So it's been just over 24 hours since my post about my route and math and it's already old news. There is a guy in Alabama who rides an ST1300 on long distances and he writes journals about his trips. He did a trip about 5 years ago from Alabama to Jasper then to California then back to Alabama. Yeah, he's nuts. Anyway, since his route from Jasper to CA is similar to mine, I decided to read his journal. Boy am I glad I did. As it turns out, I've been routing along lines that are too thick. What I mean is, when you're looking at a map, the thicker lines translate into boredom on a motorcycle (and in a car for that matter). The thinner lines are what you take when you want to get away from traffic, see things that are worth seeing, and meet people that are worth meeting. I already was avoiding the interstate, but when I followed Guy's (that's his name) travels, I saw many places I could slim the line down and make it worth it.
I posted about this some time ago. My fear with my route was that it was too much about the destination part and not enough about the getting there part. Guy rides a lot like I do in the sense that we both like to see the sites and enjoy the riding. So I've made about a half dozen changes to my route in the past 24 hours. Some of them fairly major causing me to cancel three hotel reservations and re-book them in different towns.
One of the things I decided is that I'm a puss compared to this guy. I'm thinking a 300 mile day is tough. His typical day is 400 but he routinely does 500's. The man is 52. He's on a stock seat. I'm 38 with a Corbin custom saddle and (soon to be) an air pocket ass saver, handlebar risers and heated grips. There is no way I'm not able to do it also. So I increased my mileage on a few legs. There's enough room built in to the trip to make adjustments if need be. Probably the toughest day I have is from Spences Bridge to Golden in British Columbia. That day is 428 miles and about 9.5 hours of riding. It culminates in a nice rest in the area for over a week without any significant distances to ride so I'm finishing the last leg getting to Canada with a bang.
I also really started focusing on using Filemaker to keep track of all this info. I realized, Duh. I'm a Filemaker Pro expert. I design databases all damn day. Why haven't I gotten serious about building myself a trip database? So I really spruced it up today. It does all kinds of stuff. It tracks my mileage, estimated fuel, my hotel reservations at each stop with the plethora of data that needs to be tracked for each of those, it also tracks my itinerary notes and has a section to keep a shorthand diary from the road (though I'll likely use the iPhone for that). I also just put the finishing touches on a module that tracks my packing list, where things go on the bike, how much each thing weighs so I can properly balance the load in the different locations, and can print a checklist of everything to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.
I also finished plotting every route for each day and have uploaded those into the GPS so each day I can just go to that day's route and hit "Go" instead of having to program the GPS every day. All in all, I'm getting close to being ready. The bike will hopefully be ready any day, but I took the hard cases off before I took it into the shop so I can start packing here while the bike is gone. Almost every piece of gear is something that can sit packed for weeks because I only need it for riding. Considering I just found out that I'll be traveling to Massachusetts for my new job from Sunday through Wednesday of the week before I leave, I'd say I need to leave with the bike packed. I'll be leaving for the trip three days after I return.
Life really is an adventure sometimes. I'm certainly enjoying this one.
New Route Stats:
Total Miles: 4,055
Est Fuel: $304.00
Est. Lodging: $2,322.00
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