Two weeks to go and I have made pretty ambitious plans to cover some extreme miles and see some amazing country. Unfortunately it appears that all the good country is either on the East or West coasts and there is very little in the middle like Texas. I am not saying Texas is a bad place.. it’s just flat. I have studied the maps and have made a plan to ride about 350mi a day and this allows me to go through a lot of the major National Parks like the Grand Canyon, Zion, Death Valley and Yosemite. Also I will stay at Vegas for one night. I am however concerned about the weather as all of these places are elevated around 4000-6000ft and all get snow – guaranteed! If I have some luck with the weather I could be ok, but the whole thing could go very pear shaped if a big cold front comes through and dumps the first snow. So there will have to be some very careful weather watching as I approach the Grand Canyon. If the weather has come or will come while I plan on being in the area, I will have no option but to stay south and head for San Francisco. One thing is for certain, Motorcycles and snow are not compatible, so I will only go into the elevated areas if the weather is looking 100%. Looking at the map I am two thirds the way through my duration, but only half way across the US. I am a little concerned about this, but have to keep in mind that while I was in North Carolina I did a shit load of riding and clocked up many miles. So far I have done 4500mi, but don’t have this far to ride to complete what I want to do. The longest ride I have done in 1 day is 550mi and that was from New Orleans to Dallas. It took 12 hours but I had many delays in traffic and was held up on the interstate for 40mins while they cleared a wreck. I have based the remainder of the trip on 350mi a day, which is definitely doable, providing you get an early start. My gut feeling is I won’t be able to get up north to the Redwood Nat. Park in Californa... but that’s cool because if I am running out of time I can just head straight to San Francisco. At this stage my plane is still leaving from Las Angles, but I am thinking about changing it to San Fran. So apparently I have 2-3 days ahead of dead boring riding trying to get out of Texas and it will not start to get interesting until I get into Arizona and closer to the Grand Canyon. I am very excited about this part to the journey. ‘Bonnie the Busa’ (my Suzuki Hayabusa) is awesome and yesterday I bought her a brand new rear tire (Lester/Larry – I bought a Michelin Power Pilot 2CT Dual Compound) and had her checked over. She’s ready to burn. I’ve just got to tell her to slow down, as she’s a bit partial to over 100mph and the State Troopers don’t seem to like that – can’t figure why! ;) Anyway, I have many stories to add on the blog, but have been spending too much time enjoying myself with new friends that I have met along the way to waste time writing stuff. Hopefully over the next 2 days of boring riding, I will be able to fill you in about them and all the fun we have been having. Time to hit the road. Wish me luck with the weather.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jamesc71/0MyPlanAndActualProgress/photo#5135688283015544098
Cheers
James.
Here is a link to a map of my plan