5. Wait, I've done this long ride before...

I recently realized that I've done this trip before.  One month, NY to CA and back.  It was 1978.  I would have turned five during the trip.  My father reminded me the other day that he turned 40 in 1978. Now I'm 40 and planning a similar excursion.  He thinks it's some sort of mid-life crisis.

In 1978 my family of five piled into the brand new two-tone brown Ford Econoline van and basically lived in it for a month.  Camping our way out west and back.  I don't recall the trip given my age.  My brother Eric was 11 and John was 7 so they remember more.

I think that van may have been the first new vehicle my father ever bought (and the last for some time after).  He finally sold it 1997.  It was an integral part of every vacation as I grew up.  That van took us on innumerable camping excursions in the summer and Disney World trips during mid-winter break.  It eventually took us all off to college.

I wish I had a picture of the interior.  My father set it up himself.  My brother Eric picked the van color, brown, but it had a tan roof so it would not get as hot.  It had a bench seat about two-thirds of the way back.  We added brown paneling to the walls, orange carpet to the floor and orange curtains on the windows since we would be sleeping in there some nights.

I fondly remember the wars my brother and I had when he crossed over the seam into my portion of the bench seat.

Behind the bench seat, at about the same height as the top of the seat my father put in a piece of plywood (orange carpeted of course) which acted as a bed on the nights when the five of slept in the van.  All of our stuff was underneath.  We even had a porta-potty.  It was also brown.  I guess with three kids my father didn't want to stop every time one of us had to go.

It was a lovely shade of brown.

Home sweet home rolling through Sequoia.

From what I'm told we went from NY and took a more southern route to the west coat then came back via a northern route.  That is the opposite of what we are doing this time around.

The photo album my Mom had starts in Colorado with Pikes Peak and Mesa Verde (or Mesa Verdi as my Mom spells it).

Air Force Academy in Colorado (that's what the pic said)

Eric in Mesa Verde.

Next up was the Grand Canyon followed Sequoia National Park. Then we hit California. I'm not sure exactly where the picture by the Pacific is taken, although I do see pictures of the San Francisco Zoo and the National Forest in California.  You will see in the picture below that we are all backing away from the Pacific.  I believe the threat was that if any of us got wet it would be peanut butter and jelly for dinner again.  If we stayed dry, we got McDonald's.

Grand Canyon.  I think we all had the same haircut.

Stay dry!  No more PB&J!!

After a sweep through Utah to visit family we were off to Yellowstone, Devils Tower and Mount Rushmore.

Dad & John at Devils Tower.  The only pic that had both people and tower.

I just realized I still have that same haircut.

Then finally, what was probably the highlight of the trip for me was Bedrock City in South Dakota.  I even got to shake hands with Fred!!  I haven't washed that hand since, it's actually kind of gross, but I always want to carry a piece of Fred with me.

Yabba Dabba Doo to you.  I kept it professional.

The only picture where the three of us are smiling at the same time!

Now on to current time.  We are six weeks away from leaving.  I'm still giving the trip a 40% chance of actually happening.  I'm siding with pessimism so I can be pleasantly surprised if/when we actually pull this off.  I did figure out how to link the blog to HVMP's website and it is now available at both hvmprides.blogspot.com and blog.hvmp.com

I've definitely been riding more.  I took a 45 mile route to the post office that is three miles away last week.  I tested out the wireless hot spot and it works well.  Our newest purchases in advance of the trip include a Stubby tire changing tool, a valve replacement tool and white LED lights to mount on the front of the bikes.  Those were all purchased by my husband.  I went to Walmart and bought a compact mess kit.  Different priorities I guess.  I also bought a couple more freeze dried food packages. We tried to find them cheaper on the internet but by the time shipping was added it made more sense just to go and buy it at Walmart.

So 35 years later it feels like I'm due for this trip again.  Slightly different mode of transportation and altered route.  Still camping (we'll see about that).  So I guess as my father shakes his head in disbelief at my endeavor it is really all his fault.  He started it.

4. The Long Rides 3rd Companion: Technology

I'm not sure if I should worry that we are leaving in 7 weeks and I've only ridden my motorcycle once.  I took it out to the post office and to visit my parents late last week.  We are planning on riding a bit later today as well.  Time to get back into the swing of things.

Steve bought some sheepskin and put in some grommets so we can secure it to the bike, so there will be some extra cushion on my seat.  I find that my backside often has the most difficulty acclimating to many hours of saddle time.  Yesterday he also installed supplemental LED brake lights on both bikes.  Pictures of both are below.

My fluffy seat cover...oh and my HVMP bar ends!

The added LED's are on the back fender.

