• Work stress
• Dealing with the final arrangements from my dad’s stuff
• Trip to San Francisco (which, truth be told should have been up here in the first place… soon)
• Emotions from the bike incident

Progressive came through for me and bought my bike. Their original offer was for $12,300. Eventually they wrote a check for $17,750 with the custom parts and equipment. So with that I have a new bike. A nice new 2009 R1200GS Adventure is sitting in my garage while waiting for the great outdoors to thaw a bit more. I still have some of the bits and bobs that I have to mount on the new bike that I’ve not gotten to yet. I’m mostly done though. It’s just like the old one except it has five more ponies (my butt dyno can’t feel it) and it’s red instead of white (a total of 3 plastic parts are different colors). I’d be happier with my old bike though — I know how it behaved, I know it was a good bike and not a lemon.

I think I’m going to call up to Labrador to see if I can’t buy back my wheels. That’d be pretty damn cool to have two sets of wheels and tires for my bike. Mmmm… knobbies.

At this point En and I are starting to make plans for this summer’s trip. We’re thinking of mainly aiming for the Smoky Mountains and branching out from there. I just ordered travel guides from a whole host of states around there: Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. I know: dead trees. They whet the apetite so though.

The nice thing is that it’s relatively close by — less than a day’s drive to get out there. According to the Google it takes less than 10 hours to get there. So even if you stretch it out it’s less than two days away! Hell, I drove down to Spencer, NC in less then a day and that was taking the long and scenic route through some twisty West Virginia mountain roads!

The nice thing about going so comparatively close is that we really can take our time.

Really. �

My mom, my brother and I went down through there when I was growing up. We were heading down to see my dad down in Pompano Beach, FL. I must’ve been around 13 or 14 at the time. Between Cleveland and Florida was a lot of fun.

We stopped by the New River Gorge Bridge and did some rafting on the New River. Retiring back to the hotel in Cades Cove we stopped by a mini golf joint and played a round or two — the only reason I think I remember it is that the poor old Civic was parked on a steep grade and left in 1st gear. Slowly gravity won over the compression of the engine and the car was creeping back. Over the course of the game the Civ nearly walked back to the street.

This trip was just about the perfect trip from what I remember. Very much the type of trip I’m trying recreate with all of my motorcycle trips I’ve been doing. There’s a start. There’s a destination. Between the two points is a great unknown of possibilities waiting to be explored. We had options that we brought along on our way courtesy of AAA TripTics and guide books. Those gave ideas.

But so did the road signs.

Like the one for the cave we passed on the highway. I don’t remember what the it’s name was, but it was the first (and thus far only) time I’ve been in a cave. Cool stuff.

We saw a lot and did a lot during that trip. Driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the little Civic pushing the poor car to its limits. (Like the Kia we had recently in California) We drove south on 441, the looped west and came back north on 28 and 129.

Here’s roughly what that day looked like.

Imagine the 1982 Civic hatchback running the Dragon.

I guess I’ve been there.

Just not on a bike.

Yet.

But En will be with me this time.

Everything I need for the trip has been acquired… except the courage to leave for it.

Self doubt sucks. 

Gear – motorcycle

• 2007 BMW R1200GS Adventure
• Sidi Discovery boots
• Aerostich Roadmaster 2-piece suit
• BMW Tankbag
• Garmin Zūmo GPS
• Cycra handguards
• Michelin Anakee 2 tires

Gear – misc

• SPOT Satellite Messenger (+ spare Lithium AA bateries to run it)
• SealLine waterproof duffel (80l)
• North Face Backpack
• Small 100W inverter
• Clothes-pins for drying clothes (If only I could geek out and find titanium ones)
• A few lengths of cord of various types (for a clothes line and other uses)
• ROK straps to hold everything down
• Helen 2 Wheels mesh bag to dry stuff
• First aid kit
• Toilet paper (Good for way more than it’s stated purpose)
• Duct tape
• National Parks Passport
• Small notepad
• A trash bag (many uses, including waterproofing)
• A few big ZipLoc bags

Gear – electrical & computer

• ASUS EEE PC computer
• 12v adapter for EEE PC (for charging while riding)
• Mains adapter for EEE PC
• iPhone 3GS
• Dock cable for iPhone
• Repair manual for bike (electronic)
• Small inverter to get 120V
• Bluetooth mouse (?)

