BRP Harley Trip - Day 1

Charlie and I are geared up, tooled up and ramped up for our BRP trip!! After many months of planning it’s FINALLY go time. Hammond, WI to Galena, IL on Day 1.

Planning

My first iteration of this trip was to ride from Canada to Mexico on I-35. Charlie and I talked about that trip, and he quickly pointed me east to the Blue Ridge Parkway. That looked like a great idea, so six months later we’re on our way to the BRP.

Navigating

The entire trip was planned out in Google Maps with each day as an individual leg. Once I had each BRP leg mapped I was able to export the individual legs to my Garmin. Having the Garmin along added a lot of peace of mind, knowing that even if we got sidetracked by something cool we could easily wind our way to the hotel.

Where are we staying?

Charlie and I both own motorcycle campers and we considered taking those on this trip. In the end we decided that considering the length of the trip, getting a really good night’s sleep (and a complimentary breakfast) was a good idea. So, we opted for hotels. Most of the hotel reservations were made before we left, so we have a distinct target for each day. The BRP trip hotel addresses were mapped in the Garmin.

We were escorted

Charlie’s three daughters and their boyfriends are avid motorcycle riders, so they rode with us for the first part of the day. What a great send off.

The River Road

A bunch of today is spent on the Great River Road. If you’re ever in western Wisconsin be sure you spend some time on this amazingly scenic route along the Mississippi River.

More trips

Be sure to check out Ride and Rally trips.