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January 29, 2006

2008: Road Trip!

My father is a motorcycle nut, and has been for many, many years. He owned bikes for a good chunk of my early childhood, and used to take me tooling around Seattle with him when I was three or four. (I even had this cute little yellow helmet. It'd melt your heart.)

Flash forward 30 years. Dad's had this urge to ride the "four corners" of the United States on his motorcycle. Effectively, this means you start in Seattle (or, in his case, Spokane) and, in one consecutive ride, you hit Blaine, Washington, San Diego, California, Key West, Florida and Madawaska, Maine - the four extremities of the continental US. The trip totals out to roughly 11,000 miles.

As you might imagine, this is not a light undertaking. Rather, it's a five-to-six week Tour de United States, with all manner of logistical and planning issues. My dad's been lobbying my stepmom for a few years now to let him go on this thing, and she finally acquiesced last year.

He then asked me if I wanted to go. And, of course, I said yes.

Look, I know I don't own a motorcycle (yet). But this is clearly the opportunity of a lifetime: see the country, spend time with dad, camp, stop in greasy diners, snap lots of pictures, meet people. Live out of your saddle bags for six weeks or so. It's gonna be really cool.

So without boring you with some of the planning issues (e.g., finding a time to go when the weather is good, making sure I've saved up enough vacation at work, being permitted to take off a huge chunk of time, etc. etc. etc.), the plan is to depart on Saturday, August 23, 2008 and return on Wednesday, October 1, 2008. (Incidentally, August 22, 2008 will be my three-year anniversary with Microsoft, so the trip's a nice anniversary marker.)

I spent a chunk of today playing with Streets and Trips 2006 to plan out routes and make sure that the necessary landmarks are in the system. Dad is focused on finding routes that are scenic and winding: we're not big fans of riding on the interstate, so you'll find us on winding country roads and two-lane state highways. For my part, I was plugging in the can't-miss stuff, like the other four corners (where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all touch), Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon ... and the theme parks we're going to hit on the way.

(Did I say theme parks? Oh, yeah.)

This is an incredible opportunity for a coaster fanatic like me. We're going to be riding through a lot of country that I've never seen before, and, well, that country's got a lot of coasters. Dad's agreed to indulge my enthusiasm (or, if ya like, enable my habit), and I've agreed not to pull us too far off track to ride some small county-fair woodie.

We're going to ride clockwise around the country, so the list of theme parks is, in order:

1. Valleyfair! - Shakopee, Minnesota.
2. Mt. Olympus Theme Park - Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
3. Paramount's Kings Island - Kings Mills, Ohio.
4. Cedar Point - Sandusky, Ohio.
5. Darien Lake - Darien Center, New York.
6. Six Flags New England - Agawam, Massachusetts (This is the oldest theme park in the US!).
7. Six Flags Great Adventure - Jackson, New Jersey.
8. Knoebel's - Elysburg, Pennsylvania.
9. Dorney Park - Allentown, Pennsylvania.
10. Six Flags Over Georgia - Austell, Georgia.
11. Busch Gardens Tampa - Tampa, Florida.
12. Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure - Orlando, Florida.
13. Six Flags Over Texas - Arlington, Texas.
14. Disneyland - Anaheim, California.
15. Six Flags Magic Mountain - Valencia, California.
16. Six Flags Marine World - Vallejo, California.

Unbelievable. The ride is two-plus years out, and I'm already bouncing up and down with excitement.

(Now I just have to buy a motorcycle...)

Posted by Gavin Shearer at January 29, 2006 6:53 PM. Posted to Travel.

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