Trip of a lifetime....

Great pics, patswin! Thank you for sharing.

And, I am very envious because Mt. Rushmore is on my bucket list.
 
Well. I'm back. So much for sharing updates as I went along.
What you quickly learn is that you don't exactly have a ton of downtime on trip like this.

I'm pleased to report that we had zero problems. No one got hurt or sick, and no one had a bike act up. It was tremendous fun and I had some of the best days on a motorcycle ever.
Highlights:
  • Upstate NY believe it or not, some great roads.
  • Yellowstone. Incomparable.
  • Cody Wyoming is a great town, we had a blast there.
  • Idaho and Montana were the best
  • I loved Nebraska.. the Great Plains are very nice.
  • Black Hills / Mt Rushmore were great takes, good riding too.
  • People are so nice everywhere we went.
Low lights
  • Iowa. Jesus Christ it's corn to the horizon in every direction. And I crossed it twice.
  • The heat on certain days. We're pretty good to 90-92. When it gets to or past 100, which it did on occasion, it's not fun, although we were prepared for it. In fact our longest days were two of the hottest, 450 plus miles in that crap. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. When you drink a gallon of water in a few hours and don't pee.. it is f-ing hot.
I wasn't sure how I or we would do physically. I packed a family size box of Aleve, AKA biker candy, anticipating aches and pains galore. I never touched them, and never got sore, my arse was as comfy as could be. I spent a lot of effort on the bike and making sure I addressed any ergonomics.. i.e. a custom seat, adjust pegs and bars as needed, wind protection good, and good gear... a cooling vest was key for the heat. Suffice to say I was pleased to be able to maintain a 350-450 mile pace for days and days. Not bad for a fossil in his 60's. Total mileage was just a hair under 7000.

Headcase commented about the Gold Wing with the lights.. yep that's mine. And they are bright as hell!

My pics need to be edited to fit file size issues here but I will try to add some of the good ones. I can't post MOV videos either.. I had a camera mounted on the bike taking videos at times.

I've been cross country and you ain't wrong about Iowa.

Got a speeding ticket at 125 mph through a very long stretch of straightaway through the cornfields at 3 am.

Didn't even realize my speed, there was literally nothing but corn walls and road forever.

Cop was trying to arrest me cuz he didn't think I'd pay the fine and Iowa had no extradition from MA. Woke my attorney up and that was that.

Sounds like a helluva time man. So happy you did this. šŸ’“
 
I've been cross country and you ain't wrong about Iowa.

Got a speeding ticket at 125 mph through a very long stretch of straightaway through the cornfields at 3 am.

Didn't even realize my speed, there was literally nothing but corn walls and road forever.

Cop was trying to arrest me cuz he didn't think I'd pay the fine and Iowa had no extradition from MA. Woke my attorney up and that was that.

Sounds like a helluva time man. So happy you did this. šŸ’“
Sounds like me in college. I went 250 miles to class and I had to book it fast...I got clocked at 120, paid my $5 fine, and went about my way...back to 100. :coffee:
 
We are somewhere in Tennessee not too far from the Kentucky border. 491 more miles to go up to 1255 mile trip. I think Iā€™m about to let one of my sons take over for an hour or so.
 
Been there many a time ....safe travels!

~Dee~
We got in at 4:30am. Played with the dogs (the sitter didn't stay the last night) for 30 mins and hit the rack. Didn't even unpack the rental van. Slept until 10 am. Exhausted, but if the Rams win I HAVE to watch the Lions with friends here.
 
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