Bucket List Motorcycle Road Trip
BIKERS ROAD TRIP OF A LIFETIME!
- Urban Dictionary®: “BUCKET LIST” ……a LIST of things to do before you die…….originating from the term “KICK THE BUCKET”.
- While we are currently living in “motorcycle country” on the Western Slope of Colorado, this round-trip motorcycle “Road Trip of a Lifetime” began from our former home in Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii where we lived from 2002 to 2015.
- Our BUCKET LIST MOTORCYCLE ROAD TRIP stretched across the US mainland all the way to Europe and back on our very own 2011 Harley-Davidson Road Glide named “Trigger” (after Roy Rogers Palomino horse)!
- SUMMARY: 15k road miles in 10.5 weeks! Including air travel, 26k total miles (for perspective, more than the circumference of the Earth at the equator)!
Some Highlights of our “Road Trip of a Lifetime”:
- Shipped our Road Glide® from Lihue, Kauai to San Diego, CA, flew to meet it and began our odyssey.
- 5,000-mile cross-country ride to Toronto, enjoying Sturgis “Bike Week” in the Black Hills of South Dakota along the way.
- San Diego/Solvang/Hearst Castle/Big Sur Pacific Coast Hwy/San Francisco/Sonoma Wine Country/Lassen Volcanic NP, CA; Glacier NP, MT; Yellowstone NP/Beartooth Scenic Byway/Devils Tower NM, WY; Sturgis Motorcycle Rally/Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore NM/Badlands NP, SD; H-D Museum, WI; Toronto, CAN.
- Flew with our Road Glide® Toronto to Paris via “Air Transat”.
- 5,000-mile ride in 4 weeks touring Central Europe (see map route below).
- Paris/Notre Dame Cathedral/The Louvre/Musée d’Orsay, FR; Castles on the Rhine/Black Forest/Bavaria/Fairytale Castle/Eagle’s Nest, DE; Salzburg, AT; Venice (via Tauernbahn rail tunnel thru the Alps)/Florence/Tuscany/Cinque Terre, IT; Davos/Swiss Alps/Geneva, SUI; French Castles/Chateaux/Musée des Blindés Armor Museum in Saumur/Normandy Invasion Sites and Cemetary/Palais de Versailles/Arch de Triumph/Medieval Army Museum/Eiffel Tower, FR.
- Flew with our Road Glide® Paris to Toronto via “Air Transat”.
- 5,000-mile cross-country ride to San Diego, CA.
- Toronto, CAN; Hometown NYC incl. Yankee Stadium baseball game & “Phantom of the Opera” Broadway show, NY; H-D factory tour, York, PA; Shenandoah NP/Blue Ridge Pkwy/Alma Mater Campus Visit to Virginia Tech, VA; Great Smokies NP/Tail of the Dragon ride, TN; Ozarks, AR; Fall Colors – Aspen, CO; Arches NP/Canyonlands NP, UT; Monument Valley, AZ; Capital Reef NP/Grand Staircase-Escalante NM/Bryce Canyon NP/Zion NP, UT; Valley of Fire SP, NV; Queen Mary display in Los Angeles/San Diego, CA.
- Shipped our Road Glide® from San Diego to Lihue, Kauai, flew home.
The 4 week, 5,000 mile European segment of our Bucket List motorcycle adventure was particularly thrilling:
Upon our return home to Kauai, the local newspaper featured our story in the “Lifestyle” article pictured below (CLICK on a page to expand; CLICK anywhere off the page to return):
TRUE STORY PRESENTED TO INSPIRE OTHERS TO “JUST DO IT”!!!
From The Garden Island newspaper article:
“PRINCEVILLE — A good bucket list is all about achieving goals, facing fears, trying something new. Some people go skydiving. Others swim with dolphins or write a book.”
If curious as to what we’re doing now ……..click “ABOUT“
A message from the President of Elegant Solutions Inc. dba Motorcycle Vent Screens: My very first “Touring Bike” was a Batwing FLHTK Ultra Limited and I loved riding it. However, the Harley-Davidson® Road Glide® became my favorite touring motorcycle the first time I rode one! The “Shark Nose” frame-mounted fairing offers both high speed stability cutting through the air at touring speeds as well as low speed maneuverability with the handlebars “free” of the weight of the fairing. My BSR (back seat rider) wife is extraordinarily comfortable riding with me and considers this bike to be a “limo on 2 wheels”! Elegant Solutions Inc. dba Motorcycle Vent Screens is not affiliated with Harley-Davidson®. Terms such as: Harley-Davidson®, Road Glide® and Harley® are trademarks of the Harley-Davidson® Motor Company. They are only used here for descriptive, informational purposes and displayed either with the ® designation or in CAP’s (an alternate method of displaying the “®” designation). The 3-screen complete solution described herein is termed “Triple SPLITSCREENS”. “SPLITSCREEN(S)” and “Triple SPLITSCREENS” are terms coined by Elegant Solutions Inc.