Pre -Trip
Well. I'm just over 2 weeks away from my trip and realize that I've got to get ready. Both for the trip and get the apt clean as well. Because there is nothing worse than coming back after a big trip to a dirty apt. I learned that lesson a few years ago. A week later and I'm still working on that one.
Well it's Labour day weekend and I'm back from visiting the folks and picking up a load of stuff for the trip, from my US mailbox, and a bit of shopping, so here's the list of things picked up
A Leatherman, as it was on sale at Wallymart for cheap and handy to have. This will be the first one that I owned that's not a copy.
Leatherman 300
A JVC action camera,
JVC Action Camera
.jpg)
$134 shipped from Amazon, a great camera at the price and good reviews. We shall see what it can do when I start using it this trip. The extra batteries and charger were cheap on Amazon and uses 1/4" tripod mount, so the mounts are cheap.
Next is my tent. As I've said before, I'm really happy with my US Army one man tent. But I'm looking for something bigger, so I went with the USMC two man tent, made my Eureka, the same maker as the one man tent. It has the same glowing reviews as the one man, and the waterproof part appeals to me, that and the way that one man tent stood up to the thunderstorms in Ottawa and Burwell, this will be the one to get.
USMC two man tent.
 |
| Looking foward to a little more room:-) |
Now I paid just over $200. but that was watching it every few days. As with most things on amazon the price goes up and down. The lowest I've seen it was around $150 during the winter. But I need it now, so I pay for it. It's almost as easy as the one man to put up. Now I get the pleasure over the next few days of seam sealing the seams and spraying the waterproofing crap on. Even though the tent says it's waterproof, this silicone waterproof spray just rocks. Here is what I use. It covers better, you seem to use less, and on my other tent, it's as good as the day that I sprayed it on.
No cherry coke in Canada, or none that I can find. Anyway with this sprayed on, the water just beads off. I've tried others, but it lives up to it's name. One coat and your good to go!
The fun of seam sealing and waterproofing in my living room, and the solvent abuse that's going on, Alby feels good :-) Don't worry the patio door is open.
This will take a day or two to get done, so after I do the tent, I still have to do the rain fly. Update, it looks like I got the tent done today, now just to let it dry. The next day I finished the tent fly, seam sealed and sprayed it with all the waterproof crap. Tomorrow I'll pack it away. that's the hardest part done. The bonus is that it will be ready for next years runs.
Now that I've got a week to go, it's getting serious. Travel insurance, taken care of. Time to start loading the bike.
One of the harder parts was getting the GPS ready for route 66. The problem with Route 66 is that it's not one continuous road, but because it was replaced by the interstate, it's disjointed, a lot. I did do a lot of research over the last couple of years and I was able to get some GPS routes. But they were older and even though I spent some time trying to convert them to my GPS, in the end I couldn't get it to work on most of the route and was starting to run out of time.
I could use basecamp and do it all manually, or as I found out there are a few companies that have done it for you (at a price of course), This is who I went with:
River Pilot Route 66 GPS Turn by Turn Attractions Guide
Link to video on how it all works.
Lucky for me I have a Garmin 665 with updated maps. So I'm good to go. Not super cheap, $50 delivered on a sd card. But knowing that I've saved hours on the computer trying to put something not as good together, it's worth it. I'll keep you updated on how it goes. Good customer service, as they called my back on a Sunday. Kind of wished they did a PCH, but that's a much easier route to drive.
It's Saturday after work and I'm starting to load the bike and do the ride check. The oil level is good, as this bike uses almost no oil, which is a good thing. Back to checking the pressure in the tires. Yep, you guessed it, they need air. Not as much as before, but enough that I'm glad that I checked it. This time I actually found the sticker on the trailer for the pressure (42 psi), so I was close last time.
Harley Davidson has a good ride planner app.
Harley Davidson Ride Planner
I was actually going to use this to plan out my Route 66 drive before I found River pilot, but it will get used on the PCH. But it is a good app for other reasons as well. Pre-ride checklist, Local laws, Local links, etc. So this app is a keeper, check it out.
Right now I'm really down to packing all the little things, you know, the stuff you forget, and have to buy while on the road. It should be interesting on seeing what I've forgot this trip. I still can't believe this trip starts is only two days.
