Thanks for joining us on our journey!
Welcome to our site. Our story is about two V-Strom riders who will make a 4-month ride from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to somewhere in South America between October 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019. We don’t have a destination in mind as we don’t want to rush ourselves if we find interesting things to see and do – as I’m sure we will!
Katherine has loved her V-strom since 2003. Yes, it is an ‘experienced’ bike with about 105,000 km on it as we get ready to take off on a long ride. This V-Strom has taken me to see much of Canada (except Quebec and Maritimes) as well as Alaska, many of the south eastern States (Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, S&N Carolina, Tennessee) as well as northwestern states (Montana, N&S Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon). This trip will take us both to new adventures!
Tony likes his V-Strom well enough, but still misses his Yamaha FJ1300 that he sold last year. He’s traveled with me many miles on the FJ (and he’s done a lot of trail riding on his DR650, including many of the Back Country Discovery Routes). As we talked of this South American trip, he decided a V-Strom would be a better option for the trip.
In 2013, Tony and I visited South America and spent 10 days riding from San Carlos de Bariloche to Ushuaia with a tour group (Horizonte Tours for great guides, great food and accommodation, fabulous stops along the way.) This tour, along with time we spent on our own in Mendoza and Valparaiso provided the impetus for us to return. So a few years ago we began planning this trip. Our first step was to seek approval from our respective employers to take unpaid leave (thank you!), and now our plans are coming together.
Our departure date is expected to be September 30 or October 1 as we have a date to meet my brother, Rick (also a V-Strom rider) in Tucson, Arizona on October 5. Then we will ride together for a while and he will head off on his own to reach Ushuaia for New Year’s Eve. Since Tony and I can say “we’ve been there, done that, and got the t-shirts!” our goal isn’t to get that far south on this trip. We will explore as our schedules, places of interest (there are so many!) and the weather allows!