Planning Stage

Peter Brown Route 66 Blog

24.07.12

I will be 55 in March next year and have started planning a trip of a life time which is to do the Historic Route 66 across america with my better half ( Pam ). I have already bought the maps and SD card for the Tom Tom. I know it's more than 12 months off but it's a once in a life time trip and want to get it right. I also want to take my time and enjoy every stage from the planning to the actual trip it self. We don't like guided tours and prefer to do our own thing so it will be just the two of us.

The pig will be stopping at home

This is the bike we will be taking which is a 2006 screaming eagle ultra classic electra glide which has done 30,000 miles and would imagine there might be a few more on the clock by the time we've finished.

We plan to be away for 7 weeks and have already worked out it will be cheaper to take our own bike rather than hire one over there, Our initial plan is to ship the bike to New York have a few days sight seeing before heading up to the Niagra falls then head down to chicago to pick up the start point of the Historic Route 66 which will finish at Los Angeles .

We will be de-touring along the route to pick up some other sights like the mississippi river, Monument valley, The Grand Canyon and many other places of interest which I will fill in later with the help of google earth and books I have purchased.

 

11.09.12 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

I have found an excellent website called www.historic66.com which has a wealth of information, it also has a GPS section and I have managed to down load the full route onto my Tom Tom which comprises of a set of 19 itineraries complete with all the waypoints to keep us on track. Only thing is I won't know if it works until we are in America. It appears to have loaded ok and I'm confident it will be fine. This will have saved me weeks of studying maps and creating my own way points and can now concentrate on some of the detours we will be doing on route.

09.02.13 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

Time is moving on and it will be here before we know it so I have started to set things in stone. We now have a start and end date with our route mapped out. Yesterday I booked the transportation of the bike and our flight tickets. I have decided to go with a company called James cargo based in Manchester I can drop off the bike for them to crate up of which they take photos during the process. The bike will be flown direct to EWR airport in New Jersey ready for us to collect. The return leg will be via ship from Los Angeles to Kent, then via road back to Manchester which will take 6 to 9 weeks.

Next week I plan to have our hotel booked in New York ( this will be the only one I will pre book before the holiday ) I will also look at sorting out our medical and bike insurance complete with breakdown cover.

Break down cover is a must as I recently had a problem with the bike which to cut a long story short ended up with a new engine at a cost of £6,000.00. On the plus side I did turn the old engine into a wonderful time piece with a little help from eBay.

A very expensive wall clock

18.03.13 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

Below is our intended route which is constantly changing. People have suggested to cover no more than 200 miles a day so you get plenty of opportunities for stops and sight seeing. Ours on average will be about 150 miles a day.

This is our plan starting on 8th September 2013

Already at Issue 6 ( 22.08.13 )

New York:- 4 nights,

Binghampton:- 1 night, ( New York State ) 179 miles

Rochester:- 1 night, ( New York State ) 139 miles

Niagra Falls:- 2 nights, ( Canada ) 88 miles

Detroit:- 1 night, ( Michigan ) 237 miles

Milwaukee:- 2 nights, ( Winconsin ) 204 miles + ferry

Chicago:- 2 nights, ( Illinois Start of Route 66 ) 92 miles

Pontiac:- 1 night, ( Illinois ) 148 miles

Springfield:- 1 night, ( Illinois ) 103 miles

St Louis:- 2 nights, ( Missouri ) 117 miles

Sullivan:- 1 night, ( Missouri ) 80 miles

Lebanon:- 1 night ( Missouri ) 111 miles

Joplin:- 1 night ( Missouri ) 137 miles

Tulsa:- 1 night, ( Oklahoma ) 146 miles

Oaklahoma:- 1 night, ( Oklahoma ) 125 miles

Elk City:- 1 night, ( Oklahoma ) 125 miles

Amarillo:- 1 night, ( Texas ) 168 miles

Santa Rosa:- 1 night, ( New Mexico ) 179 miles

Santa Fe:- 2 nights ( New Mexico ) 128 miles

Gallup:- night, ( New Mexico ) 193 miles

Holbrook:- 2 nights, ( Arizona ) 116 miles

Chinle:- 1 night, ( Arizona de-tour from Route 66 ) 125 miles

Monument Valley:- 2 nights, ( Utah de-tour from Route 66 ) 93 miles

Page:- 1 night, ( Arizona de-tour Route 66 ) 124miles

Grand Canyon:- 2 nights, ( Arizona de-tour Route 66 ) 138 miles

Williams:- 1 night, ( Arizona ) 116 miles

Kingman:- 1 night, ( California ) 95 miles

Las Vegas:- 2 nights ( Nevada ) 114 miles

Needles:- 1 night ( California ) 191 miles

Barstow:- 2 nights, ( California ) 160 miles

Santa Monica:- 3 nights, ( End of Route 66 ) 159 miles

Spare:- 2 nights

The whole route with the help of google earth ( issue 6 )

