First Big Trip on a motorcycle starts tomorrow

Riding up to the Black Hills National Forest area to the town of Custer, SD. Two co-worker rider friends and I are riding up on our motorcycles with my family following in the "support" van. It's just shy of 400 miles one way and we're pretty much avoiding the I-25 superslab on the way up. Having a support vehicle is nice since we can stow all our non-essential gear in the van and cruise the roads without too much excess weight.

Looks like it'll take us about 10 hrs with stops and such to get there so we'll be leaving early to get there before dark hopefully. The weather is predicted good for tomorrow and Saturday, a bit iffy on Sunday but we shall see.

Still debating upgrading to a bigger motorcycle. Still have an eye on one of the two R1200C Cruiser motorcycles at the BMW dealer but the finances may not work out. I'll definitely have a better idea after this long trip whether my Gretl is a keeper or not.

I hope to report on the ride tomorrow night. Meanwhile, here's our route: