So here’s the story of the Big Trip...

I’ve been itching to ride Route 66 for about a year or so, but couldn’t figure out how to pull it together what with the distance and time required. Early this year a couple of things lined up;

1. My boss mentioned I had a lot of vacation on the books and I should think about taking time off or I might lose vacation days
   



2. I found out that this years BMW MOA Rally is in Redmond, OR

Soooo, I decided to take four weeks off and ride to Redmond, then to the Bay Area, down South and back on 66. Now I have to say that my boss is really being supportive of the time off, but I think he’s a little nervous about it.

The Big Trip starts 4th of July - destination is Redmond, OR to attend the BMW MOA Rally and then to SF to visit family & friends - back by Route 66, at least most of the way. It’s a solo trip. Following is the daily route.

• Home to Dayton, OH - mostly on slab
  



• Dayton to Madison, WI - again mostly on slab
  



• Madison to Sioux Falls, SD - on slab and back roads
  



• Sioux Falls to Rapid City - on slab and back roads, with a stop at Wall Drug - stay for two days in Rapid City and sight see the Bad Lands - Deadwood, Sturgis, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park and Devils Tower
  



• Rapid City to Shit Hole, WY (AKA Sheridan, WY), but back roads look good
  



• Shit Hole, WY to Jackson, WY - all back roads - going through Buffalo Bill State Park, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons Nat. Parks - one extra day in Jackson to explore - staying in the Wort Hotel (http://www.worthotel.com/) stayed here years ago, it's pretty fine
  



• Jackson, WY to Boise, ID - on back roads
  



• Boise, ID to Redmond, OR - on back roads - the back roads look good in OR
  



• Redmond and BMW Rally for 2-1/2 days -some good roads in the area. I’ll meet a few friends there as well.
  



• Redmond to either Medford, OR or Crescent City, CA - in either case it's back roads and past Crater Lake
  



• From whichever one above on to Boonville, CA - down the CA Coast on CA Hwy 101 through the Redwoods and then on CA Hwy 1 along the Pacific - really a beautiful ride with some challenging parts. Boonville is right down the road from the winery where I was a “very minority partner” in the vineyard awhile back (it's now owned by Duckhorn). There's another great winery close by named Navarro - will stop to say hi and who knows what else might happen. I spend the night in the Boonville Hotel that happens to be right across the street from the Anderson Brewing Co.
  



• Boonville to SF Bay Area - down the Coast the rest of the way - three days in Bay Area - visit middle son Shaun and his wife Emily and friends - stay with Russ and Debbie in San Carlos and hopefully do some riding with Russ and another buddy (Steve) - up to Alice's Restaurant to do the Skyline GP circuit.
  



• Bay Area to Cameron Park, CA to visit youngest son Ryan
  



• Cameron Park to either Lone Pine, CA or Beatty, NV - South from Cameron Park through the Sierra foothills to Yosemite - over Tioga Pass to CA Hwy 395-South to Lone Pine/Death Valley - either cross DV late evening or next morning - very early. This will be a looong day.
  



• Death Valley (from either West side or East side) to Winslow, AZ (this is a really looooong ass day) - DV to Vegas to Hoover Dam and Pick up Route 66 at Kingsman, AZ. Staying at the La Posada Hotel - a very historic Spanish style hotel on Rt 66 across the street from the "Standing on the Corner" Park (can you believe that?) Going to try to do as many stops at goofy and gaudy Rt 66 attractions as I can
  



• Winslow to Tucumcari, NM - more Rt 66 silliness - staying at the historic Blue Swallow motel for $59.95 (includes two double beds - one of their best rooms they tell me)
  



• Tucumcari, NM to OK City - with you guessed it more Rt 66 silly stops - right past the Cadillac Ranch
  



• OK City to Rolla, MO - ditto
  



• Rolla to Louisville, KY - I'll jump off of Rt 66 at St Louis and head East rather than going to Chicago on Rt 66
  



• Louisville to Marietta, OH - some good back roads
  



• Marietta to either home (if I feel the urge) or to WV somewhere and then home the following day (30 or 31 July)

Holy Crap! - I think it's about 7,000 miles. I'll try to post a map if I can figure out how to do it easily (got to export from MapSource)

If I can get it together I'll keep this blog up to date and post updates and pictures every few days.

Most everything is packed, the bills are paid, I stopped the mail and the fridge is almost empty, so I think I'm ready.

Stay tuned....

The Beginning

Well G'Day -

I haven't been too interested in social cyberspace up until now, but thought I'd give this a whirl and see where it takes me.

I'm heading out on a rather long cross country motorcycle trip and I thought this blog might be a good way to let people know where I am, where I'm headed, what I've seen and any other nonsense that might come to mind.

If you are expecting lots of whit or profound thoughts forget it - most likely won't happen here. But, hopefully I'll be able to share a little bit of my travels over interesting back roads and various cool places.

My other thought for this blog is to keep you all abreast of the 1968 Triumph Bonneville restoration I decided to undertake several months ago. It's moving along, albeit slow and I know a few friends are interested in this sort of thing.

That's it for now. I'll update the blog with more info soon.

-d