Heading to Vermont: 24th Annual Women On Wheels® Ride-In

July's coming up again, and for me and a few hundred other ladies of Women On Wheels®, that means the annual migration to this year's venue for the WOW International Ride-In. For 2010, it's in Stratton, VT. This year, the distance and conditions are in my favor because moving to Columbus has put me less than 700 miles from the event, a stark contrast from the 1300 miles (direct) through the desert and into Kerrville, TX for last year's Ride-In.

Of course, in Christine fashion, those Google Maps-based numbers are somewhat meaningless because in my world there is no such thing as a "straight route" back and home, even on a crunched schedule. When on the open road with the bike, there's always a little bit of latitude to add more miles and more scenery in between. Since this is my 4th Ride-In that I will be attending, I'll summarize the routes I've traveled to get to each one.

2007 (Springfield, MO): My first Ride-In was on a whim. A fellow member from the LA Iron Angels decided to ride there and I, along with my brand new FJR1300, took off and turned it into the first (and still craziest) long distance roundabout way home. You can read about the whole adventure here.

2008 (Boyne, MI): This is the only Ride-In (and hopefully the last) that I had to arrive in by car. With crunched time and a short budget, Matt (my boyfriend at the time and freshly recruited WOW Support Member) and I flew to his mom's house in Columbus and borrowed the car to drive to Boyne for the second day of festivities. We had a fun time testing out BMW bikes and bumping into familiar faces, but I was also there on a mission: to return Frieda's the Frog's travel journal. That summary is here.

2009 (Kerrville, TX): The Ride-In to Texas marked my return to Columbus and final one as a tourist. With a lot more time (losing your teaching job can do that to you) and some free lodging on the way courtesy of the future mother-in-law, this ride was the most extended distance adventure I have done to date. This also marked my first unofficial Iron Butt with a straight shot home from Roswell, NM to LAX totaling 1,004 miles. Not as much time to write about it as I was used to, but this was the first experiment at using Facebook for blogging, as shown here.

Now with over 86,000 miles on my FJR1300 and still many more to follow, I'm on a quest to seek more paved roads to ride. So now for this summer's journey, two goals I will accomplish will be riding through every single state in the northeast United States and reaching the East Coast on two wheels. The fun part? I have exactly one week to complete everything. Here is the tentative itinerary. Yahoo.

Sunday (7/4): Ride straight to Albany, NY.
Monday (7/5): Ride from Albany, NY toward Stratton, VT by way of Providence, RI, Boston, MA, and Kittery, ME, entering VT by way of NH.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (7/6-7/8): Ride-In time!
Friday (7/9): Ride to Freehold, NJ by way of New Haven, CT and travel via bus to NYC to hang out with a friend.
Saturday (7/10): Straight shot back to Columbus by way of Baltimore, MD, crossing Delaware in the process.

Total states crossed: 12. Map is below.

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