Well....this is it, in a nutshell

So, the great trip is only about 2 weeks off. It's time to publish a rough guide for those of you who are my readers, to let you know the Grand Route. As much as possible will be done on local roads, with Highways and Freeways used only when I have to make up time. The rough dates when I expect to be in certain areas are shown, but the full details of each bit of the trip will be planned on the Satnav as I go, depending on local peoples' recommendations and my own whims and time. The only definite is the Motorcycle Rally week at Sturgis which is the first full week of August, and the half way point on 4th September, which is a measure of my progress to getting back in time to catch the flight home! Anyone who wants to meet me on the way round, somewhere close to my route, is welcome to contact me on the blog e-mail address, docsramblings@aol.com.

CLICK ON THE MAPS TO SEE DETAILS CLEARLY.

Outline of the trip with approximate dates at critical stop-offs.

Dates are all flexible depending on interest, weather and any en route problems.

The Eleven phases of the trip are as follows:-

1) Arrive Montreal,travel to Boston (via Ben and Jerry's!) and on to Niagara Falls.

2) Niagara Falls, via Cleveland,Toledo,Chicago,Milwaukee, then south west to Des Moines and Wintersett to see The Bridges of Madison County.

3) Wintersett to Rapid City,via a week at the great Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and Mount Rushmore, The Badlands, South Dakota, via Billings, Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park for about 4 days.

4) Yellowstone, over the Rockies via Twin Falls and Boise, Idaho and Oregon to the Pacific at Crescent City,California..

5) Crescent City, 800 miles on The Pacific Highway, via San Francisco to Los Angeles.

6) L.A. to Californian Redwood Forests, through Death Valley, MY HALF WAY POINT, along the northern edge of the Senora Desert,Arizona, to Phoenix, via Flagstaff (Route 66) to Grand Canyon.

7) Grand Canyon through Utah,Zion Canyon National Park, then back south through New Mexico to Las Cruces to end this leg at Carisbad, south west Texas.

8) Carisbad,Texas, to San Antonio, The Alamo, Austin, Forth Worth,Witchita Falls, across the Oklahoma panhandle to Dodge City, Kansas.

9) Dodge,Witchita, Pittsburg,Springfield, to Nashville.

10) Nashville to the Appalachian Mountains, along The Blue Ridge Mountain Highway to see the autumn in North Carolina and West Virginia, then dropping down into Richmond and to Jamestown, the start of the British move to North America.

11) Jamestown, Norfolk,Washington D.C., Baltimore,Philadeplphia,to New York, and then to return via Albany, Rutland and Burlington, across the border back to Montreal.

Best wishes.

Doc