First trip

[Wormys_Dad]

Well, my wife and I got back late last night from the first trip on the Voyager. The weather was pretty hot, hit around 100 in southern Illinois. Started out Friday morning with a relatively mild sunny day headed through the country roads and two lanes south to rt 45,topped tank off in Flora Illinois, then continued meandering through several small towns to route 1. Kept heading south on route one past the town of Omaha , where my mother was born, on down to Cave in Rock. Had a sandwich and a cold drink at little restaurant at the state park before getting on the ferry across the Ohio river into Kentucky. Continued on the pleasant sweeping curves on highway 91 on into Marion Kentucky. Took 641 down to Eddyville and highway 62. Went ahead and got a room there. Had reservations at Patti's 1880s restaurant for dinner early in the evening, about 15 minutes away from motel. That's a neat place, great food and kinda neat little village like place to walk through and relax. We rode around the area quite a bit stopping at scenic overviews and catching some nice views of the lakes. We were getting pretty heat beat by night time so we turned in fairly early... asleep before 9:30. Next morning loaded up the old bike and went for breakfast before the trip back. It was really hot by the time we left that area, in the 90s topped tank off again and checked mileage.... wow 46 mpg. Heading north through the same route to the cave in rock ferry. Found ourselves stopping more frequently... drinking a lot of water on hot day shows the size of the bladder. Met a group of bikes at cave in rock park when we stopped for a drink and a butt break, all nice guys, commented about the Voyager, saying they hadn't seen many of them. Took a side trip through shawnee national forest heading west just north of cave in rock by Garden of the gods. Stopped for ice cream. Met another group of motorcyclists at ice cream stand. Four women, three on harleys one on Honda vtx, very friendly. Cut across to Harrisburg where I have some family. Unfortunately I couldn't get ahold of any of them. Headed north towards home, hit highway 37 and stopped at Mt. Vernon for dinner, looking like rain north of us so we killed over an hour there. Gassed up again..had over 200 on that tank.. 47.2 mpg on Kentucky gas. Got home around 9:30.... tired butt, but not terribly bad. Bike performed extremely well, smooth runner for sure. Definitely a keeper. With all the side trips was right around 550 miles round trip. Not bad for "maiden voyage ".

[Scott-(Altoona, PA)]

That sounds like a great maiden voyager, hope you both recovered (on the back side) well enough to smile and think about the next adventure on your Voyager!

[Wormys_Dad]

Well.... she really didn't complain about her rear end, she was sitting on a gel cushion. Said she had no problems whatsoever and could have gone quite a while. I was just fine the next morning and rode over to my father's house. And yes we are already planning another excursion in the near future.... the Voyager xii is definitely a sweet machine and perfect for our weekend getaways. I am enjoying it more than the big old cumbersome 1500 goldwing I had.... it's just more fun to ride and I can't believe that they weren't more popular.

[Scott-(Altoona, PA)]

Dave, I got a set of running boards for the rear passenger/my wife, and these bikes are built so well and the center of gravity is so low that we've already been cruising down the interstate and she tells me her legs need stretched. So my response is hold my shoulders and stand up for a little. She then tells me she was already up (holding onto the arm rests), I look in the mirror and sure enough she is 100% up legs straight and stretched out, moments later she sets back down and again I felt no movement what so ever!

[Wormys_Dad]

I know what you mean, my wife shifted around several times and I only felt it once. I am in the process of building a set of armrests for her, out of stainless steel polished up like chrome. Just started that project last night. I am hoping to have enough time to get it done in the next few days. Takes a long time to polish, let alone the welding and fabrication part. Only time I have to really get down to business on projects like that is after work at around midnight (work second shift). During the morning before work seems like I always have something else taking up my time..... oh well life happens!