Four states, 3,700 miles creates a lifetime of good memories and new friends
By Jeff Welch

I decided in January of ’07 to take up motorcycle riding. I had no previous experience on two wheels outside of my old 10-speed bicycle, but I was determined to pick up a new skill. At least that’s what I told myself. The truth is I’m actually a cheap bastard and couldn’t figure out how to tour the world without putting myself into bankruptcy and motorcycles seemed to be least expensive way to do it.

After determining what I thought would be the best beginner bike to start on, the Kawasaki Ninja 250, I took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation BRC and bought an ’06 Ninja. I had the usual bike drop issues (twice) and one “Holy crap, did I just crash?” moment, but after 6 months and 2,000 miles of riding I decided it was finally time to start my touring.

Using Google Earth, Microsoft’s Streets & Trips plus advice from several different online forums I managed to scare the crap out of friends and family by planning a 4-state 3,700 mile tour as my very first bike tour. It would cover parts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada & a really good chunk of California. I planned out every type of road condition I could think of, partly for the experience and partly because I wanted to see if I could actually do it. I had been told many times that a 250cc bike was far too small, uncomfortable, underpowered etc. for any kind of real touring. However I had seen photos of a man riding a Ninja 250 all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. So I knew it could in fact be done. So in Late August, 2007 I set out on my first real tour.

I left on my 4 state tour on August 24th riding my kickass 06' ninja 250. The original idea was to get in as much scenery & locations as possible with the time I had available. I had planned for 8 days and 3700 miles but with some changes I wound up with 9 1/4 days and 3,542 miles.

I left Phoenix about 5:30am and headed up to Monument Valley. I had planned to make it all the way to Bull Frog Marina North of Lake Powell, but with photo stops, gas, food etc. that definitely did not happen. I actually wound up riding over 100 miles at night in the canyons of Southern Utah. Do not try this. Between pitch black drop offs next to hairpin corners and no ambient light, you also have to contend with more friggin' animals than I think I've ever seen. There were ****ed off cows, bulls, bats (I kid you not) and I almost had my head taken off by an owl.