For this road trip has been in the making for well over one year, and yet almost for 25 years, Let me explain. Soon after I started driving, or should I say legally driving when I was 16, I began to imagine jumping in the car one day and heading for the west coast. Well, as many things in life, time, money, work, and other obligations, I simply never found the time, or made the time to make such a trip.
Fast forward about 20 years when I started riding and suddenly travel to distant places is the norm. For a few years taking smaller trips, under 4k miles week trips was just sorta setting the stage for what would now become "the Trip of 2011"
Planning: Talk to the vacation lady at work, ask for approval for two weeks vacation. Simple, she was excited for me to be able to take my trip. Cool.... Next, find locations around the lower 48 that were interesting enough to ride too, take a picture, (read that as, take a picture and a break) and see something you've only heard about, seen on T.V. or just lucked up and found while search other locations.
Reading Ride reports on ADV of course gives you plenty of ideas of what you can see in this country, you see others riding around Moab, UT or some other place and you just make mental notes that you'd like to see that someday.
Route Planning: Google maps is my friend. Search for what your looking for, click directions here via this road and voila. Sorta that simple, but I had more than one or two locations. The objective of my two week vacation and heading towards the west coast was see mostly things that you need the two weeks for to see. In other words, there would be no stops or sightseeing for the 1st two days, or the last two days. These days would be used for munching miles on the interstate. Key Sites that were on the list from the beginning.
- Badlands National Park
- Mt Rushmore
- Crazy Horse
- Yellowstone National Park
- Pacific Coast Hwy
- Las Vegas
- Grand Canyon National Park
I won't bore you with all the details of finding spots, but google image is a good tool. searching "top things to see in X state" works well too. Once you find your spots, of course that is just the beginning, I was interested in hours of operation, any fees, and was it fair. Also, the more spots you find, you are forced to decide which ones are on the "DO LIST" and weed out the "not worth it" list. Of course over time I would change my list a countless amount and would work on the list, and the route until two days before leaving for this trip on October 1st 2011.
The Who: Well there is a lot to this part, I originally planned this trip as a solo ride, as I would have done if no others were so inclined to come with, and the who did change a few times, for various hot headed and stubborn reasons, But in the end George, who I have ridden more miles with than anyone called to inquire about this trip, so with a little movement in the planned dates it was now set for Oct. 1st (oh, this could be cold, and snow could be an issue)
The List as set out on 10-1-11
- Be in Kansas City Day One. 1034 miles via Louisville, Ky
- Dunning, NE
- Badlands
- Wall Drug
- Iron Mountain Rd.
- Mt Rushmore
- Crazy Horse
- DeadWood, SD
- Sturgis, SD
- Hells Angels Clubhouse
- Wild Bill Grave site
- Yellowstone NP
- Grand Teton NP
- Bonneville Salt Flats
- Loneliest Hwy in America Route 50 across Nevada
- Reno, NV
- Tioga Hwy
- Yosemite NP
- Folsom Prison
- Redwood Forest
- Pacific Coast hwy
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Alcatraz Prison
- Twin Peaks in SF
- Wyatt Earp Grave
- James Dean Memorial
- James Dean Crash Site
- Karate Kid Apartment
- Karate Kid movie Ali's house
- Karate Kid Cobra Kai Dojo
- Hollywood Sign
- Griffith Observatory (Rebel without a cause Movie filmed here) also overlooks LA
- Ronald Regan Library
- Death Valley NP
- Las Vegas Welcome Sign
- Hoover Dam
- Grand Canyon NP South Rim
- Grand Canyon NP North Rim
- Glen Canyon Dam/bridge
- Forest Gump spot on Utah from the movie where he stopped running
- Hole 'n the Rock
- Moab, Utah
- Arches NP
- Royal Gorge Bridge
- Pikes Peak
Packing: Packing for a car trip is so much simpler, a bike trip, you need to be able to carry only what you need, and not anything you can live without. You have to prep your bike, install new tires, oil changes check everything over, pack a tool kit, rain suit, in this case, warm weather gear, mild weather gear, hot weather gear, clothes, camera, computer, batteries, chargers, hydration pack and the list goes on. It seems the weeks before the trip I was ordering or buying new things constantly. But this was my first trip on this motorcycle and a learning curve was in place.
Finally Packed and Ready to Roll..............
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