Sunday, August 26, 2007
Check out our latest adventure!
Here's a link to our new blog, following our adventures down the Great River Road and up the Natchez Trace Parkway. http://riverroadnatcheztrace.blogspot.com/
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Post-ride reflections
It's now Sunday and everyone has made it home safe and sound. Dad and Sandy were the last to roll in to Ohio today after dropping Steve off in Illinois yesterday. In saying our goodbyes to each other it was pretty evident that we all had a great time on this trip and look forward to more in the near future.
Looking back at our four days on the road there isn't anything I would have changed. Even though we had 100 degree heat, mechanical problems, night time driving through the mountains, rain and quarter-size hail, we all had good spirits all the way through. The beauty of the Rockies made for an outstanding trip and traveling with my family was the icing on the cake. We're all spread out across the country and being able to get together and see everyone for a week and share something we all love is definitely something to be cherished.
I guess that brings this blog to a close. We enjoyed putting this together and we hope you enjoyed following us through our travels. We'll keep you all posted on our next adventure.
Looking back at our four days on the road there isn't anything I would have changed. Even though we had 100 degree heat, mechanical problems, night time driving through the mountains, rain and quarter-size hail, we all had good spirits all the way through. The beauty of the Rockies made for an outstanding trip and traveling with my family was the icing on the cake. We're all spread out across the country and being able to get together and see everyone for a week and share something we all love is definitely something to be cherished.
I guess that brings this blog to a close. We enjoyed putting this together and we hope you enjoyed following us through our travels. We'll keep you all posted on our next adventure.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Day Four Videos
I finally found some time on the trip home to make a couple of final day videos. We found out, at the end of our day, that I had left a metal clip hanging on the camera and all of our videos had an annoying clicking sound in them. So I went deeper into Windows Movie Maker software and added a soundtrack. It's harder than you think it is to find good motorcycle movie music!
Here is the first half....
And here is the second!
Here is the first half....
And here is the second!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Day 4 - Winter Park to Colorado Springs
Day 4, our last day of the trip. We woke up in sunny Winter Park and headed over to McDonalds to use their wi-fi connection and upload our info from the day before. Afterwards, we packed up and headed down the road toward Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way we drove by Lake Granby through the Arapaho National Forest. It was absolutely lovely.
We made it to the Rocky Mountain National Park, which was Steve's main interest on this trip. I think it may have been the most beautiful spot in our four day ride as we drove through the forests up to the highest point at 12,183 feet. We made a stop at the Continental Divide, which was the one thing I wanted to do, and talked with a nice volunteer ranger. He told us that with every 1000ft you climb in elevation, the terrain changes as if you were going 600 miles north. We certainly saw that as we made our way to the top and found ourselves in the tundra. I can't say enough about how amazing the views were up there and I'm sure the pictures won't do it justice. The roads up at the top had no guard rails at times so it was sheer drop offs down the side of the mountain. We saw Moose off in the snow and a deer sitting right by the side of the road watching us go by. It was a wonderful ride!
Once we headed down out of the mountains and out of the park, we stopped in Estes Park for a bite to eat and a visit to the Stanley Hotel. Many movies have been filmed here, including The Shining mini-series, Dumb and Dumber, etc. so we walked around and checked it out. There were some rain clouds and thunder but we only had a few sprinkles while we were in town. However, the clouds all around made us change our plans of riding back to Colorado Springs via the mountains and we thought we'd take a quicker route back by shooting down the highway from Denver. Boy were we wrong.....
The drive east from Estes Park was really nice and twisty, but we hit rush hour traffic as we got in to Boulder and Denver and spent what seemed like eternity sitting in traffic and waiting at stop lights. That's not fun in a car and it's really not fun on a motorcycle. Mike and Jim checked the maps and re-routed us so that from Castle Rock we were on a two lane highway in to Colorado Springs. We drove through some really lovely rolling country side which was a nice way to end our ride afer all of the headache and hassle of the city traffic.
That's it! We all made it home safe and sound, went out for a nice dinner and then headed to our homes/motels and crashed. It was a great trip and so much fun to have all of us together riding. Now, where will we go next year? Hmmmmmmm, I wonder....
Click here for pictures from Day 4. Enjoy!
