« Is it wrong to end a sentence with a preposition? No. | Main | NXNW Motorcycle Trip - Day 1: 'Dodging Bears' »
May 31, 2012
NXNW Motorcycle Trip - Day 0: 'Chomping at the bit'
I hoped to get away on the bike today, but instead, I slept in and wasn't the least bit prepared to start off on a big motorcycle journey across the Northwest.
I'd done pretty much nothing all week, except sleep and watch reruns of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I also managed to watch "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", which I found painfully tedious.
Finally, I decided that I needed to start preparations for my next big motorcycle adventure, but I had so much to do, there just was no way I could possibly get away today.
The bike is in a tragic state of disrepair. Missing a turn signal. Missing a few bolts on the rear rack. Needs oil change. Tires. Air filter. You name it. Needs a lot of TLC.
Cameras are all hosed. Full of images I've never bothered to copy off. Laptop and iPad just both full of junk that needs to be moved onto the home RAID for posterity.
I go online and order everything I wish I had...pannier mounts, more camera straps, CF cards, Canon 600mm lens case, chargers for the iPad 3. Just scads of trinkets that I need and don't have.
Copy all the photos off onto the home network. Synchronize the date/time stamps for MDT across all the cameras. Check that the batteries are all charged. Lenses cleaned. Lens caps. Spare lens caps. Filters. Spare filters. Camera battery chargers and extra batteries.
Decided I'd wash some clothes. Pay some bills. People always have their hands out, don't they? Pay the mortgage in Colorado. Pay the rent in San Francisco. Bills. Bills. Bills.
Installed Left Rear-view mirror on bike. Installed Left turn signal. Mounted Givi case on bike. This bike has an issue with vibration on long rides, which caused me some grief last year once I got to Yosemite. Some bolts tend to vibrate loose around the mounting screws on the Givi case/rear rack/rear turn signals.
Mounted the GPS on the bike using a slightly better method to mount it on the bike this time. Stuck an extra little rear-view mirror on the left side and stuck the GPS on that. Wired it into the system using the same method from last year - basically, I wired a female cigarette lighter adapter to the battery and then plugged my car adapter into this. Not pretty, but it works.
I did all of this work on my bike in the garage, paying special attention to what tools were used. I figure that, at a bare minimum, I have to take these tools with me on the road.
My plan is roughly, to hit Rocky Mountain National Park, Jackson, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, Crater Lake, Oregon, and finally end up in San Francisco in about 10 days or so.
Posted by Rob Kiser on May 31, 2012 at 5:22 PM
Comments