After making the Southern Leg of the tour longer by about a week, I realized that it was the first of the legs. There’s not much chance to get used to traveling when you have to do it for 24 days straight. So I moved it to August. Yeah, riding in the deep south in August is going to be hot, but could be worse. I think.

I then created another leg I’m calling “Down the Shore.” Here it is:

*Day One – Easton, PA
*Day Two – Asbury Park, NJ
*Day Three – Seaside Heights, NJ
*Day Four – Ocean City, NJ
*Day Five – Rehoboth, DE
*Day Six – Ocean City, MD
*Day Seven – Bel Air, MD
*Day Eight – Home

It’s a quick eight day jaunt. This will probably be my first trip and will probably happen in May or early June.

My Northern Leg will happen a week or so after this one.

This is the last leg that I’ll be adding. There is, of course, the five days at Gettysburg that happen from June 30 – July 4. But I’m not counting that as a larger trip. It was going to be part of the southern leg, but since I moved it to August, it’s not happening that way.

Is it not smart to do the Southern Leg in August?

Oh, and I’m almost set on a name (thanks to Calder). “The Went Out for a Ride and I Never Came Back Tour” It’s from the Springsteen song “Hungry Heart.” I’m still not convinced that “The You’re Not a Beauty, but Hey You’re Alright Tour” isn’t more fitting. It’s funny. I think I’ll use one as the main title and use the other somewhere on the page. I don’t know yet. We shall see.
I haven’t figured out the exact dates of any of this (except the last leg).

I’ve been kicking around the idea of naming this trip (this cluster of trips) this summer/fall. My first choice was “The Hello I Must Be Going Tour.” You know, after the Groucho Marx song. PJ called his the Ramble. Which was partly named after his scooter (called Ramblin’ Man – after the Hank Williams song) and partly from: “Roaming Around My Beloved Land, Exploring.”

Anyway, I was going to name it after the Groucho song since That’s sort of how the whole trip will be, “Hello, I must be going.” But then I  thought of the roots for this trip, what really got me wanting to take off and leave home. That was The Boss. Yep, Springsteen. So I decided that a line from a Springsteen song should also serve as the name for my trip. But which line? Which song?

So far, I’ve come up with “The You Ain’t a Beauty, But Hey You’re Alright Tour.” I like long names. And it’s one of my favorite lines. It’s from “Thunder Road,” a song about trying to convince a girl to leave town with you. No, “You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright” may not be the cleverest way to convince a gal to do something, and by the end of the song, we still don’t know if he won her over (I’m betting not).

Before and after that, I poured over Springsteen songs trying to find the perfect line. I found tons of great lines if I were traveling with someone else. But I’m not. And that realization combined with a couple of hours of doing nothing but reading Springsteen lyrics got me kind of down and lonely.

Most of Springsteen’s songs about leaving town are about leaving town with someone (or just not being able to leave town at all – which kind of disqualifies them as a good idea to use for a trip during which I’m leaving town).  I’m leaving town by myself and I’m not all that into treating my scooter as a human being. Though “You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright” does indeed fit the description.

Another thought is “The Wide Open Country in My Eyes Tour,” from the song “No Surrender“.  The song is one hell of an anthem and possibly the best cut on the last true Bruce Springsteen album (which could use a kick ass remastering job, if you ask me).

I thought of “The Promised Land” of course. That song probably fits the whole mood of the trip best. Actually, that song is probably the thing most responsible for me wanting to leave.

And it’s not like there are tons of folks out there with reels of Springsteen songs in their heads who could help with this. Maybe Calder, but he doesn’t read my blog.  Ugh… I’ll think of something.

Also working on a new leg. Short trip “down the shore.” More on that later.