Click on the map to see route details

In 1974, I bought a brand new Kawasaki 900 motorcycle. I was working as a painter, and decided to go back to college. The summer before I returned to college, I took my motorcycle on a trip around the United States.

This site provides the information that I have about my trip. I started working on this site when I found in my basement a United States map on which I had traced my route. The map is now over 30 years old, and the route was faded. I thought that documenting my trip on the internet would be a good way to preserve the map of my route, photos, and any other information I might have about my trip.

Me and my Kawasaki 900, prior to departing on my trip around the USA.

I began transcribing the route from the Rand McNally 1:4,000,000 map (1 inch equals 65 miles) to a custom My Map in Google Maps, and quickly learned some of the limitations of Google Maps. Tracing the entire route on a single map evidently has too much information for Google Maps to manage, so I had to create a series of maps each representing one segment of the trip. Each yellow push pin represents where I stopped and spent the night. Clicking on the small image of the map above takes you to a larger image where you can click on a point on the route to see a more detailed map representing a segment of the entire trip.

I plan to eventually add photos from the trip to this site.

Also, I know that I have copies of the gasoline purchase receipts somewhere. As I traveled, each time I purchased gas I used a credit card. In those days, the gasoline companies sent carbon copies of the original purchase receipts with the monthly bill. I intentionally purchased all of my gas using these credit cards so that I would have a record of my route. When I find these receipts, my plan is to add them to the Google Map segments using push pins of a particular cover.