One Way Ticket to California
I will be flying one way to California to pick up my RX3, pack it up, and then start off on this most amazing adventure
Group Ride to Baja
Oh yes... you read that correctly. Steve and the team at CSC are organizing a group ride down to Baja as the kick-off trip for the RX3 here in the US. They have ridden in Baja multiple times and I am SO excited that they will be our guides for this trip! The tentative plan is to spend 6 days/5 nights in Baja. The dates are still TBD since we're still waiting for the bikes to get to the US, unload off the ship, then make it through customs before being delivered to CSC for assembly. They are estimating mid-April as of right now, but things are flexible.
Solo Ride Across the US
YESSSSSS!!! I am most excited and nervous about this part of my trip as this will be my first big solo ride. I've had a few people ask why my husband isn't coming with me on the cross-country trip. Technically, he could ride out to California and ride back with me, as he's a seasoned Iron Butt rider, but the short answer is "I told him not to!" Look, I love him and all, but he's had multiple amazing solo rides and now I want one, darnit (yes, that's a bit of jealousy- lol)! I've discussed this trip with him and he is my biggest supporter of doing it solo. As he explained "When you get on a plane and fly to California from Georgia, the scenery is instantly different. When you ride across the country, the scenery changes so slowly that you almost don't even recognize it until you are fully submersed in it." I want that... I want to be riding and to all of a sudden have that realization that the trees are different or there are no trees at all. I want to ride through the deserts after driving through what seems like endless miles of farmland. I want to experience it all and have it just be me and my thoughts.
As far as a route back, I'm going to play it by ear depending on the weather and other factors. Will keep you posted on this as I figure it out. ;-)
CAMPING!!
Thank goodness my parents raised me as a tent camper. I feel so fortunate to enjoy camping as much as I do! I try to camp often during the year, but sometimes it's just too easy to make excuses or to simply not take the time to return to nature. Since I'm planning on camping during my solo trip, I'm hoping to tap into the foundation of one of my favorite Lord Byron quotes:
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”
I feel that camping is the only way for me to really submerse myself 100% into this adventure. I could stay at hotels every night while solo, but I will be doing that in Baja while indulging in the culture and atmosphere of that trip. My solo trip has a different meaning... it's raw. I want to be alone with the bike, with the road, with nature. I want the full experience and camping helps to culminate my road trip into self awareness.
So... that's the tentative plan, but you know what they say "even the best laid plans..." Meanwhile, I will continue being flexible and this will be an amazing adventure! After all, it really wouldn't be much of an adventure if everything went exactly as planned, right?! :-)
Nice post.
ReplyDelete