Final Preparations for the Cannonball & Sneak Peak at the Next Project

July 11, 2023

Final Preparations for the Cannonball Run
After nearly a full year of planning (11 months to be exact), the (revised) Cannonball Run is only a short 48 hours away. At this point, all hotels are booked, the rental car is booked, and various activities are planned throughout the trek. At this point, it's a matter of anxiously waiting to hop on a flight to New York while looking forward to seeing views like these again (these photos were from previous cross-country travels in my old GX470)!








As you can probably imagine, there have been some interesting questions and comments from friends and family as I have been preparing for the Cannonball Run. Here were some of the highlights that stuck out:
  1. "How is this a vacation?"
    • I think the term "vacation" is subjective. To some, a vacation is a time to relax on a beach while others view a vacation as a time to explore new sites/cities for a weekend.
    • To me, a vacation is an opportunity to go on an adventure that completely breaks up the daily routine of working from home. While I do think this is probably an extreme, this has been my objective for quite some time.

  2. "You're going too fast, and you won't be able to see anything on your way!"
    • Contrary to what you probably think, the primary objective of our trip is to see and explore some of the most beautiful areas here in the United States.
    • The way that we drew up our trip, only our first 2 days (New York to Chicago and Chicago to Billings) will involve over 7 hours of driving per day. When we were initially setting everything up (I have the Excel Spreadsheet to prove it), I made a point that our daily average should not exceed 5 hours per day to ensure that we are able to enjoy our trip rather than just blowing through it.

  3. For those that know me - "Your phone is terrible and you don't have a camera! How are you going to capture all of what you are seeing on this trip?"
    • If you did not know or were not aware, I have been rocking a 5-year old hand-me-down iPhone for the past 2+ years (because I dropped a sledgehammer on my old Samsung Galaxy). Needless to say it did not take good pictures...
    • Thanks to my loving wife passing on her upgrade, I have finally purchased a much-needed new phone (iPhone 14 Pro Max) and am looking forward to properly capturing the scenes on this epic trip!

  4. "You are going to need a vacation from your vacation."
    • I don't think I have a comment for this one. It's true. When I fly back from Los Angeles I will undoubtedly be exhausted and ready for a couple of days to recuperate, but I'll be going back to work instead... I'll rest when I'm older!
If you can't tell, I am aware of how much of an undertaking this trip is, but I am blinded by the excitement of the adventure.


Sneak Peak of the Next Project
With the sale of the Seadoo, 4Runner and Kawasaki Vulcan 750, you probably thought I would not be purchasing anything until after the Cannonball Run. Little did you know that my company gave me the Wednesday after July 4th off leaving me the one thing I shouldn't be allowed to have: time.

To start all mornings, I wake up and immediately go to Facebook MarketPlace to see what's available. On the morning of July 5th, I was fortunate enough to wake up and run across a 1994 Honda Nighthawk 250 motorcycle for $1,000 in non-running condition. Here was the ad:


Outside of a small rip in the seat, the bike looked to be in fantastic shape. I messaged the owner who promptly responded stating that it was her son's bike, but he had never ridden it. We went back and forth for a few minutes via Messenger before I decided to go check it out. Needless to say, we were able to make a deal for (what I considered a deal) $400. Here is a full walk-around of the bike once I got it home:


While my next few posts will not focus on the '94 Nighthawk, work is already underway with many updates to come. My goal for the bike is to bring it back to life and see what I can do to improve its few cosmetic flaws.

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