Clearly, this is a long term blog. This big adventure is slated for July 2010. Given that this is just March of 2009, you'll be able to see my preparations (and there will be a lot of them) up to the departure date and then join me for the ride. So, here's your "Shot across the bow" to warn you of what will be coming. You can ALWAYS (and I encourage you to) go to http://www.gordongiven.com for updates.
So what's been done already? That's easy.
- The route has been planned, poured over, struggled with, fine-tuned, re-fine-tuned and never NEVER finalized. Heck, it won't be finally tuned til the miles have rolled past.
- The overall scheme has been done for a couple years now: Fort Wayne to Vancouver, British Columbia and back. 13 or 14 states and one 'foreign' country.
- The traveling gang: Me and Matt (my buddy from St. Paris, Ohio) are the main characters on this little journey. There's always the chance that things will change, but right now Matt has indicated that he will be making this trek with me. Others have been invited and haven't yet committed: Travis, for one, is a good friend who loves to ride Ester (his bike is named Ester, get your mind outta the gutter), but can't seem to be sure that he - or his butt- could handle 5,200 miles. Another good friend and blast from the past is Myles. He lives in Eureka, Montana (you don't smell so good yourself). I knew Myles in my Army days. I haven't seen him since 1986, so what's a little 24 gap between visits? Myles and his wife Debbie are planning to join us from East Glacier Park, Montana through Idaho, Washington state, British Columbia, back through Washington, and then they will split off for other destinations in Oregon while Matt and I ride through Oregon, headed back to the Midwest. There may be others who decide at the last minute to join us, and so there may be more.
- The basics have been covered: timeline established, vacation time (as available) has been requested.
- Charity chosen. I've decided if I'm gonna make such a big deal about this trip, somebody oughta benefit besides me. So, I've chosen CCFA, the Chron's and Colitis Foundation of America. No, neither Matt nor I suffer from Crohn's or Colitis, but we know folks who do. One of my co-workers is Sarah and she let me know about this organization and their need for media attention and -of course - monetary help for research and cures. So, I'm doing what I can to help them. And just to be super duper clear for my good friend Stacy, any money raised by this trip for charity will go directly to the charity. Not to my wallet. I've already budgeted for this trip so I don't need handouts to get me through. But I'll address that in another bullet point or two.
- A plan for promotion. I work for a newspaper company. We have some newspapers in our 'chain' that are out west. We'll drive within a 5 miles of at least one of them. If I can't get a blurb in that paper, or others from the towns we'll go through, I'm not much of a PT Barnum. I think I've got more fight in me than that. Again, it's not to make me famous, but to bring light to our charity and to let the people whose towns we'll roll through see what an outsider sees and experiences. I will likely contact the mayor's offices of many of these towns and give them a heads up that I'll be posting about their town. Since my hometown newspapers will very likely at least cover my journey through posts on their own websites, we can expect a pretty significant audience to know whether or not Spokane people are friendly to weird biker outsiders with cameras and laptops asking a bunch of questions. They might just be backwater bozos too. Either way, you'll find out with me.
- A rough plan of sponsors has been started. Wouldn't it be great if Holiday Inn & Holiday Inn Express could 'volunteer' to donate our hotel room costs for the majority of this journey? Yeah, I thought so too. I haven't done anything official to ask them for such a deal yet, but it's still way early in the process. What about other 'sponsors' who could help lighten the load and help bring some light to our official charity? Well, I'm addicted to Rockstar energy drink, especially in the summer when I'm riding. Nothing like a little Rockstar to really open your eyes to the road and the world around you. Now, I've overdone it from time to time, and peed bright yellow due to an overindulgence of Rockstar in a day. I can tell you, I've had no ill effects in it, but having 5 of them in a day does make me a bit anxious and jumpy, but no more than overdoing it with coffee. Other sponsor ideas are gasoline (I'm thinking that's a pretty slim opportunity though, and we'd have to really go out of our way to make sure we visit only that brand of gasoline station. Not easy to do when the tank is almost empty and you simply need to put some petrol in the tank. Maybe we can still get that one ironed out. There's the ever-popular fast food sponsor route, but let's be honest: I don't think I (nor my stomach) could handle eating at the golden arches twice a day for 12 days straight. Not saying I wouldn't enjoy it, but I need a little more diversity than that. Kinda brings us back full circle to the whole colitis issue, doesn't it?
- The machines themselves: I'll be on my trusty 2002 Honda Sabre 1100. Matt on his 2004 Honda VTX 1800N. Yeah, we expect some trouble, but hey, these are hondas. They don't typically give anyone too much trouble and 5,200 miles -in quick succession- won't be easy, but it wouldn't be unheard of to have it happen without incident. It's not like we're packing up a Yugo for a 5,200 mile trip. (Which would likely be the entire lifespan of that particular car. Sorry Yugo fans, but that car sucked.)
- Most importanly, our spouses and families. We realize that this trip puts them out of the picture for nearly 2 weeks. While we're off 'having a blast' they'll be taking care of business at home, dealing with children, pets and household issues. It is with their grace and unselfishness that we can make this journey. There. I've said it and I don't think anyone will read it as sucking up. IF they do, well they'd at least be partially correct. But it's honest sucking up, if that helps.
- The 'post-ride' plans. My very good friend Stacy (mentioned above) promised to help me publish something at the end of this journey. She seems to think my writing has enough wit and interest to keep people from killing themselves or dying of boredom. Maybe not a lot, but enough to keep them from going over the edge. It sounds so noble to say, "if my work saves just ONE person from throwing themselves in front of a train..." but honestly, I think it's just the spark that may get me off my butt and trying to satisfy a life long dream of writing for money, and not just for interest (or worse yet, writing simply to satisy some corporate need for a month-end report. Uck.) So if this ever becomes a book, magazine series of articles or a tv show, I'll autograph your copy personally. Just buy it. I have two kids who need college educations. And I'm sure I'll need some more chrome for the bike!
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