Tag Archives: Planning

Tank bag troubles… looking for one in stock

Posted on by
Reply

I guess it’s my own damn fault for not ordering it earlier, but I don’t yet have a tank bag for my bike.

On Tuesday I ordered up a Bags Connection one from Twisted Throttle and selected two-day shipping and hit order. I called up a few minutes later to add something to the order.

“Umm… that bag seems to be out of stock. It looks like we should be getting a shipment in later this week.”

Gaaah!!

RKA-Luggage Shiloh Tank Bag

Plan B time. Time to look around for another bag. This time I came up with RKA Luggage‘s offering: the 19 liter Shiloh. I just called and sure enough it’s in stock and will ship out today. Priority mail. I should have it Monday or Tuesday.

No matter what I’ll have a bag for the trip.  Grin

At this point I think I just might cancel the other order.

I’m just happy that another part of the trip is falling into place. I think I have everything else that’s critical for the trip all ready to go at this point.

Smoky Mountains trip planning – Part 1

Posted on by
1

I’ve been doing some thinking about places that I want to explore on our trip in June.

One thing I want to do is the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It starts near Afton, VA and continues all the way until Cherokee, NC. Overall it’s almost 470 miles long. On our previous trips that would be well less than one day’s drive. Hell, that’s just a bit more than half of some of the days we did in 2008.

This year it’ll be two days!

The general though is we’ll head out on Friday night and aim towards Morgantown, WV. There’s plenty of hotels there so finding a room shouldn’t be too challenge. Day 1 mileage should be around 184 miles; just a tad over 3 hours. An easy ride by any accounts.

Day 2 we head to the start of the Parkway — a “direct” route is around 194 miles through West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Saturday might be a camping night if we feel like it. The 194 miles is just a bit over 4 hours of travel time so we might head into the park that night. If I had to make a guess we’ll get into the George Washington Forest and set up the tent, hike around a bit and call it a night.

The entire parkway spans 469 miles — while we could drive that in one day… why? On Day 3 we might camp half-way through the drive and do the rest on day 4.

Another thing I’d like to do is ride the Dragon because everyone’s done it. Yes, I’m a follower… whatever. Wink

From here, we have another 5 days of wandering to get back home. What to do… Suggestions?


View Smoky Mountains Trip 2010 in a larger map

(BTW: Ennie and I might be adding more stuff onto the map — it’s a work in progress!)

Summer vacation plans: Smoky Mountains

Posted on by
1

This year we’re planning a much more sedate motorcycle trip to a relatively populated place: The Smoky Mountains. Well, more than just the Smokies, the surrounding area as well.


View Larger Map

Why there? Why not? It’s a pretty place to visit and I’ve not been there to enjoy the park for more than 20 years now. Ennie’s never been there at all.

We’re going to be taking the motorcycle loaded up with camping gear and touring the general area. Why a motorcycle? That’s another post. Smile We’re looking to just take a look around there and see what there is to see. Get some good barbecue in North Carolina, drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, hike around a bit, camp. General unwinding for the most part.

The plan is to leave Cleveland on June 11th or 12th and head south. If we leave on the 11th we’ll just hit a hotel along the way, we’d just be getting a head-start on our way down. In total it’s less than 10 hours to get down there in a direct way so we have options galore!

This is going to be a very different trip than previous years. In the past there’s been days we rode on the bike for 12 hours at a stretch. This year there’s going to be a lot more time to smell the roses than years past. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out compared to when we’re up against the clock the whole time.

We’re still in the middle of planning so as we figure out more, I’ll let you all know!