11.04.13 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

Maps

I've bought several maps and for the planning stage I have found the Harley Davidson Historic Route 66 very useful for the initial stages as it shows the whole route in 5 seperate sections, which includes points of interest and also Harley dealerships ( which may be handy should we need ) this has enabled me to firm up the places to have an overnight stop. I would then double check this with the help of Tom Tom's route planner to confirm the distance between stops, and also see if it leaves us time for seeing the points of interest along the route. I had slipped up early on by putting these in Tom Tom as favourites but as you are only limited to about 20, I then started to create itineraries but as I am only at the planning stage things kept changing it was getting very confusing, so I have decided to do a excel spread sheet with the full addresses and zip codes of all the overnight stops, points of interest along the route, I have also added way points to hopefuly keep us on the 66. I will input these as a set of itineraries when I am fully satisfied. Early on I said I had down loaded the itineraries for Route 66. I have now decided to delete these and use my own route with the help of "Jim Ross and Jerry McClanahan's route 66 pull out maps" and google earth which is a fabulous program and you can virtually experience the whole holiday without leaving the UK.

Harley Davidson Historic Route 66 map, used for the initial planning

This is one of 8 maps which I used for creating my own way points

 

 

 

For the finer detail I used Jerry McClanahan's EZ66 guide

 

28.06.13 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

I'm 99.9% done with the planning and will avoid the temptation of inputting the details into Tom Tom until a few weeks before.

Below is an extract from my excel spread sheet which I will input in Tom Toms itinerary planning and then create my way points and stops, the black text is used for overnight stops with an address for a possible hotel, the blue text is for waypoints, and the red text is for points of interest or stops.

 

I have a total of 262 way points and stops to input

 

Packing for the Route 66 trip

We don't want to arrive in America and find we can't fit all our luggage on the bike, so we have both been making our own list and in the next couple of weeks will have a ago to see if it all fits on the bike. Next we will get some cheap suite cases and transfer the luggage to them so we can check the weight ( I bet we will be over the limit ) if so I know I can transfer some of the heavy stuff like waterproofs and helmets in the bike when I take it to James cargo. I said cheap cases as these will be ditched when we get to New York, and buy two more at Los Angeles for the return journey.

 

17.0813 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

21 days to go and time is moving on and very fast I've started to get the butterflies already. We have done our trial pack today and I must say Pam has done very well, this has left us plenty of empty space so we can buy some goodies to bring back home. We will however utilise the empty space going with old gruds, knickers socks and tee shirts and ditch them on route to save on the washing. The bike has had its service and is booked in at James Cargo on the 27th for crating up ready to fly out to America on the 6th September.

 

All loaded and ready to go

 

Security could be a issue when we're sight seeing and the bike is left alone as most of the top luggage is easily accessible, so I bought some waterproof material off eBay and made a cover which we will use as and when we feel it is necessary.

A few minor alterations and it will be perfect

 

27.08.13 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

The bike has been dropped off at James cargo and must say I was impressed with the setup and sure it will be well packed and looked after ready for its flight next Friday. The petrol tank is on empty, battery disconnected and the tyres will be partially deflated prior to being crated.

A couple of 1st class stamps and its sorted

Tuesday 02.09.13 PeterBrownRoute66 Blog

That's about it for my planning all that's left is to enjoy the trip which starts on Sunday. If you click the newer post tab on the bottom left it should take you to my next post which I will update daily if time permits.

 

Week 1

Week 1

Sunday 08.09.13 peterbrownroute66 week 1

Well we're here at last, we chucked our bags in the hotel room and headed straight for New York via the public transport which was a bus to 42nd street then the subway to the financial district. We had planned to go to the Statue of Liberty but missed the last ferry so we'll give it a go tomorrow.

