Quite a while ago, I mentioned something about a road trip.  I was not sure of how or when but I knew I wanted to.  I have been working for most of my life and the idea of hitting the open road with a wanderers approach has a certain appeal to it. 
More recently, I had mentioned the road trip again and it came together really well.
A good friend who is more like family suggested that if I take this trip, I should drop in and visit for a while and the plan began to take shape. 

I’ll explain the backdrop.  I am a commuter that must ride a ferry to and from work.  It transports me and my ride if I need one across the water.  Early this year, I took a job that allowed me to walk to work and I loved the job and the walk.  One day I decided to ride my motorcycle to work.  It was then that I discovered the ferry managers had decided to impose a length limit on motorcycles.  Mine was right at the limit and I could foresee the problems with ticketing agents wanting to charge me the car rate because of the bike’s marginally large size. 
With wet winter weather on the way and the need to bring my ride on the ferry so I could get to a new job, I decided on getting a particular motorcycle.  It had to be short in length, comfortable, powerful and could keep me dry(er) than my current one.  It also needed to be rather chrome free even though I like that sort of thing because polishing chrome after riding in the rain…sucks.

Back to my original story…
I felt like packing up and making a drive out on the road was ok but I have crossed the country in a car before. I knew a little about it and while it seemed like a good thing to do, I wanted something more.  Flashback to the need for a proper commuter bike…cue the lightbulb over the head and presto!  I had a road trip with a plan. 
Find the bike I wanted in the area of my good friend, make a deal, pray that it would be right and fly out to visit, get the bike and ride it home.

I know that there is a sense of risk in doing such things but in this life, nothing ventured is nothing gained and for those of you who read my blog will see that taking a risk from time to time keeps you alive and sometimes takes you halfway around the world.  It also can forge the best friendships… It did for me, for if not, I wouldn’t be writing this story.

I can still remember leaving for home on day one and I was truly sad to leave and wanted to stay another day or two but I was also excited to take on the open road. I will say that if I had not been as concerned about snowy weather, I would probably have stayed a bit longer.

Crossing America on the open road on a motorcycle is like nothing else and the feel of it can be exhilarating. I find that you can connect with your surroundings better when you are out in the open air. You can feel the shifts in temperatures and humidity. The smells…good and bad, are quickly discovered and it is far easier to make a quick stop to take a picture or simply admire something you see along the route.
The smell of hay as it’s been recently cut and rolled for transport fills the air sometimes in the plains states and seeing a combine picking corn is pretty interesting to an urbanite especially when the combine looks just like the one in the movie “Cars”. His name was Frank if you recall the scene where he chases the two main characters ‘Mater and Lightening McQueen.

Stopping at a fork on the interstate and deciding where to head based on the input of a stranger and a cell phone GPS is not for the faint of heart but it proved to be an interesting way to decide a route. Especially when it takes you past a tiny town by the name of Chugwater where its main source of income was the local gas station that was burned down by a crazy traveller. The town name of Chugwater was called that because of the sound that buffalo made when pursued off of a local cliff and landed in the water of the river below…it was the chug sound they made when they fell to their death in the river that the town’s name comes from.

Where else can you get that kind of info? What time would one be motivated to look that up? Road trip on two wheels..that’s where.

My worries about snow were right and I from what I could tell, I stayed just ahead of the storm as I rode home.

I may add to this blog in the near future because there is more to this adventure.