I am heading out from my home in western Kentucky in mid-May, on the longest solo motorcycle tour I have ever done. this will be six months long (184 days), returning to Kentucky before Thanksgiving, and cover over 30,000 miles of riding. I will travel through most, if not all of the lower 48 states, down to Key West, and ride across Canada from coast to coast. I am also going to ride up to Alaska along the ALCAN highway. This will ALL be done on country roads and local roads. I see no point to blasting across a State at 80 MPH on the Interstate. You don't see anything, or meet anyone, so you might as well take a plane. This will be a very slow paced tour. I am no hurry to go anywhere. I just want to enjoy the views, and the experience.
I have no particular itinerary. The weather, local events and other factors may alter my route spontaneously. This will be a combination of hotels/motels and tent camping in the National Parks and other places, weather permitting. I will hit every National Park in America.
Sadly, it looks like I am going alone. I do not have a special lady to share the experience, so I guess it will just be me. I wanted to meet someone who could come along, but on such short notice, who could I meet? We'd have to work out compatibility issues, etc. Ride two up, or her on her own bike? Lots to work out, and no more time to make it happen. It is probably better to go alone anyway. Easier to change my mind, make decisions, and either keep riding, or stop for a while as I choose. Who knows. I may meet someone along the way.
I took my 2012 Goldwing in for an oil change recently, and rode out on a new 2018 Goldwing instead. They offered me a trade in price I could not refuse. My old Goldwing only had 93,000 miles on it, and although it could have easily done this tour, I decided to treat myself to a new bike instead.
My Escapade Trailer will carry all of the "stuff" I will take along. I never pack light. I am one of those, "I might need that!" packers. On my last tour, I mailed a large box home about 1/3 of the way into it, because there were things I simply did not need to keep with me.
On Facebook, I am kentuckyrider I will be posting photos, videos, blogs, etc. there. I am not taking a lot of cameras. Just my iPhone, a pocket camera, and a drone for some interesting shots and videos. My last tour in 2012 was 18,000 miles and took four months and a week to complete. This tour is basically double that. My neighbors will take care of my home while I am away.
I am really looking forward to this!
Joe
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Enjoy the journey. I'm with you when it comes to interstate travel; avoid at all costs.
Awesome idea...i'll try to follow your exploits.
On my last tour, I went all out. I had seven Go Pro cameras, a camcorder, a "Bloggie", a smart phone camera and my CANON 5D MKIII with four lenses, a tripod, etc. I saw a lot, and took a lot of great photos, but I became a slave to the cameras. At the end of the day, I wanted to relax, but instead, I had to take all of those memory cards and download the images to a laptop. Then format the cards for the next day. All of the batteries needed to be charged.
On this trip, I have my new iPhone 10s MAX, and a couple of other options. Everything you will see on Facebook will most lilely be captured by the iPhone. Maybe some interesting drone videos, and such too. But I will rely on the phone uploading the images directly. I don't want to spend all of that time on this tour, fussing with technology! Definitely adhering to the K.I.S.S. concept!
Joe
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Yeah! I picked up my license plate today. One more thing I can check off of the Things To Do list.
Joe
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Not good seeing oil under a Honda,that's for sure! Hope you get it sorted out okay.Sounds like a great way to go tour,pulling a trailerwith the Wing should be no problem at all.A rider i knew 20 years ago rode up to Alaska on a 750 Honda ShadowAce from So Cal.He did an epic writeup on his journey.
Many miles of smiles to you,stay safe & enjoy the ride.
It turned out to be a pinched O-ring. When the dealer did the first service, the machanic didn't replace the oil filter cover properly. Catastrophe avoided!
Joe
