Posts on Corporate Runaways

Company Profile

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -0400

Founded in 2010, the Corporate Runaways strive for a life without cubes, alarm clocks, or deadlines. Where days are spent on motorcycles, out hiking trails, or traveling overland in our ambulance; discovering as many beautiful things as possible before setting up camp.

Our initial venture was a trip from Boston, Massachusetts overland through North America, Central America and South America to Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego - The End of the World.

Company Uniforms

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -0400

When on the Americas trip, Corporate Runaways adhered to a strict dress code. This is our motorcycling gear. Someday we’ll get around to compiling a company dress code for non-motorcycle travel, because we have Opinions.

While all Corporate Runaways are required to adhere to strict ATGATT guidelines* the means by which this is accomplished is left up to the individual.

Dachary

Dachary’s company uniform consists of:

Motorcycle Specific:

General:

Company Vehicles

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -0400

Oh, so many vehicles…

Details on each one are below, but first a listing of which trip used which vehicles

Westward Ho (September 2016)
- 2016 Subaru Outback
Boston to Arizona (May 2014)
- A 1982 VW Vanagon diesel camper van
Nova Scotia (August 2013)
- A Ural Patrol & One of our BMW F650 GSs
Colorado Ho (July 2012)
- A Ural Patrol & One of our BMW F650 GSs
Usuaia Ho (December 2010)
- Two BMW F650 GSs

Vehicle Details

2008 Ford E-450 Ambulance

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Employees

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -0400

Kay

Background: Somewhere along the line an infatuation with scooters turned into an obsession with motorcycles. Burnout from too many years coding web sites lead to a mad ride around the USA on a Ninja 250 in 2009. The results on the psyche were exceptional, but only served to fuel the fire, and initiate planning for The Next Big Trip.

Office Supplies

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -0400

The company outings at Corporate Runaways require some very specialized kit. These were the office supplies we brought on our motorcycle trips - err, that is, offsite meetings:

Dachary

Sea to Summit eVent Compression Dry Sack - 30 Liters
REI Lightweight Compression Stuff Sack - 11 Liter (2)
Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor Extreme Mummy Bag Liner
Outdoor Products 3-Pack Ultimate Dry Sack (2 Sets)
Outdoor Research Dry Sack (35L)
Travel Tooth Brush
Travel Toothpaste
GoToob (2) Containing Shampoo and Conditioner
MSR PackTowl (large)
Hair Brush
Hair Ties
Contacts
Contact Solution
Glasses (in hard case)
1 Bar of soap
REI Tri-Power Safety Whistle

Kay

Sea to Summit eVent Compression Dry Sack - 30 Liters
REI Lightweight Compression Stuff Sack - 11 Liter
REI Lightweight Compression Stuff Sack - 6 Liter
Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor Extreme Mummy Bag Liner
Sea to Summit eVac Dry Sack - 35 L
Outdoor Products 3-Pack Ultimate Dry Sack (2 Sets)
Tooth Brush
Floss
GoToob (1) Containing Conditioner
1 bar of soap
MSR PackTowl (Large)
Glasses
REI Tri-Power Safety Whistle

In the Tent / the Tent

Marmot Limestone 4P (we need extra space for the dogs and kit)
Black Diamond Orbit Tent Light

Kitchen

Tools

Leatherman Wave
- 40 bit assortment (yes, we’ve used it)
Leatherman Core
Doc Allen’s Versatool
Cruz Tools Roadtech B1 - On-Bike Toolkit for BMW
BestRest TireIron BeadBreakR (tire irons plus excellent bead breaker)
BestRest CyclePump (works great)
Tire Pressure Gauge (2)
Twist Ties
Jumper Cables
Topeak Mini Morph Pump (Hand Pump)
Mini bottle of WD-40

First-Aid / Medicine

Adventure Medical Kits Mountain Weekender First-Aid Kit.
- (additional supplements)
- Large SAM Splint
- Sam Finger Splints (2)
- Large gauze pads
- QuickClot.
- Anti-diarrhea pills
- burn gel
- space blanket
- cold compress
- modified selection of bandaids
- cold pills
Advil, Advil, and more Advil (ibuprofin)
Malaria pills (on long distance trips)
Altitude sickness pills (on long distance trips)

