I visited several Honda dealers in the Seattle area in March and April of 1995, and ended up getting the shim-sham from nearly all of them. They'd say that the bike sells incredibly well and that Honda only gives them a few each year, and all of their allotment had been spoken for. One dealer even accused me of not being serious—I guess, because I wasn't walking in to plunk down a cheque for whatever he asked for right at that minute.
I stumbled into University Honda and assumed the worst: there were no VFR's on the floor, so I started whining. A salesman (who, as it turns out, was actually the owner) came over, and said that he had dozens. There were four in the back, one just being picked up and one just being uncreated to get set up. We negotiated a little, and then I popped the question: I wanted to buy the bike here and have it delivered to my brother's place in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Things got a little wobbly, but we struck a deal. I put a bunch of money down and stopped by a couple of times later with the balance. I bought a plane ticket. After two long months of waiting, I was finally ready: it was time to fly east to pick up my new bike and ride it back to Washington. Here's detailed accounts of what happened on each day of the trip:
| Date | Start City | Stop City | Mileage |
| Friday, June 23, 1995 | Seattle, Washington | Virginia Beach, Virginia | (flown) |
| Saturday, June 24, 1995 | Virginia Beach, Virginia | Henderson, North Carolina | 217.0 |
| Sunday, June 25, 1995 | Henderson, North Carolina | Gainesville, Georgia | 401.0 |
| Monday, June 26, 1995 | Gainesville, Georgia | Gadsden, Alabama | 204.0 |
| Tuesday, June 27, 1995 | Gadsden, Alabama | Clarksdale, Mississippi | 362.4 |
| Wednesday, June 28, 1995 | Clarksdale, Mississippi | Texarkana, Texas | 274.4 |
| Thursday, June 29, 1995 | Texarkana, Texas | Wichita Falls, Texas | 309.1 |
| Friday, June 30, 1995 | Wichita Falls, Texas | Tucumcari, New Mexico | 344.8 |
| Saturday, July 1, 1995 | Tucumcari, New Mexico | Tuba City, Arizona | 591.5 |
| Sunday, July 2, 1995 | Tuba City, Arizona | Las Vegas, Nevada | 394.4 |
| Monday, July 3, 1995 | Las Vegas, Nevada | Orem, Utah | 408.9 |
| Tuesday, July 4, 1995 | Orem, Utah | Boisie, Idaho | 395.1 |
| Wednesday, July 5, 1995 | Boisie, Idaho | Bellevue, Washington | 517.3 |
| Total: | 4419.9 |
Some of the days don't have jumps because I'm not done transcribing my notes yet.
These are transcriptions of my real journal entries. I did not bring a computer with me: my vacation was to get away from computers. I'm not a nerd, and I'm not really that important anyway: there's no reason to for you to see what the view would be from the top of my front fender every five minutes of the day. My journal entries often contain personal reflection and sensitive insights. When I've felt uncomfortable with their content, I've edited them before posting them here. What's here is still the work of my own two hands, so please treat it (and me) with respect.
Last modified on 5 July, 1997.