April 2009 – Detailed Planning Begins

Having now got an overall very rough route worked out, it was time to start the detailed planning stage for the tour. I had stuck pins into my big map of the USA which showed the places I definitely wanted to go to. I had previously marked onto the map the rough position of the roads from the “Most...

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February / March 2009 – Decision time!

For the next month or so, I talked to a few people about the potential of really doing the tour. Firstly and most importantly, my wife. Being away from home for 3+ months isn’t what most husbands plan to do, but Jackie knew that I longed for the adventures that I had missed out on in my early life....

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January 2009 – What sort of tour did I want?

The beginning of 2009 saw a change in my own personal circumstances which meant I would have more free time. I was very lucky that my plans to retire were coming to fruition and I was able to semi-retire at the end of that 2008. I was now only working about half of my time and the New Year saw me itching...

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November 2008 – Two week bike trip to California?

The rest of 2008 was very busy for me. I spent a lot of time that year working in Moscow and we finished renovating a house in Spain that we would use as a second home. We spent our first few long weekends in Spain and these wiped out any time that I might have had to start planning the main USA tour...

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May 2008 - Russian Olympics get in the way!

So, it was now May 2008 and I had spent 4 months developing a route that clearly wouldn’t work. I dumped the idea of the tour going to all of the individual States and to be honest, I didn’t have the heart to look at this again for many months. In fact, I had started working in Moscow assisting the...

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January to March 2008 – Overall Route Planning

Where to go, for how long, what mileages and what type of touring?These are, without a doubt, the biggest and most important questions I needed to ask myself, for they help shape everything about the tour.Did I want to do as many miles as possible each day thereby covering as many miles as I could in...

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Christmas 2007 - The idea for a Motorcycle Tour

There are many great things about Christmas; seeing family, spending time relaxing from work, giving and receiving of gifts; seeing or telephoning those relatives you don’t see very often and of course the timeless repeats on the television. This is quickly followed by the New Year celebrations. Out...

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