Kickstand Up – T Minus One Week

My USA South 2020 Motorcycle Trip kicks off one week from today on Wednesday October 7th, 2020. Dexter has some additional upgrades, main bags are packed, servicing on Dexter is done, campsites and rooms are reserved, and everything is green for launch.

USA South 2020 – Trip Plan

USA South 2020 – Georgia Move is my one way motorcycle trip starting in Ramona, California and ending in Douglasville, Georgia. At the end of the trip, I will be flying once again from Atlanta back to Los Angeles to wrap things up in California for the final move. My wife De’Andra and my son, Tristan, will fly from Los Angeles to Atlanta while I drive our embattled Volkswagen Tiguan across country (same route De’Andra and I drove our Chevy Volt and Kia Soul over this last Labor Day weekend),

I am planning a fairly leisurely pace taking ten days to travel 2,984 miles (let’s just round that up a bit and call it 3,000 miles, about half the distance of the USA West 2020 trip earlier this year), of which 139 miles will consist of riding the loop of the Twisted Sisters in Texas. 3 nights during the trip I will be staying in motel rooms and 6 nights I will be camping (the last night of the trip I will be at our new home in Douglasville). The first two nights I will be staying in motels to avoid possible very chilly nights as I will be riding through the high country of Arizona and New Mexico. I wont be staying in a motel again until day 9 in Selma, Alabama mainly just because by that time I will most certainly need to wash the road stink off of me.

Day 1 – October 7th, 2020

Day 1 is planned for 583 Miles of riding starting in Ramona, California, riding through the desert across the Colorado river into Arizona with a pitstop in Lake Havasu to check out the London Bridge (because why not), grab some lunch at Culver’s and then head north and retrace portions of Route 66 to Winslow Arizona (have to get my picture on the corner) and finally to Holbrook, Arizona where I will be staying at the Wigwam Motel (teepee motel). I will tell my son Tristan that I am staying in Radiator Springs :).

Day 2 – October 8th, 2020

Day 2 is planned for 385 Miles of riding leaving Holbrook, Arizona to check out some of the Petrified Forest National Park. From there I will continue east on US-180 to US-191 south to Alpine, Arizona. Earlier this year during the USA West 2020 trip, I rode US-191 south from Alpine, it was and is a truly epic road and ride. However, for this trip, I am going to retrace some of my route from USA West 2020 in reverse into New Mexico along US-180 and will stay on US-180 south to Interstate 10 and head east for the days planned stop in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the same motel De’Andra and I stayed at this last Labor Day weekend drive to Georgia.

Day 3&4 – October 9th & 10th, 2020

Day 3 is planned for 342 Miles of riding from Las Cruces, New Mexico on Interstate 10 through El Paso, Texas to Van Horn, Texas. From Van Horn, I will head south on US Highway 90 to US Highway 67 South to almost Mexico. Then I will turn east into Big Bend State Park where I will be camping across the Rio Grande from Mexico for two nights. I plan to do some light hiking, lounging, and just chilling (or roasting depending on the weather).

Day 3 changes from Original Trip Plan

I had planned to check out White Sands National Park in New Mexico during this trip, but since De’Andra and I were just there over Labor Day Weekend, it didn’t seem worth the effort on this particular trip. Not to say that White Sands was not worth the visit because it is very cool and surreal. It is worth checking out.

The other major change was I had actually planned on camping one night in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and the second night in Big Bend National Park. However, due to COVID19 issues, both parks have closed camping (though Big Bend National Park had camping closed, and then opened and closed again. I am not certain of the park’s status as I type this but made the decision a few weeks ago to just consolidate both nights and camp in the Big Bend Texas State Park instead. I will be riding through some of Big Bend National Park the next day (road was open the last time I checked, if not I will just adjust on the fly like normal LOL).

