Heart of the journey

On one level we’ve already failed miserably.

Harley and I should have been able to cross the country in two days and zero hours, according to the Google Direction-Finder.

That’s assuming we had:

(1) unwaveringly followed the Direction-Finder’s route advice on traveling the entire distance on Interstate 90, which it calculated to be 3,011 miles from Tacoma, Washington to Northampton, Massachusetts, and

(2) constantly maintained the speed limit without ever stopping, except maybe for toll booths.

But we just completed a variation on that journey and the calendar tells me it took us 43 days.

Maybe that’s because, on numerous occasions, I wanted to stop to eat or sleep or refill Harley’s modest gas tank, or check the bike’s tire pressure and fluid levels. Or take a picture. Or get out of the wind or rain or snow. Or talk to someone. Or check my email and surf the internet. Or publish a post on my blog.

And instead of traveling 1,500 miles a day, our daily average was more like 150.

That plus we strayed wildly off Direction-Finder’s recommended route, charting a course that ultimately wiggled all over the map, beginning by heading off in the wrong direction (west) around Washington’s Olympic peninsula, then bending down from Montana into Wyoming and Colorado, then up from Iowa into Wisconsin, then down into Illinois and Indiana and so on — ultimately stretching a 3,000-mile trip into 5,000 miles.

And we’ve yet to reach the halfway point.

But none of this was Harley’s fault. I repeat. None of it was the fault of my huge-hearted little Sportster.

In fact, for such a relatively-speaking small bike — his 883 cc power plant measuring in at less than half the size of the engines that power the Road Kings and Gold Wings of the world — Harley’s numbers have really been impressive so far.

Average gas mileage: 55 mpg.

Oil consumption (after 5,000 miles on the road): one half of one quart.

Tires and pressure: treads still healthy, pressure holding strong.

Battery: has never failed to start (including a chilly 30-degree morning in the Tetons at elevation, and a foggy 24-degree morning in upstate New York).

Mechanical issues: None. So far. (Knock on metal.)

In fact it’s time right now for an oil change and a well-deserved tune-up in a little Harley shop in western Massachusetts. And that’s how we’ll spend the next day.