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I have always wanted to ride Beartooth Pass/hwy, Going to the Sun road, Independence Pass and many other roads along and around those area. I was going to go last year but my 4th gen gotten written off and my replacement VFR (My current 5th gen) was untested. Good thing I didn't attempt a long trip with it as I had to replace the Stator and R/R eventually. After some planning and some modifications to the bike (helibars, windscreen, Sargent seat, luggage racks) I embarked on this quite distant journey from my home in Toronto, Ontario. The plan was about 14 days but due to some Forest fires would end up being 11 days and just under 8,000kms/5,000miles. DAY 1: Toronto, Ontario to Ottawa, Illinois I left "bright" and early at 6am. I packed the VFR the night before. Luggage was a Givi 46L top box and 2x 22L side hard-bags. I strapped a tank bag to the pillion seat with emergency tools, tire repair kit etc etc. Regular Tank bag infront of me with miscellaneous stuff. Fully loaded the bike would rock backwards onto the rear tire when on the centerstand. I had to remove the top box whenever I wanted to lube the chain. lol First couple hours the Bike felt a bit "off", laden down with all that luggage but I got used to it. I encountered some light rain when it was time for my first fill up so I put on a rain jacket. I made it to my crossing into the U.S. without delay and without getting very wet. I decided to take a tiny ferry across to the States from Walpole Island, Ontario to Algonac, Michigan. It was an odd little ferry but real quick and easy. Cost me $5. The deck was wet and I just sat on the bike and held the brake during the crossing. On the American side there's a tiny little guard house for the US border. They asked a couple standard questions and I was on my way. It was on and off rain showers and I changed my route westward to get around the worst of it, but the rain gear stayed on until west of Ann Arbor, MI. The old PR3's did their job too. I made some stops here and there but I knew (and planned) that Day 1 was gonna be hard slabbing so I kept on. Some of the last legs of I-80 was a parking lot and I couldn't figure out how to use the Detour function on my new-to-me GPS. I eventually got to my stay for the night. An AirBnB in Ottawa, Il. Day 1 aprox 978kms (608 miles)

Spent the day riding yesterday. I did a little over 160 miles. Some freeway, but mostly twisties, with a little partial gravel/pavement road. It was a pretty good ride with a few guys on various bikes. me on the 99 VFR, a Yamaha Super Tenere, an 883 Sportster, and a newish CB1100. We rode West on 44 to Martinsville then south from there toward Bloominton through the Morgan-Monroe state forest, then east on 45 to Beanblossom, south to Nashville via 135 then to Story. We stopped a few times to look at the map, stretch our legs, and get something to drink. Headed north form Story to and around Sweetwater and Cordry lakes, then the rest was highway home. The roads were mostly smooth aside from the occasional pothole which were naturally always on the worst places, and the stretch that was half gravel/half paved and littered with holes. Mostly hiccup free aside from tar strips getting the best of the guy on the CB1100 causing him to run wide off the edge of the road and I had a couple squirrely moments with the tar strips and a patch of gravel in the middle of a turn. Most dangerous snake in Indiana? The black-tar road snake. Everyone enjoyed the ride and no one went down so it was a good day.

When life throws you a curveball, leave the stadium. Though you probably won’t find that on a motivational poster, sometimes a getaway is all you need. This time I'm armed with the trio of my VFR1200, my usual orange tent (sans its notoriously leaky rain fly), and a DSLR that still won’t autofocus. I ran away for the holiday, so for a few moments you can run away too -- hopefully on company time. As is now the custom, all captions/descriptions limited to 140 characters or less, Twitter-style, since modern attention spans are oh look, something shiny! Let’s roll.