The subway at 42nd st

Op

Tall building is one of the replacement twin towers

Pam at battery gardens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 09.09.13 peterbrownroute66 week 1

We both had a good nights sleep and after breakfast headed for Newark airport to pick up the bike. That's where the fun began. Customs and getting the bike off the stacker truck was not a problem but me and pam were left to unpack it with our bare hands as no one was able to help due to Heath and safety. To get the bike off the pallet I built a make shift ramp with the remains of the packing and with pam pushing from the rear and my calculations being a little out poor Bertha was grounded without a wheel to stand on. Then after a lot of grunting and shoving we managed to get her back on two wheels. Unfortunately she snapped her kick stand ( big problem ). But with the help of a couple of cable ties and pam holding the rope to keep the stand up we were off to the garage to fill up with fuel and get some air in the tyres. The guys directed us to a garage where we could get the bracket welded back into place.

That sorted we got back to our site seeing, so all in all it's been a very eventfull and enjoyable day.

Left all alone to unpack the bike

Hurry up it's heavy

On the ferry to liberty island

New York skyline

Statue of Liberty

Memorial at New Jersey re 9/11

 

Tuesday 10.09.13 peterbrownroute66 week 1

Having a fantastic time in New York. We have decided to use the public transport whilst here as the roads seem to be permanently grid locked. We went to the ground zero memorial pools formed on the footprint of the twin towers it has the names of the 2,977 people who lost their lives engraved around the perimeter. Then we had a helicopter ride which was absolutely brilliant. After that we walked the length of Brooklyn bridge and took the water taxi back. It was then a quick stroll down Wall Street before getting the subway back to the bus terminal and short ride back to the hotel.

The whole area of the trade centre covered 16 acres

The towers had 110 floors and held approx 35,000 people

Governors island which is being turned into a park

Aerial showing new tower and the two pools

Brooklyn Bridge

 

Wednesday 11.09.13 peterbrownroute66 week 1

New York Centre will be packed today for the memorial service so we visited the Empire State Building and went up all 102 floors. The views from the top were amazing, even the skyscrapers below looked small however you could still hear the rumble of the traffic below. After we walked 20 blocks uptown to Central Park which was much nicer than we expected, even hired a rowing boat for an hour. As its our last day we had a quick shop to buy a T shirt ( to show we've been there and done it ). We are heading up towards Canada tomorrow and are busy packing.

 

Lobby area at the Empire State

 

River in the foreground is the Hudson where the plane did a crash land a few years ago

Central Park just in view

See why I left Bertha at the hotel

 

Central Park

Summary of New York :- Absolutely fantastic. The people are really friendly and helpful. Public transport is second to none, and would come again.

 

Thursday 12.09.13 peterbrownroute66 week 1

We have moved on now and our 1st planned stop was Binghampton, but we arrived early so decided to move on to our next planned stop ( Rochester ) thus gaining an extra day. It meant doing 350 miles but it was worth it other than getting drenched for about 1/2 hr. By the time we arrived at the hotel we were bone dry. I was a little concerned with the weight of the luggage when we left this morning but on the 1st right hand bend Pam lost her case so the bike is now a lot lighter.

 

That's got shut of the bird seed ( only a few of you know what I mean )

 

On route to Rochester

No ones looking hurry up and have a quick wee now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Friday 13.09.13 peterbrownroute66 week 1

We got off to a wet start this morning so I tried out the waterproof cover which worked a treat, it was only a two hour ride to niagra falls on the Canadian side. I have checked us into a very posh hotel with spectacular views. We had to drag ourselves out. We have bought a two day site seeing pass and have already done the white water board walk and the whirl pool cable ride.

 

 

This is the view from our bedroom

 

We are doing the boat trip tomorrow

 

 

Cable ride over the whirl pool created by the river changing direction

 

 

Saturday 14.09.13 peterbrownroute66 week 1

Had a fabulous day and the sun has been shining. After a breakfast which lasted me all day we started off with a 4D tour of how niagra falls was formed during the ice age. We experienced snow, thunder and lightning, rain the works. It was a good job you were provided with ponchos. Next we went on the maid of the mist which took you right up to the base of the falls for another good drenching. Then after that we went a third of the way under the the falls its self via a tunnels which pops out at different locations and the noise was deafening. And then it was off to the sky tower for a birds eye view. And to top the day off we are having champagne with a pizza looking over the falls from our bedroom window ( sod the telly).

 

On board the maid of mist

 

 

 

One of the tunnels under the falls

 

 

View from sky tower. The American side is straight

 

The Canadian side is the shape of a horse shoe

 

 

I feel like one of the boys

 

That's the end of the first week we shall see what the next six has to offer, ( click the newer post at the bottom left to continue )