The route…

I’ve been planning a preliminary route. Still need to go over this with the wifey since she’s going to be stuck with me on the road for over two weeks! So far, the trip will cover eleven states on a one way trip of 3,000+ miles. These miles would be if were to straight and not pull off to any side adventures (you know we will). The states we will ride through are… California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and the finally Florida.

I used the American Automobile Associations Trip-Tik online software to create a rough route. It’s a service you are entitled too if you’re an existing member of AAA.

Navigation…

For this trip I purchased a used Garmin Nuvi 265WT. This particular model is fairly old by today’s standard. It was released around 2008 but I knew I would be able to update the firmware and purchase the latest 2013 maps for it. It also has live traffic updates and bluetooth, not sure if I will be using these features.

Originally this GPS was to be a backup unit for the existing GPS model I currently have mounted on the GL1800 (Goldwing) I decided to use this as the primary navigation system and ordered the appropriate mounting hardware. The parts should arrive next week, plenty of time to debug and figure out what else I need before we roll out.

I’m using the a couple applications from Apples App Store called Garmin’s Base Camp and POI Loader both are used to plan routes and download into the GPS unit for later use. I think between using AAA’s service and Garmin’s software we’ll be able to come up with a route that will optimize the time we have and the places we want to visit.

I setup this blog spot so we can easily update our ride across the United States. Since this is on my own server I don’t have to worry about the photos I upload and the words I say.

 

More Parts…

More parts came in today, now I can mount the GPS properly. I still need to purchase a glare hood and some sort of rain protection case/covering. The last time it poured I used an oversized baggy for protection. That didn’t work out to well.

 

Oil change, fluids and tire… Checked

I had the oil filter and oil changed. Used mixed synth with dyno oil. All the fluids good to go and actually had the bike inspected for a brake recall. Everything is a go!

Just for record sake, I had 78,747 miles on the Wing when I took it in for an oil change. I’ll have to get another oil change when we return from our trip two weeks from now.

 

She’s all geared up!

We took a ride to Cycle Gear in Sactown today so Lorraine could update her riding gear. She had to get everything since her old gear would just hang on her and cause problems on the road.