Hello all

I'm a 27 year old engineer from Scotland, just quit my job and now I'm planning to travel across NA. Since none of my friends are willing to quit their jobs as well or have the money to follow me, I'll be doing most of the trip solo. I've been lurking on the site for a while and I figured it would be a good idea to finally sign up and get some expert advice.


The exact route I am still working on but in general I would start in Florida September time-frame. Overview breaks down like this:

• Rent a motorcycle for Keys West. I hear it's beautiful and I should do it since I won't have another chance like this for quite some time.
• Find a way to get up to Atlanta, GA to visit a friend (Greyhound or some other means)
• Greyhound or something to New York city
• From NYC to Boston
• Fly/train from Boston to Chicago
• Rent a motorcycle in Chicago to drive to Los Angeles, a type of route 66 thing. Somewhat clichéd but good to cross off the bucket list.
• Head down to San Diego to stay with family for a while.

That's the basic plan. How much of Route 66 I want to travel and what I want to see is still a work in progress. One thing I realised is that with all the motorcycle rental costs, plane/train/bus tickets, etc; it comes to something like 6,000 USD.

I could get a good second hand motorcycle for that and then sell it afterwards. Even if I only sell it for half the buying price, I would still save some cash and have a blast to boot.

My question comes to where to buy the bike and how to register. Every state is different and this information is scattered all over the internet. Some states need just insurance and an address while others require state drivers license and social security number as well.

I know I will need to have a permanent address in every situation. I have some friends and family around the US (Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, California) and they would be willing to let me use their address.

Easiest option would be to use my cousins address in CA, buy and register the bike there. But my plans were to start on the East Coast to avoid being in New York at the start of Winter. Buying in CA, hitting the interstate to get to the east coast just to tour back to CA seems a bit redundant.

Ideally I would like to buy the bike in Florida or Illinois, get temporary tags and register when I get to California but I don't know how long temporary tags are valid for and if this is even possible.

Bit of a long first post so my apologies. Can anyone offer advice?