Preparing for the trip

Wednesday - July 17, 2013 - Only six more days until I depart. I leave early morning July 23, 2013.

Preparing for the trip is the biggest part, and probably the easiest.  Preparation started last year while I was making another extended ride, which started in my home in Tennessee and took me to points north, north being various stops in Canada before turning around and heading home.  Total travel miles was a little over 6,000 miles.

This may be a good place to talk about the bike that I will be riding.  I will be riding a 2008 Honda Goldwing, with the comfort package, which means heated seats, grips, and warm air vents that can be opened in front of the feet.  I hope I will need none of that.  It has a built in GPS, AM/FM/XM Radio, CD player (actually it is a electronic devise controlled from the handlebars that simulates a CD player.  I have over 1500 songs loaded, so better than a CD player.) and a CB.

I have fresh oil and other fluids and new tires.  The bike is in tip top shape.  I hope that I am equally ready, which I think I am.

The trip will take me into the Kansas City area, Sioux City, IA, Fargo, ND, Minot, ND.  I cross the US-Canadian border just north of Minot.

Trip planning goes like this, beginning with Minot:  Minot, Estevan, North Battleford, Edmonton, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake, White Horse, Beaver Creek, and then Fairbanks.  I plan on an overnight stay at each of these locations.  I have lodging reservations at each stop, so no sleeping bags or tents.

I will spend three days in and around Fairbanks, then move to other locations.  My next hard date is August 12, 2013, which is when I catch the MV Kennicott in Whittier, AK (just below Anchorage) for a four-day boat ride to Seattle.

JRL