Wish me luck! Las Vegas to Portland in 2 days...

I am new to the motorcycling world but its safe to say I'm diving in head first. Last summer, a good friend of mine took me to Mexico on the back of his BMW R1150GS - we rode about 2500 miles from Phoenix all the way down to Barra De Navidad, then back up to Yelapa. That's where he dropped me off for the summer and where I became completely hooked.
(side note: if you're interested, I have some great pics from that trip - Mexico Road Trip 2008)

Since then, we've done some smaller trips around Arizona, down to El Golfo and Rocky Point. But, all of this was done on the BACK of his bike. It was cool for a while, but it wasn't long before I got the bug to get a bike of my own. And thus the seed was planted.

Now, I learned to ride a motorcycle when I was 4 years old, but its been a good 12-15 years since I've actually ridden by myself. So, I took a 3-day safety course run by TEAM OREGON (which was an AWESOME course and I would highly recommend it to anyone!). Afterwards, I felt pretty good about myself.

Like I said in an earlier post, over spring break, I bought myself a 2005 Yamaha FZ1... Its a beautiful bike, so shiny and pretty and FAST. Probably more power than I should have gotten for my first bike, but "go big or go home", that's what I always say. I took it out for a 4 hour ride to Bartlett Lake and Fountain Hills. That's all the time I've spent riding a motorcycle in 15 years. 4 hours.

Which brings me to my upcoming adventure this weekend... I live in Portland and my bike was purchased in Phoenix. So, for the last 3 weeks, I've been up here while my bike sits down there. NOT COOL!

I was supposed to have my motorcycle delivered to me this weekend by the same good friend down in Phoenix, but it turns how he has to race in Las Vegas on Saturday (in the Terrible 250)... now what's a girl to do? Well, if you're THIS girl, you fly down to Vegas, get on his chase team for the race, then ride the motorcycle back by yourself (in 2 days).

So, that's what I'm going to do this weekend. And I'll totally admit that I am pretty friggin' nervous about the whole adventure. Part of me thinks it's "at par" for what I do... but then another part of me thinks I might be getting in over my head. I am riding 1100 miles, by myself, through a few mountain passes, a little desert and a lot of open road. Lucky for me, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so I don't have to worry about that - its all the other factors that I'm stressing about.

Oh yeah... have I mentioned that its going to be an EPIC journey!

Mountains + desert + open road = HELL YEAH!!!

I can't think of a better way to break in my new bike...