Sabbatical starts - time to pack

The story starts...

I am very fortunate to work for a company that offers an 8 week sabbatical every seven years.  And here is my obvious statement: An 8 week vacation can not be trivialized.

For this sabbatical I have decided to go on an East coast Motorcycle tour of the US.  Here is a map of the approximate route: http://mapq.st/mUGyK7.

Actually, the first plan was to go to Panama but I changed that with my desire to keep my head attached to my body.  Real or not, Mexico and parts of Central America seem like very dangerous places.  The revised plan was to ship my motorcycle to Italy and do a tour of Europe.  That changed when I looked at the costs of shipping a motorcycle roundtrip and Italy during high season.  Touring Europe will remain on the bucket list, for when stock goes up some...  Or the mortgage is paid off.  Thus the revised, revised plan: East Coast of the US.

The motorcycle I have chosen is a 2008 BMW R1200GS.  I chose this bike because Ewan McGregor used this model to go around the world (Look up "Long way round") and other trips.  If it's good enough for Luke Skywalker, it's good enough for me.

After work (late meetings of course) today I spent the evening packing and am sure to have overpacked.  Feedback on BO along the way will be my metric for packing success.  I've also spent the last couple of weeks buying stuff I may need.  How much stuff never leaves the box after 7000+ miles will be my metric for "buying a lot of not needed stuff" success.

My first stop: Denver for my Nephew's graduation.  Congrats Anthony - we are very proud of you!  I also look forward to visiting old friends.  Note: I stay the same age while everybody else seems to age.

More to come...