On Tuesday 29th July members of Erimus rotary were taken on a journey across the USA from Chicago to San Diego courtesy of John Godley. A former police motorcyclist, John described his travel along America’s first paved transcontinental road on a 1300 cc Honda motorbike .
On Tuesday 29th July members of Erimus rotary were taken on a journey across the USA from Chicago to San Diego courtesy of John Godley. A former police motorcyclist, John described his travel along America’s first paved transcontinental road on a 1300 cc Honda motorbike .
Originally the route was travelled by immigrants seeking the ‘Land of Milk and honey’ in California ,John explained that today despite its tarmac origins being laid down i 1927 it is celebrated as one of the US most historic artefacts.
Amongst the footnotes to history which surfaced in his talk was the fact that President Eisenhower transformed the iconic route from a dusty freeway to an interstate superhighway to enable military transport in times of emergency.
Route 66 has now become a popular rite of passage for many tourists mounted on Harley-Davisons with raised bars - unlike our speaker who travelled the whole route carrying his own kit and observed his counterparts loading their machines onto trailers for overnight transportation across less interesting sections.
John’s epic journey subsequently took him North up the Pacific Coast Highway to Seattle and then onward and Eastward across the TransCanada Highway, a total of 8,900 miles.
John’s trusty motorcycle steed gave no trouble throughout this extraordinary marathon but after being transshipped back home to Teesside and the wheels removed for a tyre change the rear wheel bearing simply fell out - perhaps not unreasonably not willing to ‘Go the extra mile!
A vote of thanks was offered by President Joe Guerin and endorsed by a round of applause. Picture shows John with his Honda