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Ride Tales Post your ride reports for a weekend ride or around the world. Please make the first words of the title WHERE the ride is. Please do NOT just post a link to your site. For a link, see Get a Link.
Photo by Hendi Kaf, in Cambodia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Hendi Kaf,
in Cambodia



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  #1  
Old 2 Jan 2014
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four corners tour
I've got several things to take care of first, but am planning (actually planning to not plan) a ride to the four corners of the continental united states. Been riding for over 40 years and have been all around this country (and other countries) but the longest I have traveled is 2 weeks. I have been dreaming of a long ride though our beautiful country, with no planned route and no planned schedule. My method will be to ride two lane roads, and avoid interstate highways like the plague. My home is in northwest Iowa, so depending upon the time of year I leave, I will choose my direction the day I leave. At this time I do not know when I will be ready to leave. I will need to receive a heart transplant, and then recover ( 3-4 months after). Should be on the transplant list in about 2 weeks and God only knows the schedule after that.

I am looking for anyone to provide experience for my long solo ride. I plan to camp mostly, and stay at motels when I feel like it. My wife asks how long I plan to be gone, and I say, 'don't know, at least six weeks'. If you have experience you would like to share, I would be interested in learning.
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Old 2 Jan 2014
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Going to take longer than six weeks unless you enjoy rushing around like crazy and have no interests to explore along the way. That's about 10,000 miles without any detours….and unless you're really and truly driven there will definitely be detours.

More important is that if you haven't taken a long ride before you really ought to break yourself in gradually. At the very least, leave yourself an escape hatch in case you weary of the whole thing. And definitely invite your wife to meet up or join you a time or two along the way unless you're planning to return home to a lot of grief.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark
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  #3  
Old 2 Jan 2014
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Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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Sounds like fun. I've done the USA 4 Corners ride twice. That's the organized one sponsored by the SCMA.

It will be about 10k miles round trip as the 4 corners alone are about 7k miles.

If you just wanna ride 2 lane roads and visit the 4 geographical corners of the US, you'll have a blast.

Due to time constraints, I had to ride mostly on major highways. I still enjoyed it.
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  #4  
Old 18 Jan 2014
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four corners
thanks for the advise. I like the comment about the escape hatch. It is always good to have a plan 'B'. Since I live in the (upper) middle of the country, I figure it will be relatively easy for me to stop home as I cross from east to west or vise versa. That would give the opportunity to spend time at home, before moving on. As far as the time goes, it really does not matter how long it takes.
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  #5  
Old 21 Jan 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by steve martin View Post
I've got several things to take care of first, but am planning (actually planning to not plan) a ride to the four corners of the continental united states. Been riding for over 40 years and have been all around this country (and other countries) but the longest I have traveled is 2 weeks. I have been dreaming of a long ride though our beautiful country, with no planned route and no planned schedule. My method will be to ride two lane roads, and avoid interstate highways like the plague. My home is in northwest Iowa, so depending upon the time of year I leave, I will choose my direction the day I leave. At this time I do not know when I will be ready to leave. I will need to receive a heart transplant, and then recover ( 3-4 months after). Should be on the transplant list in about 2 weeks and God only knows the schedule after that.

I am looking for anyone to provide experience for my long solo ride. I plan to camp mostly, and stay at motels when I feel like it. My wife asks how long I plan to be gone, and I say, 'don't know, at least six weeks'. If you have experience you would like to share, I would be interested in learning.
Lots of great riding in western Colorado, from south to north, follow the Ancients (Anasazi) down south, check out the dinasaurs up north. Utah, canyon lands, Bryce and Monument Valley are incredible rides, as is eastern Arizona (Highway 191 -think a 100 mile Tail of the Dragon). Northwestern NM is pretty nice too but I haven't ridden it as much. If you have time, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is spectacular! Lee's Ferry is small but has a restaurant with more than 100 kinds of . BLM lands have the cheapest campgrounds, Forest Service has nice ones too, Park Service has a lot of crowds. If you go off grid, you can camp free on FS or BLM lands. Gets rainy in Colorado in July usually, head for Nevada and Utah.
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