So the day has arrived. I have been dreaming about riding a motorbike across America and on up to Alaska for over 20 years. Now I am finally on the road!

A hot, humid day in Northville. Closed up the Condo, it will be nearly three months before I walk in the door again.

The bike is packed and full. No matter how hard I tried to cut down the load, 11 weeks on the road through different climatic zones has certain requirements.

Getting onto the bike is also a challenge. If you look at the photos you will see that there is only a small gap on the saddle between the Tank Bag and the bag on the passengers seat. No passenger, so this area is utilized for some of my luggage as the aim is to keep the center of gravity on a bike as low as possible at all times.

Simple physics. The higher the center of Gravity, the more difficult it is to control the bike, because of the effect of the extended moment of your weight. This is why vehicles with loads on their roof racks overturn so often. This also why when you ride a motorbike off-road, you stand on the pedals. By so doing you transfer your weight to the pedals which are much lower than the seat.
So if in doubt on a motorbike stand and look up.

The other great truth on a motorbike is look where you want to go, so:

Look Down = Fall Down

Look Up = Get out of trouble.

There is so much about motor biking that has life lessons in it!

Stand up and look up and life has a better hue to it. Hang you head and the view is neither great nor is it likely to  going to improve.

Having managed to get on without tearing any muscles it was on towards Ann Arbor  and then northwest with about 160 miles to Muskegon where I planned to catch the ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee. The alternative was to ride around the south side of the lake via Chicago. Somehow the thought of being able to enjoy a two hour ferry ride was preferable to an extra 200 miles on the bike. I will have more than enough time and miles on it over the next 11 weeks.

The additional weight made no difference to the bike. It handles like it was on rails. Rock solid and tracking exactly where I wanted it to go – where I was looking. But then it is a BMW!

Not long after I set off I got a weather warning on my GPS. The joys of technology. My Garmin GPS has Sirius XM Satellite radio and weather on it. So it taps into the US national weather radar system and you can see the weather in real time on the GPS. What it was telling me was that I was heading straight for heavy rain.

Now heavy rain on a motorbike is not for the feint of heart. I knew there was a risk of this as early as last night when I watched TV. Should I delay the start. But I had the kit and like being instrument rated as a pilot and then not flying because it is overcast, I have ridden in the rain many times and I have the bike and the gear, so off I went.

Firstly I tried to out run the rain by going on a more northerly route than originally planned. As I have found out on so many occasion when flying, it is virtually impossible to out run the weather. So I stopped at a rest area, got the bad weather waterproof out, put them on and headed out again.

The mind was starting to work. Started thinking about a Captain in SAA whom was around when I was a young co-pilot. “Blip” Burger. Known as such because as soon as he saw a blip on the radar he would fly miles around the potential weather. Obviously he had an “experience”. Me too. As a young pilot flying Cessna 150’s from Cape Town to Johannesburg. These small 2 seat aircraft were shipped from the US to SA in containers and assembled at DF Malan and then flown up to Johannesburg by keen young pilots such as myself, who were looking to build up hours or earn money or both. (9 hours of flying  bouncing around above the hot Karoo was not for experienced pilots).

Near De Aar I flew under a huge CB (Cumulus Nimbus) cloud which had what I thought was rain shadow under it. What it was, was hail, and the small Cessna 150 was never the same again, nor was my ferry pilot career. I managed to get the aircraft to Bloemfontein where I landed. The aircraft remained there and I was dispatched back to the Cape on SAA never to be asked to ferry another aircraft. Little did I know at the time but I was lucky to have survived to tell the tail.

Cursing myself for not starting earlier, another life lesson. It always pays to start early in the day. The shit always takes place later in the day. You virtually never get up and find shit waiting for you. Even the dogs sleeping inn the bedroom generally wake up and then go outside to do their doings. It’s a very bad day when you step into it directly on getting out of bed. So the plan should be to get up early, ride early and be finished by early afternoon, unless one is riding into the rising sun.

Then the revised routing started putting me under a bit of time pressure. Another good lesson early in the trip, if you need to get somewhere to meet a deadline as I had to for the ferry booking, then stick to the highways irrespective of the weather. The previous day I had decided against filling up before leaving. Another bad call as this too meant a short delay. always start the day with a full tank, be this petrol or a breakfast.

In any event I made it to Muskegon with time to spare and onto the Lake Express ferry to Milwaukee with the Harley boys who had been doing an around Lake Michigan 4 day ride. Everyone very friendly especially when 2 of them were unable to tie there bikes down on the ferry and I helped them out. What amazes me is that the majority of these people ride bikes without helmets. It is not a legal requirement in many of these states and so they just ride on in T Shirts and sunshades! They look at me in amazement with all my gear on and ask “man aren’t you hot?”

Across the lake is 80 miles – A sea!. The ferry is a high-speed catamaran which takes just over two hours in good weather. It was an excellent day with reasonably smooth waters. This is a sea. Beaches and boats everywhere. No need to go to the coast if you live in this area. Fresh water and so much of it that beachfront property is the norm. Families on boats everywhere.

I arrived in Milwaukee at 1820 Central Time. One hour behind Michigan and east coast time. I am staying at the Iron Horse Hotel. Milwaukee is home of Harley Davidson and this hotel is an upmarket “biker friendly” hotel. Very nice, a restored factory which is highly rated, no 11 on Trip Advisor in the US in 2011.

It is next to the Harley museum, so I might have to commit heresy for a BMW lover and visit it. Puke! But this is US road trip.

So all in all a very good start. Rode well. Exposed to some trying conditions. 200 miles under the belt. Body a bit stiff and sore in the back. Always happens at the start of a big bike trip. Hands also a bit tender especially the left hand which works the clutch lever.

On the ferry, not my bike though

Tomorrow I head towards Minnesota and then up to North Dakota on Weds or Thursday. A warm front is on the way bringing very hot and humid conditions followed by a cold front with rain. Nowhere to hide

More to follow as I regain my writing skills, which seem to have been buried since my Harvard days.