We made it to the Rocky Mountain National Park, which was Steve's main interest on this trip. I think it may have been the most beautiful spot in our four day ride as we drove through the forests up to the highest point at 12,183 feet. We made a stop at the Continental Divide, which was the one thing I wanted to do, and talked with a nice volunteer ranger. He told us that with every 1000ft you climb in elevation, the terrain changes as if you were going 600 miles north. We certainly saw that as we made our way to the top and found ourselves in the tundra. I can't say enough about how amazing the views were up there and I'm sure the pictures won't do it justice. The roads up at the top had no guard rails at times so it was sheer drop offs down the side of the mountain. We saw Moose off in the snow and a deer sitting right by the side of the road watching us go by. It was a wonderful ride!
Once we headed down out of the mountains and out of the park, we stopped in Estes Park for a bite to eat and a visit to the Stanley Hotel. Many movies have been filmed here, including The Shining mini-series, Dumb and Dumber, etc. so we walked around and checked it out. There were some rain clouds and thunder but we only had a few sprinkles while we were in town. However, the clouds all around made us change our plans of riding back to Colorado Springs via the mountains and we thought we'd take a quicker route back by shooting down the highway from Denver. Boy were we wrong.....
The drive east from Estes Park was really nice and twisty, but we hit rush hour traffic as we got in to Boulder and Denver and spent what seemed like eternity sitting in traffic and waiting at stop lights. That's not fun in a car and it's really not fun on a motorcycle. Mike and Jim checked the maps and re-routed us so that from Castle Rock we were on a two lane highway in to Colorado Springs. We drove through some really lovely rolling country side which was a nice way to end our ride afer all of the headache and hassle of the city traffic.
That's it! We all made it home safe and sound, went out for a nice dinner and then headed to our homes/motels and crashed. It was a great trip and so much fun to have all of us together riding. Now, where will we go next year? Hmmmmmmm, I wonder....
Click here for pictures from Day 4. Enjoy!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Day Three Videos
I have a couple of videos of our foray into Black Canyon. What a fantastic place for a motorcycle ride! As always, more videos to come when we actually find time to edit them.
The first video is of our trip down into Black Canyon.
The Second is of our trip back up!
The first video is of our trip down into Black Canyon.
The Second is of our trip back up!
Day 3 - Montrose to Winter Park
Boy, where do I begin. The first half of our day was fantastic. It was warm, sunny and we had beautiful blue skies. 20 miles up the road from our hotel we pulled in to the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park. At the entrance gate we split off from Sandy (the jeep driver) and we headed down the VERY twisty road to the bottom of the canyon. Sandy headed off to the visitors center to wait for our return. The road down to the bottom of the canyon was a 16% grade descent with hairpin turns and it was so much fun! We've got some great video of the ride down and up which will be uploaded later. Once we were back up to the rim of the canyon, we hooked back up with Sandy and checked out some more overlooks. After a couple of hours in the park it was time to head on to the rest of our day trip.
We headed East and drove through the beautiful Blue Mesa Reservoir area on our way to Gunnison for lunch. During lunch and while we were re-fueling in Gunnison, we noticed there were some storm clouds south of us. Thankfully, we said, we are heading East. Whew! So, East we go. We wound in and out of mountains, twisting and curving back and forth and changing directions frequently. Now we're heading toward the storm clouds. Now we're heading away from those dark clouds. Towards them, away from them, towards them, away from them...you get the picture. We had to stop for road construction on Monarch Pass at which point we all put on warmer clothes. Shortly after traffic started to move again, Mike lost his first item of the day. I was third in line and had to dodge his cup holder and soda that were bouncing down the road. Oh well, not too big of a loss, we stop to regroup and head back out. Almost to our turn off, we begin to see that the entire sky to our left is really, really dark. I mean super dark...like midnight. I'm not kidding they were some nasty looking storm clouds. Thankfully we're still heading East. That is until Mike turns on his left turn signal and we make our turn to head North. Oh crap... We drive for a bit and then pull over to put our rain gear on. As we're getting that all sorted it begins to rain. We hop on our bikes and pull out to see if we can get past the storm. Not long after we start driving we begin getting pelted with hail. Ouch! Ding dang it, my leg! Ow, that one hit my finger! The hail was the size of a quarter and it really stinkin' hurt when it hit, and it was hitting us everywhere! We pulled over again to wait it out. Sandy popped the hatch for the Jeep and we all went around the back and huddled underneath the hatch to protect us somewhat from the crazy hail. After about 10 minutes of standing under the jeep hatch, somebody realizes that about 200 ft back on the other side of the road are picnic shelters. We walk across the street and wait under those. The hail actually didn't stop but it eventually did slow down and get smaller. We made a break for it and headed North to get out of the storm clouds. We made it about 20 miles later and finally dried off. What an adventure!