Electrical

SAE To Powerlet & Cigarette Adapter adapter.
Cigarette Adapter to USB adapter (2)
USB to headset charging cables
USB iPhone / iPad charging cables
2 USB standard to mini cables
Black Diamond Revolt headlamp
Black Diamond Storm headlamp

Computing

MacBook
iPad (the batteries on these things are awesome and are easily powered from the bikes)
Apple Bluetooth Keyboard
CruxSkunk iPad Keyboard case
iPhone 4S
iPhone 4
Kindles (2)

Cameras / Photography

Contour Helmet Cameras (2)
Nikon Coolpix AW100 ruggedized waterproof camera (2)
Canon EOS 1000D
Motrr Galileo
GorillaPod SLR-Zoom w/ Ball Head Mount

Spares

2 front inner tubes
2 rear inner tubes
2 front sprockets
2 rear sprockets
control cables
microphone / base for Sena SMH10 Headsets (we’ve had 2 die on us already)

Miscellaneous

Wunderlich Folding Oil Funnel
Genuine Innovations Street Tire Repair and Inflation Deluxe Kit
WD40
Zip Ties
May feet of paracord
Haynes Manual
Dyna Beads
1 very small umbrella
Fire Gone Fire Extinguisher
Tie Downs (2) (theoretically these can double as tow ropes)
Flushable Baby Wipes(you would not believe how many uses we find for these things)
RotopaX 1 Gallon Fuel Pack
RotopaX 1 Gallon Water Pack
MSR Dromedary Bag - 10 Liter
Bug Spray with Deet
Avon Skin so soft
Mosquito Head Net
Suntan Lotion
Compass

Notes

The general consensus amongst motorcycle adventurers is that, regardless of how much you’re carrying, “You’ve got too much.” There are only a couple of extreme minimalists who are excluded from this. With that in mind, some of these items may be jettisoned either prior to, or during, the trip.

Vegas, Idaho, & In Between

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 03:18:05 +0000

We planned this vacation when we had more money. We also thought we’d have jobs by this point. When March finally came burnout was still having its way with us, and the tickets were already paid for…

We drove to Boston, parked the car in a friends garage, and set out to visit family, and just get out. Go, and do something different.

We drove dune buggies…

And discovered the wonders of Vegas

Ambulance Build 10

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 02:59:43 +0000

The holes… they’re getting pretty demoralizing.

We’ve made so many holes. Drilled through that. Cut through the other. Jigsawed this… just… holes holes holes. Holes for propane pipes. Holes for electrical wiring. Holes for stoves. Holes for cabinets. Holes for cat flaps. All the freaking holes.

It got so that we were both “I don’t wanna go out in the cold and make more holes.” every time we had to start a new day of van work.

Ambulance Build 9

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 21:34:51 +0000

Can’t stop making holes

We set to work on the cat box / heater / grey water compartment. At the heart of it is a backwards “h” shaped “box” thing [I’ll get you a picture after it’s installed]. The litter box will be on top. The Propex will be below with air tubes going out through the right wall of the “h” and then into the compartment. To the right of the wall dividing the compartment (the tall side of the “h”) will be 2 six gallon water jugs that we intend to use for grey water. I wanted something that was really easy to empty and get in and out of the vehicle. Dump stations will rarely be an option.

Ambulance Build 8

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 23:10:10 +0000

Lots of progress since our last update.

We realized that instead of a complicated bit of routing on the underside of the nice wood counter to accommodate the bump around the sink, we could instead route down into the existing evil blue counter and simply drop the sink farther into it.

Unfortunately that counter is evil and the little jig saw and Dremel work we did with it before let us know that attempting to route an inch around the whole thing might kill us or at least give us cancer by week’s end. So, we made a trip to home depo for respirators. We got the best ones they had because we have no clue what evil petrochemicals we’re dealing with and we wanted a nice fit. This presented a minor complication for me though, because I have a beard. Well, I had a beard. Sometimes overlanding requires sacrifices.

Ambulance Build 7

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 02:45:53 +0000

Today we had to drive to Troy NY for Dachary’s 4th eye exam (don’t ask) which resulted in us killing time in a mall

every kiss begins with kay, and I’m kay so…

(I’m Kay so… )

and Dachary… FINALLY getting a final prescription. Unlike everyone else who gets old, her eyes are getting better as she ages.

dachary’s new glasses

Ambulance Build 6

Sun, 11 Nov 2018 04:28:20 +0000

Today we attempted to finish the fridge install.

