The Journey to the Journey

4:15 am, that is what time we finally pull out of the drive.  Our journey has begun. For the next three days there would be no motel rooms, no restaurants. Only gas fill ups and the occasional snooze at the truck stops. Behind us on the trailer are the motorcycles. The van, now thirteen years old is towing the trailer with bikes better than I expect.  Although Andy claims not to have had a second thought about it. He has an advantage I don't. He's spent the last month making sure the van is ready for the trip. Our destination? Arizona. One of the states on my bucket list. 

Andy being ever frugal, refused the swap out the trailer tires before we leave as they still had "meat" on them. Although not born a New Englander, he possesses the New Englander's spirit of frugality. The old saying, "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" could have been coined by him. We have a spare set in the van, and after the 1st thousand mile have to find someone along our route to mount them on the rims. The "spares" are actually car tires and seem to be doing a better job than any trailer tire we've ever sunk good money into.

As the country side rolls by, we find that we enjoy this part of the trip as much as we do the actually riding part. From just what crops are growing, changing accents of the locals to even what we see as road kill, all of it is interesting to us. Traveling by day and by night has its oddities too. You meet a different breed of people on the night road. At one truck stop we met a chatty trucker. He had no southern twang and it turns out he and his brother had, a few years back, gone in together on a rig, quit their jobs in their home state of Connecticut and never looked back. He just loves being on the road.

On day three we arrive at our destination of Holbrook Arizona. Tomorrow our two wheeled adventure beings.  Although I had wanted to stay in the iconic Wigwam motel, there is alas "no room at the in". So the Super 8 it is. And after a dip in the pool, we enjoy our first real meal and next, I will lay my head tired body on an actual bed for a good nights rest.