November 28, 2015
I was looking at my GPS track on my Delorme Inreach page today, and I realized that if I had ridden the most direct route from Austin, Texas to Chimbote, Peru (where I am now), it would be about 5,000 miles. It has taken me four months to get here.
A year ago I did more miles than that in one month on the Super Tenere from Texas to Canada and back. But I rode more miles per day (over 800 miles one day), stopped less, saw less, and did less (other than sit in the saddle and ride).
Unfortunately many people who decide to ride to the bottom of South America from either the U.S. or Alaska do it similar to my Canada trip: they ride the Pan American Highway for weeks, covering huge distances every day, and never see any of the amazing things along the way. I don’t blame them. Many of them have a limited time to complete the trip, and the only way to make their goal before returning to work or their “real lives” is to spend their days on the highway. It is a shame though. I hope they see enough to decide to return to South America later and spend more time exploring, because there are some amazing places here, and most of them are nowhere near the Pan American Highway.
Pat, congratulations on reaching the 5,000 mile mark! Thanks also for your ongoing posts, so we can ride along.
Mike
Thanks Mike. Actually, I just hit 10,000 miles on this trip. If I had ridden straight down the Pan American Highway I could have been here in 5,000 miles, but I would have missed 5,000 miles worth of beautiful detours.
You are riding like you are sailing. 🙂
Maybe when you are done, we’ll be done with our boat rebuild, and you can come on a leg or a few with us???