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August 11, 2014
Day 24 - Rolling on to Vancouver down the Sea-to-Sky Highway (99)
KAL Tire got my front tire fixed and I'm rolling. Should make it to Vancouver today, God willing and the river don't rise.
Some quick observations about being broken down:
- It's all fun and games until the bike fails to proceed. Then things like food, water, and shelter come into focus.
- When you're wearing your riding gear, you can walk up to the meanest most-bad-ass looking men on Harleys and they will talk to you like a long lost brother. When you're not wearing your riding gear, they will shun you like an orphan.
- When you go into a curve in a remote canyon in a foreign country and your front tire loses pressure, no matter how tough you think you are, you'll be as scared as a little girl checking for monsters under her bed, because you've just found a shiny new nightmare.
- When you need cell coverage, you won't have it.
- Everything you take onto the road will fail. It's only a matter of time.
- Nothing gets better on its own. Everything that bothers you requires time, attention, and effort to correct.
- Sleeping more will not make you less tired.
- Your motorcycle requires more attention than a woman. Every time you stop for gas, you should spend every free second checking the oil, tire pressure, or cleaning the bike. Inattention to the slightest detail will cause the bike to toss you into a desert canyon alone in an area with no cell coverage.
- If you have something, but don't know where it is, then you don't have it.
- If you think you have something, but it's not where you think it is, then you don't have it.
- Anything you need at any point in time will be in the least accessible part of your packed gear.
- Even if you don't have a plan, you're going to end up somewhere. But without a plan, you may not like where you end up.
- If you need food and water, you'll only have it if you had the sense to buy it at the last gas station.
- If you're traveling through a foreign country without local currency, you're an idiot
- If you're not sure what country you're in, you probably shouldn't be traveling at all, much less alone.
- If you're riding with a friend, you'll be better off in so many ways there aren't words
- The friendships formed on the road are more intense than the friendships you form at home. They're forged in the furnace of the open road, similar to friendships forged in combat. It's not like a being at home. It's very much different than that.
Thanks, Ben, for turning back to save my ass. :)
Posted by Rob Kiser on August 11, 2014 at 11:09 AM
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