After planning the US trip for some 7 months it had finally begun with an early trip from my home in Toowoomba (Australia)for my departure flight to LA. Having successfully pulled off a fantastic adventure last year in Eurasia for 6 months the thought of a 6 week foray to the US was pretty mild stuff. It did however require some serious logistics involving the acquisition of a 2002 BMW R1150R in Feb 2010. It was fortunate that I had a cousin living in the US where the bike could be stored until my arrival. Ross could not believe his eyes when the BMW arrived with only 9K mls on the clock. So it was 8 years old and hardly been run in. Well I'll fix that problem!!

The USA is a big place right! It has thousands of miles of super highways. Everybody knows this and I was as keen as mustard to avoid as many of them as I could. As a landscape ecologist my interest was in experiencing the fabulous Rockies, deserts, and as many National Parks as I could fit in my brief 6 weeks. So my plan was to head NW from Atlanta (GA) to South Dakota Badlands and begin with a walk through some amazing eroded hills.

This was all good! And my plans were going OK to take on a solo journey again. In the midst of April I met a friend who asked if she could come along. I was not planning a relationship but it happened dissolving my wonderful relationship with my loyal and supportive partner of 10 years. This was not a good time to be going through the stress of a separation but that's how it happened. Getting away on the trip was both a relief and excitement for I was writing this at the NZ capital of Auckland whilst waiting for the connecting flight to LA. The flight was a long one as it involved several 2-5 hour stopovers in order to get to my cousins place at Duluth near Atlanta City.

Dell had also acquired a BMW R1150R as they proved to be excellent value compared to the more popular cousin the R1150GS Adventure. Two things dictated the timing for trip. Traveling in mid to late summer and adequate time to generate enough leave to undertake the plannedadventure.

Keeping the window shutters closed and deluding the mind into thinking that it was still night-time achieved the flight to LA. In reality one looses one whole day in the journey with a 12-15hr time difference. So it was possible to get some sleep and cabin crew were pretty good at maximising the time for sleeping. Arrival at LA airport involved a lot of walking from one terminal to the other. It was spread out with poor signage and no/maps outlining the general layout plan for the arrival/departure areas. It seems that Americans like to concentrate their eating areas for it took nearly a 1/2 hour walk to get to any food/drink places. Rather strange when most of the worlds airports are swamped with food and beverage outlets.

The cafe prices were similar to Australia with a slight tilt towards the Latino influence. After all the LA has a very strong Latin community that provide the giant share of the labour force for the city. The airport appears to have outgrown itself over the years to cope with the ever-increasing air traffic rather than been planned in the first place. Some sections are modern and other resembles the alley ways of any state-run jail institution. You are simply required to follow alley way for miles to go from arrival terminal to another departure lounge. By comparison with Australia, the US has a huge number of operational airlines and the population uses them. Its cheap and relatively efficient.

We had a long wait in LA because our connecting flight difference was nearly 6 hours. What we had not reckoned on was a further postponement of the domestic flight to Atlanta until 3.05am in the morning. Having just waited 6 hoursa further 3 was simply devastating. It pretty well guaranteed that I would be a wreck for any preparation activities the following day. And there was so much to do.

The total flight time was 34 hours including waiting between flights. My final destination was Duluth near Atlanta, Georgia where cousin Ross lived. I was really looking forward to getting there and preparing the BMW for the trip. I was expecting a little bit of down-time due to sleep deprivation. But I had a lot of small things to do the bike before leaving including a service, seat, and fitment of crash bars and foot mount mods.

Dell had an extra flight to Fort Meyers (Florida) to pick up her R1150R up from the seller (Rich McNeeley). He had been very generous with his time and enthusiasm after we had acquired the bike on EBay. Rich had not only looked after the bike but was picking Dell up from the airport and accommodating her overnight before her 1,000km ride to Georgia to meet me. The US is a big country and it has taken some to come to terms with the scale. In total width and breadth it is similar to Aus. But the area is nearly 20% larger. So the distances are large and the roads likely to be fast and safe. I had estimated that we would cover 3,500kms in the first 3 days to begin our adventure in the first NP in Sth Dakota.

We were met at the airport by Ross (cousin) and his wife Karen. Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world and has three bays that are nearly 1 km long for passengers to arrive and depart. There is an internal rail system to move people within the terminal it is so big. The air was extremely hot and humid as though it could be cut with a knife. Ross had lived in the US for 20 years. His house was situated in a golf resort that almost defy the imagination. Most are three stories and have huge living areas with no less than 6 bathrooms. Their house was opulent to say the least with all the luxuries that make these multi-million dollar structures comfy and fascinating to experience.

To see my BMW R1150R for the first time was exciting. It looked like a new bike despite being 8 years old. It was only 11am and although I had not slept much for two days the excitement soon had me unpacking boxes of equipment that I had ordered for the bike months before. It was like Xmas in July.

It took just two days to get my bike ready with Dell arriving late the next day after a 670ml (1,000km) journey from Florida where her bike was waiting for her. During our stay in Duluth, Georgia, we had the opportunity to visit a Wal-Mart and several other shopping centres. Each centre has enormous carparks that require shoppers to drive from one shop to the next. It belies any planning and land use principles as the extent of shopping centres sprawls for many kilometers in most places. Prices for food and fresh food is significantly cheaper than anywhere in Aus and six-pack of boutique beer weighs in at around $8-9.

Heading North to Montana

After several hours of negotiating the suburbs and extended urban sprawl of Atlanta, we hit the motorway and headed for Nashville. Speed limits are posted everywhere but 80% of drivers ignore them and cruise consistently at 80mph. Approximately 60 % of the traffic comprises of heavy vehicle transport trucks. We spent 3 days heading NW mostly on concrete motorways. Sign posting is excellent and GPS worked incredibly well mimicking most of the highway signs that appeared at exits. Like Europe there gas stations along the way but they are nowhere as sophisticated as those in the UK or Germany.

The BMW just purred along at highway speeds and felt like it would run forever. We stopped every couple of hours for a break as the traffic was pretty busy and temps were roaring at over 100deg (38degC) by late morning. It seemed that we were the only motorcyclists that had discovered that helmets and jackets were a good idea for we saw not one person who used either. Many States in the US do not mandate the wearing of helmets so no-one does! We met one couple in their late 60's on a new Honda Goldwing traveling in shorts and sandals. How smart is that!! Drivers were friendly and courteous and the only real drama was trying to fathom the system for obtaining fuel at gas stations.

Huge motels have been established along the motorways as a sure sign that there are massive numbers of cars moving the US 24 hrs of the day. Food was exclusively processed food with huge choices in the brand names. Branding is very important to Americans and judging by the size and height (>20m) of the billboards that towered above the motorways, it worked to a treat.