Preamble

Welcome to our latest motorcycle blog Motorcycling into the Sunset. That sounds like it has a certain sense of finality to it but that is not by design; I just happened to notice that that is how Nan had recorded our departure date in the calendar. 

As with many of our motorcycle trips, this one was years in the making. Prior to retirement, I had dreamt of riding all around the U.S., with a goal of hitting each corner of the continental U.S. (amongst other ambitious rides). After the Riding with my Friends solo motorcycle tour of September 2023, which was in fact a "test ride" for this trip, I realized that a circumnavigation of the entire U.S. might be just a little over-ambitious. The result is a scaled back ride that we can do in under a couple of months rather than the entire summer. Maybe future trips will take us to those other parts but for this journey, we will stick to the western side of the continent.  

First layer, top case.

The timing of this scaled back trip was planned so as to beat the heat of the south and the busy roads that come with summer driving holidays. I went for a ride around here last Sunday and it reached a scorching 35+ degrees and I thought that I may have misjudged the timing as, if it is that warm here, what is it going to be like in Arizona in a few weeks? Today, Saturday May 18th, the day before departure, it is a whopping 10 degrees and the snow level is down to 1200 metres. If we were traveling west first, then we would have been trapped here in the valley. Fortunately, a few days ago, we made the decision to go towards Yakima, then west. Looks like I DID misjudge the timing! 

Third layer, top case.

Second layer, top case.

It has been a few years since we have done a BIG tour together and we are having a little trouble deciding what clothing is going to make the cut into our limited space. I always say to Nan, "you can take anything you want, just as long as it fits in your pannier". We each get one. On one trip we were riding to Tofino and she couldn't squeeze her rain gear in her pannier. I said to her "you can't go to the west side of Vancouver Island without rain gear", so somehow, by taking a few things out of my pannier, I was able to pack her rain gear. Turns out that she didn't have room because she had cans of red wine! (Oh, for the record, it was sunny our entire time in Tofino.) Now, with the cooler weather, we are trying to load up clothing for two seasons: mid-summer and mid-winter. shorts, tanks, sandals, heavy gloves, heated vest and jacket, hoodies. We will have it all. 

Interestingly, she hasn't had too much trouble to get her clothes into her pannier. I had more trouble and in fact, I had to have her help to decide what I should jettison in order to get my pannier closed. She came up with the great idea of ditching my shaving bag and throwing all my meds bottles, toothpaste, razor, soap and hand cream into my pannier loose, so that it could fill up all the nooks and crannies.

What we THINK we are taking.

The other big aspect of this trip is that we have little in the way of an agenda. I have sketched out a route on the back of an envelope only as a guideline to where we might find something to see. First, we are going to ride southwest. Then we are going to ride south. Then we are going to ride east. Then north. That pretty much covers it. Hopefully, we will hit some highlight spots along the way in Arizona and

Packed! I had to take my shaving kit out.

New Mexico.  We will be back this summer, not sure when, but in the interim I will send out one or two reminders to check out our recent pictures. Oh, and this time we hope to stop more often and stay places longer rather than always being on the move. See the back of the envelope HERE. No promises, though.

We invite you and welcome you to post your comments. Keep in mind that we likely cannot respond directly to you as that has failed in the past. In addition, we cannot identify who is posting unless you have a Gmail account so please, put something in your post to help us to know who is telling us where to go! (on our travels.) 

Thanks for following the blog. 

Howie

Update ALREADY! Oilers beat the Canucks tonight, so we will be looking for a sports bar Monday night!