1959
A bouncing baby boy is born in Anchorage, Alaska at the U.S. Air Force Elmendorf hospital. He would leave Alaska in 1963 and would not return...for a long, long, time.
2013
That bouncing baby boy is now 54, time flies when your having fun.
The wife, Kathy, and I enjoy a few things in common. We love to travel when we can afford it. We both enjoy riding motorcycles with me as the driver and her taking the pillion. We enjoy taking pictures. We enjoy the back roads and finding that just right restaurant for a good meal.
We love going to the beach, which has very little to do with Alaska. One of our favorite beaches is Akumal, Mexico. If airfare had not gotten so high I would probably be writing about that place.
Last year we decided to, instead of flying to the beach we would ride to the beach. So we went to Key West. We spent 12 days finding our way around the Keys. It was a lot of fun and sorta a test I suppose to see how well we could handle longer and longer trips.
Sometime during the fall of 2013 we started discussing where we would like to go for a vacation in 2014. I tossed Alaska on the table, buttered it with tales of wildlife and mountains. Served it with a helping of places like Yellowstone, the Black Hills, Glacier...
Kat was a bit hesitant at first, questions rolled forth... She is a good questioner, or maybe inquisitor. How far,,,,I don't know. How cold,,,,I don't know. How long,,,,I don't know. She can ask a lot of questions, and it's a good thing. It made me start researching and asking my own questions.
Research....or....can you get there from here ?
Back in the day, I would go buy state maps, travel magazines, Frommer travel guides, anything that could help me navigate and have a successful trip. But now, with the internet, you can peruse for hours on end, research till your eyes hurt. I still bought the maps and books though...
 |
| The Milepost |
It gives information on gas, food, and shelter. Roadside sights worth seeing and even road conditions. It also lets you access it's many facts from the internet. If your planning on going to our 49th state pick one up.
As I mentioned the internet has so much information, a lot of it good, a lot of it not. I would think that I had found a great source of Alaskan and Canadian reading material only to find out it was mostly a page to advertise with, or it was so generic that I was left with many questions unanswered.
Some of my favorite websites :
Canada-maps.org nice large maps
Adventure Rider the greatest adventure motorcycle website on Earth
OK, so I can get there, what do I need ?
This was a tough one. How do you even begin planning on what you need ?
More research, much more.
Tires - I had tried TKC 80's from Continental and found they wore quickly and erratically. I had also tried out the Anakee III's from Michelin and found they were great on highway but lacking a lot on off-road. I finally went with the Heidenau K60's. This is a knobby tire with a long lasting hard rubber compound. It is supposedly great for off-road, good for highway, with less water traction. So, with as many gravel roads that we will travel I settled for the off-road traction that it provides.
Gas - There are some places that gas stations are far and few between. So, the question here was how to carry extra fuel. Most commonly, riders will attach a Kolpin or Roto-Max reserve gas tank to the back of the bike. I'm already carrying a pillion plus camping gear so I wanted to keep any extra weight to the front. I decided to settle on a tank pannier (like saddle bags) that were large enough to hold a one gallon gas can each. These bags were called Mad Dog's and I found them at Wal-Mart in Hot Springs, AR. I had searched the various bike stores in central Arkansas and was quite surprised to find these in Wal-Mart no less. I am also able to carry all my tools in the pannier bags, thus taking more weight off the rear and onto the middle of the bike.
I'm also carrying tools of course, flat repair kits, and a bicycle air pump for that inevitable flat I'm sure to have.
Camping - I'm not a big fan of camping. Back in the early days of my railroading career I had to stay in a pup tent for three months once when I had to work away from home. That extended camping took the luster out of camping for me. This journey has some unknown variables so I think it would be better to be over prepared than under. The availability of affordable hotel rooms may become an issue as well as the availability of any hotel rooms at all. So, we bought a Marmot 3 person tent to shelter us for those times we need to camp. On the plus side of camping, campsites are usually less than twenty dollars and that can add up to some real savings while we are on our trip.
We also are packing some sleeping bags of course and a couple of pads too.
For those gourmet meals that Kathy will be preparing we're taking a MSR camp stove that can burn gasoline, kerosene, or white gas. A few cooking utensils and plates, and several packages of oatmeal and instant coffee for rousing good breakfast meals.
Clothes - Who needs 'em.... Well, we do. Having experienced clothing overload on past trips we really trimmed down this time.
We are packing for each of us:
4 pair of underwear, Under Armour type so they can be quickly laundered and dried.
4 t-shirts like above.
4 pairs of socks.
1 pair of pants each.
1 sweatshirt each.
1 pair of tennis shoes.
1 pair of flip flops.
We'll wash and dry our clothes by whatever means available. Whether a pay laundry, hotel sink, or in the river. The back of the bike makes a fine clothes dryer.
Of course we'll be wearing our riding gear everyday, jackets, pants, gloves, and boots. ATGATT (all the gear, all the time).
Lights, Cameras, Action
We like to take pictures, lots and lots of pictures. We will be recording our trip on a few different cameras.
Canon 7D
Panasonic FZ200
Go Pro Hero 3 Black
When possible we'll back up the pictures to a small notebook computer and an external hard drive.
The picture below is my tankbag setup for the Canon 7D. The small object that looks like a deck of cards is the 2 terabyte external hard drive.
The RKA tankbag
The notebook fits nicely.
The 7D and external hd.
Enough of this stuff, let's get on with the trip !!
This was the beginning. Trip planning, research, and nail biting. Waking up in the middle of the night to jot down a note on my Iphone. Kathy paying bills and ordering our medical prescriptions a month in advance. Installing Skype on laptops for another means of communication with loved ones not to be seen for a month or longer. The start of the journey itself is not the beginning, that was several months ago when I tossed the idea to Kathy, who said let's do it.
In about four more days we'll be underway. Heading to Alaska, place of my birth nearly 55 years ago. I should celebrate my 55th birthday somewhere along the way and finally hit middle age. I'll be able to cross a line off the bucket list.
If you would, say a short prayer for us, for safety and health. Thanks.
My next post should find us somewhere on the highway. Come back and ride with us.
