In July 2009, we had a long motorcycle trip from west coast to east coast and back, covering 10,360 miles in 30 days. Thanks to iphone and facebook, I can recount the details of the days from the status updates. Here is an archive of the updates during that time:
Very productive day today. new battery and front tire done. ordering rear tire + wheel from ebay. helped piyush installing hard bags on his VFR.
Instamapper.com rocks. Just set up a gps tracker for our month long cross country motorcycle ride. http://bit.ly/O9d9w
New rear tire should come today. Bike should be ready by evening. Dry run of packing to follow afterwards.
Feeling infinitely lucky to have a wife who is excited to be on a motorcycle trip for 30 days.
Seems like I can lose weight and stay young on a motorcycle: http://bit.ly/73jOX and http://bit.ly/10WZFS
Started at 7am. Breakfast stop at Benicia.
175 miles done. I-5 is a bit sedate.
At Weed, CA. 325mi done. Touched 97F peak at Redding. Morning was 58F.
At Chemult, OR. Blinded by greens and blues. Don’t wanna leave Oregon.
Got rained on day 1. Awesome. The smell of wet soil took me home in monsoon. This IS home.
Day 1 over. 555 miles. Staying at Bend, OR at my coworker’s place.
Day 2 begins. Shivering cold in Bend.
Breakfast stop at Madras, OR. Wish there was a dosa/idli restaurant.
Chilling at Kennewick near Pasco WA. In 2007 I almost bought an yellow Goldwing from here.
Watching awesome fireworks beside lake flathead. 50 more miles to Whitefish, MT.
Reached Whitefish, MT. 670 miles in 17 hours. Will camp at a guy’s place who I sold my Canon 5D last year.
Idaho rocks. No bullshit tax. Cheap gas. 75 limit roads, even on mountains.
Chilling at Whitefish. Slept at 2am, woke up at 7:30. Will visit Glacier NP today.
Damn, are all the prettiest American girls living in Whitefish ?
At Choteau, MT now. 200 miles today. Scenary overload all day. Glacier NP and then beautiful roads in evening.
Wish there were tech jobs here at Montana. This state is too good. My head is hurting with pretty overload.
Bfast stop at Great Falls, MT. 60 miles today.
Instead of Monday morning blues we are drowning in the greens of rural Montana. And popcorn clouds made for us…
Loving the life on the road. This is how we wanna live, work hard and ride harder.
Visually drunk and totally fallen in love with Montana. My previous favorites Colorado and Oregon got pushed down in my list.
Piyush’s VFR got a leaking right fork seal. Ouch. We did two quick fixes and hope he can get it fixed properly at SLC on his way back.
At red lodge, MT. Camping beside a river. 385 miles today.
The VFR fork leak got fixed by a masking tape trick. Thanks a ton to Goldwing yoda Susan Coles.
Soaking in the sights and sounds of nature. Never camped this close to a river.
Damn the night was one of the coldest I ever spent out. 48F is the morning temp at 5:10am MDT.
Sun is probably rising from west today. Priti wants to shower in this 48F morning at the campground.
Yellowstone turned out to be least fun in the trip. The slow road is painfully sedate on a motorcycle. Not sure I will ride here again.
Yellowstone SUCKS on a bike trip. 80 miles through the park at 35mph. NEVER again on a bike !
Waiting for old faithful to erupt.
Enjoying the ride through grand Teton park. Light is not right so will come back for sunrise and sunsets.
At Casper WY. 350 miles done. Got 43.3 mpg on highway instead of usual 38. Woot. Thought slow park roads gave earlier 44 mpg.
Casper to Douglas WY – 50miles. Dialed in 80mph cruise and it felt like flying a private jet.
Camping at KOA of Douglas WY. Beautiful location, free wifi, heated pool. After a 400 mile day I could not ask anything better.
Watched a beautiful sunrise. Now heading to Sturgis, South Dakota.
Marathon day tomorrow. 700 miles to Chicago to meet up with parents.
Had a solid sleep, ready to start in 15 min.
I totally absolutely hate construction zones and sun in the face. Would love to live in a permanently cloudy place !!!!!
Ice cream stop at DQ. Worthington, MN. 200 miles done. Minnesota is very green.
On autopilot almost whole day at 80-85mph. Wing is eating miles for breakfast.
Snack break at Albert Lea, MN. Boiled eggs taste better with tortilla chips than salt alone !!!
Fastest day of the trip so far. 440 miles in 8 hours. Lunch break near la crosse, MN.
Last fillup at Monona, WI. 630 miles done in 12 hours, 150 more to go. Still have lots of energy!
At Chicago. 775 miles in 15 hours. Longest so far.
Change of plans: leaving Chicago on Monday instead of Sunday.
Got a good look at my face. Resembles grilled chicken.
Doing oil change myself at a shell service station. They gave me a pan, gloves, rags and a cardboard. Cool.