Clothes

• Jeans
• Jean shorts
• Underwear x 3 (Mainly Exoficio)
• Underarmour shirts, various light x 3
• Underarmour coldgear shirt
• Underarmour coldgear leggings
• Patagonia light cotton leggings
• Floppy hat that packs small
• Socks, regular x 2
• Socks, motorcycle x 3
• 1 pair of light mesh shoes to wear around camp
• Bug netting for my head (I hear the black flies are killer)

Camping

• Helen 2 Wheels roll-top bag to pack sleeping bag and Thermarest
  • Mountain Hardwear UltraLamina 32 sleeping bag
  • Thermarest ProLite 4 sleeping pad
  • Thermarest camp pillow
• Helen 2 Wheels cord-close bag for the tent
  • Big Agnes Emerald Mountain SL3 tent (with footprint)
• Kelty Noah’s Tarp 12 (without poles)
• Sven Saw
• Ontario Knife Company SP8 Machete
• MSR PackTowl
• 10l MSR Dromedary water bag
• Random toiletries
• A book or two to read
• LED Flashlight
• LED Headlamp
• Compass
• Camp suds soap
• Light My Fire FireSteel
• Petroleum jelly soaked cotton balls as a fire-starter
• Bug spray
• Sun block
• Eagle Creek packing cubes of various sizes
• Body wipes in lieu of showers at times

Cooking

• MSR Cookwear
  • Optimus Nova+ stove
  • Light My Fire Titanium spork
  • Salt, pepper and spices
• GSI plates and cups
• Aeropress coffee press (<— ROCKS!!)
• Thin cutting board
• Small amount of vegetable oil

Food

• A few meals worth of freeze-dried food
• Water flavorings like Crystal Light
• Food picked up during the trip
• Diner food as I move around
• Cans of food / bread/ ramen picked up from gas stations and convenience stores
• Ground coffee to start off the mornings with
• Flask of Johnny Walker Black to finish off nights with

Tools & Parts

• Leatherman Charge Titanium multitool (on belt)
• A good set of tools to work on the bike
• A set of tire irons and a bead breaker
• A Slime air compressor
• Tire repair kit (the snot-string variety) (under seat)
• 1 liter extra gasoline (doubles as fuel for the stove)
• Spare spark plugs
• Spare alternator belt
• Spare ring antenna (yes, mine’s fixed, but paranoia runs deep)
• 1/2 quart oil

Still TBD

• What camera(s) and/or lenses to bring

Notes

It seems like a lot, but it’s not more than we took to Alaska last year. On that trip we had gear for two instead of just one. We used most of the gear. The gear we didn’t wind up using is the stuff you don’t want to use anyway – tire plugging, first aid and the like. We even used some of the tools to make a screwed up wheel a bit better. It looks like a lot, but there’s a lot of nesting going on.

Last time all of the tools and cooking stuff went into the (smaller) left pannier. The clothes for both of us mostly went in the right. Any overflow went into a duffel on the back. There’s actually a chance I won’t even need the duffel, but it’s on the list for now. Overall things fit nicely last time and this time should be a lot easier.

We learned that we missed some stuff, like clothes line and clothes pins. We found out how nice it is to have when we had a camp site that had a line that someone left. No pins, but better than nothing. Another thing we found lacking was our ability to make firewood; the Leatherman does not cut it when talking about logs. We managed to make a fire one night, but it was a royal pain. Up in the Yukon the camp had logs ready for splitting, but we couldn’t do it with the tools we had.

If anything’s forgotten, well, that’s what credit cards are for.

