KR and I in Needles, CA after riding through the desert and its 120 plus degrees heat.

Children in Bolivia were gorgeous. This chap lives on an island in Lake Titikaka.

Just one of many tip-overs we’ve had during our trips. This is in southern Mexico on our way home from Gautemala. 2013.

First time Thor had ever been in the snow. The water in the dog’s bowls froze, the furnace didn’t work, but it was a great time in Taos, NM on our first house-hunting trip.

It might have been nippy outside, but it was nice inside. This was one of our best New Years parties.

View off our deck this winter after one of the eight snowstorms we’ve had.

We went to the Goodwood Revival this summer. In addition to a whole weekend of fast, classic sports cars, most people dressed in costume for the 50’s-70’s. Great great event.

One of my favorite items in the Enzo Ferrari museum. Picture of Enzo (far left w/ white hair) listening to the gentlemen on the far right during a meeting. Doesn’t look like its going well.

Having lunch in the Swiss Alps. Very very good times.

Expression says it all. Very cold in South Africa after a 4-hr safari ride ending at night.

Three Bikers in the mountains in South Africa. Very very good day of riding.

We saw a lot if spectacular animals in South Africa this summer, but the giraffes were by far my favorite. Once again, pictures do not do them justice.

West Bengal in the Spring 2022. Vinay, Kartikeya and me await our time to go on stage at a WB university. I went to West Bengal twice this year on NGIN business. WB has 90 million people, about twice the size of California.

Cindy, Peter, Karen and I party at the El Rancho hotel in Gallup, New Mexico one weekend in 2021. It was nippy, even though it was November.

Lobby of the El Rancho Hotel. Build in the early 20th century, it was the main place for Hollywood stars to stay during filming westerns.

Mountain Dog. Bogart on his lookout.

No matter the weather, its always beautiful. Astute viewers will notice KR is sitting down with her list of things to do. Ohhh boy.