So then, we head on up to Leadville, the highest city in Colorado at 10,000 some odd feet, and get fuel, warm up a little, change our wet socks, etc. We continue wearing our rain gear the rest of the day because rain clouds are everywhere around us. We keep on going North until we pick up Interstate 70. This is where Mike loses his second item of the day, his license plate. He lost it right on the on ramp and about 4 miles down the road Jim pulled in front and pulled us off at the next exit. Steve and Jim headed back to see if they could find his license plate and arrived back about 10 minutes later with it in hand. Good find and good eye Jim for spotting the loss! We zip tied his plate back on to the bike and continued down the interstate. We went through the Eisenhower Tunnel which is 2 miles long. Lots of honking horns in that one, let me tell you :) Then we turned North again on Hwy 40 for the last 30 miles in to Winter Park.
At this point we're hitting dusk again and we have a mountain pass to drive through before we get to our motel. Sandy isn't a big fan of driving the passes and with it being dark it was even worse. We very slowly made our way through the mountains and over the pass so everyone could stay together. Hairpin turns both up and down the pass, in the dark, with poor road striping so nothing glowed in our headlights. Slow was good. We finally pulled in to town and Steve led us right past our hotel and pulled in to another one down the street. Oops, he had the wrong info. We turned around and pulled in to the correct motel, checked in and all went inside to warm up. Dry socks, dry pants (my rain pants had a hole in them and I had a wet crotch) and time to rest. Aaaahhh.
Now, finishing up our report for the day and then off to bed. You can click here to see pictures from Day 3.
Tomorrow is our last day of the trip and we head back to Colorado Springs. We'll update again tomorrow night. Good night to all :)
We headed East and drove through the beautiful Blue Mesa Reservoir area on our way to Gunnison for lunch. During lunch and while we were re-fueling in Gunnison, we noticed there were some storm clouds south of us. Thankfully, we said, we are heading East. Whew! So, East we go. We wound in and out of mountains, twisting and curving back and forth and changing directions frequently. Now we're heading toward the storm clouds. Now we're heading away from those dark clouds. Towards them, away from them, towards them, away from them...you get the picture. We had to stop for road construction on Monarch Pass at which point we all put on warmer clothes. Shortly after traffic started to move again, Mike lost his first item of the day. I was third in line and had to dodge his cup holder and soda that were bouncing down the road. Oh well, not too big of a loss, we stop to regroup and head back out. Almost to our turn off, we begin to see that the entire sky to our left is really, really dark. I mean super dark...like midnight. I'm not kidding they were some nasty looking storm clouds. Thankfully we're still heading East. That is until Mike turns on his left turn signal and we make our turn to head North. Oh crap... We drive for a bit and then pull over to put our rain gear on. As we're getting that all sorted it begins to rain. We hop on our bikes and pull out to see if we can get past the storm. Not long after we start driving we begin getting pelted with hail. Ouch! Ding dang it, my leg! Ow, that one hit my finger! The hail was the size of a quarter and it really stinkin' hurt when it hit, and it was hitting us everywhere! We pulled over again to wait it out. Sandy popped the hatch for the Jeep and we all went around the back and huddled underneath the hatch to protect us somewhat from the crazy hail. After about 10 minutes of standing under the jeep hatch, somebody realizes that about 200 ft back on the other side of the road are picnic shelters. We walk across the street and wait under those. The hail actually didn't stop but it eventually did slow down and get smaller. We made a break for it and headed North to get out of the storm clouds. We made it about 20 miles later and finally dried off. What an adventure!
So then, we head on up to Leadville, the highest city in Colorado at 10,000 some odd feet, and get fuel, warm up a little, change our wet socks, etc. We continue wearing our rain gear the rest of the day because rain clouds are everywhere around us. We keep on going North until we pick up Interstate 70. This is where Mike loses his second item of the day, his license plate. He lost it right on the on ramp and about 4 miles down the road Jim pulled in front and pulled us off at the next exit. Steve and Jim headed back to see if they could find his license plate and arrived back about 10 minutes later with it in hand. Good find and good eye Jim for spotting the loss! We zip tied his plate back on to the bike and continued down the interstate. We went through the Eisenhower Tunnel which is 2 miles long. Lots of honking horns in that one, let me tell you :) Then we turned North again on Hwy 40 for the last 30 miles in to Winter Park.
