Most the time as a motorcyclist we always say “it’s all about the journey, not the destination.” That was clearly not the case yesterday as I traveled across the country to California from Massachusetts.
The Journey
I was dropped off at Boston’s Logan Airport by one half of the Hungry Mouse team: The Angry Chef and their new fluffy addition, Miss Penelope.
Penolope
I arrived with much time to spare before my flight. Had an overpriced yogurt for breakfast. Cracked open a new book and began reading through sleepy eyes (didn’t get much sleep the night before). Then boarded the plane, snapped myself into my seat and waited nervously for the plane to take off. Once in the air I…Zzzzz. Yup, fell asleep on and off for the next five hours while the two guys next to me chatted like ladies at a book club meeting.
Connecting flight was in Phoenix AZ. High temperatures of 103 degrees during the day. Wha…? Whoa. This would be one day I’m glad I’m not staying in Phoenix…
The second flight was only an hour but I seriously couldn’t wait to get both my feet on the ground again.
The Destination
Made it to Santa Barbara airport and first thing that struck me was: all of the mountains and how mild the weather was. Oh, and the airport is pretty small too, but very nice.
Welcome to Santa Barbara
There was a hotel shuttle waiting to take me to Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort. It’s a beautiful, sprawling resort on 25 acres of land with all the amenities you could ask for, not to mention a beach right across the street. This is the first time that Honda has ever done something like this aimed at consumers and they’re doing it up right so far.
Fess Parker's DoubleTree Resort
After getting settled in I notice a big Honda trailer and tent set up in the parking lot behind my room so I head out to say hello to all the Honda folks and some of the other lucky contestants here to ride this VFR1200. My first impression: these guys are hardcore fans. They’re talking about all the different generations of the VFR, lots of tech specs, specific gear and helmets and some have encountered each other on different sport-touring message boards.
I start to feel dreadfully out of place. But I’m not discouraged.
Later in the evening comes the meet and greet with the Honda folks. They are all pretty generous and gracious. There’s a pretty extensive and informative presentation with a little history about Honda and the engineering behind the VFR1200 DCT and 1200F. Clearly they are excited about this model, which I’ll go more in depth about in a future post.
presentation slide
The group starts firing out a lot of questions. I felt like I was at a Comic-Con with a bunch of Trekkies firing questions about what episode in the Original Series can you see the U.S.S. Enterprise is seen orbiting a planet from right to left, only these are motorcycle fans. They were getting pretty granular about what they were asking. And the Honda folks were nothing less than delighted.
goodie bags
Honda schwag
We then had a lovely dinner, many drinks and were split up into riding groups for the next day. I will be riding in the second group which will head out in the afternoon. We will get the opportunity to ride both models of the bike while we’re out.
Honda VFR1200F and DCT
Then we’ll find out if this baby is worth the hype!
Stay tuned for an in-depth post about the bike and my ride experience. In the meantime, if you’re on Twitter follow @HondaPowersports!