Kevin and Lynda's North American Wander

KevinW

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In 2008 we wandered around Europe for a few weeks. Every few days we sent updates in emails to our friends and family and I put updates on UKGSer (here) and on a couple of other web sites I frequent. Writing the updates and picking the photos to put in there was the fun bit but posting it in various places became a bit time consuming and a chore if I'm honest as it's not simply a cut and paste job.

This time I thought I'd be a bit more organised so I set up a blog area on our web site with the intention of posting the link on sites where I'd previously posted updates. I figured that way we'd only have to do one set of updates and anyone who wanted to read them could.

Reading this:
It's all good to me. I post my ride reports on my blog so I can easily link it to different forums I use. This appears to have pissed of some folk on ADVrider though!:D

in the vendor forum and the thread on ADVRider has given me pause for thought. It hadn't occurred to me that such a pointer could/would be viewed as spam. I'm a bit hesitant to post this now but I will anyway! :D You can castigate me later if it's not the done thing.

We head for the US on Saturday and will be wandering for a few weeks. Our GSA will be waiting for us when we arrive (hopefully!) although we won't be able to get it until Monday as the customs office is closed.

Our current plan is to spend a few days with friends after we land in San Diego, head for the East Coast, wander up through Washington to Pittsburgh after which we'll be busy for a couple of weeks, we'll then pay short visits to friends in Connecticut and Ontario then wander back to the west coast again visiting places we fancy visiting on the way.

We have quite a list of places we'd like to see and we're not going to have time to see them all but we anticipate some high mileage days to get to places, some days just meandering and enjoying the view and some days where we don't get on the bike at all.

If you're interested, we'll be posting updates to our blog - http://www.thewellers.net/blog/ (posted that way so you can see where it goes) and there is a link to our Spot track in the menu.

Kevin
 
Well we managed to finish the Iron Butt Rally and the write-ups for each leg are now on our blog. We posted the write-ups as we finished writing them so they're in reverse sequence from the top - leg 3 then 2 then 1. You an use the menu on the top right to read them in chronological sequence.

Now for a more leisurely ride for a few weeks.

Kevin
 
We're back.

39 US states, four Canadian provinces, 23,991 miles, three sets of tyres (the front needs changing again), 2.5 services (and another due), 11,325 photographs and 100GB of video.

It was a great holiday but I wish we'd had the time and money to continue into South America. Maybe next time.

Kevin
 
looks good ! I am reading the blog now and looking forward to reading more but a question ? Why have you two Zumo 660s, is it one each or. to be sure to be sure, was it BOGOF ?

:aidan
 
The bridge at Honeydew.....not a lot of people know that:D
 

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looks good ! I am reading the blog now and looking forward to reading more but a question ? Why have you two Zumo 660s, is it one each or. to be sure to be sure, was it BOGOF ?

:aidan
The short answer is redundancy.

When doing Iron Butt-type rides, particularly rallies, it is possible to do it with a map but it's much easier with a SatNav. It would be difficult to be competitive in a rally with a map (I would have said impossible were it not for a guy in Germany who proved that it is possible but he was much more highly placed in the German Butt Rally last year when he used a SatNav).

If a device fails I don't want to waste time stopping to troubleshoot, then possibly replace wiring, the unit itself or the mount. No-one was using maps for the Iron Butt Rally and most bikes, nearly all, had two SatNavs mounted.

We have one set track-up with a fairly close view which helps with immediate navigation and the other north-up with a much wider view which helps place us. I don't find the 660s particularly easy to read in direct sunlight (the 550 was better) and quite often one is obscured but not the other so there are other benefits to running two units. The drawback is they sometimes disagree despite running the same firmware release and map versions.

I wouldn't have bought a second unit were it not for the IBA rides. Having said that I tend to use both units for most rides where I use a SatNav nowadays as I like the dual view.

Kevin
 
The bridge at Honeydew.....not a lot of people know that:D

Me included!

That really is a great area for riding isn't it. I don't think I'd fancy it much on a sports bike though because of the road condition.

Kevin
 
Me included!

That really is a great area for riding isn't it. I don't think I'd fancy it much on a sports bike though because of the road condition.

Kevin

A couple miles north of there I came across 'that perfect place', perhaps it was the weather, the landscape, my mood...but I could've lived there.

The grumpy store keeper at Honeydew said, "If you want to keep it pretty, when you leave take someone with you, there's too many here":D
 
A couple miles north of there I came across 'that perfect place', perhaps it was the weather, the landscape, my mood...but I could've lived there.

The 'heady aroma' maybe? :eek

The grumpy store keeper at Honeydew said, "If you want to keep it pretty, when you leave take someone with you, there's too many here":D

:)
 
You guys look so happy together :) I love the IBR pics.

What a great write up, I've bookmarked it and will be visiting your blog on a regular basis drinking coffee.

Thank you for sharing it with us :thumb2
 


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