Chicago feels like Kolkata. Got cooked in traffic on a short trip to change oil.
2nd day of lazing around in Chicago. In a train, going to meet up with a school senior who was a student of both my parents.
En route to Cleveland, OH. Had a feast of a lunch at my school junior’s place in south bend, IN. Feeling sleepy every 20 miles
Getting robbed by tollbooths in IL, IN and OH. Damn things are making us pay every few miles.
Started hating east coast already. Lost count of the cash gone in tolls, and am not even in NY/NJ yet !!! Can the gps help avoiding tolls ?
Staying with sister’s batchmate and family at South Euclid, OH. 395 miles today and 4125 miles so far.
Mentally still in pacific time. The road lag is not going away easily.
Reunited with a school friend after 7 yrs. At Ithaca, NY now. 400 miles today, 4525 miles so far.
Met up with a ST13 rider at Fultonham, NY. Enjoyed sone awesome rural roads and also had a scary little ride on gravel road.
Having mac chicken at a service area on I-88E at Schenectady, NY.
100 more miles of awesome Vermont twisties before Nashua, NH.
At Nashua, NH. 360 miles today, 4880 so far.
Off to stony brook.
Stony Brook, here I come. Lunch at my favorite Chinese buffet Yin Yang.
Got fried in traffic around NJ-NY. Turned off engine many times to prevent boiling the coolant.
Took I-495 and northern state pkwy. Memories, memories…
Priti forgot to show ezpass when getting on NJ turnpike I-78 from Bayonne. What to do to avoid fines ?
Going to manhattan with friends. Time for some street photography which I should have done long back.
Charmed by NYC at night. I think I like this city more than SF which has no season at all.
Had a fantastic thai dinner at Yum Yum Too near 9th and 46th.
1am feels like 7pm in NYC. Awesome.
10mph on I-95 near Rutgers. HATE it. Should have taken 206 at 45mph
. Goodbye east coast. I will likely not miss ya. Finally got rid of the congestion on I-95 and at walt Whitman service area. 100 more miles to Maryland.
Escaped from mile long 10 mph toll plaza queue insanity at last. Entering Maryland.
Dear Priti, repeat after me 50 times: we will never ever ever ever ever even think of living in NY/NJ area !!!
At Baltimore. Meeting Ja from Stony Brook after 3.5 years.
Met mejomashi and family at Ellicot city, MD. Now with Ayan and Aritra at Ashburn, VA.
Got stuck at 5mph construction zone traffic for an hour on I-66. The awesome cloudy weather kept me calm. Don’t know how people go to work.
Got blown over at Luray Caverns at Virginia. Raining now, gonna be an awesome monsoon ride to Durham, NC.
Raining cats and dogs, taking a bite at burger king near Luray Caverns.
Checked into 360 motel at Midlothian, VA. 220 miles today, 5960 miles so far.
Midlothian VA to South Hill VA. 90 miles non stop in 70 min. My fastest sprint so far. Reward: bfast at Dennys.
Slept like a log at Kools’ place in Raleigh. Fully charged up for the ride south.
Rode into heavy downpour before walterboro SC. Taking shelter below an overpass due to very low visibility. Quite fun.
Staying at Savannah today. Bike tires wore unevenly and it is wobbling a bit. Have to fix it tomorrow.
Perfect day. Just as I pulled into Florida welcome center the rear tire blew. Guess the puncture was there for a while.
Got lucky about the location to fix my puncture myself. Also met a Goldwing rider with yellow wing and trailer.
Fixed puncture but tire won’t hold air. The big gash blew it. Now trying to reach a local gwrra member with trailer. Honda dealer is 30mi.
Omg ! A local wing rider has a spare wheel with rear tire and he is on the way!!! Wooooot.
The local winger came with wheel. We swapped the wheels in 10 min. Now at Jacksonville Honda getting a new Bridgestone.
The wing rider had the spare wheel because he switched to a car tire (dark side).
Don, the local winger is a pilot as well. He even rebuilt a plane!!! This GWRRA membership is fully worth.
The best things in life are priceless. We meet the nicest of people un the strangest of places and situations.
On the road again. Zero wobble. Whether or not I shoulda examined the rear tire more during wobble does not matter now. Had a helluva day.
Don is the symbol of how life should be lived. We talked about motorcycles, aviation and boating as well. His wife does woodturning too !!!
Tire lesson #1: if front wobbles check rear tire 10 times.
Don had car tire on his wing for last 7k mi with no issues. Am convinced enough to get one next. 3x miles, more traction, tilts fine too.
At chuck’s place in Satsuma FL. He rides an yellow wing with an yellow car-shaped trailer. My fav color and combo. 225 miles today.
On US-17 to Orlando. 80F, 80% humidity and just trotted beside a goods train. Feels home.
