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:

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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!

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.

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.