And the Adventure Begins

          4 days ago, on May 20th, my girlfriend Kayla and I set off with our wheels pointing east for our first big ride of 2015.  The plan is as follows:  Take our time getting to Wilmington, NC, seeing friends and family along the way.  From there, we and our motorcycles are scheduled to leave aboard a container ship on April 3rd, spend 11 days at sea and eventually port in Antwerp, Belgium.  From Belgium we will head south towards warmer climates into Spain, Portugal (maybe), Italy and so on.  The route is rather loose at this point but we are hoping to catch a boat from Italy to Greece and work our way back north through Montenegro, Romania, Albania and eventually as far north as Sweden. So there you have it, that is our very basic itinerary that could change at any point.  

        Since our embarkation we have only covered about 1,100 miles but enjoyed a nice evening with my parents in Salina, KS, caught up with a good friend in Kansas City, MO and camped under a starry sky in Meramec Spring Park near St. James, MO.  Today we had our most enjoyable ride yet.  

        Leaving the park around 9am the temperatures were a brisk 35 degrees but quickly rose into the mid 60's.  The cold though, was no match to our newly acquired heated riding gear.  Ignoring the temperatures we sat back and enjoyed 200 miles of immaculate curves, dips, climbs and twists down Missouri road 19.  The road lined with farm houses, cattle and towering trees kept our curiosity as to what lay ahead.  Road 19 led us to US 63 east toward Memphis where we enjoyed an easy 100 mile final push into town and directly to Beale st., where we enjoyed some quality down home cookn and live music at the BB Kings Blues Club.  

         As far as the rest of the trip thus far, everything as gone relatively smooth. We did have a bit of a rough start exiting Denver as I was plagued with a cutting out, popping and sputtering problem.  Turned out to just be a loose grounding terminal on the frame.  From there, no problems until yesterday when my Battery took a crap on me.  I've been running an Earth X lithium ion battery to save room and weight, the last 35,000 miles it's been flawless and I would highly recommend one.  But, yesterday it decided it had had enough.  I borrowed Kaylas bike, ran up to the local Wal-Mart and purchased a lead acid battery that would fit.  Problem is that the bike was built with the smaller size lithium ion battery that cranks out a lot more starting power then a comparable sized lead acid making cold morning starting impossible.  Once the bike is warmed up, it is good for the day.  I spoke with Earth X today and they are mailing me a new battery, free of charge, to Wilimington.  Pretty sweet deal.  Final mentionable event was Kayla having a minor accident today.  As we were cruising through downtown Memphis, she caught an edge of the trolly track running straight down the road and dropped her bike. Don't worry, all is good.  No real damage to her or the motorcycle.  Luckily, at the time, we weren't going more then ten miles an hour.  

         Well, that's it for now.  Thanks for reading.