More on Preparation

Just a few more notes on preps.  This is a new bike, the Silver Lady, so she needed to be prepared.  Mother Honda, as some folks had called them, did not do a real good job on the audio.  Oh they have lots of options but there are limits that I was not prepared to exceed to.

And their navigation package, while provided by Garmin is just not as good as the Zumo 665 I have.  So,  I installed an new audio system and mounted the GPS and the radar detector and interfaced it with my new audio system.

On all three other bikes, the GPS is mounted central to the handle bars.  The Sliver Lady's handle bar arrangement precludes that so it had to be mounted somewhere else.  Here is a picture of the installation as seen from the riders point of view.

And yes the garage is a little messy but its a garage.

More Preps

Well the route has been finalized for the fifth time or so.  Here is what it looks like  (It appears I cannot load a PDF file so I have to take a pic of the PDF. )

I may need more help with the technical side of this blog.

Ok.  I got a new computer.  Its a MacBook Air.  The only problem is I had to load Windows 7 in an emulator to run two programs I use on the road.  Microsoft Streets and Trips and an program from Audible to load books on the GPS.

And I mounted the Contour HD Camera on the nose of the Silver Lady.  Now she has eyes or at least one eye but it sees a lot.

Ok these are not the best pics but I got a new camera for the trip, so i am still getting use to it.   

More later

Preparations - Trip Planning

Made the final motel/hotel reservations today.  So all is set.  Will need to verify the rooms again before we leave.

Also made some final checks on the Silver Lady today.  Verified audio settings, tried out new camera (single shot) and the video camera mount is still there.  Need to add the safety cord before I actually put the camera on the mount.  The camera mounts under the nose in the same basic location as I used on the ST.  I will include some pictures later.  And some pictures of the GPS and Radar Detector mounts.

The Beginning

This year we will be traveling out west (again) to see some additional spots in Utah and to visit Nevada and California.  When we finish the trip, we will have been in 47 of the 50 states (missing Rhode Island, Alaska, and Hawaii on two wheels).

The trip will take about 15 days and cover about 5,500 miles.  I will post an overall map later.

I have a new bike for this trip.  A Honda Goldwing 2015 (AKA the Silver Lady).  My 2007 ST1300, with about 87,000 miles is still in the shop being repaired form the deer strike last year on the way to Nova Scotia.  The 'wing' has about 3,500 on it since its purchase earlier this year.  So it should be in good shape.

Two other riders will be joining us for the trip.  We will start the trip in early June.

Oh, I have a new computer for the trip, a MacBook Air which is a really cool machine.  More on that later.