Fitting the panniers in another car park. I hope car parks aren't going to be our new hangouts.

Taz and I get ready for a shakedown ride, the plan to head through Wales and then down to St Davids. On route we will pick up a set of panniers for Taz's bike from our friends, who are also riders. We spent the weekend clocking up miles and checking the bikes and kit for the trip. A few hick ups, lost a pannier lid off my bike and we struggled to get accommodation in Bala, a night camping in a car park sorted that out. Lid will be purchased on return to Cheshire. Four hundred and thirty miles over the weekend. a good run.

Preperations

The bikes went to the master of BMW Jonno of RudieMoto.

A plan falls apart!

Picture it a giant map on the floor, Taz with a marker pen making dotted lines around the world. “look i want to go there” as another mark indicates out intended route. Excited laughs and giggles as we plan our adventure. A romantic view of how easy it “should be “Three months later all those plans have collapsed. Taz and i sat slumped on the couch the news waffling on the TV in the background as it sinks in we can’t do our trip.! “ ok let’s do it on our bikes instead” Taz having past her full motorcycle test eight months didn’t seem too impressed. I had completed a Mali trip and was always keen to repeat the experience and especially with Taz, but our original plan of sailing around the world on a budget sail boat purchased from the US; had slipped away with world recession. We were struggling to save enough money and now the boats that was in our price range had suddenly doubled as the pound lost its strength.
Fast forward to December 2009 and we are still on the couch, all plans on hold, the winter blues were setting in and all thoughts of adventure started to sleep with the onset of freezing temperatures. I had been reading a ride report of Sgt Bilco (Chris) a member of UKGSers; a forum for adventure riders. His report was of sunny climates and Death Valley and as the spark of a plan ignited inside. I fed it with more images of the Grand Canyon, deserts and mountains and the flame grew. Gently I nurtured it, I braved the next stage of combustion; i read it out to Taz, hopefully she would feels its warmth and add her fuel. The USA is it possible? No language barriers, no dodgy border controls of half uniformed AK carrying locals. A great introduction to Adventure Motorcycling for Taz and it should be easy to plan . We finished the report and the fire we had started seemed to gather strength, our mood lifted and we talked and started to formulate our great adventure. Now bouncing around the room, the big map comes out, wiping off our sailing trip, the new route is drawn out marking our all time must see places in the USA, Canada and Alaska. A giant triangle appeared on the map and our trip “ The Alaskan Triangle” was born. A fire that was going to consume us for the next four months during the preparations.

16000 mile trip around the USA

Its less than 30 days before Taz and I head off for our Atlantic to Alaska motorcycle adventure. If you are interested in following the 16,000 mile trip across the US around the grand Canyon, through Death Valley up through Canada the Yukon and onto Alaska, please keep reading

We are aiming to ride the infamous Dalton Highway, we hoping to encounter wild animals and all wonder of things and that's probably as we load the bikes on the ferry in Liverpool lol. An epic motorcycle journey without support crews and film rights. Just the wife and I keeping it real. Limited budget, limited skills, limited time and limitless cravings for adventure.
The countdown has started.
(Due to security reason we will post details out of synch with the actual days events)