Der Große Sechzig Motorradtour
4,318 miles
My business colleague and friend had been talking for several years about taking his Father on a motorcycle tour of the American West, and tying it to his 60th birthday. He explained that his Father always dreamed about riding a Harley on old US 66. I explained that, having been in the West many times, there are many other places that are much better. Since I had met his Father on a couple of occasions and even enjoyed time at this home in Weimar, I offered that if they were interested I would arrange a tour in the fall of 2015 as his birthday is the end of August. So, we discussed it many times when we were together over a few years, and as the time got closer to the date Sebastian didn’t back away from the idea, but rather began confirming this would happen. Steve and I cleared our plans for the fall of 2015 and began preparations. We had a few other colleagues from the US interested in going as well as some others from Germany. At one point there was to be ten of us. This worried me greatly as I have never planned a trip for more than two, and mine and Steve’s riding styles are so similar I never struggled to plan routes. Now, we are talking about ten people and I have ridden with only three of them. In the end everyone backed out except for Jim. Steve, Sebastian, Jim and I had ridden together one other time in the US when we took a three day trip to the Southeast and rode the twistys in TN and NC. Jim struggled during that trip but he had since purchased an RT and we had ridden with him after and he had no problem keeping up, so I felt confident in everyone’s ability, with the wildcard being Winzi (Sebastian’s Father). I knew he had significant experience with riding, and his normal bike was a Yamaha FJR so I was pretty certain he would be fine. Sometime in the winter of 2014/2015 Sebastian booked their flights, so at that point I knew it was on. Steve took care of all the hotel accommodations and with five people it made it a little difficult but there were only a couple of nights when Jim had a room to himself. I put together all of the routes and made each day’s mileage a little less than we might normally do, but not really that much different. Steve and I have been in this area several times, but it is always a great ride, and we were looking forward to acting, to some degree, as hosts and being able to see everything from a much different perspective. I think because of the appreciation of Jim, Sebastian,and Winzi and their constant enthusiasm for the places we were visiting it made this trip one of our more enjoyable.