My week trip to Maggie Valley With my brother and son. We also road the dragon tail, and blue ridge parkway. Was a great time

 

Last Summer after our wedding, my wife and I rode our bikes to Hell's Canyon and back for a mini-honeymoon.
Great trip...Beautiful Idaho mountains.
Since that trip, we decided we need bigger bikes for longer trips, and have both upgraded.
Here's the route we took, and a link to pics:



http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/j...Canyon%20Ride/

 

Been that route, and it is a fun ride, we do day trips up to McCall that make for a fun ride from Boise. Wings and beer at High Desert Harley tomorrow for the pre game.

 

First trip to Sturgis last summer from Western NY. 13 days on the bikes with some of my best friends. 13 days on the bikes and we had a fantastic trip. Plus we had the good sense to fly our wives out. Nyuk.....Nyuk!!

 

The best ride that I ever took was from Massachusetts to Arlington National Cemetary. My best friend from the Marines was KIA in Iraq in '07. Havent been to see him since we buried him. I just couldn't bring myself to make the trip, thought about it, but it was very painful. I decided that the time had come and since he was a Harley rider also, I thought what better way to go see him than on my scoot. He would be proud. Bill rode an AWESOME 78 FXE that he bought and rebuilt. It was a 78 because he was born in 78. Anyway, the weekend before the 4th of July, I got on my Street Bob and headed south. Took Rt. 81 all the way to Rt. 66 in Virginia and then into DC. Stopped and picked up a couple of nips of Jager, and rode into Arlington. I had my visit with him, we had a couple of shots, and I rode home. 1250 miles in 2 and a half days. On the way I got to swing through Gettysburg which was amazing on my bike. All I took was a toothbrush and a map. Stayed in a couple of cheap hotels, drank in a couple cool bars and met some great people on the way. Best of all I got to show Bill my bike. He was always on me to get one and I finally did. This might not be the longest ride on here, but going solo, that far, in my first full season on the bike was a big deal to me. I plan to make it a yearly trip, hopefully a little longer though. I was definitely pushing last time. Thanks for letting me tell my story.

 

I've been on some good trips in the two years I've owned my bike, but I think the one that sticks out the most at the moment is my trip to St. Augustine beach FL. My favorite part about that one trip was riding back we took A1A from St. Augustine to Jacksonville. It was beautiful scenery all along the beach.

 

I'm from NH and have ridden all over New England and the East coast. But the best overall trip was last summer we took the bike with us while participating in other endeavors. Yeah we had to trailer out due to other equipment needs and time constraints. Rode From Sturgis to Billings with my cousin While my wife and his GF drove the truck and trailer. Did the the other things we were there for. Rode over the Beartooth Pass (AKA Cooke city Highway to the Cooke City Cafe for smoked Trout. Back to Billings over the Beartooth, got caught in a Thunderstorm with Hail on top (10,638 elevation) with nothing more than ponchos. Next day Rode from Billings to Casper overnighted there and then on to Denver for my step daughters wedding. While the wife was doing mother daughter wedding stuff took the bike up Mt Evans only to get the **** scared out of me at 14, 140 feet. Yeah that was a trip....When I put it down like this I'm trying to figure out now how I'm going to top that one.

 

Since I have been riding for more than 45 years, guessing maybe 750,000 miles, and had some great times riding solo, riding with a few close friends, and just me and the wife, it's hard to pick just one, so I'll give you three. In chronological order, not in order of best.

One, way back when I was single, three week solo trip with no firm destination in mind, only goal was to spend no time on the slab, just going from CA to Arizona and back all on back roads. Saw some great scenery, dragged the pegs on some great twisties. Stopped for the nite in some little town in the middle of nowhere. Went into the bar next to the motel, met a girl and stayed with her for a long weekend. Much alcohol consumed, a few other substances (that I have since given up), and she introduced me to her girlfriend who joined us in some fun and games. A weekend of true biker debauchery.

Another, still in my single days, me and a good friend and our girlfriends rode from CA to Glacier National Park in Montana. Fantastic scenery, great roads (we stayed off the interstates as much as possible), great weather.
Met up with some other riders and partied in the campground until the rangers showed up and told us to keep the noise down, as we were scaring the wildlife away. On our way back, leaving Missoula MT, we ran into some serous rain, I mean coming down so hard you couldn't see 25 feet. No rain gear, no windshield, we were soaked to the skin in seconds. Made it to the motel at Lolo Hot Springs. Walk into the motel lobby, dripping all over the carpets. Manager took one look at us and said "you guys must be freezing, go ahead and jump into the hot springs while we get rooms ready for you".
Hot springs were great, rooms were great, called work and told them we'd be a couple days late getting back. Stayed a couple days, weather cleared up and had a great ride home.

Some years later than the prevous stories, I asked my wife what she wanted to do for her 50th birthday. She said "ride across country", so we did. Took 9 weeks, rode almost 10,000 miles through 28 states. Outside of one rainy, windy day in South Dakota, we were blessed with good weather the whole time. Visited friends and family, some we hadn't seen in years. That was the best ride so far.

 

Today, I rode around the block (did a long block, almost a mile).

I'm recovering from another surgery (this one was abdominal surgery) after my accident last summer. I could barely get my leg over the seat. But it was beautiful out (mid-60s) and I couldn't resist. My wife hasn't spoken to me since I got back.

But I'm still smiling.

Motorcycles are fun. I'm much more relaxed and content, and I think my wife secretly agrees it was a good thing for me to do. She didn't actually try to talk me out of it. SHe just said "you shouldn't have pushed it out onto the driveway", because, well, I couldn't push it back into the garage.

I had to start it. And once I did that, it needed to get totally warmed up before I shut it off, didn't it ?

I think I'll push it out into the driveway again tomorrow.

 

Not necessarily the "best" ride, but one that was memorable - coming home from a HD Forums gathering in Mt. Shasta Calif. couple summers back. The ride out of Mt. Shasta on I-5 was clear and dry, and very quick heading north to Seattle. But as soon as I hit the north side of the Siskiyous (just into Oregon) I ran into the most dense fog I've ever seen. It was instantaneous and without a break all the way down. You couldn't see from one fog line on the side of the road to the other fog line, and it's only a two-lane freeway. The general speed limit is 70, with a lot of posted 50 mph curves, fairly steep down grade - and I was just about down to walking speed. The fog made everything (including me and the bike) drippy wet, slippery and cold. Couldn't wipe my riding glasses fast enough to keep up with the mist, so looked through the smear most the way. I tucked in behind a VW Jetta that fortunately had tail-lights I could see, and shamelessly rode their *** all the way to the bottom of the mountain. There were a lot of "please don't let a semi-truck run me down" thoughts on the way. Clear down at the flats almost to Ashland the fog instantly ended. I gave the Ultra the gas and the VW a wave thanking them for the escort. The other reason the whole trip was memorable was that I was sick as a dawg with laryngitis or something, and could hardly breathe. Coughing felt like someone ripping my throat out with barb wire. Gas stops included coffee and cold medicine all the way home.
The good news was I made it home safe that evening, and the rally had been a worthwhile time.