Me, my 50 year old dad and my friend are going on a 9 day road trip. Starting in Charlotte, NC and (tentatively) going to Des Moines, IA on to Boulder Colorado, thru Fort Smith, AR on down to Pensacola Florida and back up to home (Charlotte,NC)

Looking for:

- any ideas of excellent places to stop: sight seeing, hole in the wall food joints or bars, etc...
- specific routes than are better/more enjoyable to ride than others, etc...
- input/advice on mileage/day, time alotting, riding in general, etc...
- any other ideas of other places we could go instead of these destinations, etc...

Thanks for the help and look forward to the replies.

Here's two of the bikes (background: friends Honda Shadow...soon to be a Road King; foreground: my 100th Anniv. Heritage Softail Custom)
[IMG]local://upfiles/17086/630F4B6915D4458EAC4665D38CD73FA5.jpg[/IMG]

My Dads 07 Heritage Softail Classic
[IMG]local://upfiles/17086/C0798B325D894CA48F5CF81ECAA3DF76.jpg[/IMG]

 

Don't plan to ride huge miles every day. Unless you're used to riding alot of miles daily you will need to stop longer than expected to get everything stretched out. What's the total mileage look like on mapquest?

on edit: bring music!

 

This is an ambitious outing, my rough figuring indicates nearly 4000 miles round trip.This is nearly 450-500 miles per day; at 70mph thatsa little over7 hours in the saddle per day. This schedule leaves little time for anything else. But it will be a good time and great memories.

FBL

 

Stay off the interstate in Colorado, choose all the routes with a "pass" in them. Be sure to rideup Pikes Peakif you go thruColorado Sprgs. You are in for a real treat!

 

I have to 2nd what Mikey 1450 said. I live in Colorado Springs and we only use the back roads to ride the Ultra. Enjoy the country side when you can, but of course that will take away some mileage/time you would be doing on the highway.I have heard if yourun the back roads sometimes you can make better time. Bottome line: Get out and ride, enjoy and remember the time you spend with family and friends. Remi

 

My friend has been through boulder and up pikes peak, but it wasn't on two wheels...so it would still be amazing for us I bet. I'm not sure where Pikes Peak is, in relation to Boulder.

I'm kind of getting the feeling that in order for us to see all that we can on our tentative route, we will probably have to extend the time a day or two. Or does riding on backroads really save that much time? I don't think that we're looking to stop and walk around tooooo much (probably just enough to get gas, eat, take pictures along the way, etc.) so are we going to be cutting it that claso to be back in 9 days?

On another note, i found this really cool website http://www.motorcycleroads.us/
-I think we going to try to plan our entire route on scenic byways (is that what you mean by raods with "pass" in them?) instead of highways

thanks for the feedback


ps- i think my friend found an 01 road king today at the harley dealership. $14K and some change, but it's really nice. wish him luck! [8D]

 

when are you all planning to go on your trip? i am leaving from the picayune, ms on the tuesday after memorial day week end, and heading up mississippi to hopefully nashville,tn the first day, the second day im hoping to make to hardy or mountain home ar. then through northern arkansas do some site seeing around the ozarks, then on to the lower part of kansas maybe highway 160 to colorado i also am heading to boulder as my parents live there i hope to be there around june 4th or 5th. spend a couple of days there with my parents and then on to twin falls idaho haveto be there by the 7th or 8th. so if i have my fiquring right im thinking picayune, ms to boulder, co about 1400 miles about 4 or 5 days, the boulder to twin falls, idaho 2 days. maybe we can hook up if you going to be going through arkansas about the first part of june and ride to boulder together. let me know

 

Sounds like you got yourself a trip. We're most likely going to be leaving Charlotte at the end of June, not the beginning. I have to let my arm arm heal first. We're just waiting to see how things pan out. Best of luck and fun on your trip though.

 

When you leave Pensacola ride up through Alabama and into North Georgia, Ringgold/Lafayette area, there is a civil war battle field (Chickamauga) that you can ride through. It is a nice ride and they have a car/bike tour. My buddy and I stopped and took a picture of us on our bikes. The picture came out spooky, the two on the bike do not look like us…. But that’s another story.
In Talladega there is a Harley test track, you might be able to see some cool things there. We did not stop, maybe this year we will try it.

 

do you have the pictures of the battlefield and stuff?

how did you find out about the test track? is it really interesting enough to stop by?

thanks for the input man!