Netbook

I have decided to take a netbook with my on the trip, so I'll be able to upload photos in a timely fashion.

we only have 12 days left to go before we leave. I'm getting excited; however, I have so much to do and so little time.

Zach is still @ mom's and will come home on Tuesday. Robin is giving him a party next Friday evening. I still have to mount the Ram for the GPS, and get the new tires put on the bike.

I have the route pretty much figured out. Here's where we plan on traveling:

Start in Gastonia, NC. Our first 4 days will take us through TN, Ky, Mo, Nb, Io, and up to SD. We will go through the Badlands, and then to the Black Hills. We'll spend an extra day in this area seeing the sites. Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Deadwood, Lead, Sturgis, and the like. Then it's off to Yellowstone via the Chief Joseph and Bear Tooth highways. From there we'll go north to Glacier Ntl Park, then travel across the Columbia river gorge to the coast of Oregon. Down the coast through the Redwoods, then to San Francisco. Across the Golden Gate, then to Yosimite. After that we're off to Vegas, the Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon via a little bit of historic Route 66. At this point we have to decide if we are coming straight across I-40 home or taking the southern route along the Gulf Coast.

The plan is to camp most nights; however, we will be staying in hotels from time to time.

Well that's all for now.

i probably won't post anymore until we're on the road.

Trip to Mom's - Zach and I, Fort Fisher

Trip to Mom's - Jeff and I, The begining of the Iphone trouble

Trip to Mom's - Jeff @ Fort Fisher.

Trip to Mom's - Jeff & Zach on ferry

Trip to Mom's - Bikes on the ferry.

Trip to Mom's - Waiting on the ferry.

Trip to Mom's - Breakfast.

Trip to Mom's

Trip to Mom's

I-Phone trouble

We had a great day yesterday. Zach and I camped in Mom's yard last night. Temp 70, Dew point 69, the air was saturated; however, we slept "quite comfy" according to Zach. While packing up, I found that I could put both our sleeping bags in the large dry compression sack. This will save a tremendous amount of space on the bike.

Jeff Roberts rode down with us for the day. His Iphone has died so we are @ the ATT store to try and get some sort of resolution. Not going to good so far.

I will try to post some pics once I get home.

Right now I'm going to enjoy a coffee @ SB while I wait on Jeff to get the phone fixed or not.

More to follow.

I enter more later, I'm sending this as a text message which limits the the size.

Well we are @ Moms and the tent is pitched. Off to get some seafood.

We had a long day. Close to 300 miles. We met Jeff for breakfast, then hit the road.

Test

Testing Robin's ability to post to the blog.  

Zach's girlfriend just called. She and her family are in Mrytle Beach, so we may have to stop by and see them tomorrow. Too cool.

I am test a quicker way to send a message to my blog.

Getting ready

It's gonna be fun getting all of our gear on the bike. Zach is packing to spend time @ grandma's, so we have more clothes to deal with, but either way it's a lot of stuff. Here's what I put on the bike tonight. 2 sleeping bags, tent, camping pillows, Zach's clothes for two weeks, rain gear, camera, flashlights, tools.

We will both be wearing full riding gear. We have a Scala Rider Q-2 multiset for rider/passenger communication. I will also be able to get voice prompts from the GPS(thanks Ray), and make phone calls via bluetooth technology.

Tomorrow we are meeting my friend Jeff for breakfast and the he is going to ride with us to Wilmington. The planned route will take us through SC, down to Mrytle Beach, then up through Southport, will ride the ferry accross to Fort Fisher, and then on to Mom's house. Zach and I are going to pitch the tent, and camp while Jeff stays in the house.

This should help us set realistic goals about the distance we can travel each day, as well as give me some fuel milage data to calculate.

With only 23 days left until we depart for the first leg of our trip, I am both getting excited, and a little nervous. This is going to be a summer to remember.

Zach's last day of school.

Today is Zach's last day of school for the year. Summer has officially begun.

We are going to Mom's tomorrow. We'll use this as a trial trip.

When I get home this afternoon we're going to pack and load the bike with the same items we'll be using on our trip in July.

Tomorrow we'll ride to Mom's in Wilmington, via Myrtle Beach, then camp @ her house. Zach will stay there until June 26th. We leave for our tour on July 2nd.

More to follow.

Starting our blog.

This is a test of entering text from my crackberry while on our trip. I am not planning on taking a computer with us on the trip, so hopefully I'll be able to blog here.