The idea of getting out on the open road is quite romantic  Just leave all your worries behind and enjoy the ride.  Nope.  Not going to happen.  I'm not there yet.  I'm bound to my technology and it is one of the main areas we are investing in prior to this trip. 

First, it started with the spot locator which arrived this week and Mom kindly offered to pay for.  Yes, I'm 40 and can pay for it myself, but what she is really buying is her own peace of mind. I did not grow up in a motorcycling family, so when I started riding in my 20's my Mom was very accepting, but that doesn't mean she's thrilled about it.  So, we have a deal.  No matter where I am, at the end of every day I call her and let her know we are safe and we are off the bikes for the rest of the day.  Whether it's a call after a quick ride to lunch or from the hotel near the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland, she appreciates it.  I've even called her after a ride that she didn't know I was going on.  It's just a thing we do now.  It's never my goal in life to cause her stress, so if a quick phone call will put her mind at ease, I'm all for it.

Now for a ride of this scope, there is obviously an intensified sense of worry.  The spot locator will allow me to send her a message via satellite that will basically tell her that we are safe but we have no cell service.  It will also allow her to track our progress as we make our way across the country.  Anything to keep in touch with not only her youngest but her only daughter....and I'd like to think favorite child.

It also has this nifty feature where if we get in real serious trouble we can hit a button and the spot locator will call for emergency services to come to our aid.   Hopefully, we will never have to use it but I think we will feel better having it.

Second, came talk of the communicators.  Our new helmets are set up to hold the blue tooth communicators.  So the idea of being able to speak to one another is appealing, although it may get old fast.  In the past I did not think it was necessary.  If I wanted to pull over I either passed Steve and stopped, or I would just stop and eventually he would figure it out and turn around.  But I guess it will be nice to be able to chat.

Steve will also be able to hear his GPS and music (I'm not really the music listening type while riding).  I like the ability to receive phone calls, although I wouldn't make a habit out of it.  I think we are going with a Sena, but unfortunately the newest model won't be available until May 12th...so that is going to be a late arrival. 

Third, was the laptop.  We have a cheapy, clunker of a laptop.  It does what it's supposed to do, but is not all that compact.  My home desktop runs Windows XP which will soon no longer be serviced by Microsoft, so I was planning on getting a new desktop.  But I have recently (like literally just last week) started working full time from home so my previous office desktop is now in my home office.  So instead of replacing my personal desktop we decided to replace the laptop.  I can hopefully log onto my day job if need be.  It will also allow us to log on and print out the HVMP shipping labels so my trusty bro-in-law can run the business while we party.

We bought this very lovely Lenovo Yoga which has a solid state hard drive (Steve says that is more better) and is kind of half tablet, half computer.  I have all of my Microsoft Office programs that I may need for work stuff, but it can be folded and is touch screen and has apps and is super light and I'm trying to figure it all out along with Windows 8.1.  I will say the Microsoft version of the Blogger app is crap.  You can only read blogs not edit your own.  I have to go on the internet to do that.  On my I-phone Blogger app I can write new blogs (which is also more better).

OK, so now we can talk and message Mom, call an ambulance and fire truck, listen to tunes, get directions, have conference calls, create spreadsheets, argue with one another and keep up with Orange is the New Black on Netflix.  Not very Easy Rider of us.  There was still one missing piece.

Fourth, and hopefully last, is today's latest purchase.  My own wifi hot spot doodad widget.  This contraption can supposedly connect to 2G, 3G, 4G, etc. and then make a wireless haven for up to 10 devices.  I have no idea how it will work, but I'll report back once I know.  It was a simple add to my wireless plan.

Steve is in charge of making sure everything can be charged on the bikes while we ride (except the laptop, that will wait for hotel time).

My feelings are mixed on remaining so connected.  I do hold on to this fanciful notion of life on the road.  The idea of feeling free spirited, wind blowing through my hair, grit in my teeth and maybe even little smelly is wholly appealing.  But, as a product of a responsible family I have been generally well-behaved and stayed on a path of being both dependable and accountable.  Going on a month long motorcycle trip is as bad-ass as I get. 

Although, who am I kidding?  I'm writing a freaking blog. 

3. Where do we go from here? The long ride route.

The idea came slowly.  Get to Johnson City, TN by June 16th.  Original trip duration went from one week to two then two weeks to four.  Steve was the first to throw out the idea of NY to CA to TN.  I threw out the idea of camping, knowing that hotel bills can add up quickly over the course of a month.

The seeds were planted and simultaneously as we begin to crawl out of depths of a tough NY winter our ideas about this trip have begun to sprout.  At this point we are quite well committed, family and work has been notified.  The shopping prep is in full force.  We have a preliminary route in place.

