Updated May 12 2008
New update -- One more joining us!
843,794 visitors since March, 2004
7th Annual Florida/Alaska Motorcycle Run July 3-28, 2008
Hi ... I'm Mike Tuccelli and I would like to invite you to join us this year or a future year on an adventure ... North to Alaska!!! Just look at the photo to your right ... imagine over FOUR HUNDRED miles of wild desolate beauty to the Arctic Ocean! What is an adventure without challenges? (You can chicken out when you get to Fairbanks and go someplace else more civilized such as Anchorage or Homer ... but put some life in your years and join us! Can't make it this year? If you wait until 2030, maybe all the glaciers will be gone! Check 2009 if you want to go next year instead. Not coming? Please tell me what I can do to meet your expectations.
There is a neat radio show on motorcycles! The program is aired Tuesday evenings 9 eastern over the net with listeners in China, Australia, through out Europe, and the Americas. The last hour of the program is all about riders their trips, adventures, sometimes perils and such. This 7th Annual Florida/Alaska Benefit Run was broadcast April 8 and we hope to get more riders to join us!
www.sidestandup.com
On the Alaska Highway, you will be admiring eagles, bears, wolves, caribou, buffalo and mountain sheep as you drive. You will be dodging frost heaves, pot holes and enjoying rest stops at the unique lodges which welcomes you with the aroma of home made bread and serious coffee. You can read what were live updates from 2004 to 2007 in "Trip Notes" button at the upper left of this page.
Once you arrive in Fairbanks, you can drive to Denali and Anchorage and Homer and Valdez. At Denali, you can take the shuttle into the park to spot glaciers and bears, and gaze up at Mount McKinley. The more you see and do in Alaska, the more you will want to join us every year.
What to do? If you drive south of Anchorage, you will see Turnagain Arm and it's heart-grabbing scenery with Russian Orthodox villages. If you want to stay around Fairbanks, go about 100 miles east and find Chena Hot Springs and its enormous boulders which surround a big, steamy outdoor pool. If you want serious bragging rights, take the Dalton Highway North to Deadhorse. Try Dalton for 20 miles. If you are still game, keep going about three hours and you will reach the Arctic Circle. Keep going and you will reach the Beaufort Sea and outbrag even the Alaska Highway crowd. Biker wannabes do events such as Sturgis, Daytona Beach, etc. but serious bikers will do this! Darryl Petrack made it to Deadhorse on his Baby Wing in 2007! You can now see a link for his photos so you can admire his determination and excitement! Do read the 2007 updates, though and feel his excitement and determination in his detailed notes.
Join this 2008 adventure which will be a direct route to Alaska, leaving St. Augustine, FL July 3, 2008 (you can join us at any of the overnight stops listed below) and going thru Columbia MO, thru North Dakota, then the TransCanadian highway, thru Edmonton, AB, to Fairbanks, AK, arriving July 10. There, we will stay for a week, taking in the sites. Bikers can decide among themselves if they want a group or solo ride (please read Darryl's log on the 2007 trip notes) to Prudhoe Bay, to Homer, Anchorage, etc.
The return trip will go through Logan, Utah where SKIHI will have a mini run festival. The last time, they had a live band, great food, door prizes and a police escorted mini-run.
Here is a working link for photos of a trip Patrick Henry took with his 250 cc Suzuki with me! As of February 9, photos of previous trips As of February 18, more photos from Dave Stufflebeam. As of March 17 photos from Darryl Petrack. We would then drive to Logan, Utah to join their mini-run on Thursday, July 24. We would go thru Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, then be back in St. Augustine, Florida on or about July 28. If you live within a day's drive from Logan, Utah, why not have your motorcycle chapter do a run to Logan July 24 and join the festivies? Contact SKIHI for coordinating this.
You, of course, can jump in at any of the 20 or so check in points as listed below and leave at anytime. Kickstands up by 6 or 7 a.m. each day (meaning get your bikes ready and have your breakfast) ... this will allow us several hours of "wiggle room" in case of breakdowns, bad weather, etc. so we can get to our destination before dark. As always, you can cut off from the main group and do "side trips" to points of interest en route. You can sleep in late and leave and catch up with us at the next stop. Another nice thing about arriving at our destinations early is that if we see a brand new hotel with introductory cheap rates, we can cancel our reservation and take advantage of cheaper rates.
Here how it would work. You register online at DrSign.com. We will correspond via email so we will know if you want a room-mate, etc. You then meet us before departure time at the designated site. Simple, hey?
Registration is just $50 and includes a ride T shirt and a souvenir DVD. This is a "fly by the seat of your pants" tour led by a guide who made six Florida/Alaska trips the past six years. As of today, seven or eight bikers are coming!
One biker asked about costs. Well, aside from the $50 registration cost, it is how you budget. If you are willing to share a room with three others ... your share of the room would be 15 to 35 percent. With the average room at $100, that's $15 to $35 per night. As for me, I am taking a sleeping bag so you can have a nice comfy bed <g>. As for gas, let's plan for a scenario of $4 per gallon for gas. At an average of 500 miles per day, you would buy 10 to 14 gallons of gas. That's $40 to $52.
Did you know that there is an alternate to this bike trip? You can fly into Anchorage and have a two week tour! Including airfare, meals and this tour, it would be $12,000 or thereabouts. They supply the bikie, tour guide, maintenance, and other nice benefits but you still are responsible for virtually all of your meals.
This $50 Florida/Alaska Benefit Run registration includes a 2-hour DVD, an amateur guide with lots of enthusiasm, proceeds help parents of deaf and/or blind babies, at least one free meal (Logan, Utah with others pending), arrangements for rooms where you can pay as little as $10 per night, and you can bring your Tupperware container with your snacks which will be kept in an ice chest to keep costs further down. Makes this $50 cheapie a great deal, hey?
Now for meals ... most restaurants have their best prices for lunch so if you do as I do ... at evening stops, go to the local deli, pick up some food items, make snacks, put them in your quart-size leakproof tupperware container, put that in the ice chest which I will bring along ... use the hotel's coffee and eat a light snack ... stop for lunch at a fast food place (a double cheeseburger for a $1 or Subway's daily special, etc. or a buffet at, say, $6.99), and then eat take-out pizza or snacks in our rooms at night, I can see this at $20 or less per day. So, your daily costs would be $100 per day at the most and possibly as low as $75.
When you register, I will send you a form to fill out to see which segments you will ride in, whether you want a private room with your traveling companion, or if you want to share a room with up to three others. See this link for room-mate information. For example, two bikers want their own bed, and two others are willing to take sleeping bags. So the two bikers taking beds pay 35% each and the other two bikers taking the floor (hey, I'm a grandfather and yet I took the floor last year!) in their sleeping bag/air mattress at 15% each. For example, if we did that at Chattanooga, TN, then the guys or gals taking the sleeping bag would only have to pay only seven bucks!
Bring cash? Not necessary. One trip, I was able to charge EVERYTHING on my credit card. Check with your credit card company and see how much they charge for currency conversion and take the best deal. The exchange rate fluctuates daily so if you take Canadian cash with you, you will have to pay the exchange rate plus a fee and if the exchange rate goes down, you are out of luck. On the other hand, if the exchange rate goes up during the trip, you will be fine ... so I suggest you watch the exchange rate during June and if it looks as if the dollar is becoming stronger, go with the credit card. On another note, advise your credit card company of this trip so they won't freeze your card on suspection of fraudelent activity. Take at least two cards. If you plan to go North to Prudhoe Bay, I suggest cash.
The schedule is on the next page
Here's a photo of a lodging North of the Arctic Circle!
