Smell roses, drink coffee, stop-to-pee old man’s ride

Background – 24 years ago, August 18, 1997 and Sept 2, 1997, Jim Valentine (1995 HD FLT) and I (1998 HD FLHTCI Electra Glide Classic, 687 OD miles) completed the SCMA USA Four Corners in 15 days.  Our route started in San Ysidro CA, Blane WA, Madawaska ME, and finished in Key West FL.  Our route totaled 7,421 miles with 11.5 riding days.  We spent 3.5 days visiting and touring.  This averages 647 miles per day!

My brother Dennis Gary retired at the end of 2018.  He wanted to celebrate his retirement by riding the USA Four Corners.  I had completed a USA Four Corners back in 1997 with Jim Valentine.  It was an amazing adventure with lots of memories.  Dennis Gary asked if I wanted to go?  I thought this would be a good way to re-bond with my brother in our old age!  This ride will not be like the 1997 USA Four Corners where we did 700-800 mile days.  This will be a smell roses, drink coffee, stop-to-pee old man’s ride.  We are planning to visit family & friends, and maybe look for big balls of string, tee-pees, forks in the road, Cadillac’s on end, muffler men, roadside dinosaurs, flying saucers, two-headed calves or snakes with feet.

We signed up and received our USA Four Corners Tour instructions, flag for 2019.  Click the blue link if you want to learn more about Southern California Motorcycling Association’s USA Four Corners Tour.

Of course, we got distracted in 2019 and chose to postpone the ride to 2020.  Then COVID-19 reared its ugly head and we to wait till the pandemic was over.  Now it 2021, we have all our vaccinations and we’re going.  I mentioned to JimmyV that I was riding the Four Corners again and he got interested again.  He got so interested, he took an early retirement to be free on the road!  To balance thing out, Rick joined us last week!  This gives us 2 pairs to simplify rooming and riding partners.

The USA Four Corners Tour rules are simple, you have 21 days to ride your motorcycle to these four cities around the country; Blaine, Washington, Madawaska, Maine, Key West, Florida and San Ysidro, California. You may start in any one of the corners, any time of year that you want, taking any route you wish.

I’m riding up to visit family for 3 days them meet Gary at his home on Camano Island, WA.

JimmyV and Rick will join us as we ride to Blaine, WA for our first corner on Sat, June 24, 2021.  The riders are:

1. Dennis Gary Tanji, 72, 1994 HD FLSTF Fatboy, 117.5K mi
2. Dean Tanji, 75, 2016 Honda CB500XA, 20K mi
3. Jim Valentine, 62, 2018 HD Road Glide Spec., 13K mi
4. Rick Lane, 68, 2018 HD Road Glide

This is a very rough estimate of total mileage:

1. Dean, Jim & Rick start from SoCal. 0 mi
2. Blaine WA…………………………………. 1,600 mi
3. San Ysidro CA…………………………… 1,400 mi
4. Key West FL……………………………… 2,900 mi
5. Madawaska ME………………………….. 2,900 mi
6. Chicago IL…………………………………. 1,500 mi
7. Route 66 back to Santa Monica pier 2,500 mi
8. Dennis Gary rides north to home so total miles will be similar

12,800 miles +/- 10%