Ok my plan is to leave Traverse City, MI on Oct. 15 or 16 or a little before, drive down to Brownsville, Tx. Get new tires for my Vulcan 750 at the dealer there, and anything else I may need that I havn't already got before going into Mexico. Still looking for that collapsible one or two gallon gas can that got me to this site to begin with. If anyone has found one.
My tank is only 3.5 gallons and I dread thinking of having to fill up or look for gas every hundred and twenty five miles on a ten thousand mile trip.
OK back to the plan, I'm actually going down to Costa Rica for dental work and have to be there for two weeks. So I decided to do a homestay there with a Spanish speaking class for a month as well, exploring Costa Rica on my weekends with my bike. So the beginning of December I will head back after a month in Costa Rica,
I was trying to fit in the Costa Rica Spanish speaking school with my spanish class up here at college, but my professor said I would be gone too long, and didn't want to trust the school down there to administer my tests, quizes, etc. Too bad, I really wanted to do both and get some credits this semester. Oh well, so I dropped my class this semester for the trip down, maybe I can test out on a CLEP test when I get back, and get some credit for the class down there. I only say all this hoping someone else may have experiance transferring their Spanish lessons down south into possible credits up here.
Ok back to the trip again. If I leave northern Michigan October 15th, make Brownsville on Sunday, roughly five days travel. Do what I need there Monday with tire changes etc. Go into Mexico on the 21st, and then I'm hoping on ten days to Costa Rica. But I won't have to actually be there for 14 or so so I have some cushion. Hoping to get some feed back from you experianced riders on this time frame. I believe Greg Frazier in one of his books said to plan on ten days to Costa Rica from the U.S. border.
When I come back I'm planning on coming back as far north as I can in December before storing my bike somewhere down south. Would love to fit in New Orleans since I've never been there before, and visit a friend in the Keyes where I might also be able to store my bike. If I have to I might try to be able to get into northern Arkansas, or Alabama, south Tennesse, before storing it. I know that is pushing it, but except for last winter, we havn't been getting much winter up here anyway till after Christmas. So who knows maybe I can make it the whole way, but would like to have a little more time, and fun on the way back. Since I'm planning on school in January again.
So if anyone is interested in joining me for any part of this journey, or have feed back on the gas situation (availibility, distances between stations whil getting to Costa Rica, quality of gas), itinerary and time, etc. please feel free to post, or email me. Thanks so much, this is an amazing site.
Doug French Traverse City, MI
09-08 fren285@netscape.com