At this point we're hitting dusk again and we have a mountain pass to drive through before we get to our motel. Sandy isn't a big fan of driving the passes and with it being dark it was even worse. We very slowly made our way through the mountains and over the pass so everyone could stay together. Hairpin turns both up and down the pass, in the dark, with poor road striping so nothing glowed in our headlights. Slow was good. We finally pulled in to town and Steve led us right past our hotel and pulled in to another one down the street. Oops, he had the wrong info. We turned around and pulled in to the correct motel, checked in and all went inside to warm up. Dry socks, dry pants (my rain pants had a hole in them and I had a wet crotch) and time to rest. Aaaahhh.
Now, finishing up our report for the day and then off to bed. You can click here to see pictures from Day 3.
Tomorrow is our last day of the trip and we head back to Colorado Springs. We'll update again tomorrow night. Good night to all :)
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Day Two Videos
Okay, you're all right. That first day video was way too long. Today I'm trying something a little different. I'm going to start posting a few smaller videos of the days ride
Here is one where I tried to show the whole team
Here is another one showing a couple scenes from our day
Here is one where I tried to show the whole team
Here is another one showing a couple scenes from our day
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Day 2 - Pagosa Springs to Montrose
We began our day with some bike trouble. Dad's bike wouldn't start when we were leaving the hotel so Steve gave him a push start down the hill. We got it rumbling and we were off to Durango. Once in town, we headed to the local Harley dealer where they took his bike in to the service department to put in a new battery and take a look at things. We had an hour to kill while they worked on his bike, so we all headed in to the historic downtown of Durango to check out the shops and have some lunch. We got the call that the bike was done and back to the dealer we went. We wound up spending 2-1/2 hours in Durango when we really hadn't planned on stopping there at all. Once we got his bike back, we headed out to Mesa Verde to check out the cliff dwellings.
What a beautiful drive in to the park! The road was a little bumpy and grooved for several miles due to construction, but the view more than made up for it. There were hairpin turns and sweeping turns as we headed up the side of the mesa. When we made it to the visitors center, 15 miles in, we discovered that Dad's bike had been cutting out on him the whole drive in. Our resident bike mechanic, Steve, took a peek and had the bike back up and running in no time. We took in one of the cliff dwellings and walked the 1/2 mile trail down to see it up close. By the time we were done there it was 4pm and we still had 140 miles to drive to Montrose. Off we went, back down the 20 miles to the exit of the park and then began heading North from Cortez.
That drive took us up through the San Juan mountains where, along with amazing mountain vistas, the weather also dropped about 30 degrees so we pulled over in a little town called Rico to put our leather jackets, gloves, etc. on to keep warm. Quite a quaint little town, with two old men sitting on the front stoop watching our activities, and another man walking down the street with nothing but a towel on. Interesting. Once we were all geared up, we continued on up to Telluride where we stopped for a quick break. What a beautiful place. If I ever win the lottery I'm buying myself a piece of property up there with all the rich folk. As we were leaving and waiting to pull out on the main road, we had a little visitor along side of us. A coyote decided he was going to cross the road and we were waving down the cars to let them know he was there. He made it without getting hit, and so did the three deer who decided to cross there too.
At this point the sun is beginning to go down and we still have another 60 or so miles to go. We got stuck at some road construction for a bit and then it was a race to get through the mountains before dark. We didn't quite make it but Mike, who has been leading for the last two days, did a great job of pushing us through and leading us through the dark roads that had deer crossing signs everywhere. We didn't have any deer mishaps but Dad almost hit a dog that ran across the road in front of him. Yikes! We all made it to the hotel in one piece, rolling in around 9:45pm. What a long day. You can click here to see pictures from our second day of riding.
What a beautiful drive in to the park! The road was a little bumpy and grooved for several miles due to construction, but the view more than made up for it. There were hairpin turns and sweeping turns as we headed up the side of the mesa. When we made it to the visitors center, 15 miles in, we discovered that Dad's bike had been cutting out on him the whole drive in. Our resident bike mechanic, Steve, took a peek and had the bike back up and running in no time. We took in one of the cliff dwellings and walked the 1/2 mile trail down to see it up close. By the time we were done there it was 4pm and we still had 140 miles to drive to Montrose. Off we went, back down the 20 miles to the exit of the park and then began heading North from Cortez.
