Friday, 19 August.

I’m leaving Sunday.  The bike has been serviced and cleaned (three times to get most of the dirt off)!  I didn’t use any careful method when I unloaded it, so repacking has been a little more difficult than expected.  I am not carrying everything that I had before, so I will either have less or (perhaps more likely) add stuff.  We’ll see. I still hope to camp along the way, but I’m more aware that tent camping seems to be on it’s way out.  RV parks cost almost as much as a 2 star hotel, even if all one has is a tent!

Once I get to Virginia it’ll be more of a trip down memory lane than of discovery.  Rediscovery maybe.  My memories are from the 1970s and before, but I certainly won’t need much of a map. Somewhere in Michigan I’ll need to get an Ezpass. I hope to avoid most toll roads, but I learned in Florida that sometimes you just can’t.

The route will probably include:

• Lake Havasu (London Bridge)
• Monument Valley
• Arches NP
• Devils Tower National Monument
• Minuteman Missile Historical Site
• Green Bay
• Mackinac, MI
• Annapolis (40th Reunion!)
• Rome, NY (Childhood home)
• Prince Edward Island, Canada
• Nova Scotia
• ???

The heat is a concern but it won’t be a new experience.  I had planned to leave in mid September, but the reunion cause a change in start date.  I am hoping for an early fall so I can see changing leaves.  We’ll see.  I still don’t expect to rush.  I have a definite arrival time for Annapolis, but afterwards “The way that I wander will be the way that I choose.” [movie Jeremiah Johnson]