Day 5 – October 11th, 2020

Day 4 will consist of planned 371 miles of riding from Big Bend State Park through Big Bend National Park, then tracing the US – Mexico border for several miles following US Highway 90 east to Brackettville, Texas. From there, I will take a couple of state highways to a private campground in Camp Wood, Texas. Camp Wood is one of the corners of the Twisted Sisters route mentioned earlier. I will be camping here for two nights as well.

Day 6 – October 12th, 2020 – Riding the Texas Twisted Sisters

Day 5 is all about riding the Twisted Sisters and to see if reality lives up to the hype. I am expecting it not too but also expecting it to be a very enjoyable route and side trip. The route appears to have a decent amount of twists and turns to be entertaining. Also, truth be told, while I do enjoy curves and twisties very much, I also ride pretty slow and am not one to purposely scrape metal with my big heavy touring bike (Looking at you, several Tail of the Dragon riders….which I do plan to visit once I am rooted in Georgia). I am also looking forward to checking out some of the shops in Leakey and Camp Wood, buy some tourist stuff, and of course sample some Texas BBQ.

Day 7 – October 13th, 2020

Day 6 is planned for 330 Miles leaving Camp Wood, Texas and heading south back onto US Highway 90 east into San Antonia, Texas. I was thinking about stopping at the Alamo but, I had been here before while I was briefly stationed at Fort Hood. I will re-visit San Antonio and Austin again but prefer to do so with my family and not during a global pandemic.

In San Antonio, Texas I will jump onto Interstate 10 east until Flatonia, Texas where I will cut Northeast on a few state highways to the days planned camping location in the Cagle Recreation Area not far from New Waverly, Texas.

Day 8 – October 14th, 2020

Day 8 is planned for 276 riding miles riding east into Louisiana a few miles east of Alexandria. This is a planned low riding miles day to allow ample time to hunt and scout for a suitable camping site. The planned location of Willow Springs Campground which is part of a wildlife management area allows free dispersed camping. However, during some of my research for this trip it seems that this area often becomes flooded and may not be suitable / safe for camping. So, I am planning to figure it out as I go and see if I can locate an area to disperse camp. The absolute worse case scenario is I would have to pretend to be civilized and stay the night in a motel….I would rather not but we will see.

Day 9 – October 15th, 2020

Day 9 is planned for 366 riding miles from wherever I ended up on Day 8 rolling Eastward crossing the mighty Mississippi river into the state of Mississippi at Natchez, MS. From Natchez, I will roll East mainly on Mississippi State Highway 28 and State Highway 18 until I cross through Alabama stopping for the day and living large at a Holiday Inn Express in Selma. After several days of riding and camping, I will be sorely in the need of a nice long shower. In Selma, I plan to check out a few of the museums here if they are open.

Day 10 – October 16th, 2020 – Arrive at home in Douglasville, Georgia

Day 10 will be the last and shortest riding day of USA South 2020 with a planned 203 riding miles. Leaving Selma, Alabama I will roll towards the Northeast on various Alabama State Highways until I reach Georgia riding on Georgia State Highway 5 I will remain on Highway 5 until Georgia State Highway 166 where our new home is near (the google map does not show the location of my actual house….not that someone couldn’t find me if they tried lol).

The next day Saturday October 17th, 2020 will be my recovery day and checking things out at the house and pretty much chilling (and unpacking the Kia Soul that is sitting in the garage with a full load of stuff from California still). I fly back to California on Sunday afternoon to wrap things up in California and prepare for the final moving trip from California to Georgia where I will be driving our Volkswagen Tiguan leaving Ramona October 26th.

Stay Tuned…….

I will post updates during the trip as time and connectivity permit. I will also post links to my Garmin page that will provide near real time tracking of progress as I make my way East. I hoping for decent weather but am prepared for everything except for real snow and ultra severe weather (which will have me ducking for some temporary shelter).

A full daily blog post of USA South 2020 will be done after I complete the daily blog posting for USA West 2020, which like the YouTube channel , new content is paused until after the move is complete and the dust settles a bit.