Toronto to Florida in June | GTAMotorcycle.com

Toronto to Florida in June

jonpurdy

jonpurdy

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I'm gonna take off for a week and a bit in June to visit a friend down in Tampa. Here is a rough sketch of my route down there (based on quickest route without interstate and moved a bit more to the coast):


Day 1 Toronto to Altoona, PA http://g.co/maps/cg37u
Day 2 Altoona to Dunn, NC http://g.co/maps/3xvfw
Day 3 Dunn to Brunswick, GA http://g.co/maps/rr22m
Day 4 Brunswick to Tampa, FL http://g.co/maps/hjcnj


Any recommendations?

I should mention that I'd like to lodge on the cheap. I'm on my own and there's no point in getting nice hotels or anything like that if it's just myself. Is camping a realistic option in the middle and southern States? Or am I best off getting a cheap motel? (I'm just thinking about personal and bike security and haven't heard much outside of friends and family's recommendations.)
 
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Hey Jon...

You have set a pretty leisurely pace for your first and last days. Nice way to start and finish. You should be OK with the remaining days. Have always stayed in average type motels on my June trips with no problems, but have always been with one other rider. I'd use some kind of alarm type lock on your bike if you don't have one.

Having said all that, on your third day, stay in or near Charleston, and spend at least half a day there.. great history in that city. Amazing place.

Keep us posted on your trip. We're heading out (and south) on the 22nd for a week so maybe we'll bump into you!

Have a safe one...
Thom
 
My buddy and I are headed out to Florida on the 23rd, too! We're going to Pittsburgh first, then to Raleigh. Blue GSXR 600 and a blue SV650 with Carbon Fiber fairings, both Ontario plated. If you see us, don't be a stranger!
 
I'll be riding from June 2-5, then back from June 9-11 or 12. I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled.
 
Recommendations? Check out the Blue Ridge pkwy, tail of the dragon and Cherohala Skyway. Definitely worth ride on any of these roads if you've never been.

Personally I'd take 219 down for most of the day before scooting east towards Skyline drive/BRP. 219 starts from Buffalo and is a nice road to take south, fairly scenic and most importantly (except for the first 5 pr 10 miles), it's not the superslab.

You can definitely camp along the way. If I was going solo, that's defintely what I'd be doing. You can simply look up camp sites on your GPS as you get towards the end of your day and go that way or you can per-plan it, whatever your preference. I find that when I ride solo, I'm happy to do about 600-1000 km's per day depending on my mood. 2 up, we like to keep it to around 600 ish. So taking 4 days to get to FL is a pretty comfortable ride IMO.

Have fun!
 
I got back from my trip a week ago. What an amazing time! I'd never done a multiple day trip before so it was great.

My final totals:

-$237.13 for 215 litres of gas (avg. $1.10/L for premium)
-fuel efficiency of 4.4 L per 100 km (lowest for a single tank being 3.5 L/100 km and highest 4.8 L/100km)
-fractional cost of 10K service and tyres based on 4900 km travelled: $205
-$381 for food, $378 for hotels

Things I learned:

-It's great to meet people on the road, but don't drink with them until 1am and wake up hungover the next day. Lesson well learned.
-Plan your routes so that you arrive at your destination by 5pm. That way you can take detours and such and end up arriving at a reasonable time anyway.
-Stay hydrated and fed. Don't eat too much but don't forget to eat, either.
-Camp to save money.

I'm sure most tourers already know all of this stuff but I figured I'd mention it for those who are considering getting into touring, as I was a few months ago.

And photos are available here: http://jonp.ca/HSGV
 
jonpurdy said:
I got back from my trip a week ago. What an amazing time! I'd never done a multiple day trip before so it was great.

My final totals:

-$237.13 for 215 litres of gas (avg. $1.10/L for premium)
-fuel efficiency of 4.4 L per 100 km (lowest for a single tank being 3.5 L/100 km and highest 4.8 L/100km)
-fractional cost of 10K service and tyres based on 4900 km travelled: $205
-$381 for food, $378 for hotels

Things I learned:

-It's great to meet people on the road, but don't drink with them until 1am and wake up hungover the next day. Lesson well learned.
-Plan your routes so that you arrive at your destination by 5pm. That way you can take detours and such and end up arriving at a reasonable time anyway.
-Stay hydrated and fed. Don't eat too much but don't forget to eat, either.
-Camp to save money.

I'm sure most tourers already know all of this stuff but I figured I'd mention it for those who are considering getting into touring, as I was a few months ago.

And photos are available here: http://jonp.ca/HSGV
Click to expand...


Some pretty good pictures. Looks like it would have been a lot of fun. Would you pack different now then what you did?
 
bluerider said:
Some pretty good pictures. Looks like it would have been a lot of fun. Would you pack different now then what you did?
Click to expand...

I brought three pairs of jeans for some reason. I'd have brought just one instead. I'd also just bring my iPhone instead of iPad: it's pretty useless for dealing with digital photos.
 
jonpurdy said:
I got back from my trip a week ago. What an amazing time! I'd never done a multiple day trip before so it was great.

My final totals:

-$237.13 for 215 litres of gas (avg. $1.10/L for premium)
-fuel efficiency of 4.4 L per 100 km (lowest for a single tank being 3.5 L/100 km and highest 4.8 L/100km)
-fractional cost of 10K service and tyres based on 4900 km travelled: $205
-$381 for food, $378 for hotels

Things I learned:

-It's great to meet people on the road, but don't drink with them until 1am and wake up hungover the next day. Lesson well learned.
-Plan your routes so that you arrive at your destination by 5pm. That way you can take detours and such and end up arriving at a reasonable time anyway.
-Stay hydrated and fed. Don't eat too much but don't forget to eat, either.
-Camp to save money.

I'm sure most tourers already know all of this stuff but I figured I'd mention it for those who are considering getting into touring, as I was a few months ago.

And photos are available here: http://jonp.ca/HSGV
Click to expand...

Awesome pics! And thanks for the detailed breakdown - making the trip down to Florida in August and camping as well so nice to see a final tally of the cost.

Do you have a route of your trip? I know the general areas we want to be in along the way but not sure how we'll "connect the dots" yet, so to speak.
 
azia said:
Awesome pics! And thanks for the detailed breakdown - making the trip down to Florida in August and camping as well so nice to see a final tally of the cost.

Do you have a route of your trip? I know the general areas we want to be in along the way but not sure how we'll "connect the dots" yet, so to speak.
Click to expand...

I pretty much followed the routes at the top. And here are the routes I took back:

Tampa to Richmond Hill, GA http://goo.gl/maps/G9qt
GA to Winston-Salem, NC http://goo.gl/maps/4Njc
NC to Bridgeport, WV http://goo.gl/maps/Q3ZZ
WV to Toronto http://goo.gl/maps/AOgs

I made some modifications on the way for extra fun (like taking the Blue Ridge Parkway and doing some mountain riding on the third day coming back.

The routes I chose were good due to the mix of nice twisties and a wee bit of faster secondary roads (to make reasonable time and since doing 8 hours of extreme twisties would be exhausting).

And for those interested, a video of some parts of the trip!: http://jonp.ca/HcHJ
 
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