The general route idea was to head towards San Jose, because Steve has relatives that he hasn't seen in 15+ years near there.  OK, that works.  Steve's primary goal is to ride on secondary roads only taking highway when needed.  My goal is also to ride secondary roads but also to sight see.  So I started with some places I want to see, even if its just for a few minutes to ooh, aah, snap a photo and go.  The list started like this, Yellowstone, Devils Tower, Badlands, Grand Canyon, Pacific Ocean.

When I started to map locate these places I realized that I did want to do a couple of heavy mileage days to get out of the Northeast.  Places like, PA, OH, IL, IA we could manage on a one week trip any time.  In my mind the trip really starts in South Dakota.  I know with motorcycling it's the journey, not the destination, but I promise it will be about the journey once we hit South Dakota.

So the image below is our tentative route, knowing that we will probably divert from it after just a few days.

Our stopping points generally take us to either campgrounds or reasonably priced hotels.  We will not make a single reservation, except for Johnson City.  We are hoping to hit up family in CA, NV, CO and MO.  Of course, we can't guarantee when we will arrive, but if need be we will find a place to stay.

In other news, we have tested out the camp stove with some Mountain House Lasagna with Meat Sauce.  I bought denatured alcohol at Walmart.   I now know to find it in near the paint.  It was pretty tasty (the lasagna, not the denatured alcohol), although the use of the word lasagna was very optimistic.  More like rotini with meat sauce.

My sleeping bag also arrived in the mail and I have tested it out with my sleep pad but inside the house.  The spot locator has been ordered and we are currently shopping for a helmet communication system, which we have never used before.

We should be on the road 8 weeks from tomorrow...I move the trip predictor-meter to 75% chance of happening.  I'm pretty sure I won't predict 100% chance until we pull out of the driveway!!!

Looks comfy, right?

YUMMY! I can't get this to rotate.

2. The long ride to the long ride

As of today we are just shy of 10 weeks before our scheduled departure date.  When I think abut the end of May it seems far off, but when I think 10 weeks, that seems fairly close.  We are about three-quarters of the way through GPS'ing the route (there will be a post completely related to the route). 

Getting everything prepared to live on the road is coming along.  How our household will be managed during our absence is less settled.  HVMP world headquarters operates out of a small room in our house.  Luckily we took it over from our brother in-law and friend back in 2005 and said brother in-law lives right up the road.  He has kindly agreed to handle shipping during our journey.  Then there is the issue of our two felines, Micki who is sweet and Otto, who is a jerk.  I need to get planning on their maintenance, luckily there are lots of family and friends nearby.

While we are getting close to leaving on our trip, I'd like to believe this has been some years in the making.  Steve (husband) has been riding for a long time, starting with dirt bikes as a kid.  When we met we would ride 2 up on his Suzuki DR 650 from the Bronx up along the Hudson River.  He (and an instructor) taught me to ride and I bought a used 1981 Kawasaki KZ440 at some point in the very late 1990's.  Then things like our wedding and home ownership took up our time so we didn't ride much. We would go for local rides a few times a year, often riding two up on the KZ440.  When we would hit bumps the back tire would scrape against the fender.  Please refrain from the obvious comments about that, we know already.

In 2004 Steve rode our friend's Honda VFR and something clicked.  Not too long after that ride he owned his first street bike, a 2004 Kawasaki Concours, and the desire to travel via motorcycle began to grow.  He recalled seeing the Concours at his local dealer the first year it came out in 1986 and he fell in love with it then.  Luckily for him the Concours had not changed in the 18 years it took him to finally go buy one.  I tried riding on the back but it's not for me.  So we bought my first touring bike, a used 2004 Buell Blast.  With some soft bags and a kayak bag strapped to the back we were ready to go.

Along the way I moved from the Blast to a Kawasaki Ninja 500, to a BMW R1150R, to a Suzuki SV650S, which is my current ride.  My husband went from the Concours to the Buell Ulysses to a Kawasaki Versys 650 which is his current long trip bike.

Our first week long trip (me on the Blast and Steve on the Concours) was in 2004 with two friends.  We went without a plan other than stopping in Cooperstown, NY to see the baseball hall of fame.  We wandered around NY, VT and NH for a week, riding around 1,500 miles, and we were hooked.  It was on this first week long trip that we got to experience the kindness of strangers.  One of our travel mates decided his bike was not running well and thought cleaning the carburetor in a gas station parking lot was necessary.  I stayed out of it.  I'm not useful there.  Eight hours later the bike was still not running.  A friendly gentleman came along and deduced the issue was probably yucked up spark plugs.  He took the spark plugs back to his shop and blasted them clean with some sort of thing that blasts stuff clean and sure enough the bike started right up.  He didn't have to take time out of his day to do that, but were all quite grateful that he did.

