Well, I pulled into my sister's place about 25 miles south southwest of St Louis, Missouri just under a week ago. The Harley Road King proved once again it is the most comfortable touring bike I own. It is big, heavy and smooth. At 845 lbs, it is not affected by wind, the seat/cockpit is gargantuan with highway pegs and a back rest and cruise control makes interstate miles painless. Every so often I yearn for a radio or some tunes but the fact that all my helmets have a bluetooth comm system which incorporates a fm radio and have never been turned on says something.

The Road King got washed and fuel additive for long term storage added to the gas. It is hooked up to a battery tender and I will see it in six to eight months. My other bikes are similarly prepped (Kawasaki Versys and KTM 690). I have decided to ride my GSA1200 and it is packed and we could roll with five minutes of advance notice.

The plan is to leave in 36 hours (Tuesday 10 October) and ride to Wichita Falls, Texas, to visit my daughter for a couple days. Then, ride to College Station, Tx, on 14 Oct to meet the others going south with me.  We will cross the border 15 October. Route is to be determined but we expect to cross into Belize in 15-21 days after entering Mexico. And my guess is Panama by early December.

I have recovered from the Utah ride and am ready to go!  Every once in awhile, I look at the map and wonder what I am getting myself in for. The present plan is to ride to Panama, fly over the Darien Gap to Columbia and ride south along the Pacific coast to TDF and then ride north on the Atlantic side going through Brazil and Venezuela getting back to the USA around April. However, I am not going to make a final decision until reaching the Panama Canal.

I still have a few admin things to attend to. I need to select and enroll in a travel/evacuation insurance plan (have always used Medjet in the past), need to figure out how to use my Garmin InReach Mini 2 satcom/GPS, and buy Mexican motorcycle insurance. Well, I have a week before actually crossing the border. I am pretty much leaving route selection up to my group partners.

It has been great visiting my sister and brother in law. We had a great trip to Utah and are actually burned out on red sandstone. I am trying to recalibrate on this trip to be more relaxed, less sarcastic and appreciate my environment more and I think it is slowing growing into my mental hard wiring. Hope so!

I will probably wait until we cross the border to update. I am being told people are enjoying this and I sure hope so. If you have any comments (positive or negative), drop me a line at ktmrider2[at]live[dot]com.