BackRoads: Florida to Colorado in December

The e-mail read: “as a retired psychologist, how can I put this delicately? Florida to Colorado in December. Hmm. What are your plans for the eight-foot snow drifts in western Kansas? Hope you have electric underwear.”

That was the second voice of doubt about the trip, the first being my dear wife, Lynn. It would not be the last.

I found the silver used 2006 Tiger, just over 1800 miles, on E-bay and was successful in making the deal. There was no question in my mind that I would fly out and ride it back to Colorado. The decision was made easier as my editor had just arranged a Gerbing Cascade Extreme Jacket and pants to do a cold weather riding review for the magazine. To me, it seemed the timing was perfect. After getting on the web and studying the weather maps and the 15-day weather forecast for the southern tier of states, Texas and Northern New Mexico, it was clear that the best window was sooner than later. It would be dry and cold with the storms heading north to pound the central and northern plains for the next several days. The Great Plains and Kansas were not on the route.

After a quick test of the suit on Lynn’s Beemer all was a go. Motorcycle insurance purchased, flight reservations made, gear packed and arrangements made to Meet Jim at the airport in Orlando. Now the only worry was getting to the Denver airport. November 29, Wednesday morning and 12 inches of snow in the driveway. At 5 am on Thursday we were in the truck heading to Denver International Airport with the temperature at 4 below. Concerned about the airport security inspectors being confronted with my cruiser bag full of wired clothing and bungee cords, I placed a large note in the bag along with the tags explaining what the items were and checked it.

At 3 pm, the temperature at the Orlando airport was 82. Dr. Jim met me at the airport and we drove an hour to his home to the west. He repeated the question he posed in the original e-mail. We went over the bike, made the deal, packed the panniers and bungeed the large cruiser bag flat on the luggage rack. The Gerbing suit is pretty bulky and I was happy to have the big bag. The Triumph Tiger is a tall bike, comparable in many ways to the BMW 1200 GS. Three cylinders, 955ccs, and rated at 106 HP.

After leaving Jim it was north on I-75. I try to avoid the interstates whenever...

We hope that you enjoyed reading this excerpt from "Florida to Colorado in December". If you would like to read the entire article and more, you can order a back issue of Jan / Feb 2007 where this article was originally published.

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