To return to
the Buxley Homepage USA Coast to Coast 2000.
In 1998 the Honda V4 Riders Club (V4RC) proposed a special fun run to celebrate the Millennium. Various ideas were floated but the biggest fun run proposed was a Coast to Coast crossing of America. Foolishly (?) Paul Kelly offered to organise the event for the V4RC.
The initial idea of shipping our own bikes across to the States proved too difficult to organise and so the option of bike hire was investigated. The first disappointment was that no-one hires VFRs in the USA L and only two companies do one way coast to coast rental (the suggestion that having done the 4000 mile southern route we should turn round and go back by the northern route proved difficult to sell).
After getting a good initial response from the V4RC members Paul had to throw the invitation open to a wider range of bike groups in order to get the necessary numbers. Over the next two years Paul worked hard on the project investigating various options including combining a Coast-to-Coast with a shorter Chicago to West coast trip but eventually settled on a New Jersey to Los Angeles trip routing through Georgia and Texas before heading north to take in the Grand Canyon.
A party of twenty-three, with sadly only Paul and ourselves representing the V4RC, finally made the trip.
The travel arrangements had been made through Margaret at Crowthorne Travel (many thanks Margaret for a job well done) and included flights on Virgin Atlantic and accommodation in medium price motels (mainly Best Western).