A dear friend of mine is planning a 6-month long ride through all 48 states this year. Bless her heart, and I wish her the best in this journey. The more I thought about Teri going on her big trip to raise awareness for mental health issues, which riding can definitely help in some aspects, I got to thinking about how long it had been since I had gone on a long ride myself. The last ride I took of any real length was one of around 1,200 miles or so and stretched out over 4 days. Nothing hard, but it was the last time I had ridden even close to anything "long", and that was in 2009! One of the things that got me thinking of making one last big ride was the realization that this month it will have been 30 years since my dad had died. I have been talking about taking his ashes back to Chicago and spreading them there over the graves of his parents and brother. Well, the inspiration of my friend Teri and her ride has gotten me to decide to make that trip next year. Why next year? Because it will take me at least that long to organize and fund the trip. I have to get a bike ready to make a 4,500 plus mile roundtrip, gather family who ride to go with and raise the funds to be able to actually do the trip itself.
It is going to require a lot of planning. I have the route tentatively laid out, and another of about the same length as a return. It is still going to have to be fined tuned, including designating; fuel stops, motels or campsites, etc. It means getting a bike set-up to make it over the Rockie Mountains, twice. New tires, oil changed, and several other changes so whichever bike I make the ride on, I can have faith she will get me there. 
This also means that I have to go back to work, at least part-time, in order to cover the expenses and pay-off Tennessee. If I decide to take Gypsy, I will need to buy a transmission for her off of E-Bay or Amazon, as that would be cheaper than rebuilding her current one that is so worn it leaks even with new seals. If I take Tennessee, I will have to lower the seat height and replace the air-suspension that leaks. So either bike is going to need some significant expenses to be made ready to make the trip.
Planning things like; distance between fuel stops is going to depend a lot on what family members or friends ride the various legs. So, in the last month or so, I will know whether we will be refueling every 100 miles or more like every 150 or so. Even the return route isn't fully carved in stone. I might bypass Nevada completely, and just come up through Idaho and eastern Oregon, and return home over White Pass. That has yet to be finalized, and probably won't be for some months. I have to keep my priorities in order.
All that is in the future. The priority to plan and organize is subordinate to getting back to work, and getting the funds raised to be able to make the roughly 4,500-mile roundtrip. The bikes both get about 40 mpg, so I used 30 mpg in a 5-gallon tank to figure the number of fuel stops, and $5/gallon to figure fuel costs. Depending on who rides with me, food could run from the simple gas station variety fast-food fare to at least one restaurant meal per day. The same goes for overnight accommodations. If it is just me, I would be spending time in campgrounds, with maybe a cheap motel 6 for a shower along the way.
Even with these things in mind, I estimate that I should be able to make the actual trip itself for a shade over $4,000. That doesn't include new tires, etc., that the bike will need to be able to safely make that length of a trip. So I definitely have to find a job that I can do with my bad back and a bad heart. At my age, I seriously doubt that, unless things improve drastically financially speaking, this will probably be my last great motorcycle road-trip. I'll make smaller ones, but this will be the last multi-thousand miler that I can expect to make as things are.
I know that my postings here have been sparse over the past few months since I didn't win the election. But this will give me something to write about and keep people updated with things much more interesting than being in near-constant lockdown due to the COVID in 2020. Now you at least have a rough idea of what I have in mind, and what I will be working to bring to pass in 2022. So, I am putting my faith in God that I will be able to get the goals I set accomplished. Through hard efforts, prayer, and working through some mechanical issues, I should be in Chicago in July of 2022.
Keep following the updates on here, and soon I plan on doing video updates on my YouTube channel as well.
Catch you on the road sometime...
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