Chriss and Carol's Excellent Adventure Begins!
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Hello Family and Friends:
Hurray, today is departure day, 8/4/08. We have Silver Streak our new 2008 Kawasaki Concours 1400 motorcycle all loaded and ready to depart for parts unknown. We are planning to travel 10,000 miles. We will first travel by motorcycle, eventually picking up our motorhome and motorcycle trailer which we have left behind in Oklahoma during a previous trip.
Packing our new motorcycle has been a trial by many errors. So many times we have packed and repacked. It quickly became apparent that we would never fit everything in the saddlebags and our GIVI top box. We would need much more space to pack last minute things. I decided to add a tank bag along with two large fanny packs that would sit on top of the saddle bags alongside of Carol’s seat. Packing a month or more worth of clothes and necessities in two small saddle bags and the top box was fun said Carol….. “not” said me. After a many "discussions" regarding what we couldn't live without we are loaded and ready. We have over 150 pounds of gear including intercom, 2 GPS’s and 2 XM radios as Carol insisted she have her own to watch and listen too.
Hurray, today is departure day, 8/4/08. We have Silver Streak our new 2008 Kawasaki Concours 1400 motorcycle all loaded and ready to depart for parts unknown. We are planning to travel 10,000 miles. We will first travel by motorcycle, eventually picking up our motorhome and motorcycle trailer which we have left behind in Oklahoma during a previous trip.
Packing our new motorcycle has been a trial by many errors. So many times we have packed and repacked. It quickly became apparent that we would never fit everything in the saddlebags and our GIVI top box. We would need much more space to pack last minute things. I decided to add a tank bag along with two large fanny packs that would sit on top of the saddle bags alongside of Carol’s seat. Packing a month or more worth of clothes and necessities in two small saddle bags and the top box was fun said Carol….. “not” said me. After a many "discussions" regarding what we couldn't live without we are loaded and ready. We have over 150 pounds of gear including intercom, 2 GPS’s and 2 XM radios as Carol insisted she have her own to watch and listen too.
We will be leaving from my Landing, NJ lake house at 1:00 PM, behind schedule. Our first stop will be at Luray, Va. We already have a motel reservation with a planned arrival of 6:00 PM. After that we will wing it. We hope to see the Luray Caverns while we are there. I wonder how the Early Americans traveled without their cell phones, GPS, rain gear, maps, XM radio, IPod and weather forecasts? We may be on a bike but this isn't ruffling it. Later tonight we will write more and let you know of our progress. Happy travelers we are as we leave beeping our horn and waving to neighbors shaking their heads.
I am publishing this blog as new, actually it is a completion of the original as written and posted by Carol during our trip. For the most part I will just copy from our original early posts with additions for current events and words of my own. I think you will enjoy it as much as we did living it.
Note!! Put your cursor on the pictures to slow down the slide show. Click on "comments" to read or leave one, please do.
Chriss Horstman and Carol Ann Hoff
I am publishing this blog as new, actually it is a completion of the original as written and posted by Carol during our trip. For the most part I will just copy from our original early posts with additions for current events and words of my own. I think you will enjoy it as much as we did living it.
Note!! Put your cursor on the pictures to slow down the slide show. Click on "comments" to read or leave one, please do.
Chriss Horstman and Carol Ann Hoff
