Well, we are almost ready to depart on our big trip, wonderful adventure or fool’s errand depending on your view of a 5000+ mile motorcycle ride. It certainly is not the longest one anyone has ever taken. Our son Justin did one of 11,000+ miles just last summer. We will be visiting some of the same places and people that he did. Moreover, it is not even a long one considering our age. I read of a guy planning to ride from Florida to the north shore of Alaska next year at the age of 75. But it is the longest we’ve ever attempted or likely to attempt again. We have done a couple of trips of a little over 1000 miles. Training rides if you will.

The basics are I am riding a 05 Moto Guzzi Nevada 750 and Susan is riding her 09 Suzuki Burgman that has a Kenna sidecar attached. Yes, she rides her own. The sidecar has solved many of the questions of “do we have room to take this? “

The bikes are all ready to go and we think we have the necessary accessories to make the trip enjoyable but we’re getting down to the wire on getting the house ready for the house sitters and various other things. So in a great tradition of “I need time to get ready for vacation” I took Friday off work to help Susan get the last minute things done. I should get lots of husbanding points for that.

We depart on Tuesday, August 17 in the evening and go just far enough to get past the Seattle traffic mess. The real trip will start on Wednesday when we head east on I90 and then I94 to Dickinson, North Dakota, to visit a niece. From there we get off the interstate and go through South Dakota and into Minnesota to Hasting to visit one of Susan’s sisters. Then we follow the Mississippi River on the Wisconsin side for a while and then on east to Elgin, Illinois, where will spend a couple of weeks visiting my brother and Susan’s other siblings. After that, we head back. While we have laid out a route, we are not tying ourselves to it. We’ve already talked of some alternate stops and detours.

Susan's ride. Dauntless Motors is the place that manufactures and installs the Kenna sidecar that's on her bike.'



My ride is a little more traditional.