Tires

For the tires I went with a pair of Michelin Anakee 2’s. Their thread seems more aggressive than the Continental TrailAttack tires I used last year. This year I’m planning on hitting the Trans-Labrador Highway which is “paved” with graded gravel. I’ve heard it can get deep at times, so I wanted something that would shovel the rocks away if it came to that. The grooves seem a lot deeper and bigger. I’m not looking for ultimate grip in the dry — if I wanted that I would go ahead and spoon on a pair of slicks. I want something that can dig in if needed; but at the same time can last the duration of the trip.

That last bit ruled out the tires I really wanted: the Continental TKC-80’s. Those are all-on knobbies that go on my bike. But they would only last most of the way.

In case you were wondering, KG Motorcycle Tires seem to have them in stock. Praise AdvRider for the link!

Suit

The riding suit decision was an equally hard choice. At first I wanted to go with the BMW TrailGuard. Unlike what the brochure and web site say, they are not waterproof. I found that reference in some european press release.

Anyone who wishes to wear the Trailguard suit in all weathers can make it windproof and waterproof by simply adding the GORE-TEXT insert textile which is available as an accessory.

Ummm… yeah. No. I already have that. I don’t like that. I take that back, I like a nice airy suit when it’s nice out. It just doesn’t suit a long trip when you know you’ll need to deal with weather.

Tell that to the folks at my dealership and their catalog. It had the “waterproof” icon on there. How much would it have sucked to have gone and get rained on with no better protection.

Final call: Aerostich Roadcrafter 2-piece. It’s waterproof, has a good heritage and history, good reviews. The whole ball of wax. They even had one in my size in stock. 42-long. Most of them get custom-made when they get ordered. It would have been pushing my luck if I had them make one — would it get here before I left?

The first-choice color was red with black ballistic, the second was gray with black. They had the gray. Ordered. �

It should get here tomorrow.

On my trip to Labrador I’ll be on my motorcycle during the day and camping at night. The last thing I want to do is bring along a computer that I would be horribly upset if it broke. The MacBook Pro that I have is pretty durable, but I don’t think I would call it rugged. It’s certainly not as rugged as a Panasonic Toughbook or something. The problem with rugged is that you really have to pay for it.

The other issue is size. While the Mac isn’t big for a 15” laptop, I’m more worried about the 15′” part. The biggest issue on a motorcycle is space – or rather lack of it. Weight isn’t even the critical issue… not that I want something heavy.

So, I decided to pick up the EEE PC for both of those reasons. It’s cheap and small. It also has a long-lasting battery (they claim 10.5 hours, I see around 9 or so of actual usage, but I’m not complaining.) I just got done installing Windows 7 RC on it since I really hate the clutter of the garbage that any manufacturer crams onto a machine when it ships from the factory. (EEE wasn’t as bad as Dell, but it still had too much for my taste)

So now I have Windows 7 installed and almost all of the features of this thing are good to go. It’s not OS X, but it’s sufficient for what I need to do. As an added bonus this thing has enough horsepower to give me the Aero interface with the eye candy that comes with it.

The purpose of this guy is so I can check email, write blog entries (I’m doing that now), backup pictures from my camera, and maybe do a bit of writing with Open Office for bigger things. Once I got out of the mindset that I need to keep buying computers for doing development work and heavy image-processing the options opened up.

I’ll keep using it a bit before the the trip, but I think this might be the ideal tool for the task as hand!

The upshot of all this is that I want to give myself enough wiggle-room that I don’t miss a ferry. That would be a bad thing. If it puts me back another 5 days, that would put everyone in a sucky position.

After I get to Goose Bay, it’s just around 40 hours of road time to get back home — with no ferries blocking the way. Figure a week or so to get that final leg done.

