I would like to share my highlight of 2012. In May of 2012 I started rebuilding my 2008 Kaw Vulcan 900 that I had previously customized. I began building it for two up comfort and traveling. I added a UltraGlide seat, Rabbit Pullbacks thanks to Steffan at Zombie, built my own 36" sissybar, and fitted a 71 cb750 front fender to keep the rain down, there were lots of other changes and shit but I'll not list em. My girl and I loaded up on a Saturday morning and hit the road ran about 200 miles to visit some family in Lexington, KY an celebrate her daughters birthday, On the way my bike began getting super hot and cutting out, I stayed up till 2am trying to diagnose the problem and set the fan up on a manual switch. The next morning we blasted out to Paducah, KY to hit the Ol' MIss and follow her down south. We ran into Lake Arkabutla, MS and camped at the lake to relax and swim. We arrived to find that due to the huge drought there was no water in the lake. 6am, I was awake sweating and ready to blast, 9am my girlfriend was awake looking for coffee and wanting to relax, hahaha. Anyway, We ended up back on the road and headed into Clarksdale, MS. We visited the Blues Museum and hung out at Ground Zero for way too long drinking beer, then we blasted on down into Natchez to another campground. Once again, no swimming but we found plenty of cold beer and a nice little campfire. This time the wake up alarm was reversed and we headed to NOLA. Stopping a lot and chilling on the way down we finally made our way into NOLA. Staying at the Storyville Inn was a highlight. I really recommend this as a stay. Very affordable, sweet parking for bikes in a fenced/private lot right behind the INN with a small covered porch to chill and drink beer by. We hung out in NOLA for two days and nights and really enjoyed celebrating the 4th on the big MISS in NOLA. We then blasted out and into MS stopping by the Celtic Irish Pub in Pascagoula where my band had played on one of our tours in 08. It was neat to see the bartender/owner again. We ate at a world renowned fisherman's grocery and restaurant. After eating we headed on into Pensacola, FL to setup camp at Gulf Shore Island. We ran around for local dives and eats but got nothing but douchebaggerie and shitty beer. Oh well, i chatted with our neighboring campers about backyard chops and drank some cold ones before laying down. Luckily we were awaken by our big fucking storm that collapsed our tent on us and soaked most of what we had inside. We just layed there and said fuck it. Wet and disgruntled we got up, made coffee, did some laundry at the campsite grocery/laundromat, i played with some crabs and we decided to stick around longer and walk the beach and swim in the ocean. After delaying our leave by a few hours more than we had we headed back north. Around 9pm I noticed my bike was acting funny when shifting and stopping and I knew it was a clutch issue, so I used my clutch as little as possible. Finally, near 10pm it caved and my clutch cable broke. So out came vise grips and black tape. We chose to get a hotel in Montgomery and look for a bike shop the following morning. We swung by Adams Motorsports on Northeastern BLVD, they were more than welcoming and spent a good amount of time trying to find a cable that I could use or calling friends to find something similar, finally they mix matched some cables and parts to create something to get me home. FREE OF CHARGE!!! What awesome people! Needless to say we were very far behind schedule and needed to haul ass so I got on interstates and hammered. We stopped at a small mom and pop bbq joint somewhere around Nashville to fill up and blast on back to Lexington. We arrived around 3am, my girlfriend got her cage and around 9am I headed back to Eastern Kentucky to rest and get ready for work the next day. We had 9 days, roughly 3600 miles, and 5 nights camping. It was the most fun I've had all year. I got closer to my girl and saw some amazing places.