The Weekend Plan

This November it will be 3 years since this photo was taken. At the time I dreamed of cross country rides or rides along Skyline Drive in Virginia. However with a family, there are other priorities which come before hopping on a Hog and disappearing for a few days. But alas, opportunity presents itself...

Since my family is in the US still and I am still (technically) a bachelor, I can go for a little motor tour. Now, never in my dreams would I have thought I would be doing the tour I am about to do though.

Here is the plan: We have become addicted to our navigation system and have already decided that we need one when we move back to the US. Luck would have it that TomTom released the second edition of their Motorcycle Navigation System. This second edition works with a car mount, unlike the first edition, so... we now have a Navi :) I spent some time this week getting it set up. The wonderful thing is that it came with a RAM mounting system for the handlebar of the motorcycle. It also came with wiring to hard wire it into the electrical system. The downside to this is that you connect the mounting bracket to the power, so if you hard wire it, it is permanent (or a lot of work to take the bracket off). Fortunately, my bike has a cigarette lighter. A quick trip to the local auto store and 15 minutes later we have a removable power cord.

So, tomorrow I am going to ride to Charles De Gaulle Airport, just outside of Paris. The Rugby World Cup is in France, so all of the hotels which are normally ungodly expensive in Paris are even more. But, the cheap ones at the airport are still cheap and a short 30 minute ride in. The purpose of this stop is to get some photos of the bike in front of some good landmarks.

After getting some early pics, it will be off to Lyon for lunch. From there I am going to make my way to Torino by way of Alpe d'Huez and spend the night in Italy. On Sunday it will be a nice ride back to Germany passing through the Swiss Alps, Basel, Mulhouse, and Strasbourg.

I may take the computer just so I can keep the iPod charged, but it might not fit on the bike. If it doesn't, you will have to wait until Sunday for photos.