Well choosing a route for this trip has been pretty easy mainly because I am not set on any one destination. My main goal is to have some guidelines of where I would like to visit but to really let the road determine where my next stop and destination will be. Of course there are some cities/events that will be a driving force to name a few Running of the Bulls, Moto GP races, Ireland, and Prague. Africa will be a whole different experience due to how fast the political situation changes there but that will be a day by day adventure. So as you look at the map of my routes keep in mind that at any given moment I make make a left turn and end up somewhere completely different.

So this is where the trip began, with 5455miles on the odometer of the BMW. I started in San Francisco, actually from Scotty's garage located in Livermore about 30 mins from SF. For nastalgia reasons I rode through San Francisco just to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. From there I rode up the coast to Bellingham Washington to visit family for a couple days. From there I rode through Idaho to visit the parents and then across the country stopping to check out Yellowstone, Devils Tower, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Niagra Falls, and Boston to name a few of the highlights. On June 3rd 2005 my North America Leg came to an end when I shipped the bike from Toronto Canada to Ireland.

The European leg began in Dublin with 11,321 miles on the odometer on June 4th. Europe went nothing like I had pretended to plan. After 3 plus weeks in Ireland I had to force myself to move on to Enland then on to France. After a short stop in Paris is was down to Pampalona to meet up with some friends for San Fermin and then with a hang over in tow it was off to explore the Pyrenees Mountains via Dirt Roads. Heading east brought me through France to stay with some new friends on the Cote De Azur before heading off through Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Turkey was definately a highlight of the trip to date and again I found myself wishing I had more time. As I worked my way back west through Greece and the Greek Island of Corfu I managed to brainwash a polish girl to join me. So after a short ride and through Italy, France and Spain we are heading to Africa on September 23rd. I wish I would have made it north to the Scandinavian and Baltic Countres but well there is always next trip.

Well you can see my tenative route through Africa but this is all subject to change at a moments notice depending on what tribe is in a war with each other. When I first started planning this trip I thought of Africa as more of an inconvienence and just a part of the trip that I had to endure. Fortunately the more I plan and the more stories I read of other adventureres tales I am starting to think this may be one of the more exciting parts of the trip. Then again maybe I have watched too much of the Dakar Rally on TV, only time will tell. I am looking forward to seeing some elephants and maybe feeding a hippo(just kidding because hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal). Some of the highlights will probably me falling off my motorcycle a couple times, climbing Mt Kilamnjaro, Victoria Falls, and some of the Parks.

Unfortunatly reality is not the same as the financial optimism that one has before starting a journey such as this. So due to discarding of the rose colored glasses I have had to postpone Australia and will head to Argentina after South Africa.

Well South America is so far away I really have no idea what route I will take. But this seems to be a decent route.