By the time all this went down it was late and dark, so we went to the one hotel in town.  We were just a few miles shy of the Canadian border but the restaurant/hotel we went to was nice enough to keep the kitchen open for us.  The hotel was on a trucking route.  When I requested a non-smoking room the reply I received was "Honey, I don't know what they do in them, but we have rooms if you want them."  I could only respond by telling her we would take two rooms.  Our two friends actually got the honeymoon suite since it was the only room in the place with two beds (?) as long as they were OK with dealing with the damage to the room which was inflicted by the recent wedding party?

Since then we have tried to allocate a week long trip every year.  Some of our destinations on our week long trips have included Nova Scotia, Fontana Dam in North Carolina, Marlinton in West Virginia, and Canaan Valley in West Virgina. In 2008 we went on the Ultimate Alps Tour with Edelweiss.  We hit Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Italy.  We would definitely like to do something like that again.

We had another kindness of strangers incident in PA.  I'm not really sure where we were but we used to try to find dirt roads if they were available to us.  We hit some mud and I performed what is known as a tank slapper (if you are unfamiliar with the term, just check youtube) and dropped my BMW R1150R.  No real harm to the bike, but I broke off one of the bags.  We were able to strap it on to the back seat.  As soon as we finally made it off the dirt road Steve realized his wheel bearing on his Ulysses had given out.  Road side assistance was being challenging, but then someone who worked for the local cable company came buy.  Within 30 minutes he had some guys from a local repair shop out to pick up Steve's bike.  They stopped everything they were doing and found some ATV bearings that fit the Ulysses.  Within two hours we were back on the road.  Total cost, around $50.  Being from NY that could have charged us four times that and we would have been thrilled.  The next morning as were trying to figure out how to reattach my bag so it wouldn't have to be strapped to the back seat for the whole trip a nice gentleman in the parking lot had everything we needed to wire it firmly into place for the rest of our journey.

I will be tackling our month long endeavor on the Suzuki SV650S which we made some modifications to.  Since it is the sportier model with the clip-on handlebars the sitting position was too leaned over for my liking.  We did a handlebar conversion so it has the same handlebars as the standard SV.  We also added the sidebags and a trunk.  Steve's had side bags added to the Versys when he bought it and added a trunk as well.

Given that our next trip will be four weeks in length and neither of us has never done anything like this before, there is no way we will feel really prepared but we hope we've at least had enough experience to appreciate when things go well and to manage when things go poorly.

Somewhere in the Alps.

Somewhere in PA.

Please, can I go?  I fit right here!

1. The Long Ride Ahead?

Like many people I recently found myself facing an evolving employment situation.  So why not take the potential of having more time on my hands and making a mini-adventure out of it?

Let's back up a minute.  This blog is HVMP's www.hvmp.com Long Ride Ahead story.  My business, HVMP, sells heavy bar end weights for many different types of motorcycles.  The heavy stainless steel bar ends add weight to the end of the handle bars and change the resonant frequency of vibration, hopefully making your long journey more comfortable.  You can read about that more on the website if your interested.  Back to the ride.

HVMP has always been a side business as I worked my real day job.  Now that the face of that real day job is changing I'm trying to work in a bit of a break.  As both a personal and Industry member of the Concours Owners Group it was always my intention to travel to Johnson City, TN in June 2014 for their 25th anniversary national rally.  It was going to be a week long journey.  Evolving employment?  Why not make it two weeks?  Hey, why not make it a month?  How about we go to TN via California?  Sounds like a good plan, right?  I even agreed to camp (let's see how quickly I regret that decision).

So here we are.  As this idea has gotten legs and the probability of actually taking place has steadily increased I thought documenting it might be fun.  I always forget to take pictures, so if I can log in throughout our actual journey and say a few words it may help my aging memory.  I'm currently thinking this trip has a 40% chance of happening.  That has improved over an original 25% in late January.

We (and by we I mean my husband) have started mapping daily routes for the GPS, although we are certain we will have to change them on the fly, we wanted to lay out a general route.  New helmets and spare chains have been ordered.  Just today I received my sleeping bag and alcohol stove.  Mom said she would pay for the Spot locator, she likes to keep track of us. 

So welcome to my first blog about my first NY to CA (and back) motorcycle trip.  I'm sure my mom will enjoy reading it...maybe I'll get a few others.

I went with the high visibility.