It’s time to prepare for this year’s Motor Maids convention, which will be in Grand Rapids, MI.

This is the Florida girls at last year’s convention in Cody, WY

We been planning our packing, setting aside the things we’ll take. We are still making runs to Wal-Mart for those items we just have to have.

This year we are going to experiment with our accommodations on the way to GR. We’re going to stay with a fellow member of the Motorcycle Travel Network one night and we’ll camp another night. I assembled our tent and ground cloth, sleeping bags, air mattresses, towels, and pillows and packed them into a Seal-Pak. The pack weighs only 22 lbs. We don’t plan to cook, so we have the essentials.

Here’s the pack on my bike. I can still open the saddlebags, so I’m good to go.

Our route will take us through Atlanta, around Chattanooga, through Indianapolis, and up to Grand Rapids. We’ll ride some back roads on the second and third day. Follow our progress. We’ll post updates if we aren’t too tired, it’s not raining, and have Wi-fi access.