Well, it's been 10,200 miles on the motorcycle, 1500+ miles by car. I traveled though 29 states, a few of them more than once. I left home on Sept 9th, and returned home on November 30th - 9 days short of 3 months on the road. I took about two thousand photographs, and whittled that down to about 48 which I have yet to print so the total may get smaller yet. - It's always possible I'll find an image or three that I missed in the editing but all said and done - I have about 1 good image for every 2 days on the road. That's about 1/2 of what I was hopping for when I left.
I've decided to sell the bike - I may get another one some day but if I do it will be with the intention of just enjoying the ride and not worrying about camera gear (maybe a Canon G11 or similar).
This was a wonderful experience and I'm thrilled that I did it. I had a huge amount of fun, met some wonderful people, and got my first real view of a large portion of our country. I'm not sure if I hadn't had the bike that I would have done this trip at all. It's something I'd be more than willing to do again in a car, but I missed too much photography due to the bike to want to spend another 3 months that way.
So what's next? I'm looking at pop up trailers, something towable behind a car, I'm also still considering the idea of selling the house (possibly renting) and getting an RV - if I sell, then I'll probably start off by heading overseas first, before I tie my self to anything else here, other than a piece of property to build on. I know I'll want a house again at some point but 3 months didn't really dampen my desire to see the world, I didn't miss home so much as I missed a few of the comforts that I couldn't take with me - like a big screen for editing images, a printer, a music and movie system - all things that I can take with a trailer or RV. If I'm overseas I'll probably have to do with out again but maybe not for so long at a stretch. There are a few places that are on my must see list - and a lot on my want to see list.
Baring unforeseen changes, this coming year will be mostly working at home - getting the house ready to sell, finishing the work on the boat and getting that sold (or at least on the market) I'm going to see about getting down to 1 vehicle - although unless that's a truck, I'll probably end up with a camp trailer and a flat bed type utility trailer for helping with yard work, hauling etc. I wish I enjoyed driving trucks more than I do, it would make the choice easier.
