the next travel adventure

With the wedding in the rear view mirror and a new Harley to break in...yes, Rick traded in his 2007 FLHX for a brand spanking new 2009 FLHX Streetglide, we're anxious to give it a test ride.


The longest ride I've ever been on is the Oyster Run up to Anacortes last September. That's more of a day trip to ride around with a bunch of other bikers. But our quest this time is quite a bit different. Our friend Marc keeps sharing his stories of epic motorcycle trips with his brothers, and it amazes him that with the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, we only managed to put on 1500 miles on Rick's 2007 Harley.


So with a deep desire to travel, and airline costs skyrocketing, Rick and I decided to plan our maiden voyage on the Harley -- a 5-day motorcycle trip through Jasper and Banff National Parks.



It's about 1400 miles round trip spread out across 5 days. So we're extending our Labor Day weekend by taking off a few days early to head up north. The beautiful thing about this particular holiday weekend is that it's a U.S. only holiday, so hopefully things will be relatively normal and uncongested as we travel our route.


Day 1 -- Head up to Kamloops, BC.
Day 2 -- Enter Jasper National Park from the north entrance
Day 3 -- Drive from Jasper, through the icefields, pit stop at Lake Louise and continue on to Banff
Day 4 -- Cross back over to British Columbia through Glacier National Park, pass through Kelowna, and stay over in Penticon, BC.
Day 5 -- Taking the scenic route home through the Okanogan Forest, pass by Chelan and cross the finish line back home.


All in all, it averages to be about 6-7 hours of riding each day. I went ahead and made hotel reservations as I knew it would be too stressful for a planner like myself to just "wing it" on where we'd be staying each night.


We've been "gearing up" for the trip as well. Just got myself a full face helmet and we invested in a communicator set so that Rick and I can talk during the trip. We also had a custom seat put on the cycle last weekend -- that should really help with any unnecessary saddle soreness.


We're pretty excited to get on the open road with our camera and experience the Canadian Rockies in a way that few ever get the opportunity to do.