PLEASE NOTE:
The tab "Blog - USA on a GSA" is in reverse date order AND split over several pages. You will find the 'Previous' and 'Forward' navigation buttons at the very bottom of each page.
If you wish to read a chronological account of the trip, with some photos, please go to the LAST tab, 'Blog in Date Order'.
The tab 'Photos - People and Places' is also in reverse date order, so to follow chronologically, please scroll right to the bottom and then work up.
Should you wish to make a comment, you are welcome to, but that is possible only within the first blog tab.
SUMMARY
On 26 July 2013 Liz and I left for the USA to undertake our Marvelous Motorcycle Ride. We shipped our trusty steed, a 2012 BMW R1200 GS Adventure, to Portland, Oregon, from where we travelled to New York, making a major southerly detour through Wyoming (Yellowstone), Utah (Bryce Canyon) and Arizona (Page, Monument Valley). Colorado and South Dakota (Mt Rushmore) followed with Wisconsin then on the radar to see some of Liz's family. Across Lake Michigan we went, detouring into Canada to see some friends, old and and new. Liz had an appointment with a South African Airways flight at JFK on 24 August, so it was a rather intense first four weeks.
Someone had to return the bike to Portland for it to be shipped home to Melbourne and Duncan volunteered for that assignment. To avoid traffic, the front wheel of the bike pointed south for a while, stopping in Atlanta to pick up John H, before making a right in the vicinity of Mobile Alabama. Another right followed in New Mexico and the path then traveled back through Colorado, where John disembarked. After a couple more days in Colorado, Duncan headed over Independence Pass to Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington back to Portland, where the ride finished on 5 October 2013.
Having covered nearly 20,000 kilometres/12,000 miles, the bike was serviced at BMW Motorcycles of Western Oregon prior to being shipped home.
This site has been updated regularly during the course of the ride. We hope that you will enjoy the stories and the photos. Please feel free to comment on the blog, even though the adventure is over.
15 November. The bike is in Los Angeles, waiting for a ship.
4 January 2014. Happy New Year! The ship is in Melbourne.
Monday 13 January. I have collected the bike. Undamaged except for a slight ding in the front panel of the right side saddlebag/pannier.
The tab "Blog - USA on a GSA" is in reverse date order AND split over several pages. You will find the 'Previous' and 'Forward' navigation buttons at the very bottom of each page.
If you wish to read a chronological account of the trip, with some photos, please go to the LAST tab, 'Blog in Date Order'.
The tab 'Photos - People and Places' is also in reverse date order, so to follow chronologically, please scroll right to the bottom and then work up.
Should you wish to make a comment, you are welcome to, but that is possible only within the first blog tab.
SUMMARY
On 26 July 2013 Liz and I left for the USA to undertake our Marvelous Motorcycle Ride. We shipped our trusty steed, a 2012 BMW R1200 GS Adventure, to Portland, Oregon, from where we travelled to New York, making a major southerly detour through Wyoming (Yellowstone), Utah (Bryce Canyon) and Arizona (Page, Monument Valley). Colorado and South Dakota (Mt Rushmore) followed with Wisconsin then on the radar to see some of Liz's family. Across Lake Michigan we went, detouring into Canada to see some friends, old and and new. Liz had an appointment with a South African Airways flight at JFK on 24 August, so it was a rather intense first four weeks.
Someone had to return the bike to Portland for it to be shipped home to Melbourne and Duncan volunteered for that assignment. To avoid traffic, the front wheel of the bike pointed south for a while, stopping in Atlanta to pick up John H, before making a right in the vicinity of Mobile Alabama. Another right followed in New Mexico and the path then traveled back through Colorado, where John disembarked. After a couple more days in Colorado, Duncan headed over Independence Pass to Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington back to Portland, where the ride finished on 5 October 2013.
Having covered nearly 20,000 kilometres/12,000 miles, the bike was serviced at BMW Motorcycles of Western Oregon prior to being shipped home.
This site has been updated regularly during the course of the ride. We hope that you will enjoy the stories and the photos. Please feel free to comment on the blog, even though the adventure is over.
15 November. The bike is in Los Angeles, waiting for a ship.
4 January 2014. Happy New Year! The ship is in Melbourne.
Monday 13 January. I have collected the bike. Undamaged except for a slight ding in the front panel of the right side saddlebag/pannier.
The Notional Route - West to East
We actually crossed Lake Michigan on the ferry, saving many miles and avoiding Chicago.
The Notional Route - South, then East to West
As it turned out, this route turned out to be more notional than the one West to East.
The above map shows the actual route as plotted by the Delorme Satellite Tracker. There was a glitch leaving Portland OR, and then again leaving Helena MT, which explains the gaps.