Anticipation of next week!

Father's day is almost here and I am feeling the itch to ride a murdercycle. Next week this time Paul, Dick and I should be full of pizza and beer after slabbing 1025 miles from Winston-Salem, NC to Henryetta, OK. This will be Dick's and Paul's first Saddle Sore 1000. We are planning to document the ride and send in the money.

A little history -- In late June, 2002 my Dick, Paul and I planned and executed a cross country trip from NC to CA. Actually Dick planned most of the trip with a little input from me and Paul rode along on his necked Kawasaki ZXR 1200. Dick rode his trusty 1979 Honda 750 F while I rode my brand new 2002 Honda ACE Shadow 750. We had a ball.

The following May, 2003 Dick and Paul road to Nova Scotia. They said it was cold and wet.

During the summer of 2006, Dick, Jeff, Olivia and I rode from NC to Prudoe Bay, AK and back. We took our time and one month. Jeff actually returned to NC via Key West, FL. Paul had just returned form some small land mass below Cuba so he did not think he was in shape to ride.

Dick loading 2005 Suzuki V-Strom 650 as we prepare for a 750 mile day.

Last summer Dick and Paul had scheduling problems, go figure! Dick was retired and Paul was just retiring. I had to run away from work so I could get some work done so I rode to CA and saw my cousin (Anne) before I rode to Washington. It was a great trip. I saw the Grand Ditch, the Navaho Nation desert (we did those people wrong), the Big Trees in Northern CA, Crater Lake again, Hwy 12 through Idaho, the Bears Tooth, Chief Josephs Hwy, and the Bad Lands. During the trip I rode some big days. I did 1500 miles in the first 36 hours and later I did right at 1100 miles through SD to Indiana in 24 hours. Both seemed like good ideas at the time. I met some really nice people along the way.

Anne is holding up a piece of driftwood that was left on the beach.

The plan for the trip this summer is to dress up like old men and ride our murdercycles to Washington state and back by July 13, 2009. We are scheduled to ride some of the same roads I rode last summer but also more of the best murdercycle roads in the lower 48. This should be fun, old people doing cool things.