3 weeks pass, and nothing happens.

Having spent a week off at half term looking after Nathan, you'd think that I'd have spent it working on the planning for this trip, wouldn't you? Well actually, that's not the case - I did some work around the house, some surfing and played a lot of on-line poker. But not much more in the way of trip planning. Well, it's still a year away and I'm thinking that there's plenty of time to get down to the real nitty-gritty, now that I have the outline plan set up. I suppose it would be good to have a target departure date though, so, at the moment I think that Departure-Day will be Saturday 30th April, 2011.

Only 14 pay days to go.

So, here it is....

..... the route. I've done a bit of research and stuff on t'internet and found a few places that suggest routes. WikiTravel has a good one that takes about 9 days. This is a bit too quick for me, as it averages about 300 miles a day. Eventually I've settled on the route below that is based on an itinerary from a company called Riding Route 66. It takes about 14 days, and includes side trips to The Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, where I might spend a couple of days, meaning this part of the trip could actually take me 16 days. So here it is in more detail:

Day 1: Pick up bike in Chicago, fairly short ride to Springfield IL.
Day 2: Springfield, IL to St Louis, MI
Day 3: St Louis, MI to Springfield, Missouri
Day 4: Then on to Tulsa, Oklahoma (202 miles), cutting the corner of Kansas for about 20 miles
Day 5: Tulsa, OK to Clinton, OK (217miles)
Day 6: Is this the way to Amarillo? I sure hope so, as that's tonight's stop
Day 7: Amarillo TX to Las Vegas New Mexico, passing through the half way point on this route
Day 8: Las Vegas, NM to Grants, NM/AZ, about 239 miles
Day 9: Grants to Holbrook, AZ
Day 10: Then a side trip up to the Grand Canyon
Day 11: Back on track, and stop for the night in Needles
Day 12: A short ride for the 2nd side trip up to Las Vegas, Nevada
Day 13 (& maybe 14): Stay in Vegas and clean up on the poker tables
Day 15: Back onto Route 66 to Bartsow, CA
Day 16: Arrive at the end of Route 66 at Santa Monica Pier
Day 17 - 21: meander up to San Fransisco and give the bike back :-(

 Of course, this is the first cut. I might find something interesting on the way and spend longer in one place, and then make up time elsewhere. I'm not planning to book any accomodation more that a day or 2 in advance, so there will not be a strict schedule that I have to keep to.

Getting exciting now!! Can I go this year instead?

The Route - more detail

Having now decided on a timeframe, I have been able to think about the route I can do in that time.

Theoretically, it is possible to ride many thousands of miles in 3 weeks, but that's not the point of this - it's not an endurance challenge. I want to takle my time, and immerse myself in the experience. therefore I'm going to try to avoid Interstates wherever possible, and try to average only about 200 miles per day. This will give me plenty to time to stop and look around as much as possible. So there we have it - the 2400 miles of Route 66 will take about 12 days at that rate, plus a day to pick up the bike and another to return it, leaves about a week to fill.

I've already decided to have a side trip to Las Vegas, to play a bit of poker, so allow a couple of days for that, a day for another side trip to the Grand Canyon, leaves about 4 days, which I will use to ride the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to San Fransisco.

So, the outline plan is taking shape. Is it too soon to start some more detailed planning? I don't think so, a day by day itinerary will be worked on over the next couple of days; watch this space.

One year later - aftermath of the recession

I can't believe that almost a year has gone since I last updated this blog - where does the time go?

Anyway the time has passed, and the adventure trip of a lifetime has been hit by the global recession, like many things over the past year, and has had to be scaled back some.

However, the trip is still going ahead - it maybe not the 3 month grand adventure I'd originally envisioned, it's now more a fantastic holiday, which is much more marriage friendly!

So, the limiting factor is now money, not time (although of course, the two are very much linked), and it's looking likely that it will be a 3 week trip in May of next year. For three weeks, renting is a more cost effective option, than shipping my bike out: disappointing, as I would have liked to have my bike out there, but one has to be pragmatic.

So, at the moment I'm looking at renting a bike from EagleRider, pick up in Chicago, drop off 3 weeks later in San Fransisco. This year, in May, that will cost about $3500, the best price I have so far. Am budgeting for a slightly higher cost for same time next year.

So, we have a framework to start filling in the days. The next level of planning has begun.

ONLY 15 PAY DAYS TO GO!!

The Bike Dilema

Obviously, if I'm going to do this trip on a bike, I'm going to need to decide what bike I use.

