Hitting The Road

I'm attending a wedding in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday (and the rehearsal dinner on Friday), so I decided to make a vacation out of it and ride the motorcycle there.

Last week, I  installed a new chain and sprockets, changed the oil and spark plugs, and just generally went over the bike to make sure it was ready to go. I also swapped from the stock seat to the Corbin, with my home-built whaletail rack on it.

My new suit is rolled up and sealed into a plastic storage box. Everything else is bagged in ZipLoc bags to keep it dry during the inevitable rain storms I'm sure to ride through.

The little bag on top has my latest cigar box guitar in it. I wanted a travel guitar to take with me, but I didn't want to spend $250, or more, to buy one. So an old Memphis with a plywood body donated the neck (and a sliver of the body, inside the box). New tuners, and a cheap P-90 copy came out of the parts box, and I made a bridge from a piece of an old cheapo, plus some aluminum angle stock. The tailpiece is made from the same aluminum as the bridge.

It actually sounds pretty good. And, if it gets destroyed by riding on the bike, I am out very little money.

I'll leave early tomorrow morning, and head for St. Joseph, Mo. I am avoiding I-70 due to the fact that I have made that trip too many times, in the past few years, and also because there is a plethora of road construction projects going on just outside of Kansas City. I don't want to get caught up in that!

From St. Joe, I plan to go to Hannibal, then south to U.S. 50. I'll take 50 across Illinois, and into Indiana. Eventually, I'll turn north and end up in Bloomington, to spend the night with my buddy Michael. Then, on Friday morning, it will be a relatively short easy ride through Indianapolis and eastward on I-70 to Columbus.

Sunday, I will head down to West Tennessee and meet my sister at my mom's place. We will be there until Wednesday morning, when I will head back to Denver. If all goes well, I will roll into my driveway late in the day on July 30, after 3500 miles (plus or minus) of motorbiking.

Steve is taking care of the house for me, and Carol is taking the dogs, so all of those bases are covered. I will try to post from the road, if possible.

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