Some dry stats
Let me just start this off with some dry stats for my own safe keeping and record retention.
I woke up with Alexa telling me that the high for the day in Eatontown was going to be 46. That was the anticipated temperature I kept in mind all day as I set out. I hope it stays for as long as possible up near 46 degrees F. However, the real temp when I planned to depart at 8:00 AM was actually 34 degrees F, just over the freezing mark. Too cold so I wasted some time continually asking Alexa what the temp was until it neared 40 degrees around 12 noon.
My beginning miles were just around 48,567. The ending miles were 49,007 for a total of 440 miles. The highest temp was about 47 degrees and the lowest temperature was about 38 degrees when I arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia just before 10 PM.
My bike right before leaving.
The little, inflatable Air Hawk cushion was removed seconds after leaving, just like I did on the first trip.
From the rear
This is how the bike is packed before departure. I’m going to be reworking how this is all down from my father’s house in Virginia and see what I can do better. The first leg of this trip from Jersey to Virginia was sort of a trial run to see how everything performed and how it all felt. Overall, not too bad but not idea either.
How did my gear function?
Overall, I would consider my choice of gear a win. The places I felt the most cold was in my pinky finger on my left hand that started to go numb and the toes on my right foot. The rest of my body was just uncomfortably cold, especially when my speeds at the end of the trip hit about 75 mph. But I didn’t freeze and didn’t get hypothermia. So, success.
I stayed reasonably comfortable but the backpack started to make my shoulders and back ache. Not sure how I’m going to get around this so I’m looking at changing some things up to make the rest of the ride more comfortable.
The gloves I’m wearing this early in the trip, the Fly Racing Aurora 2 gloves, are huge! They are bulky and the tactile feel of the controls is buffered and limited. Grabbing my clutch at times felt questionable. They did mostly keep me warm without the glove liners in so that was a success. I guess it’s the price you pay to be warm.
The Klim Dakar pants I use are not made for cold weather. As I understand it, they are actually for warm weather riding and are ventilated as such. I wore a pair of light Columbia travel pants underneath and a pair of Weatherproof heavy base layers under that. For the most part my legs stayed warm although at times I could feel a little cold in the crotch.
Overall thoughts.
Like anything else, this kind of long-term riding is a matter of trial and error.
Right now I feel like I have brought too much stuff. I worked hard on cutting out the fat, so to speak. I think I did a great job in keeping everything to a minimum as far as weight and bulk go but it still feels like too much. Too much gear. Too many bags. Too much weight. Too much stuff everywhere. I feel a little overwhelmed.
I can’t help it but the presiding thought that keeps entering my mind is that I miss the days of just riding a simply bike simply packed. Although those days were only a day ride of maybe a few nights overnight. They weren’t months long. I miss simplicity.
This adventure is not about stuff and about the stuff you bring. Ultimately and most simply put, I just want to ride my motorcycle and see some cool places. The other stuff doesn’t matter but how do you do this without it? Is it even possible?
These next few days here at my dad’s house in Williamsburg are important. It’s probably the last time I will be able to leave behind some things to pick up on the way back up. I’m going to tear down everything on the bike that has been packed, re-evaluate it and repack it again.
One of the considerations is that my camping equipment takes up fully an entire side case plus the outer top of the side case with the tent in its own dry bag. The last trip I didn’t even have camping equipment. But I swore to myself after staying in all of those overpriced, dive, discount motels on the way to and from the border that I wouldn’t do that again. I felt burned every time I stayed in one of those places whereby I paid somewhere between $35-70 U.S. for a crap hole room. It probably cost me about $250-400 each way in crappy rooms. So this time I swore I would camp instead. At least that way, I know my bed is clean and stain free. And additionally, the thought of camping in places like Tikal is so enticing. Not only enticing, but epic! So although I debate not bringing the camping gear I spent so much time researching and so much money buying, I’m very reluctant to cut out the camping option in this trip.
So, at this point, I’m not sure how this is all going to play out. I guess I’ll have to see once I start tearing all this gear down.
Routing.
What route to take? I’m completely lost at this point where I will go next.
This is an example of some different routes I could take to get to my border crossing in Presidio, Texas. At the shortest routing on interstates cutting southwest across the United States it would take about 2,200 miles. With the longer routing, it seems to be about 4,400 miles! I’ll definitely be looking into this routing more.