Here’s a of tentative timelines to see how things work:

• Aug 5 evening: Leave Cleveland (first day or two are long transport days)
• Aug 10, Arrive @ North Sydney (33 hours road time, 5 days calendar time)
• Aug 10 @ 20:00 board ferry (The Smallwood)
• Aug 11 @ 11:00 get off in Argentinia
• Aug 15 (Saturday) by 19:00 arrive at Cartwright (21 hours road time, >4 days calendar)
• Aug 15 @ 19:00 board ferry (the Sir Robert Bond)
• Aug 16 @ 8:00 get off at Goose Bay
• Aug 23 arrive back home (43 hours road time, 7 calendar days)

If I miss either ferry, I still have a two-day buffer to catch the next one. If worse comes to worse I’ll hole up at a hotel in Cartwright and work remotely for a few days… LOL.

The same (roughly) can be pushed either a week or so forward or back.

Some of the considerations that went into this are some training that will be happening at work along with a wedding (Jerry and Sharon’s wedding to be specific) that I want to get to.

I think that this is a doable time-line and gives me the flexibility to screw up a bit without getting myself stranded in Cartwright.

Overall I’m aiming to be on the road around 6 hours a day on average. I think that’s a good amount of time based on experience last time. On the Alaska trip we had plenty of 12 hour days. That kinda started to suck after a while.

I talked to Joe today. Laying things out, all cards showing. Going in I fully expected an answer to me asking “So, would me going for two weeks to Labrador this summer be a bad thing?” The answer I expected was something along the lines of “I’d really rather you stay here to make sure things work.”

The answer surprised me. “There’s never a good time to take a vacation. Go.”

(pick jaw off ground)

Time to really start gearing up.

From the Alaska trip I learned that one of the biggest limitations in my existing gear is dealing with the wet. Rain sucks when you have to stop, get off the bike, pull on a sweat-inducing oversuit… then repeat the process in reverse when you need to take it off. The suit I think I need to pick up is the BMW Trailguard suit. It’s a textile suit that, depending on the zippers, can either be breathable or waterproof!

UPDATE: The BMW Trailguard suit is not waterproof without it’s liner!! Be warned!

New tires are also on the docket. Most of the trip is going to be on tarmac so I’ll spoon on another set of Continental ContiTrailAttacks. They served me well on the Alaska trip and I don’t have to worry about wearing them out. I went 9000 miles on the last trip. This time will be around 5000.

Another key point is that I’ll be doing around half the milage in roughly the same amount of time. The miles and time dragged the trip down to the point of weariness. Hopefully this time around I’ll have time to smell the roses. Time to relax and re-center. Time to write. Time to reflect.

One of the side-goals is to hit as many states as convenient on the way. Why not? New England (NE = Nebraska; NE != New England) has such a concentration of states I’ll be able to scratch a whole slew off my personal list. Why keep a list? No real reason. Why do people collect spoons? Same reason I guess.

Finally, I want to thank Insurance.com for letting me take the time. I promise to to everything I can to make it easy to miss me by setting things up as well as I can.

If only this stuff would happen in January or something — not in the middle of summer. It always seems to happen like this too.

At least we’ll be going to X-Day and the MOA Rally down in Tennessee. We need to figure out a way of adding is some more camping this summer. The last thing I want is to happen is for the entire summer to slip away with nothing to show for it.

There’s always the 10th anniversary that we’re planning in the UK. Things better be launched enough to to to that.

I broke the LCD while trying to remove it. As an afterthought it’s completely obvious how to do it right, but beforehand it wasn’t as obvious.

The same can be said about many other things in life. You can call it Monday-morning quarterbacking. Hindsight is 20/20. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a shock to the system when you’re in the middle of it.

The key to all of this is trying to figure out when you’re in the middle of a “learning experience” before you get to the hard-earned part. Much of risk-minimization is based on this. Much of MSF courses are as well.

Critical to all of this is not to be so risk averse that you never take any risks. The last thing you need on your death-bed is to be thinking “I really wish I got out more.” There’s a balance to all this that in many ways is quite meta to this whole topic. The only way you know you screwed up is after the fact.

Be safe. Take risks. Take safe risks!