It takes at least 18 months to get drivers license for a bike in Ontario. If you don’t take an accredited course, it takes 24 months. My 18 months were up a little while ago so, today I rode and passed my final exam.

John and Kim

I’d taken the Humber Collage Motorcycle Course in the fall of 2010. John Kerns was one of my instructors. john and I have become good friends since and he helped me a lot getting ready for the exam. Kim, another riding friend was in my corner all the way too so, “Thanks” to you both!

I had originally planned on leaving for the summer ride the day after my exam but, I’ve got to finish off two projects that I took on. I’ll pass one on tomorrow, and the other next week. After that, I’m ready to start packing up and getting ready to go. John is coming with me for the first couple of days. we’re going to ride together to Cleveland and then spend a day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I can’t think of a more fun way to start this summers journey! we’ll head out on about the 5th of June.

I’m starting to get excited about this trip. I took on a part time job at the Running Room in town over the winter and, that finishes up on Thursday this week. I have a couple of web projects to finish off and then, I’m on my way. I’m shooting to hit the road just before the end of the month.

The trip at this point is 26,500k in length. I have 70 planned stops and expect to be on road for a little under 3 months. I think if I’m more than that, I’ll be a single guy again and, I don’t want that!

I got the bike tuned up and had new tires installed over the winter. I may go in for another oil change before I leave though. I’ve got about 3300k on the bike already this year.

I bought new saddle bags when the old cheap ones broke on me. I got a second bag for over the back luggage rack as well so, I should have lots of room for all of my belongings this year. I’m planning on doing some camping and hiking as well so, I’ll be needing that extra space for clothes, tent, sleeping bag etc. I guess I should pack everything up and get a few miles behind me with the extra weight on the bike before I leave too.

I’m planning on dropping in to visit about 20 folks along the way. I have some concern that I’m not able to tell folks exactly when I’m going to be where. I really want to be able to stop and enjoy some of the places along the way and, if I’m loving it, spend an extra day here and there.

I think I’m just about done with additions to the trip. By adding on riding the Cabot Trail today it looks like the  trip is just a touch over 26,000k. I created a PDF spreadsheet of the route with daily distances and expected times. Click 2012 Bike Route R7 for the spreadsheet.

I still haven’t though about the time schedule much. I also don’t want to head out with a time schedule, but a rough idea of when I may land of people’s doorsteps would be thoughtful! 

I got the bike back from the shop this week. She’s all tuned up and she’s got new rubber that should see me about 2/3 of the way along the route. I’m guessing that just before the Tail of the Dragon would be a good place to get another set installed.

Both John Kerns and I took our bikes out for rides today. It was cold but, it felt GREAT. Here’s hoping for an early spring!

I’m really just checking to make sure that I can post pictures to this blog from my iPhone. We had problems in Spain. My buddy John Kerns sent me this image the depicts the trip pretty well!

I sometimes look at people and wonder how they got to where they are in business, and life in general. Did their life or career get handed to them? Did they choose the path early in life and follow it through for their entire working career or, was there a small knock at the door that they looked at and because of what was on the other side, they changed paths completely?

I got to thinking about the couple of dozen people or so that I’m dropping into along this summers bike trip. Most are getting to be retirement age, thinking about retiring or, are already retired. I’m thinking that there may be a very interesting story to be told afterwards if I asked everyone to tell me about their working careers.

I don’t really know what I’ll discover. maybe nothing but, I suspect there may be some interesting findings. I wonder if I should tell folks that this is what I’d like to do to give them some time ahead to think about their answers or, would it be better to learn what comes from the ‘top of mind’?

This upcoming trip gets more and more interesting and exciting to me on almost a daily basis. There’s only 121 days until June 1!!!

I’m stopping at a number of places that I’d never heard of before. I searched them out on Google and found great pictures of most of them!

	Mount Rushmore http://www.mountrushmoreinfo.com/
	Crazy Horse http://crazyhorsememorial.org/
	Teton Park www.nps.gov/grte/
	Yellowstone http://www.yellowstonepark.com/
	Old Faithful
	Bonniville Salt Flats http://www.utah.com/playgrounds/bonneville_salt.htm
	Alcatraz http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/
	Bryce Canyon http://www.utah.com/nationalparks/bryce.htm
	Henrieville
	Escalante http://www.escalante-cc.com/
	Canyon of the Ancients http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/nm/canm.html
	Los Cerrillos http://www.turquoisetrail.org/stops/category/cerrillos/
	Tail of the Dragon http://www.tailofthedragon.com/

I’ve been editing the route for this trip almost daily. I don’t know about anyone else but, I’m getting pretty excited about it. I’m planning to leave on June 1, weather dependant. 126 days from now. In some ways, it feels like forever away and then, at times, it’s just around the corner.

Proposed Route January 27, 2012 - Click for larger view

I’ve dropped a few of my original planned destinations. Alaska, the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Alaska can be a trip on its own. I’ve been to the Grand canyon a couple fo times before. Lynne and I had a great adventure in Sedona on our way to Mexico a couple of years ago. I’ve never heard of some the replacement destinations. I’m asking for, and getting feedback from people who I’m going to visit about great spots to see and things to do around where they live. As of today, the route covers 25,124k with 63 stops from Home to home around the country.

I’m going to update to the ‘Proposed Route” page and detail each stop.

This trip is going to be amazing. Toronto, through the US and back up to Vancouver and Victoria, Down the PCH to LA, over to Florida, up to NYC, across to Nova Scotia and back to Toronto with a zillion stops along the way!  It’s measuring out at a bit over 22,000k so far.

Proposed Route - Changing all the time!

If you know of something great to see or do along the way, PLEASE, let me know!

It’s January 1, 2012. I have five months to fill in before I head off on my next bike adventure.  I’m going to start this summers trip by heading to Wisconsin and seeing the Kohler gang that I didn’t stop to see on my way home from last summers trip. I’d got a bug in my butt that I wanted to be home and hardly stopped to sleep. I’ve felt bad about that since so, I’ll start there this year.

John, my teacher, friend, bike buddy and I.

When I started to think about where to go this summer, I’d started with the idea of heading to Alaska and then circle the US and come back home heading north up the east coast. I thought more and more and started to thinking about how many people I knew around the US and maybe going out and saying HI to everyone. I started dropping push pins (so to speak) in a map where everyone lived. The initial route came together pretty quickly. It was about 20,000k.

I’ve created a Google Map of the route. It’s got too many stops on it already to show in one map. It’s in three pieces now. There is a link near the bottom of the page that allows you to go from map to map.

I did a bit more editing and, I thought about how I’d missed everywhere east of Ontario on last years trip. I know some folks out on the east coast so, I edited the map, swapping out Alaska for the East coast.

Lynne has no desire at all to even sit on the back of the bike while it’s on it’;s stand in the garage so, she sure isn’t coming along for the trip. Our friends on the east coast are mutual friends so, she may well meet up there when  I’m there.

I got a few emails from friends in Mexico who lived in the South West who have suggest a whole bunch of cool rides routes and fun stuff to do. I’ve edited the map again to take some of those in as well. I think I’m going to document where I’m going and then email everyone that I’m going to see and get their suggestions on what they think would be the coolest thing to see and or do within a hundred miles of where they live.  I don’t imagine I’ll ever do a trip like this again so, I’m going to make it as EPIC as possible!

If you’re reading this and have seen, done, or heard about anything that you think would be great, please let me know!

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Happy New Year everyone