Well its less than one week until I start my 2012 Western
Trip. My local mechanic extraordinaire
(Mark Bisnette) finished servicing my R1200GSA this weekend. The bike is tuned, the oil changed, and a
fresh set of tires have been mounted. As
usual, Mark has done a superb job of preparing the bike for me.
During this trip, I will be visiting my long-time friends,
John and Betsy Dietrich, who live in Boulder, Colorado. I will be attending the wedding of their son,
Robert and Meagan Vincent. Afterwards, I will be meeting a
group of fellow riders, several of whom I have met at the BMWSportTouring.com
Blue Ridge rendezvous events (Rick Young, Bob Foley, and Chuck Thompson) and a
couple of new riders (Barry Pendry and Allen (last name currently known)), for
a ten-day tour of Colorado, Arizona, and Utah.
After the tour, I am planning to visit John and Betsy Dietrich for a
couple of days before returning to North Carolina.
Compared to my previous trips, I am behind on planning my
rides to and from Colorado. During the
past weekend, I continued to work on each day's ride, trying to arrange stops
at some of the sight-seeing locations that I have previously marked for
possible visits. Within the next day or
two, I plan to make hotel reservations for each day of my ride to Colorado.
My friend and fellow R1200GSA rider, Ed O'Neil, has
indicated that he wants to join me for the first day's ride (Sunday, May 20th),
as long as it's not raining. The first
day's ride will be from Wilmington to Dalton, Georgia, with a stop at the
Georgia Guidestones. I am looking
forward to having Ed join me.
I am planning to publish an update every day or two days
throughout the trip (hopefully I will have an Internet connection). So please check back regularly for more
posts, including a preview of the route to Colorado later this week.
