ride report - (2007 bike trip)

**chinto** · 02-09-2010, 09:11 PM

Figured I'd post this ride report up even though it's from an older trip. I figure now that we have this touring section (still not sure of the connection between touring and cruisers, but at least it's here)

Back in 2007 a buddy of mine and I hit the road for 10 days. Here is a snapshot of what we experienced.

The following Map roughly outlines our travels. We did not use maps or GPS for this trip (we just knew the general direction we wanted to go) and I couldn't tell you our exact route but you get the idea.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0...9dbf37d1b24a7d

The points in the map do not necessarily reflect stops along the way so much as they do the general route.

I was riding my busa while Ian was on his 99 kat 750. We packed up the bikes at my house and were on the road by about 9:30 am

after a short ride and a long wait in line at customs we were finally through. The busa did not like the long idle time though and would not start on its own power. Spent about an hour on the US side trying to get a set of booster cables. (note to self....turn bike off when idling for extended periods of time!)

We had a pretty good day of riding and setup camp somewhere near scranton PA

The next day we found this bridge that looked like a pretty good backdrop for some photo's. Turns out it was a state prison and the guards were cautioning us about the use of camera's. We got a few good shots though:

We rode a bit further and spotted this cool roadhouse with bike parking out front.

After a quick bite and a brew, we were on the road again.

We made sure to stop in at Deals Gap to meet up with some friends that were there, but we only stayed there for a couple of days, then it was back on the road again.

For any of you that have never ridden on these roads, they are definitely worth the trip. Although i do not recommend riding the dragon at midnight with 100+ lbs of gear strapped to your already heavy bike. Let's just say it was an experience! All of the roads in the area are fantastic. Even the rain couldn't keep us grounded for too long:

After a couple of nights in the area, we rolled on to Alabama, where we stopped in at the Barber Motorsports museum. This place is a must see. I have not ridden the track there, but I can guarantee that I will be back to ride at barber not just to it. The track looked as cool as the museum:

Riding through Alabama was incredibly hot. I'm talking HOT!!! It felt like someone had a hair dryer aimed at our faces. I actually kept the visor down to keep the hot air from hitting my face, but the highway was ours with no LEO to be found. Here's a few shots along the way:

**chinto** · 02-09-2010, 09:12 PM

We eventually setup camp in Mississippi. It was late when we setup camp and we setup in total darkness. I was awoken in the morning by about a million ants crawling all over me. Turns out I set up my tent directly over a huge ant hill and they took it as an invitation to join me for breakfast. They were everywhere....including the air vents in my helmet! Not pleasant. The aggravation of it went away pretty quickly after I got up only to be pleasantly surprised to see this view:

In addition to the ants, we had some other visitors in the morning to send us off:

For the most part we got great weather, but we did end up riding in some torrential down pours and I ended up with red and black fingers for a couple of days. Stupid gloves.

At one point we decided to pull of to the side of the road and wait it out under an overpass. You can see the river that formed alongside the highway:

The trip was a fantastic one and I would not change a thing. Other than I would pack a little less clothing. I brought a few items of clothing that I never used. Most of our gear was for camping and I would not want to do with out some of the luxuries like an air mattress and a coffee pot and small stove.

We used Autocomm's for the trip and they worked really well. We were using Motorola radio's with the AC units and they did their job. We had to change channels occasionally and sometimes the Vox settings were a little off, but the sound is good. I would recommend the PTT feature although we didn't use them.

cheers