#145 The VStar Moves On

Fleeter Log #145

The VStar Moves On

2009 Aug 1

The Yamaha VStar1100 Custom provided me with over 38,000 miles of smiles . . . well, mostly smiles. I crossed my first state line by motorcycle from the VStar's saddle. After crossing that first state line from Virginia into North Carolina, we crossed many more state lines in the following two years that we rode together.

It took me to 43 of the lower 48 states and even a jaunt into New Brunswick, Canada on to Campobello Island. There, I saw a whale surfacing in the Bay of Fundy while sitting in the saddle on shore.

Such was the two years I spent astride the VStar wandering back and forth across state lines, going places I'd never gone before, with the handlebars leading the way. The VStar took me from the Southernmost Buoy in Key West, Florida to the Easternmost Point Lighthouse at West Quoddy Head near Lubec, Maine. We rolled across the plains of North Dakota on our way westward to find where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean; the same place Lewis and Clark found the Pacific over 200 years before. I rode the VStar right up to the crater's rim to see the most magical, bluest of blue waters of Crater Lake in Oregon. Temperatures dropped over 30 degrees as we crossed the magnificent Rocky Mountains in Colorado passing young elk playing on the side of the road high where birds soared below us.

The VStar gave me a great ride as I discovered what this country has to see.
These stories and more are documented in the earlier Fleeter Logs of this blog (#1 - #112).

Southernmost Buoy in Key West, Florida

Easternmost Point Lighthouse at West Quoddy Head
near Lubec, Maine

Stevens Canyon near Mt Rainier, Washington

Crater Lake, Oregon

Giant Redwood Trees in Northern California

 

The VStar will now embark on a new life with Bob of Illinois. Bob is a very experienced rider that was looking to downsize his ride and the VStar has many miles left in it yet to be traveled.

Copyright 2009 Fleeter Logs