It was a GREAT 2014! We rode over 27,700 miles, placing 13th in the BMWMOA (BMW Motorcycle Owners of America) club’s mileage contest for 2014 and received our National Parks Tour Master Traveler ride certificate from the Iron Butt Association (IBA). We managed to visit 236 national parks, monuments, landmarks and wildlife refuges (heretofore referred to as just parks) bagging 36 states and 4 Canadian provinces. We had a blast! So much so that here we are again on the brink of our 2015 National Parks Tour. This time however, we defined our own rules such that in addition to the IBA’s rules, we would not count any parks we visited last year (though we probably will visit a few again) however, we will count prior states and Canadian provinces. Our goal is to do a Back-to-Back National Parks Tour Master Traveler Silver which we don’t believe has been done yet. We will see if the IBA will certify a new ride.
For those of you who are not aware of Iron Butt Rides, The object of the IBA National Parks Tour Master Traveler Silver is to take some time to visit the hundreds of National Parks, National Historic Sites, National Recreation Areas, and National Monuments located in the United States and Canada (National Parks, National Historic Sites and Provincial Parks in Canada). The rules are simple- Visit at least 50 National Parks, National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Recreation Areas or any other site or park listed in the Passport book or other sources in at least 25 states within 1 year. You may start any time you like and finish any time you want. To make it a Silver National Parks Tour you have to visit parks in Washington or Canadian Parks northwest of the Washington border, California, Florida and Maine or Canadian parks northeast of the Maine border. Basically, the four corners of the contiguous United States (with Canada thrown in!).
We will be pretty much using the same equipment as last year. We are pulling our trailer again, all the camping stuff we had PLENTY of time to work out, but we did get our seat redone for a bit more comfort even though we really did not ride many long days. I am still, at the time of this writing, trying to figure out a better windscreen!
Our tour started January 19, 2015 with a trip to Manzanar National Historical Site in California. Our BMW K1600GTL has 46,230 at the start and is just beginning to feel “broken in”. Or maybe that me that’s broken in to it! When we stop at a National Park, Historic Site etc. we stop by the visitor's center and stamp our passport with the rubber-ink stamp that contains the Park's name, date and location. Of course, there are times and places that do not have a visitor center or the stamps and in order to comply with the IBA rules, we take a picture of our 2013 K1600GTL motorcycle in front of the visitors center or kiosk if that is the only place available.
In addition, we also thought it would be a good idea to once again share our experience with our fellow European Motorcycle Owners (EMO) club members here in Las Vegas and post our travel diaries on the EMO website. Please check back to see our posts organized in chapters covering a week or so at a time depending on how much there was to see and do. We will also be posting pictures and hope we’ll be taking more of those than last year.
Big thanks to everyone at BMW Motorcycles of Las Vegas for their support and care of our GTL and special thanks to Gary Waddell for his critique and additional inspiration to write about it all over again. So, stay tuned. We hope you enjoy the ‘ride’ as much as we will! Greg & Cynthia.