When I first thought a bout doing a big trip I was very keen on a big overlander type trip - Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, down to Tierra del Fuego, as far south as you can go in S.America was top of my list. For this, a big adventure bike like Ewan and Charlie's big BMWs would be called for, fully equiped and loaded with all the latest Touratech gear. Or more likely on my budget, a bike with off-road capabilities, and a couple of panniers!

I've long since abandoned that particular idea (although I'd still love to do it), and the sort of trip I'm planning here could be done on pretty much any sorth of road bike - although some are more suitable than others, I guess, so it would best be a bike with touring potential.

So given that I can use pretty much most kinds of bike, here are the options, as far as I can tell (if you can think of any others, please let me know):

1. Ship my bike over('04 Suzuki DL1000 - more than capable for this job), and back again afterwards;
2. Rent a bike when I get there;
3. Buy a bike when I get there, and sell it at the end;
4. Order a new Harley Davidson before I go, pick it from the factory in Milwaukee, ride it and then have HD ship it back.

All these options have pros and cons:

1. Pros - I know just what I'm gonna have when I get there, the bike will be preped and ready to go; I'd like to do it on my bike; provides a talking point when people see the UK plates.
   Cons - Cost; time without the bike before and after the trip, whilst it's in transit; hassle of crating it up before and after the trip.
   
2. Pros: Easy to arrange - just turn up and ride.
   Cons: Cost and availability of long term and one way rentals. Can't do anything to the bike to tailor it to suit me
   
3. Pros: Could be a low cost option, but risky
   Cons: Hassle - need to find a bike to buy, insurance, registering, license plates, selling it after the trip.
   
4. Pros: Easy and zero transportation costs.
   Cons: I don't want a Harley; must be a round trip from Milwaukee - one way not possible.

A few weeks ago I had lunch with a good friend and experienced rider in the US, Dave for some tips and advice. Following that I've pretty much ruled out options 3 and 4.

So, ship my bike, or rent out there? That decision comes back to the main question - How Long?

Doing the sums, it becomes clear that for a trip of more than 3 weeks, it's better to take your bike with you. Less than 3 weeks - then rent. About 3 weeks - six and two threes. Having said that, I worked that out when the exchange rate was closer to 2, might be different now.

Anyway back to that old thorny issue - How Long Am I Going For? This determines the bike I'll use, so needs to be sorted asap.

How long is long enough?

The longer the better, seems to be the consensus, but this is a bike trip I'm talking about, so there's bound to be a limit - only question is, what is that limit?

I've decided that time will be the limiting parameter for this trip (well, after the money side of things, of course) as it will ultimately determine the route, the bike (mine or rented?), and whether I come back to a wife who's missed me, or one who's started divorce proceedings citing abandonment.

So how long is long enough? Chicken and egg sort of question - it depends what I want to do really. What I want to do, depends on how long I've got.

Well clearly a week isn't; although technically it would be possible to cover the 2000 odd miles of Route 66 in a week, it would be pushing it, with no time to take it all in.

OK, so longer than a week then. What about a year? Nah - too long. People go round the world in a lot less than that. And that's on foot.

So, I'm narrowing it down - somewhere between a week and a year. 6 months still feels too long, and 2 weeks too short. Between 3 weeks and 5 months then.

I decide to be pragmatic and start with a bargaining position of 3 months. That would be plenty of time to do everything I could want to do, before getting bored, so this is the time period I started planning to.

More of that later.......

Welcome - the first post...

Hello! Welcome to this new blog - my first forray into this medium, but I think it will be fun for me, and hopefully fun and interesting for you, too.

The idea of this blog is to chart the planning and progress of a motorcycle Road Trip I'm going to take around the USA (and maybe a bit of Canada too). This is scheduled for April/May/June 2011 - around the time of a big birthday for me: yes, I'll be 21....... again...... for the 29th time......
How scary is that??? - I still feel like I did when I was nineteen - what the hell happened? (Older, fatter greyer - that's what!). But anyway - back to the point:

Yes, so I'm going to be 50 in a couple of years, and typical of many males my age, I feel a mid-life crisis coming on - the need to prove that I'm not really as old as the number of years would suggest. But instead of getting a convertable Porche and a pnumatic blonde girlfriend half my age (or maybe younger would be better???), I've decided that I will try to fulfil a dream I've had for many, many years, and that is to ride my motorbike from Chicago to LA, on the historic Route 66.

And since I'll be over there, I might as well add some other bits of road on too, but no doubt I'll talk about route planning in many a later post.

So, in short, this blog will chart the planning, and execution of this trip of a lifetime, including the decisions that will have to be made, and the trials & tribulations along the way - I'm sure there will be plenty!

If you have done this already, please let me know your experiences - maybe I'll learn from them? If you haven't, but long to, then maybe this will inspire you....