Next Spring, Summer and Fall – Ratha Yatras, History and Racing on a Scooter

I know it’s early, but I’m someone who likes to plan ahead. And while my plans for this past summer crashed in some historic ways, it doesn’t deter me from planning ahead for next spring/summer/fall.

I’ll be selling all four of my scooters and my bus and buying a Vespa GTS250. It is super reliable and can easily carry me wherever I need to be.

It’s really great that I can combine my love of scooters with Krishna. It makes me so happy. I’m not just riding around (which I love to do), I’m riding around following the Ratha Yatras (which I also love to do). Sure there are some other stops along the way, but I’m mostly excited about following the Raths.

And so my schedule is as follows –

Mid April – Early May – Southern Scooter trip
I’d like to hit the south, visiting a few friends, my sister and a few temples.

May 10 in Bloomsburg, PA for Nikki and Sarah’s graduation
Can’t really miss this. I’ll then be home for most of May (probably traveling a bit, hopefully).

June for East Coast Ratha Yatras
I’ll probably be zig-zagging across the mid-Atlantic, from Chicago to New York to who knows where else. The Ratha Yatra schedule has not been set just yet.

June 30 – July 4 in Gettysburg for 145th Anniversary
Geeky, I know, but I could see myself flying out to see this every couple of years. I enjoy it quite a lot. Big history buff.

July for remainder of East Coast Ratha Yatras
The DC Ratha Yatra is always on July 4. I’m not sure that I’ll definitely make it, but I’d like to. After DC, who knows – that will have to be planned later.

August ride out west for some West Coast Ratha Yatras
I’m not sure of the route here. It all depends on if there will be Western Canadian Ratha Yatras in 2008. It will be clearly too hot to do the desert.

Aug 24 – Sept 7 fly to New Vrndavana for Janmastami – Radhastami
This is a long shot, but I’d like to fly out to New Vrndavana for Janmastami. But I don’t know where I’ll be then and where I’ll park the scooter. However, I’d really like to make it.

Sept 11 – Sept 20 Cannonball Run from San Francisco, CA to Rehoboth Beach, DE
The reason I’d have to fly out for Janmastami, etc is because I’d have to fly back if I want to do Cannonball Run 2008. Cannonball Run is a scooter race that happens once every other year. In 2008, it will be from San Francisco, CA to Rehoboth Beach, DE. After the Run, I could visit with my parents and friends in PA for a bit and rest up. Then…

October for Scoot 66
I’ve been planning this for YEARS. The only time to really do it is in May or September. Any other time, it’s too cold or too hot. Basically, I’d ride 2,300 miles from Chicago to Oklahoma City to LA, following Route 66. It would be ideal to do this while traveling west with the Festival of India for the Ratha Yatras, but it will be HOT if they take the southern route.

November in Seattle
I’d ride up the coast on Highway 1 and US 101 to Seattle.

That’s the plan for now. And if you’re following along, you’ll see that I’m crossing the country a total of six times. Four on a scooter, two on a plane.

Now, I’m not naive enough to think that everything will happen like this. More than likely, the first things to go would be the Cannonball Run, followed by Scoot 66. And that would mean that I wouldn’t ride back to the east coast at the end of summer.

And of course, travel means little if you can’t stop at temples. I’ve not really checked to see how many temples there are that I could be hitting (since I don’t have my routes planned), but I’d hit as many as I could. Mostly, I’ll be camping and relying on friends and well wishers and their floors and spare rooms for lodging.

I’ll keep updating this as things change. No matter what happens, it will be a much better time than this past summer where nothing happened at all. You’ll find the updates on the right hand sidebar.