July 3, 2013
If Ready, Set, Go was the official countdown for the beginning of a trip, we'd be one day before "Ready", which is a good thing, because we're FAR from it. We'll be leaving late, late Saturday night or very early Sunday morning and head out on our latest summer adventure, from home to Neah Bay, Washington, south to Big Sur, California (or slightly farther south), then back up California's valley land ("Oh my God, Becky") until we turn east to begin the trip home.
We're making this little trek (estimated to be about 6,500 miles by the time we're done) on a 2000 Honda Goldwing (the same bike we took to Alaska), pulling a Trailmaster pop-up trailer behind us. The trailer will allow us to skip the majority of the moteling that we would have ordinarily had to do. Jack is excited about this since the motels that I've chosen in the past included one with an overnight guest and his little blow up friend. Ew.
In addition to being far from roughing it (we'll actually have a Keurig coffee maker with us; there's no need to play Grizzly Adams if we don't have to) the camper is a WONDERFUL conversation starter while we're traveling. We have a king-sized bed and a 6'x6' area in which to set up a table and chairs for games on a rainy day, or for both of us to change clothes without the likelihood of getting an elbow to the face. People walking by our "rig" usually want to check it out, so we meet many characters along our way.
The bike gets nearly 40 mpg (sometimes a little more going down mountains and sometimes a little less climbing them) and runs like a top. We've put on new tires, gotten an oil change and installed a power cord to the battery to keep our phones, iPod, and iPad charged up and running at all times. (Did I mention that we aren't roughing it?)
We'll try to travel between 400 and 450 miles each day, to a large degree dependant on Mother Nature's whims. Also, if we're planning to stay more than one night, we may drive a little longer the previous day (the first two night stop is scheduled for Flathead Lake outside of Glacier National Park.)
Pics will be posted every day that I have an Internet connection. Check them out and get a better idea of where we've been and what we've seen. It'll be just like you're there with us except we won't have to strap you to the trunk.
