Ride or Fly?

[PistolPete3]

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Hello everyone, I am hoping you guys can help me with my current conundrum. I have decided on a school and am now starting to plan out my summer. I plan to leave work in about a month to give me two solid months off before school starts on August 11.

Over those two months I have a wedding to attend in Phoenix and a family trip to Yellowstone. I have two options to transport myself from Washington DC out west for these events and back: ride a motorcycle or fly.

This would be my fourth cross-country motorcycle drive, and it would probably be my last for a very long time. That being said, the ride will take up most of my two months off leaving little time to relax, move to my new city, or spend time with family. There is also the risk of injury to myself or my motorcycle on an 8,000 mile loop around the country. Cost wise it is probably about $700 to fly and $900 - $1200 to ride (all food hotels and gas included).

Riding a motorcycle across the country is the most excruciatingly awesome thing I have ever done. After each previous trip I said I would never do another, but here I am contemplating a fourth.

What do you guys think? Take the safe option and fly giving me plenty of free time and a budget for the rest of the summer (it will still be an incredible trip) or tire myself out doing a truly epic trip?

Thanks in advance.

 

[darksurg]

As a motorcycle enthusiast, RIDE all the way. Sometimes you will hate it but it's so freaking good at the end

 

[Lucca]

You've already made this loop before. Maybe fly out west and take the extra time you have to ride up and down the west coast/Rockies?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Have you been to PHX in the summer before? Given the heat and pollution here, Id prefer a car with AC.

 

[mehc012]

I'm all for cross-country motorcycle trips...I've not done the coast-to-coast bit, but I have done a lot of up-and-down the east coast. I've also done the coast-to-coast trip in my car several times. A few concerns:
A lot of the western states have fewer of the 'small, straight-enough-to-go-fast, curvy enough that there are no other cars and it's fun to ride' stretches.
Heat. Heat heat heat. One of my car cross-country trips was in an AC-less beast. OK, I know you've got the wind, but you have to assume that you'll hit traffic at least once. In the sun. With a giant heat engine between your knees. Fun fun.

Is the Yellowstone trip first? If so, take the northern route across the country to Yellowstone, then bop down to Phoenix and find a way to get north again for a while.

 

[JJMrK]

You're going to a wedding? Fly out with all your stuff, set up shop, and look good. The wrinkled suit spoils it for me.

 

[tmn]

Hello everyone, I am hoping you guys can help me with my current conundrum. I have decided on a school and am now starting to plan out my summer. I plan to leave work in about a month to give me two solid months off before school starts on August 11.

Over those two months I have a wedding to attend in Phoenix and a family trip to Yellowstone. I have two options to transport myself from Washington DC out west for these events and back: ride a motorcycle or fly.

This would be my fourth cross-country motorcycle drive, and it would probably be my last for a very long time. That being said, the ride will take up most of my two months off leaving little time to relax, move to my new city, or spend time with family. There is also the risk of injury to myself or my motorcycle on an 8,000 mile loop around the country. Cost wise it is probably about $700 to fly and $900 - $1200 to ride (all food hotels and gas included).

Riding a motorcycle across the country is the most excruciatingly awesome thing I have ever done. After each previous trip I said I would never do another, but here I am contemplating a fourth.

What do you guys think? Take the safe option and fly giving me plenty of free time and a budget for the rest of the summer (it will still be an incredible trip) or tire myself out doing a truly epic trip?

Thanks in advance.

Ride or die.

 

[tmn]

You're going to a wedding? Fly out with all your stuff, set up shop, and look good. The wrinkled suit spoils it for me.

You're worried about a suit?!

 

[mehc012]

You're going to a wedding? Fly out with all your stuff, set up shop, and look good. The wrinkled suit spoils it for me.

Ride out, rent a hotel room, hang it.