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.
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| 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.
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| A very expensive wall clock |
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
| 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.
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| Harley Davidson Historic Route 66 map, used for the initial planning |
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| This is one of 8 maps which I used for creating my own way points |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
2 comments:
it will be like christmas when you open it at the other end
This is so exiting, cant wait to read on...
I know you will have a fantastic trip of a lifetime.
Keep safe
Lee
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