First we plugged in an electric heater to shore power because it’s barely above freezing outside. Then I stuck my head in a box, and reached around under a board and drilled a hole into the fridge compartment for the 12v power to run through.

It went reasonably well.

kay’s butt poking out of cabinet

The fridge just fits in the hole we made. Lots of luck involved with that.

Ambulance Build 5

Sat, 10 Nov 2018 01:24:34 +0000

The jig didn’t work. The hinge was too bumpy and it was too much of a pain to try and put something under it, and we were frustrated enough with spending all that time on it that we didn’t want to do the modifications we know we need to do to make it usable in the future. So, we chopped off some of the excess MDF on the far side and used it as a guide.

Ambulance Build 4

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 03:32:25 +0000

We have fluorescent lights and incandescent lights. The incandescent lights are old-school automotive lights that just make you depressed about how much power they’re taking and how little light they’re producing. I’m determined to replace them with LEDs. I’m determined to replace the fluorescent with LEDs too, but so far I am incapable of finding any LED tube lights of the appropriate length.

I started the day by exploring what was above the incandescent enclosure. If you’ve ever looked in the walls of an RV you know it can be a scary place. This was beautifully clean and tidy. Even better, it answered the question of why the antennas are where they are! They’re all above the lights. When I showed this to Dachary she pointed out that this means we can run the solar cables through one of the unused antenna holes, after widening it a bit.

Ambulance Build 3

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 22:09:10 +0000

Yesterday was a write-off. We took Dachary to the optometrist and then decided to be “healthy” and eat at the Whole Foods buffet. I got many small things. Dachary got some sushi and chicken salad. With one exception everything was terrible.

Then we went home and became sick.

Eventually I went and cut this arc as a proof of concept that we could cut out the sink hole, and retain the interior wood as an insertable cutting board. Then I went back inside and we both went to bed before 8 PM (we never do that).

Ambulance Build 2

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 02:17:57 +0000

Today was all about prepping for cutting the counter. In order to do that, we needed to, at least temporarily, mount the stove to make sure everything worked out where we planned it. We had to adjust some of the cuts on the supporting box, but other than that it went well. We still need to put in the angle brackets to hold the box together, but it’s wedged in firmly enough to hold things for measuring.

Ambulance Build 1

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 01:03:15 +0000

We’re uploading lots of pictures to our instagram account as we go, but there’s something to be said for using words… ;)

So, this will be the first in a series of posts documenting our Ambulance build-out. After this they’ll be short daily(ish) summaries, but I need to catch you up on what’s happened so far and that’s going to take a bit. Apologies for the length.

Anyone who’s wondering “why, an ambulance” should read this post. If you are thinking “makes sense to me” then don’t bother. ;)

We Bought An Ambulance

Sat, 22 Sep 2018 02:12:59 +0000

For those keeping track, this is our 4th attempt at adventure vehicle. Many people wonder why, out of all the myriad vehicle choices, we’d choose an ambulance. This post will attempt to explain why an ambulance may be one of the best choices out there for inexpensive overlanding vehicle.

[Dachary adds: inexpensive overloading vehicle for us. Based on our needs and desires. YMMV.]

Requirements

Every overlander has their own, unique requirements. Ours have changed over time. How we ended up with these is a post unto itself, but the short version is that we want to travel with our dogs and we’ve learned a number of lessons from our past travels and vehicles.

Traveling With Dogs

Thu, 25 Jan 2018 04:24:07 +0000

Traveling with dogs

We’ve traveled long distances with dogs in a sidecar to Colorado, and Nova Scotia. We took them in a Vanagon to Arizona and around most of the continental US in a Subaru Outback. We’ve slept with them in tents, in the Vanagon, and in many hotels.

So, we’ve got some experience. Here’s what we’ve learned.

They change everything

Dogs completely change the journey. Adults travel very differently than adults with dogs. I imagine it to share a lot of similarities to adults traveling with kids. In addition to the practical complications, which i’ll get to below, they change the feeling of the trip. Now you’re sharing it with creatures that don’t think the way you do. They get all excited about the new smells, and exploring that new trails is way more exciting for them, than you, regardless of how beautiful it is.

