June 20 - How is that little motorcycle working out??

So the question on everyone's mind as we travel is "How is that Kawasaki working out". I am currently at 22,260 miles on this little bike and it is awesome.
Some history. I have been doing long distance motorcycle riding for a long time. When I was 19 my buddy Pete (stubborn never give up Pete) and I did a 10K circumnavigation of the USA. Dump 19 year olds with no money sleeping on picnic tables and roadsides for 6 weeks. Cheap Japanese bikes (Honda 650 & Suzuki 550 "two-smoke"). Too dumb to know or worry about what could go wrong. This kid has been my inspiration for along time. He went 11K miles on a moped from Toronto to Alaska. There is something inspiring about youth "too dumb to know" that what they are attempting is not possible and then doing it anyway. Check out this crazy woman on a Yamaha 225 and this nut job on a Honda CRF250 going around the planet on these small bikes.

So I have been riding a BMW R100RT for the last 20 years and have accumulated over 100K miles on it. My mechanic sorta suggested it was getting a little long in the tooth, and I have been wondering the same when sitting on a back road in Kansas with an old BMW under me.
My son bought this a year ago and disappeared on it for 3 months riding it 16K miles in that time across the US to Vancouver, the Southern California, the back across country to the Florida Keys and then arriving home in a snowstorm in October last fall. So I started riding this 300 cc wonder and fell in love with it. So here is my list of reasons for riding long distance on a smaller bike

• I can pick it up off the ground. 
• I don't have to tipi-toe around in parking lots praying I do not drop it
• I can go up gravel, no make that mud, goat paths and not worrying about my skeletal remains being found 6 months later.
• It gets 67 MPG
• Kawasaki did not print "X-300" on it so people think it's a 650.
• The older I get, the slower I go, and this guy keeps the top speed in check.
• I can go 80 if I need to, but it is most comfortable going 50-60.
• Going slower means a lot safer.
• Going slower means you spend more time "rubbernecking" and less time scanning for critters and road trash and un-attentive drivers pulling out in front of you.
• When you go slower than the other traffic, there is always a big opening in front of you. Back in my crotch-rocket days, I would end up close behind the next guy I had to pass, all day long. Sometime people stack up behind you abut it's easy to let them go by.
• The point of the trip is the trip, not just getting to your destination. Stop for coffee more, stop and read those roadside historical markers, Go back and take that picture you wanted to take. Slow down and see all the great hings going by. Slow down!!

So this bike has circumnavigated the lower 48 and now I am taking it again to the west coast and back. In those three bags on the back I have tools, clothes, tent and sleeping stuff, rain stuff, and even a stove to stop and make coffee and watch sunrises or sunsets or prairie dogs or cattle or babbling brooks.

Not a bolt has vibrated loose, nothing has failed, I just keep the chain lubed once a day and change the oil every 8K miles or so.

I have 4 weeks to go so I'll keep you posted.