The Plan

Now that the decision had been made to embark on this trip, there was lots of planning that had to be done. What route to take? What sights to see? What time of year to do it? How long would I need? What bike to take?

There were a few things that I knew before I started planning the trip:

1. I wanted to avoid interstate highways as much as possible. Interstates are by far the best way to cover a lot of miles in the shortest time – but in doing that you will miss most of the interesting things along the way. For this trip I wanted to stick to US highways and secondary roads. It would take longer, but would be worth it.

2. I did not want to camp along the way. I know that is the “classic” way to do a coast-to-coast motorcycle trip, but to use the old saying… “I’m too old for that shit”. Camping your way across also requires carrying a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc. WAY more than I wanted to carry, and I don’t own any of those things. Family, friends, AirBnB, and cashing in hotel points would be the plan.

3. I knew that my somewhat turn-around point was going to be Seattle, WA. My sister lives there, so I could have a quick visit with her before making the turn to start heading home.  

4. There were several things/places/roads that I did not want to miss. The Badlands/Black Hills, Beartooth Highway, Yellowstone National Park, The Pacific Coast Highway, Tioga Pass, and Utah Route 12. There were also a few states that I wanted to go through to check “Yep, I’ve been there box”. All of these factors would shape what the route was going to look like.  With the length of the trip, I also wanted to plan some stops along the way – possibly for Kate to fly out and meet me for a mini-vacation.

5. To get to the west coast and back I would have to cross several mountain ranges – some more than once. The Appalachians (twice), the Rockies, (twice) the Cascades, and the Sierra Nevada. Snow and ice don’t mix well with motorcycles – so this would limit the trip to between late May and mid-October.

6. Neither of the two motorcycles I currently had (a KTM Super Duke 990 and a Triumph Speed Triple) was going to work for the trip. I had some small soft-sided saddlebags for the Triumph that I had used for shorter trips, but they wouldn’t hold enough for the length this trip would be. Both of the bikes also have a range of about 140-160 miles on the best day – that wasn’t going to work for this trip either.

There were many other decisions to be made apart from these, but I’ll save those for later posts.

The first thing I needed to figure out was when I was going to take the trip. The most logical choice was August. While this would make for a very warm trip across the southern portion of the U.S., but would also give me the least chance of running into any wintery weather crossing the mountain ranges.

I mapped a rough route leaving North Carolina, through western Virginia, Kentucky, southern Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, across Washington into Seattle. This would be “Part 1”

I knew that the Rapid City, SD area would be the first stop where I planned to take a few days off – so I started looking at accommodations for early August… first roadblock. There were very few hotels or AirBnB’s available… those that were available wanted north of $250 per night. Then I found out why… the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is in August, just outside of Rapid City. The 2 weeks before and the 2 weeks after that rally, that area is completely packed with motorcycles. I know lots of people LOVE going to huge motorcycle rallies, bike weeks, etc., but it has certainly never been of interest to me. I wanted to be as far away from Sturgis as possible while that rally was going on.

My first thought was to reverse the route. Leave NC and head south toward the west coast first. Then I realized… August… across the south… that doesn’t sound like fun at all. I decided to push the trip back to September. The weather would be a bit cooler, I should still be able to avoid wintery weather, and best of all… I’d miss Sturgis.

September 2017 it would be. There are still lots of things to plan, but at least now I had a target. If I remember correctly this decision was made in late July of 2016. I had 13 months to plan the rest. Easy... right?

28 Days to Launch.