So we have a HUGE trip planned for Labor Day. I’m starting out in Minneapolis, MN (flying there) while Jim heads out on the bike from Raleigh. We’ll head through South Dakota and Wyoming and wind up in Colorado Springs, CO. Here’s a basic map of the route:

View Larger Map

All told, it is a bit over 1,000 miles, and we’ll have about a week to do it. We plan to see Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Pike’s Peak, and a few other sights along the way. There will be plenty of pictures!

My loyal readers,

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I have written! Jim has been harassing me to write a post for weeks. My initial excuse was, hey, it’s winter, we’re not riding!

But it’s summer now! And we’ve done some trips. Let’s see, we did a trip to the Anza-Borrego State Park in February, and a trip to Milwaukee for Buell Homecoming the first weekend of June.

First, Anza Borrego. This state park is north of San Diego, where we were travelling to visit my sister. We decided to rent a bike in Escondido, at a dealership. Conveniently, there was one that has 2007 Uly for rent, so went there to pick it up.  The dealership was actually in San Marcos. From there, it was a mere 2 hours to the State Park.

Anza Borrego is known for its wildflowers. Unfortunately, we came out a bit too early for them this year, as there had been so little rain that nothing was in bloom.

The trip up was interesting. We went from San Diego, whee it was in the 70s, over the mountains to SNOW! Actual snow, within a hundred miles of San Diego. It was surreal.

The roads into the park are amazing.

The road leading into Anza Borrego State Park

This road is just past the snowy parts, which I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of. But it was freezing!

Anza Borrego has some amazing cacti and other plants, but everything was brown and dead. It was somewat eerie.

This is the most green we saw in Anza Borrego.

Some cool cacti

We didn’t spend long in Anza Borrego; it was pretty warm with all our gear on in the desert, and the sun was fierce. Plus we had to have the bike back in San Marcos by 4:30. I would highly recommend the trip though; the roads along the mountains there are wicked, with some crazy nailbiter curves and no guardrails.

It took me forever to finish this one — sorry about that. Life has been busy!

We went to this beautiful little town Jim knew near Suches, called Helen. It is done up as a Bavarian style town, and is in fact a sister city to a town in Germany.

Helen is the sister city of Fussen, Germany

It turned out to be Oktoberfest while we were there! So the place was packed, but being a cycle-friendly town, there were bike-only parking spaces. We love you, Helen city planners!

Jim and I had lunch at a nice little German restaurant which had waitresses in dirndls and hosts in leiterhosen, as well as a guy on guitar taking song requests. We sat out on the deck and took in the gorgeous weather and the people walking around.

The town of Helen, Georgia

Town Square, Helen, Georgia

After buying a tee shirt and a few other souvenirs (there was a fantastic leather shop downtown – not an expected find in a place like that!) we headed back to Suches. The next day, it was time to take the loooong ride back to Raleigh. With no detours like the ones we took on the way down, we were able to make the trip back in about 8 hours, with stops. All told, we rode 1045 miles on the Buell that weekend.

As we got to within 5 miles of the house, Jim pulled up his visor at a red light and said to me, “That’s odd.” The engine light had come on, on the bike. We continued on toward the house… and the bike died at the top of the driveway.

Jim took a look, and said he thought it was the voltage regulator. This was apparently a relatively easy thing to fix, so I (and he) thought nothing of it, and he said he would fix it the following day.

Next Post: It wasn’t so simple… bike repairs.

And as I hold you in suspense, wondering “Did she or didn’t she…?”

Here is your answer. I didn’t.

I chickened out. Jim even pulled over so I could talk to the guys. But I’m all too human, and I have a life, a family and a job. Who knows where those shots would wind up someday?

Deals Gap Dragon Killboy Picture

So here is the shot they got. Not too bad, huh? Even though you can’t see my face. (Or maybe that should be “because”)

So after cruising on down the Dragon, we continued into Suches. By the time we got to T.W.O., it was about 8:15. We had to ride Wolf Pen Gap in the dark. It’s a darn good thing Jim is so good with the bike – that’s a scary road in the daylight.

By the time we got to T.W.O., we were starving. They shut dinner down at 8:30, so we caught it in the nick of time.

We finally arrived at our cabin around 10 PM, feeling like – well, like we had just ridden a bike for 12 hours. Ready to hit the hay. The cabin we stayed in was beautiful – hardly what one would think of as a cabin. Exposed wood, lots of amenities. 2 full baths, 2 bedrooms, big living room and kitchen. We wound up in the bedroom with 2 twin beds, but we made do nicely. I was so tired that first night, ANY bed was more than adequate.

Next: our trip to Helen GA during Octoberfest!

When Jim saw my post yesterday, he prodded me to change the time I spent on the bike on the way down to 12 hours, rather than 8. But I pointed out to him that we did stop for breakfast, lunch, and gas/bathroom breaks. So all told, that 8 hours was pure ride time (and plenty of it, I might add…)

Riding through Tennessee and Western NC was gorgeous. At one point, mountains surrounded us on all sides, rising up around the road as we zoomed past. I had never been in the southwest corner of the state before.

We headed over to Deal’s Gap, to ride the Dragon (aka US 129). The Dragon’s big claim to fame is 318 curves in 11 miles of road. Of course, being a dragon lover anyway, I had to get a t-shirt to commemorate my trip. Pretty cool, don’t you think?

Naturally no trip to Deal’s Gap would be complete without a spin by the KillBoy film crew. Jim and I had discussed it once, and I had said that given the chance, I would do what hundreds of women (and a few guys!) have done before me, and flash the camera crew. So in the ladies’ room at Deal’s Gap, I took off my tee and zipped my leather jacket up, and we headed off in search of the KillBoy crew.

This past weekend (10/3-10/5) I traveled to Suches, Georgia on the back of the bike. A while before the trip, the longest thus far in my short time riding as a passenger on the back of a motorcycle, I prepared by purchasing a BeadRider seat cover, to avoid the dreaded Monkey Butt.

We were really excited for this trip. About 65 people from BadWeb (badweatherbikers.com) were coming down for the second annual “Buelltoberfest” – basically, an excuse to go into the mountains and ride like hell through the twisty roads that are everywhere in that area.

We left around 8 on Friday morning. Our route took us across North Carolina, with a short detour into Tennessee ( to ride the Dragon and go through Deal’s Gap, of course), before crossing into Georgia.

Our route from Raleigh to Suches

To give you some idea, from Raleigh to Asheville is normally about 4 hours’ drive. So, excluding the side trip into Tennessee, we were looking at about 6.5 hours without stopping (which you will know if you’ve ever ridden on a motorcycle for 6 hours non-stop, is not an option). With the Deal’s Gap detour, it’s about 8 hours.

Imagine, if you will, a typical 8-hour work day. Now imagine spending that 8 hours on the back of a motorcycle.