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Travelogue -- Dr Bob's Wrap-Up Motorcycle Ride |
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Finally, it is going to happen, in 2018, my ride to wrap up taking pictures of the Capitols of the Lower 48 on a motorcycle ride.
My trip logo is a collage of some of my Capitol photos. I only have a few in the logo, the picture would be too large if I had them all. How many is all? I have collected 45 of the 48 Capitols plus the US Capitol, which is front and center in my trip logo. Actually, my motorcycle is front and the US Capitol is center. That's an old motorcycle, not my current ride, a 2013 Harley-Davidson Road Glide Ultra, shown here sitting on top of Abner Mountain in southeastern Kentucky in 2014 on my US Northeast Ride. I like my Road Glide, I really have to say that I like the Road Glide more than the Electra Glide.
I will have more than my normal number of miles on Interstates, about 3,500 miles, which boosts the daily average. I am looking at my primary ride as the circle part of the route from Houston back to Houston (actually back to Fort Stockton, Texas). So, I want to get to Houston quickly and back home from Fort Stockton quickly. Some riders on rigid schedules might ship their bike to Houston and back from Fort Stockton, but not me. I want to be on the bike.
For the most part, the circle part of the ride will be on US highways. I will have about 4,300 miles altogether on US highways. You can see from the map that I spend a lot of time on the Florida Turnpike and I-75 and I-10 getting to Houston. That's 1,150 miles on Interstates.
From Houston I will ride the Texas border south along the Gulf coast, then along the Mexican border, visit Big Bend National Park, then get back on I-10. That's about 1,250 miles, mostly on US highways.
The stretch along I-10 to reach Phoenix will be about 550 miles.
Then I will have about 3,200 miles riding north through Las Vegas, Boise, Missoula, then east to Jordan Montana, and then south through Denver to Fort Stockton Texas, mostly on US highways.
Finally, it will be about 1,650 miles on Interstate to get home.
I will do this ride like I have done others, by posting pictures and text every day of the ride. Each day of my journey will be a separate page shown on the menu at the left. You can start at the beginning by selecting the first day, or at the end by selecting the last day. The little arrows at the top corners and bottom corners of each page will take you to the previous or next page.
The map shown near the top of the menu on the left will be updated daily to show my actual track; the little blue arrowheads show my rough plan for daily travel; the small blue bars show where I actually spent each night; the big blue arrow shows where I am. Any time you go to my travelogue, it will open on my most recent day.
At the end of the ride, I will add the Wrap page where I will give you my highlights of the ride, statistics, and whatever else pops into my mind when I do it.
Also at the end of the ride, I will put the entire trip on a single page (a long page) which you can view by selecting "Single Page".
If you are interested in my other motorcycle travelogues, go to the bottom section of my home page -- http://rhopkins.us. The map below shows where I will have ridden my motorcycle by the time this ride is complete. You can click on the map to have a more detailed view.
My, oh my, it has been a long time. But now I'm back. I am ready for my Wrap-Up Ride. My last ride was in 2015, my Northwest Territory Ride. I had planned to do the Wrap-UpRide in 2016, but it did not happen. Then I planned to do it in 2017, but it did not happen.
The other 3 of the 48 Capitols are Phoenix Arizona, Boise Idaho, and Denver Colorado. I will visit them in that order. Just below is my trip plan which also shows tentative daily rides. You can click on the map to have a higher rez view. That is sometimes true with my images, like the trip logo above, and my Road Glide. If you see a fat border around the image, it means you can see a higher rez version. It will open in a new tab or new window depending on your web browser configuration.
This is an ambitious schedule, 21 days. I will have to average about 370 miles per day. I probably will not be able do that. Weather can interfere. Bike maintenance can interfere. And, I might get tired and take a day off.
By the way, do you recognize the Capitols in the Logo? You can do a search on the Internet, or you can click on the logo.