That drive took us up through the San Juan mountains where, along with amazing mountain vistas, the weather also dropped about 30 degrees so we pulled over in a little town called Rico to put our leather jackets, gloves, etc. on to keep warm. Quite a quaint little town, with two old men sitting on the front stoop watching our activities, and another man walking down the street with nothing but a towel on. Interesting. Once we were all geared up, we continued on up to Telluride where we stopped for a quick break. What a beautiful place. If I ever win the lottery I'm buying myself a piece of property up there with all the rich folk. As we were leaving and waiting to pull out on the main road, we had a little visitor along side of us. A coyote decided he was going to cross the road and we were waving down the cars to let them know he was there. He made it without getting hit, and so did the three deer who decided to cross there too.
At this point the sun is beginning to go down and we still have another 60 or so miles to go. We got stuck at some road construction for a bit and then it was a race to get through the mountains before dark. We didn't quite make it but Mike, who has been leading for the last two days, did a great job of pushing us through and leading us through the dark roads that had deer crossing signs everywhere. We didn't have any deer mishaps but Dad almost hit a dog that ran across the road in front of him. Yikes! We all made it to the hotel in one piece, rolling in around 9:45pm. What a long day. You can click here to see pictures from our second day of riding.
Day One Video
We started out with very lofty ideas on how we were going to present our videos. Background music, Narration, Titles and Credits.....it all sounds soooo good! Welcome to reality, here I am trying to finish editing together some excerpts from todays ride.....a fantastic day of riding I might add......and it is now after 2:00 in the morning! Lofty just flew out the window, meet my new best friend...Good enough. I hope you all enjoy what I did manage to put together. I know it isn't the best quality video, but the scenery more than makes up for that. I can't wait for tomorrows ride! On that note, I am off to bed!!!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Day 1 - Colorado Springs to Pagosa Springs
Day 1 is complete! We began the day at the Pikes Peak Harley dealer so Jim and I could pick up our rental bikes. After trying to convince them to give Jim a pink bike and getting nowhere, we hopped on our normal colored bikes and headed out of town. We had a gorgeous day of riding, though the temperature could have been turned down a couple notches. It was 90 to 100 degrees for the majority of our day and it only cooled off when we rode through shady sections of the National Forests. We traveled through several different terrains, beginning with very rocky, desert type mountains, then we hit some flat, very straight stretches of road through the valley and then back in to mountains where we started to see lots more trees. About half way between Salida, where we stopped for lunch, and Pagosa Springs, we stopped at this great little rest area for a break from the bikes and and a wonderful rest in the shade of some trees. The grass was so lush we all layed down and thought perhaps this would be as good as any hotel we could find. Well, everyone except for Dad who needs a bed for his ol' back. After our restful stop, we headed on through the Rio Grande National Forest as well as the San Juan National Forest on our way in to Pagosa Springs. After we checked in to our hotel, we caught up with Jim's daughter Amanda and her husband Justin and got to see his brand new granddaughter, Cadence. She was darling and I got to pinch her little baby toes :) That was the end to our day.....well, except for coming back to the room to type this up and upload all of our images to the internet for you all to enjoy. We saw some truly amazing scenery today and you can see all of our pictures by clicking here.
Until tomorrow.....
Until tomorrow.....
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Assembling the team
We've all arrived in Colorado, with Dad, Steve and Sandy pulling in with their trailered bikes around 2pm this afternoon. Today was an especially exciting day as we attended Mike's graduation from the University of Phoenix in downtown Denver. It was a great ceremony and watching him recieve his Bachelors degree in Business Management was truly emotional. We of course hooted and hollered as loudly as we could to show our support. Way to go Mike!
The afternoon was spent with everyone gathered at Mike and Dee Dee's house in Colorado Springs for a fabulous bbq, motorcycle rides for the kids, and s'mores over the campfire in the evening. It was a great start to the trip and a great celebration in Mike's honor. Click here to see pictures from the day.
Sunday will find us all sleeping in, enjoying the luxury of no morning commitments. We can finally all catch up on our sleep and prepare for our Monday morning departure.
