There and Back

Sunday, April 3, 2011

t-16 days

Rear shot

These are photos of my first test load of my gear.

Right Shot

Left Shot

This morning the weather finally took a turn for the better. Temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 50's today and near 80 tomorrow. It was only about 40 this morning but since the sun was out I took advantage of it and loaded up the bike and made a slow and local test ride to check for balance of my load and to be sure nothing shook loose. Everything seems to be fine but I will need to make sure that I get the extra length of the straps either cut back or secured so they won't drag off the bike of flap around and damage the paint or get tangled up in something. Turned out the the camping gear fit better on the seat and the Kayakyn Bag sat better on the luggage rack. The plus is, that I now have extra room for another bag if I need it. I am getting really excited about the trip now. Still want to work on the packing of stuff into the bags so that they won't get wet when it rains while we are riding.

Friday, April 1, 2011

t-18 days

Moved departure date up one day to Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Since Ryder2 and I want to try and make it to New Orleans by Friday evening, I felt that it would be safer not to attempt to make it a 16 hours ride on Friday. So, I will leave NoVa in the AM and ride as far as I safely can (weather and traffic notwithstanding) and stay over in either SC or GA and then ride on down to Jacksonville on Thursday and then stay in Live Oak Thursday night and meet Ryder2 there on Friday and ride the 480 miles to New Orleans once he arrives. I should be well rested and with any luck we can make the first leg together a lot safer.

The plan is for now is to ride from New Orleans to San Antonio in a day and from San Antonio to El Paso in a day. The next leg from El Paso may end up at either Tucson, Phoenix or a little further west on I-10 in Arizona. From Arizona we will head over to Palm Springs for a stop and visit with my sister who will be vacationing with her family there at the same time we are traveling through. We haven't seen Gayle in a few years now and we are looking forward to the visit. Not sure if we are staying over there for a night or not, Depends on how much time we took to get this far. Ultimately, we plan on ending the Ocean to Ocean part of the trip in Oceanside, CA. This is the one place in California that I must see. (My place of birth and have never been there since I was 3 months old.)

Our next leg of the adventure is the ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to at least the San Francisco area. And we will spend some time in the Sonoma/Napa Valley, Giant Red Woods, etc. in California. The only plans for the return trip so far is to stop over in Santa Fe, NM from there who knows. At some point Ryder2 and I will take seperate roads back to our respective homes NoVA and Central FL but haven't gotten that far yet and we want to be flexible on the ride back. So we shall see where we end up.

Keep checking back after the 20th to see the pictures and comments about our trip.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

t-20 days

Got some good advice from Mike about securing my gear to the bike and protecting it from the rain.

I haven't really written much about my preparations for this trip, but thought I'd fill everyone in on some of the sites I checked out when looking for my camping gear. I started with a "google" search for motorcycle camping and found several sites that had lots of suggestions on what to pack and some even sold gear as well. I ordered 4 books from Whitehorse Press (motor cycle books and gear site) on camping and traveling distances on the bike and found even more good information on packing and preparation for the trip. Even the Harley Davidson site has Trip planning information. Some of the sites have tips and tricks on what should be taken and what should be left behind up to and including information on pulling a trailer with the bike. That was a bit much for me but I guess if you had two on a bike and were going for a long trip it might be a good choice. Below are just a sampling of the sites I investigated and these are the ones I found most useful. I've started looking into other Bloggs at this point for practical advice from other riders who have some experience with cross country riding and camping. Sites like the one on yesterday's post turned up some good information that seem better than what I have found fumbling around through books and other sites.

Well, that's all for today but will keep pecking away at this to share my trip with family and friends.

http://www.bigagnes.com/Products/SleepingBags

http://www.fullthrottlecamping.com/GooseDownSleepingBags/LostRanger

http://www.themotorbookstore.com/cross-country-motorcycle-riding.html

http://www.hoghaven.net/index.html

http://www.bikercamps.com/

http://koa.com/index.htm

http://www.alpurl.50megs.com/MC_Friendly_Camping.htm

http://www.bamarider.com/Long%20Distance%20Tips/long_distance_tips.htm

http://www.motorcyclecampingtips.com/

http://www.campmor.com/gear/tents.shtml

http://www.rei.com/

http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/Ride_Planner/Ride_Planner.jsp?locale=en_US&bmLocale=en_US&hbx_camp_id=hdredirect&urlvar=rideplanner&camp_id=16&source_cd=Vanity_rideplanner

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

t-21 days

http://2wheels2lanes1camera.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/how-to-pack-your-motorcycle-for-the-trip/

Found this blog site with information on packing up the bike. Seems to be very useful.

Well, still need to test load the bike with my gear and it doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate this week. Too cold - guess I am being a little wimpy. I am looking at sites for luggage rack enhancements to load some of the gear onto. I am not feeling real good about how I am going to get the back pack secured to the other back rest bag and to the bike itself. And then the issue of how to keep it all dry in a rain storm or in wet weather comes to mind. Both bags have rain covers but no way to cover two at once. With them tied onto the bike I can't get and the attached tie down points if they are covered to attach the bags to one another. I think that I will need to place the gear in the back pack in a water proof bag and put that into the back pack. Going to take some thought on that one. I sure don't want my sleeping bag and clothing to get wet.

Zip lock bags for clothing comes to mind and maybe very large trash bags will work too. More to come on thatt issue.

I am now trying to post something on a regular basis so that I will be sure to post photos and comments as we ride.

Talked with Ryder2 yesterday about our timing on meeting and about the California portion of the trip. I starting to get excited about leaving. This should be a great adventure for us.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

t-22 days

Well, it looks like this is really going to happen. The plan is to leave early on Thursday the 21st of April and get as close to Jacksonville as I can before stopping for the night. I have spent a lot of time trying to get my gear together and decide if we were really going to camp or not. Looks like Ryder2 wants to camp. So I bought a tent and sleeping bag and all sorts of other gear for the camping part. Deciding on what gear would work best was a journey in and of itself. I hope that I have made good choices.

Saturday, I set up camp in the basement and broke it all down and packed everything up for the bike. learned some valuable lessons. (It took more time than I expected and I was inside on a carpeted floor.) Don't know how that will play out in the field. My next challenge will be to load the bike up and secure it all to the bike. My saddle bag gear went in with out hitch. But I am not expecting the seat luggage or the pack with the camping gear to go on as well. (Rain protection is going to be tricky to install if it rains the rain stuff fits over one bag at a time and there are no openings for straps???) I will need to find a fix for this asap as there is no doubt we will ride in the rain at some point on this trip.

More to come.