The Right Gear

Steve got a new pair of motorcycle pants for his birthday. Since we had a so much rain this weekend, he decided to go test the new pants, which are the Aerostich Transit pants. It's not too often you'll hear someone so excited to go riding his motorcycle in the rain. The pants passed the first test, which I didn't doubt at all based on the cost and the reviews. Now he's trying to get me to get the pants. I like my Olympia's though. Great fit, great comfort, great versatility.

Planning is half the fun. Well, maybe not half, but it sure is fun to plan this trip. But the anticipation is killing me. I keep thinking if I just go to bed early, day one of vacation will just come quicker. The planning won't happen by itself, though.

We are definitely anticipating hitting the full gamut of weather on this trip, including snow. Other than Mammoth Lakes, Calif., we really don't have to be at any specific point at any given time. In other words, almost the whole trip is flexible. We will be able to adjust as necessary to account for unexpected occurrences. Best to be safe. And it kind of adds an element of spontaneity to the trip.

The BIG trip

Steve and I have been planning this trip since April of 2010. I've been warning my new boss since August 2010 that I would be taking three weeks of vacation in April 2012. Who does that? When I say he was new, keep in mind that I work for the military and he is active duty. I had been in the job already for two years, he was just checking in, but I knew he would still be my boss in 2012. So, I warned him on our very first meeting.

And so, here we are, March 2012, one week away from our 19-day trip. When we first planned this, we considered going to Nova Scotia. We were a little concerned about what the weather might be. Last April, we took the family (by airline) to go skiing at Mammoth Lakes, Calif. After that trip, I said "We should ride our bikes to Mammoth to go skiing for two days and ride back. That became the new plan. It changed a couple of times, because we knew this would become a mostly interstate trip. At some point, we decided not to go all the way to California, but to just stop at my Dad's house in Colorado, then down into New Mexico where I'm from and have fun on the backroads. That was actually the plan until about a week ago. Steve's brother, who lives in California, convinced us to go ahead with the skiing in Mammoth plan.

We shipped our skis yesterday to Steve's brother. And now, we are in full plan mode. Seems like we would have had every aspect of this trip planned out, you know, having had two years to plan. Well, I've rough drafted our map. We have a few friends and family we will be staying with along the way. But because of the price of gas, when we are not staying with friends or family, we will be camping.

We are also going to try to do an Iron Butt day across Kansas on our way to Denver. What's an Iron Butt? 1000 miles within 24 hours is the Saddlesore Iron Butt ride. It has to be well documented for it to be official. We will get a certificate from the Iron Butt Association. Look it up.

I will be making blog posts as I can throughout the trip. The trip is about 6250 miles total here's what it will look like.