1 Sep 2021
So… this will be our big trip for the year. Hey, every wonder what to pack for a long motorcycle trip? We break things into two chunks: personal stuff, and common stuff. Personal things are, well, personal. Normal stuff like clothes and those hygiene items supporting civil society. Two people, two saddle bags, works out perfect. She gets the right, I get the left. That leaves the top case for common things. This space is filled with water and snacks, the computer, camera, and drone, plus those items specific to meeting the particular challenges of riding: rain gear, jacket liners, and a few tools. When it’s all done it looks about like this…
Ok, everything packed up and on the bike, time to go!
After a few hours in the saddle it’s good to get off and stretch a bit, walk around some and work the kinks out – and isn’t this randomly appropriate??? Here is our first stop, I’m telling you real life is stranger than fiction. There is no way you could ever plan this stuff!
Lunch stop… and a wonderful find at that. Absolutely love these places that are NOT chains or some kind of syndication of blahness. Unique foods and atmospheres owned by real people who are there every day ‘making it work’.
The gal that owned the restaurant spent some time in Michigan before following family back east. Having grown up the the Midwest it was so much fun to hear her talk about living there and the things she noticed as someone looking in.
I would encourage you to deliberately shift from the ‘bigs’ to the ‘smalls’ if you don’t already follow this pattern. Most of the complaints about inequality and the injustice of the 1% are made by people who’s purchasing decisions create the those very same 1%. Stop! Buy local from a small business and guess what? The curve flattens.
Well, we delayed the rain gear as long as possible, caught a few drops here and there over the last few miles then eventually ran into this. Stop and suited up… It’s really not that nice riding inside a ‘zip lock bag’ through a sauna! While no rain gets in, it’s still not exactly dry so I’m not sure what the real point of the rain gear is???
Really didn’t take that long to break out the other side of the storm. So incredible to watch the wispy little clouds forming, fading, and reforming in the river valley. What a dynamic and incredible world we live in.
Just had to pull over and attempt to capture the scene unfolding on the right. As is typical, the photo just can’t do it justice, but perhaps it’s enough to trigger your minds eye… Wooded hills surrounding this mountain meadow filled with lush verdant grasses soaking up the rain and absorbing the sunshine. The sun breaking through the clouds over this landscape is such a lovely sight.
Route details in this interactive map. Enjoy!
I loved vicariously riding along for this trip. Your photos were wonderful and captured the journey perfectly, aided by your narration and captions. I particularly loved your encouragements to buy small and support local.
Had to smile on your reflections over the benefit of rain gear. We bought rain jackets about a year ago, and as I climbed into my car during a downpour I laughed out loud. I felt like I was wearing a wet umbrella!
Your little red caboose looked like a sweet reward waiting for you at the end of your drive.
So glad you were able to ride along! The more I do this the better I like the local businesses, even when not traveling. In fact, just today I bought some hoses manufactured on the spot by a local machine repair shop (one guy). As we chatted and he wrote out the receipt with a very reasonable bottom line I couldn’t help but think of the sign posted by his neighbor at the end of his drive: “Labor not to be rich”. Such a curious turn of phrase right? I’ll gladly return to support him and his family any time I need that kind of expertise. Given the outrageous ‘commercial’ pricing I was ready to buy the tools and materials to do the builds myself, which isn’t a bad thing either, but I like participating in community even better.
Yep, rain-gear for the motorcycle is just like that! So many additional thoughts on that one… At the top of the list is that we are easily sold on gadgets that don’t actually work. Sounds good. Looks good. Not truly useful. We should ask for more wisdom. That’s not entirely accurate with regard to a rain coat of course, but there is a hint of truth bubbling nearby.
Oh, it was lovely! I wanted the first night to be ‘extra special’, and it was!!! If you ever find yourself anywhere near Paint Bank do stop. They were just finishing renovations on The Lemon Hotel too, we didn’t poke our heads inside but it looked wonderful as well.