Itinerary, Revisited

Many moons ago – in fact, back in August before I’d even bought the bike – I posted an expected itinerary. For a number of reasons those plans have changed somewhat, so here’s a revisit. The big change is that I probably won’t be venturing into the Baltic Republics or Scandinavia, sadly. I guess I will just have to save those places for another trip. :)

April 15th – June 1: USA (and a tiny bit of Canada)

• Seattle
• Portland
• San Francisco and East Bay
• Castaic (for RawHyde “Intro to Adventure” Rider Training Program)
• Los Angeles
• Southern Utah
• Oklahoma City
• (maybe Austin)
• Ozarks of Arkansas
• North Carolina
• New York City
• Toronto

June – October: European Pinball

• June 2: Frankfurt
• June ?: Krefeld, DE (where the Updegraves come from)
• July 5-10: Nowhere, near Zaragosa, Spain – yes, my birthday is smack in the middle of Nowhere ;)
• Mid-July: Munich
• End of July: possibly Vienna, then Brasov, Romania
• Early September: Bordeaux
• Early October: Venice

Also mixed in there (dates unknown) will be likely visits to Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, the UK (including the Isle of Jura, whence come the Shaws – my maternal grandfather’s family), Swiss Alps. Maybe Paris again, because it’s so beautiful.

Assuming the UK happens in August, and not factoring in any of those other spots, that looks something like this:

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Fall: Ride into the Danger Zone

• October ? – ferry from Venice to Alexandria. A few weeks (to a month, maybe?) in Egypt.
• Across Libya. Yes, only if it’s not entirely fucking stupid to do so.
• Tunisia
• Ferry Tunisia => Spain, then Spain => Morocco

When I wrote up the initial draft of this itinerary, I certainly didn’t expect multiple democratic revolts and a civil war to erupt across the entirety of Arabic North Africa. As a result, these particular plans are the most volatile. If Libya proves to be out of the question, I’ll probably try to figure out a way to see Egypt and Morocco, and will sadly end up skipping Tunisia. Unless I can manage to purchase transport on some freight ship, rather than a ferry.

Winter 2011-2012

• Southern Europe – northern coast of the Mediterranean, and into the Balkans
• Spain, southern France, Italy, Croatia, Greece, ???

Spring – Fall 2012:

• Turkey
• Georgia
• Russia
• Kazakhstan
• Mongolia
• China
• Laos
• Vietnam, Cambodia, and/or Thailand