Reached temple terrace FL near Tampa after a non stop 120 mi ride from Kennedy Space Center. Rode through some hellish thunderstorm as well.
Don said priti should get her moto license before car and also should study towards a pilot’s lic as well so I can fly
Planning to ship all camping gear home tomm to reduce the excessive weight of the suitcase. We are unlikely to camp in this southern heat.
Shipped 20lb of stuff home. Suitcase should be much lighter after redistributing rest of stuff.
Bailing on Clearwater beach. It can be out of the world but 25 miles through town at 15mph is making me sick.
FL-98 is 10x better than I-75. Glad I ditched Clearwater. Still have my sanity and also prevented coolant boil-out of the bike.
Having a refreshing icee at Old Town, FL. Love these small towns, nice people and relaxed life. And no parking hassle ever.
Got first speeding ticket just when I thought the day was getting better. FL-98 is too good to ride near limits. Struggling to save the day.
Trying very very hard to enjoy the most gorgeous sunset at the same spot I stopped in 2005 on my first cross country bike trip
Stopping at a nice little town Appalachicola, FL. But it is Friday and inns are $$. Florida is giving me a bittersweet experience.
At the shore of the gulf of Mexico, st George island, FL.
We got our Clearwater with 1% crowd. Patience pays off.
With Suparno and Tusi at Baton Rouge, LA. Long day today, 510 miles.
Friend at Dallas is on-call today and got busy. We were unsure where to stay, then Priti found a contact at Uncertain, TX by a lake
Had an incredibly awesome stay at Uncertain, TX. The boat ride on the swampy Caddo lake was beyond any kind of our imaginations.
Priti called Florida clerk of court to ask if online traffic school is possible for my ticket. And they said yes !!! My trip got saved !
No more bad moods and fights with Priti for a while
Reached Midland, TX and got a motel. Incredibly sleepy day today but 530 miles done. 8670 miles so far.
At monahans sandhills state park. Feels like visiting the gobi desert in Rajasthan except for the cool 75F temps.
Lunch at a Mexican place by I-10. My god, the waitress is hotter than Salma Hayek !
Getting roasted in blistering 101F Texas heat now.
Had to ride 2 miles on unpaved road. Not fun on wing. Parked little far from house since it is a steep gravel slope to the house from road.
Imagine. 10pm. Moon playing hide-n-seek. 3 ladies and us sat in a natural hot springs pond in the woods for an hr. Au naturale, except me!
Had a beautiful morning ride from Bayard to Silver City on mountain spirits scenic byway. 75F at 6000 elev. Now on US-70W from lordsburg.
Had a refreshing light snack at a small town Duncan, AZ.
Getting oven roasted at 104F desert heat in AZ. Picking up another chilled soda at Globe, AZ. 100 more miles to Scottsdale.
50 miles from Scottsdale. Temp when moving is 108F but not too bad since it is dry. We can survive.
Reached Scottsdale, AZ. New record temp 113F but still better than humid 95F in Florida.
Anyone want a quadruple bypass burger from heart attack grill at Chandler AZ ?
Priti’s iPhone 3G did auto shutdown and won’t come back up. Anyone knows how to hard reset it ?
Thanks everyone for the iPhone reset tip. I tried all those but the phone decided to ignore everything for a couple hours, then booted up.
Staying at Caltech/Pasadena with Priti’s ex-roomie from IISc. 415 miles today, 9920 so far. Will cross 10k tomm the 30th day of the trip.
Walked a few blocks for a juicy chicken burrito. Walking back is not fun. Burp.
Met up with 2 friends of Priti in Marina Del Ray and Los Angeles. Starting for home now on 101.
Telling the GPS to route home, finally !!!
101 is nice but has lots of slow sections. Should have taken I-5. Still 270 miles to go.
Last fueling done at Soledad, CA. 100 more miles to home.
At Gilroy. Waiting for Piyush at a gas station.
Reached Sunnyvale at last after a 30-day, 10360 mi xcountry motorcycle trip. Running to a friend’s daughter’s first bday party.
Finally, home. Can’t believe the trip is over.
#1 by Francesco Gallarotti on February 26, 2010 - 3:49 am
LOL @ “Dear Priti, repeat after me 50 times: we will never ever ever ever ever even think of living in NY/NJ area !!! July 19, 2009, 1:21pm”
#2 by Paul on April 2, 2010 - 1:13 pm
Lots and lots of miles. Unbelievable trip. I think this was the nicest trip description that I’ve ever read (gave me happiness of what you have seen during the trip, but also scares me out of what distance you rode). Great Joy!
Regards,
Paul.
#3 by motorcycle accessories in need on February 1, 2011 - 11:44 pm
“I find my motorcycle to be the best way to travel” I guess that would our motto for being a traveler and a rider. I wish I had lots of time to travel, thank you for sharing I got traveling tips here.