First of all I am sorry it took so long to write this, I am in the process of moving to a new house and that combined with this trip just hasnt left me much time to do it.
Alright here goes, Right of the bat I made this trip longer than it already was when I got up Friday Morning, Got all My gear loaded up, got on my bike and rode 30 miles from my house only to realize I left my F@#$ing cell phone and had to go all the way back to the house and get it. :bong:
So I ended up going 90 miles Friday Morning to eventually get 30 miles from my house. But on to the story. It ended up being absolutely perfect weather for the whole 4 days, a little chilly in the mornings and at dark, but i didn't do much riding in either. So I ended up at the end of friday when all was said and done going about 180 miles to get to Monticello Arkansas (My Illustrious Home Town :lol
, Right before I got to Monticello I noticed that the GZ had sprung a leak, The Shaft that your clutch cable connects to (the Name escapes me at the moment, that goes into the top of the engine, the gasket was dry cracked and started leaking, it wasn't too bad though so I pushed on) (plus Monticello is almost 100 miles from the nearest Suzuki shop so I was screwed anyways), it only lost an ounce or two of oil by the time I got home, so no big deal.
When I got there I went and visited a few friends and what not before it got to late and went to my sisters and went to bed, got up at 6 in the morning and went outside to look at the Goldwing that I would be riding (yes i had never even seen a picture of this bike much less rode it), Loaded up my stuff on it (plenty of storage space, like a freakin' car) My sister (Marie) showed me where everything was at and I fired her up and off we went.
My Sister lives about 10-12 miles from Monticello, Where we rode to to meet up with my other sister(brenda) (who would be late for her own funeral) and by the way has put 9,000 miles on a Honda Shadow 600, starting from never being on a motorcycle and is still scared of it(more on that later). So brenda shows up and off we go, Man Riding that goldwing was great it just glided down the road like a car, you could be going 75 and it felt like what 25 feels like on the GZ, Unfortunately that is where the fun ended.
My sister brenda could not get a grip on riding down the highway, me and my other sister would run off and leave her, then have to stop and wait on her, over and over and over again. She was a danger to us and herself and Honestly should not be riding a motorcycle, but she won't listen to reason, Don't get me wrong, a 52 year old woman getting a motorcycle and teaching herself to ride it, I give her that much credit, but you have to know when to call it a day, she actually got on the freeway in baton rouge, cars going 75-80 miles an hour, and she slowed down to about 30-35, and expected us to stay with her, she is lucky she is still alive, we ran off and left her because we had to go at least the speed limit, stopped to call her and find out where she was, she was crying and lost, it was horrible riding with her.
Back to the Goldwing, it rode like a dream, very little wind, stayed pretty warm behind all that fairing and windshield, seat felt like a lazy boy recliner on my butt, When I got back on the GZ it felt like i was sitting on a concrete bench compared to that seat, It got dark on me on the way back to Hot Springs and I almost froze, it was very cold, I instantly missed the Goldwing windshield.
That is about the extent of my story, I am sorry that is it so jumbled, but I am not as eloquent as Alan and others on here, but maybe I got my point across alright, I loved the Goldwing, and it would have been a awesome trip had it not been for my sister brenda, Me and my other sister have already planned to take another trip without her, (sorry sis).
At the end of it all, 1,031 miles on two different motorcycles in four days, One day the bikes didn't move, so actually 3 days of riding. Later.[center:11kurp3d][/center:11kurp3d]