Introduction to Ride

Well, the next adventure is starting soon. On Thursday, August 26, I'll leave home and ride to Gary's house near Winston Salem and start this ride. This particular ride is similar to our first national ride, but we're going much further west this time.

While we've done almost no "planning", there has been a little general talk about places we want to go and things to do. We'll leave his house on Friday, August 27 and ride northwest to Indianapolis, where we'll see two motorcycle races. There is a mile-long dirt track race on Saturday night (I think it's called the "magic mile", and is a flat-track style race. I've seen the 1/4 mile dirt track races at Daytona, and they're fun to watch. This one should be a blast.

The second race is the Moto GP race at the brickyard. Moto GP is the top road racing type races internationally, so we'll see the fastest bikes and best racers in the world on Sunday afternoon. I look forward to seeing the Brickyard and the race.

Then on Monday, we'll head west towards San Francisco. We've agreed to stay off the Interstates to the extent possible, and to limit our daily travel to 400 miles or so. That type of riding should not leave us exhausted every night. I'm hoping to visit a friend in Denver if possible; otherwise there's no "destination" between Indianapolis and San Francisco.

In San Francisco I want to ride the Golden Gate Bridge and maybe Lombard Street; otherwise, that's it.

Then south to San Diego. I want to see that city; I've heard a lot about it and it sounds beautiful. Might stop at the Buck Knives factory near there since we'll be in the neighborhood.

Then start going east through Nevada, New Mexico, and the hill country in Texas. Several places along the way that I hope to see. Mostly, though, it's the ride and enjoying seeing the scenery.

We haven't decided whether or not we'll camp along the way. Camping saves $, but you've got to pack tent, sleeping pad or mattress, and sleeping bag, etc. We'll decide this weekend.

Total time on the road should be about 3 weeks. I estimate our mileage at around 8,000.

I guess this is enough to start with. I'll do another post later to talk about getting the bike ready for this ride.