The Big Trip 2003

In September of 2003 I was laid off from my job of 10 years, there are only two ways to handle this problem - panic or go riding - I chose the latter. I have never ridden east of Colorado (except in Europe and South America!) so I decided on a late year cross country trip before the weather turns nasty - I hope. To add some extra interest I also decided to try and earn the Iron Butt Association's National Park award which requires visiting 50 national parks in at least 25 states within a year. I will try to do it in the last 3 months of the year and got off to a start a little before the big trip by visiting Yosemite, Lassen and Pinnacles on a warm up trip. (Didn't quite make that goal)