All quiet on the Wild Western front

It's been almost 3 months since my last post and what a few months it's been. No excuses, I've been pre-occupied with other things.

On Christmas Day I learned of the death of a friend, after a 3 year battle with cancer. The day of her funeral, my mother was taken into hospital, after a fall. She died 6 days later!

So, the last thing on my mind has been the tour in June and this blog.

Believe it or not though, out of the tragedy has arisen another bike trip. Watch out for the Ashes Tour in August. Mother's wish when she died, was for her ashes to be scattered at her ancestral home, Loch an Eilean, in Scotland. My brother Paul and I will take mother on a 2.5 day trip to her final resting place, stopping off at some significant places from her past en route. A round trip of some 1300 miles, in 5 days.

Anyway, back to WHWW, I've still to complete my booking forms but things like insurances, etc, have been arranged. I've been discussing with Dudley the Alcatraz tour when we get to San Francisco, so now just need to chose and book it. A city and Alcatraz combined tour is about $90.

In prep for the tour, I made a couple of purchases at the Excel bike show recently. Some fingerless leather gloves, a big chain for my wallet and a cooling jacket. The latter soaks up cold water in a couple of minutes, then retains the cooling effects for several hours. It's worn under a light mesh jacket ideally. I figured Death Valley mid June could be quite warm. I already have a camelback

 rucky to keep me hydrated.

Think that's all for now. Just 13 weeks to go.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Flights sorted

Spoke to Carole at HC the other day. Told her we wanted to fly Virgin rather than UA. The price had come down since she quoted us, so the return flight is costing us about £707. I've never flown with Virgin before but heard good things about them, so I'm looking forward to it.

Have also been taking a look at excursions. HC can book some but not the Alcatraz tour. You have to do that one yourself. It's a must do for both of us, so it's just a question of whether we just do that or buy one of the city tours that includes the Alcatraz ticket. I'm waiting for Dudley to let me know his preference. I feel it's probably easier, when you only have one spare day, to let the organised tours take the pain away and bus you around.

Welcome/Info Pack

Postie landed the HC_Travel info pack on my doormat yesterday (figuratively speaking). This contains the tour itinery plus lots of info, such as, how to apply for a visa (ESTA), traffic rules, etc, etc, not to mention showing the large figures that are the cost of the tour! Dudley and I are sharing a room, so that saves us quite a bit but flights are about 50% more than when we did Route 66 in 2010, so anything we save is pretty much eaten up by Mr Branson.

There's a couple of things to iron out, the flights, excursions, insurance possibly and how we will pay but we're looking pretty set already with 7 1/2 months to go!

Choices, choices!

Had the itinery through today from HC Travel.  Another choice we have to make is, which carrier we will allow to take our delicate arses across the pond. Do we go cheap and fly with the Yanks, United Airlines or go British with Sir Richard's finest. The difference is only £16, so much of a muchness really. When I flew out for US66, I went BA but Dudley flew Virgin. Even before we had the costs he was saying Virgin and others I have spoken to reckon you get a good experience with them, so I guess I'll just have to save that little bit harder ;-)

Watch out for the route map and stops, coming soon.

Sign us up!

Welcome, to this, my 4th motorcycle blog. If you've not seen the others, you'll find the links further down the page.

Well, it now feels like we are on our way to another adventure. Sadly, Biggsey won't be joining in on this one, as first thought but myself and Dudley have both paid our deposits for next June's Wild West tour.

We'll be heading out on 13th June, a day before the tour officially starts, to get acclimatised and do some sightseeing in L.A., then on the 15th we'll hit the road with the other tourees, for two weeks of sun (hopefully) and spectacular scenery (without a doubt).

We've chosen to share a room this time round, we enjoyed it so much last July ;-) (see the Reservoir Hogs blog), saving each of us close to a grand, so a no brainer really. It's not like we're strangers.  Better the DeVall you know, eh Dudley?

We've also stated our preference for our mounts. I've gone for the Road King again (my favourite Harley) with a Street Glide as second choice. Dudley has chosen the Heritage Softail, with his second choice, a Fatboy (it's a bike, honest!). If you've read the Route 66 blog, you'll know Dudley had issues with keeping the bike upright (a Road King), hence how he became Dudley, so this time, he's chosen something more suited to his little Ernie Wise legs ;-)

It's early days and there is still a lot to sort out but I can't wait. Just short of 200 days to go!

Don't forget to sign up to follow this blog and make sure you don't miss a minute of the build up or the tour itself.