About

 

I’m a 23 recent college graduate.  I’ve been working since January but I have time off from work from 4th of July till Labor Day.  Last summer a friend and I kicked around the idea of doing a road trip.  Then to up the ante we thought it would be even better if we did it on motorcycles.  After graduating college and getting a good job I realized buying a bike for this trip might actually be possible.  At this point the real challenge would be learning how to ride a bike.  You see, prior to March 2009 I had never ridden a motorcycle.

In March I took the beginner Motorcycle Safety Foundation class.  On the 2nd day I failed class.  I laid the bike down twice on the morning of the first ride.  The class policy was if the bike went down twice you failed, so I spent $250 to fail a class, break a finger, and cut my ankle.

Without passing the class I was unable to get my motorcycle endorsement.  The next opening in the class wasn’t until June.   I didn’t have that much time to waste, so I bought an old bike to learn on.  A 1981 Suzuki GS 450 L.  It ended up causing more headaches than help.  At the end of May it broke down and wouldn’t start.  Rather than dump any more time and money into it, I decided to buy a new bike for the trip.  I had planned on doing this from the get go, so this wasn’t an impulsive buy.

I bought a 2009 BMW G 650 GS during the first week of June.  In the meantime my buddy fell into some rough luck and would be unable to join me on the trip.  It sucked that he wouldn’t be able to come, but since this trip was so complicated I was always prepared to do it myself.  It was now time to start my trip. 

The goal of this site was to track my progress for family, friends, and coworkers.  My buddy Garrett, who was supposed to join me on the trip, is also a wizard with a computer.  He is the webmaster for the site and is the reason it all works.