You hear it all the time………..One day I’m going to ride the 66, It’s my dream …..one day!
Route 66 the dream destination for most bike enthusiasts.
Feb 2019, hubby says to me – “Darl, you can have a choice….. the new kitchen you’ve been waiting for, or we can go to America and ride the 66”.
Well, a no brainer I thought. Adventure over mundane any day, all day, every day!
And the planning begins.
Bikes! We need bikes! Craigslist, first stop. We have a friend of a friend that lives in Phoenix Arizona. Never met him, but hey we trust him, he’s a bike nut just like us!
Bikes found online from the comfort of our lazy boy chairs in our lounge room in good ole little New Zealand, a world away from the big ole USA!
We arrive Sun Lakes Arizona and obviously top of our minds the next day was where are the bikes? We were chomping at the bit to see them.
Virginian Doug our American contact – so what’s the plan where are you headed? oh were just going to ride across America on the Route 66 up to Chicago up to Milwaukee, visit the HD mothership then swing over to South Dakota, party at Sturgis, then make our way back to Phoenix via Vegas.
“YA all are CRAZY!” You cant do that, you have no idea where your going, and its crazy- wrong time of year, you have to go through Tornado valley, and there’s no way someone as green as ya all will make it out of St Louis. If you do make it out it will be without your bikes! Oh Tornado Alley? Never heard of it. “My point exactly” says Doug.
OK, back to the large paper map we had brought, plan B, where shall we go? Back to the drawing board.
We think we’ll head to Vegas, and then up to Yellowstone, over to Sturgis, then back home to Phoenix. No set plan, just knew we wanted to be at Sturgis by 4th August and leave by 11th August and we needed to be ready to fly home by 16th August. No Sweat, Easy as, We got this!
So final Itinerary
- Sun Lakes, Arizona – Parker
- Parker – Los Vegas
- Vegas – Cedar City
- Cedar City – Wendover
- Wendover – Tremonton
- Tremonton – Dillon
- Dillon – Sheridan
- Sheridan – Rapid City
- Rapid City – Sturgis
- Thermopolis – Craig
- Craig – Durango
- Durango – Seligman
- Seligman – Phoenix
Must Do/See
Everything you possibly can. It was all amazing!
To do this on a bike is so achievable, petrol is so cheap. Accommodation varied, but we made sure we booked hotels that offered free breakfast and had a pool.
We have done over 6000kms, explored 10 states, some more than once as we weaved in and out working our way around the country.
So as the adventure comes to an end, no regrets, amazing memories, new lifelong friends, and we can’t wait to start planning the next adventure.