If you want to get a idea what's it like, watch Billy Connolly's ride:
Billy Connllys Route 66 trip, Part 1
The day has arrived!
The day, or the really early morning has arrived. I'm up at 2:30 am to finish packing, shower and all the rest of it. It's a little longer to pack this morning as I didn't bother to to it last night after work, I was tired. Hopefully I've remembered everything, but we shall see.
No leaving pics this time as in the past, as they really look all the same. So I'm on the bike @ 5 am, out of the city @ 5:30 am. Thanks to my niece Amber, for those Petro Canada gift cards, I used one to fill up the bike, cheers. But a $25 gift card only gave me 3/4 of a tank, not good. Now off to the rainbow bridge and US customs. No problems getting over, but they do type in all the info that I gave them, 5 weeks and west coast etc. Now over to Denny's for breakfast.
I do love American waitresses, super friendly, and it's a nice way to start your morning. The only problem is I've got to hang out in Niagara Falls until 11 am. That's when my mailbox opens so I can pick up and install my new windshield. Someone is going to be drinking way too much coffee this morning.
Now before you Cleveland peeps ask why I didn't stop by for a visit. The simple answer is the weather tomorrow is rain and I plan to make that the Henry Ford museum day. Plus to be honest your just too close to home, and that I want to make my next trip to Cleveland a weekender next year.
Since I forgot to reload my at&t account before leaving, I've got to use Denny's Wi-Fi to do it. No problem, but after leaving the Denny's Wi-Fi, I've got no data. So now I'm over to Starbucks for another coffee and their free Wi-Fi 😕. I had to get a new phone after Boston so I'm into the api settings. Looks like the same as the ones I wrote down last time are on the phone. On to Google, and vola, at&t updated those pesky api settings. Well at least they made it easy to find and now the new phone has data 😊.
So I went over to my mailbox, and picked up my tardy windshield. It took more time to unpack it, then to install. A lot bigger than stock, so should be better in the rain, wind and overall. The nice guys at my mailbox place even put the old one in the recycling box.
Now for the not so fun part. 400 miles on the slab. No fun riding today. A stop in Eire, PA, for some gas and Arby's for lunch. After reading the reviews for the campsite that I'm planning on going to (drug bust 2 tents down, partying until 3 am, etc) I decided to see what the prices on motels are instead. Surprisely I find a Hojo near the airport for $90 for 2 nights. Good reviews as well. Considering the camping cabin was $40 a night, I jump on the room. Booking.com rules again. Back on the I-90. I've done I-90 too many times to stop and take pics. I'm tempted to use some older ones to see if anyone would notice. I miss most of the traffic in Cleveland, thank god. One thing about Ohio, it's really flat. Really boring but easy to kill the miles on. Just a touch of rain, enough to give me an idea that this new windshield is going to work out 😊.
A stop outside Cleveland for a coffee, I needed it, as I was getting tired. A Starbucks on site. As usual I fill up the bike first. Then to the coffee.
With 2 hours of driving left, the coffee hits the spot. One problem is that I'm roasting, the temps are in the 80's now, and I've got long john's and thermals on. Since there's no chance of anyone I know being around, off they come. That feels better. The one guy who noticed was a motorcyclist, so he totally understood where I was coming from. Now on to Toledo and I'm going to hit it at rush hour. Surprisely, Toledo, OH, doesn't seem to have a rush hour, lucky for me. Less than a hour later I get to the motel, the GPS takes me through the airport, which was cool and different.
I check in, the room was fine, nothing special and I've got ear plugs. It's a airport motel which means people coming and going all night and planes landing and taking off. Having said that, the room seems pretty quite.
After a 500 mile day I'm tired. So it's dinner to go at the Bob Evans next door to the motel. Cobb salad, remember Fight Club?
Time to relax watching Men in Black on AMC, so I'll finish watching it then off to bed and the Henry Ford museum tomorrow.
BTW Here's the start of the thing's that I've forgot, I remembered my USB chargers, but forgot the USB cables. Well I've got enough to share at least. That and my body powder opened up in my toiletries bag. Well at least it smells good.
Today's mileage: 496 miles/ 798 km
==========================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment