Unofficial, Undocumented Four Corners Ride

This is my Hello World post for this new blog about my motorcycle tours, so to kick things off I am attaching a map of my upcoming epic Four Corners motorcycle tour that includes six days off the road for our family vacation at the beginning (starting at day 4), and four days off the road for a trade show during the first leg from Key West, Florida to SanYsidro, California.

The reason for the Unofficial, Undocumented comments included in my Blog Title is that the six days spent with my family in Florida vacationing, and the four days I spend in Las Vegas for a trade show preclude me from completing the ride in the allocated 21 days provided for the official Southern California Motorcycling Associations USA Four Corners Tour. So, I’m just doing it for the ride, no towel, pin, decal, hat, or certificate, just the ride.

Partial Four Corners Ride Map

This map covers the first couple legs of the trip, which starts in Nashville Tennessee on July 7th, 2015, then I work my way down to Key West, Florida for the first corner, then on to Las Vegas for the trade show, then on to the second corner in San Ysidro, California. I then plan to ride up the west coast mostly on Hwy 1 and Hwy 101 with the ultimate destination of that leg being Blaine, Washington.

If you see that my journey brings me anywhere near your area of the country, I would love to meet up for a meal, or if you ride, I would welcome anyone that wants to tag along for a day, or a couple days for that matter. I already have several lunch and dinner appointments along the way, and would love to get the opportunity to meet some fellow riders for the first time, and get to visit with some of my longtime riding friends as well.

Once I get to Blaine, Washington, I’ll have to decide if I am going to go for the 4th corner in Madawaska, Maine (I’m leaning that way right now), but it will turn my more than 6000 mile trip into something more than an 8000 mile trip, and I’m just going to have to see how it goes up to that point (it’s still a long way home if I leave Blaine with the intent to just go home). In the coming weeks I will most likely develop two routes, one heading towards home, and another that takes me to Madawaska, Maine, and then down the east coast towards home, which should have me coming fairly close to lots of motorcycle enthusiasts like me, so if you are close to either of these two paths, keep an eye out for my final decision, and if I’m riding through your area, let’s ride together, or at the very least break bread together. My next post will include my my daily destinations and campground name, along with the daily mileage.

You can call or text me at 615-682-3447 (I can take calls on the bike via a Bluetooth unit that integrates my phone with the bikes audio system). If you just want to follow along virtually and you have an iPhone, download the Find Friends app, and search for me using my bbuckley@true32.com address. This app will allow you to see where I am at anytime of the day or night as long as I have cell phone service.

In the coming couple weeks, I will be blogging mostly about my planning and preparation. Most of the blogs I have read about these kinds of tours pretty much stick to the ride, and I will cover all those basics as well (i.e., departure point, destination, miles covered, start and stop time, etc.), but I am also going to talk about the planning and the preparations for a trip like this. In addition to that, I plan on spending quite a bit of time evaluating the equipment I will be utilizing on this trip. This is a short list, and certainly not intended to be all inclusive.

• 2008 Honda GL1800 Gold Wing
• 2008 Aspen Classic Camper (equipped with 5000 BTU A/C and an Yeti 45qt Cooler)
• Honda 2000 watt generator
• GoPro Camera
• iPhone integrated with bike audio via J&M Bluetooth MP3 Player
• RAM Mount system for iPhone
• Garmin Zumo 590 GPS (equipped with Tire Pressure Monitors)
• Gerbing Heated Clothing (including shoe inserts and integrated temperature controllers)
• Ultimate Seat (with rain cover)
• Nolan N104 Helmet (with Pin Lock Anti Fog insert)
• J&M Elite 787 Headset integrated into Nolan Helmet

AND, lot’s a lot’s of other things to make the trip more enjoyable. So sign up for the RSS Feed or Email Subscription and join me for the adventure.