The afternoon was spent with everyone gathered at Mike and Dee Dee's house in Colorado Springs for a fabulous bbq, motorcycle rides for the kids, and s'mores over the campfire in the evening. It was a great start to the trip and a great celebration in Mike's honor. Click here to see pictures from the day.
Sunday will find us all sleeping in, enjoying the luxury of no morning commitments. We can finally all catch up on our sleep and prepare for our Monday morning departure.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Pre-ride preparations
Before I get in to our preparations for this trip, I'd just like to mention that this whole blog idea was inspired by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who are in the midst of their second amazing motorcycle trip called The Long Way Down. 15,000 miles across two continents. Actually, I guess you could count a weekend of watching their first adventure, The Long Way Round, on DVD in Steve's movie room as pre-ride prep work. It's a great thing to watch and I highly recommend it to all. Now on to our trip....
After Steve and I took our motorcycle trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway last year, I started complaining that I wanted some kind of helmet cam that would allow me to snap pictures without having to pull over, park and dig my camera out of my saddlebag. Life would be so grand if I could simply look at something and press a button on my helmet to capture the scene. So, when we started making plans for this year's trip we began researching our options.
There are actually many brands and types of helmet cams out there believe it or not, but they are all pretty expensive. As an alternative, Steve decided to try making a handlebar mount for his handheld camera, positioning it behind his windshield for protection. His first attempt was impressive and worked really well. I think he only made one adjustment for vibration purposes and then added a swivel mount and voila! He bought a 2gb memory stick for his camera and now he can take still pics and video of our travels! We plan on uploading some of this footage to the blog for your viewing pleasure.
Once Steve was able to shut me up about a helmet cam, he got to work on figuring out our route through the Rockies. He set out a nice pace of around 250 miles per day and the route is going to take us past some amazing scenery. After he determined our stopping points for each day, I kicked in to high gear and started researching places to stay. Because we're usually in the middle of nowhere on these rides, it's some times a challenge to hunt down and find out about all of the little mom & pop motels, etc. for our options. I research them, look for reviews, choose the best places and book all of our rooms in advance.
With the camera in place, the route set and the lodging booked, you would think we'd be all set. But Steve decided there was one more thing we needed so he went out and bought a GPS unit to mount on his handlebars. He can map out our whole route on this thing, complete with all of the gas stations along the way and more importantly, all of the Dairy Queens! Thanks Steve :)
Well, that's about all the pre-ride prep work we've done. We'll have to wing anything else that we've forgotten. As far as packing for the trip, everyone in my family takes care of that either the night before or the day of the trip. Speaking of which, I better go get packing myself since I fly out tomorrow.
After Steve and I took our motorcycle trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway last year, I started complaining that I wanted some kind of helmet cam that would allow me to snap pictures without having to pull over, park and dig my camera out of my saddlebag. Life would be so grand if I could simply look at something and press a button on my helmet to capture the scene. So, when we started making plans for this year's trip we began researching our options.
There are actually many brands and types of helmet cams out there believe it or not, but they are all pretty expensive. As an alternative, Steve decided to try making a handlebar mount for his handheld camera, positioning it behind his windshield for protection. His first attempt was impressive and worked really well. I think he only made one adjustment for vibration purposes and then added a swivel mount and voila! He bought a 2gb memory stick for his camera and now he can take still pics and video of our travels! We plan on uploading some of this footage to the blog for your viewing pleasure.
Once Steve was able to shut me up about a helmet cam, he got to work on figuring out our route through the Rockies. He set out a nice pace of around 250 miles per day and the route is going to take us past some amazing scenery. After he determined our stopping points for each day, I kicked in to high gear and started researching places to stay. Because we're usually in the middle of nowhere on these rides, it's some times a challenge to hunt down and find out about all of the little mom & pop motels, etc. for our options. I research them, look for reviews, choose the best places and book all of our rooms in advance.
With the camera in place, the route set and the lodging booked, you would think we'd be all set. But Steve decided there was one more thing we needed so he went out and bought a GPS unit to mount on his handlebars. He can map out our whole route on this thing, complete with all of the gas stations along the way and more importantly, all of the Dairy Queens! Thanks Steve :)
Well, that's about all the pre-ride prep work we've done. We'll have to wing anything else that we've forgotten. As far as packing for the trip, everyone in my family takes care of that either the night before or the day of the trip. Speaking of which, I better go get packing myself since I fly out tomorrow.
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