Kay’s Doomed Vacation

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 12:43:18 +0000

The Backstory



I’ve been stressed at work. I’ve needed to take a vacation for a while, but life has conspired against that. My last plan was abandoned due to us finding and buying a particularly nice house, and you kind-of need to be around to fill out all the paperwork.



Dachary’s going to a conference at the beginning of November. Contractors are here through the beginning of October. The northern hemisphere is starting to cool rapidly due to the impending winter. That left a two week window at the end of October. I decided to go for a long walk. I would do the [Ozark Highlands Trail](http://ozarkhighlandstrail.com/).  It’s only ~165 miles, and the elevation changes aren’t terrible.



I didn’t have much time to prep for it though. I started exercising every morning, and researching and buying kit. Normally, buying kit is one of the most enjoyable parts of an adventure. There’s this whole series of mental imaginings and comparing, and “if I had this instead I could…” and it’s a fun process.



This, was not. This was rushed research combined with throwing money at a problem and hoping it would work. Overall, I think I did well on the gear front. The process was stress, stress, stress, though. Every free moment I was annotating maps, or researching gear, or something. Any time Dachary asked me to do anything she felt like she was pulling me away from it and making it worse. Technically she was, but life’s needs don’t stop just because you have a pet project.



The Test Run



Day 1



Dachary assumed I was going to do a test run. Honestly, I wasn’t. It goes against everything we believe and teach, but I simply didn’t have time. I was still preparing. Her sane interjection convinced me I really ought to do one though. So, a few weekends ago I put on my pack, and she drove me a few sections down the Appalacian Trail.



It was to be a “worst-case-scenario test”: roughly 40 miles, over three days, with rain, and many mountain peaks.



The first day I did pretty well. I summited 3 mountains of roughly 2000 feet. Then a 1400 foot one, and got a good start on the next big mountain before bedding down for the night.



A little before then I’d sat down to cook dinner. It’s better to eat before you get to camp that way bears aren’t as interested in your camp. What I didn’t realize, was that dehydrated meals take 20 minutes to hydrate. I’d started too late, considering I needed to find and set up camp. When the meal finished hydrating it was tasty, but absolutely not what my body wanted. It wanted bland, plain food, and this was spicy Mexican, or something. I decided to eat as I walked hoping I could get some in me over time.



Soon, I set up camp. It took forever. I was tired from a long day of hiking, and unfamiliar with setting up my rain fly. I hadn’t had time to test it before. This was simply a lack of time. I knew I’d be learning it on the trail, and that that would suck, but there wasn’t another option.



I set my bear bag about 100 feet away from the camp in one direction, and my leftover food about 60 in the other. Both, way too close, and it put me in a direct line between them. I was exhausted and not making the best decisions. I distinctly remember the phrase “fuck it” being muttered.



Then followed the worst night of my life.



For seven hours I could hear bears raking their claws on the bear bag at one end. At the other end something was batting around the zip-lock bag of mushy Mexican. I didn’t think the bears were going to come to me, they seemed to be leaving me alone. I still felt damn vulnerable in the hammock. I would growl out “Hey Bear!” every 10 minutes or so in a rough, loud voice.



I couldn’t understand what was playing with the bag. Why didn’t it get bored? At one point I heard a gush of water and thought they’d finally opened it. “Thank God,” I thought, “now they’ll eat it and stop freaking me out.”



I was wrong.



I was wrong, and I had to pee. I had to pee bad. 



Hammocks have one nifty feature that tents don’t. You can pee out of them. Well, boys can. You roll to the edge, open the zipper (if you have one) and push it out. This is a very awkward position and you have to push very hard to get anything to come out.



Your stream won’t have any force, which means it’ll fall pretty much straight down. Straight down from me was my gear hammock. A tiny hammock that held my backpack off the ground.



I’m pretty sure I peed on that.



The next attempt I put my arm out to try and push it back. I peed on my hand.



This position just wasn’t working. I’d gotten a little pee out but not enough. “Fuck it” again, I’d swing my legs out stand beside the hammock, under the rain fly, and pee.



I did.



It worked.



It was glorious.



The sound of something batting around a water filled bag didn’t abate during this. I heard it a bit differently standing under the rainfly. It sounded higher. Maybe it wasn’t my dinner. Maybe it was the trees? That didn’t make any sense. Maybe I should look? “Fuck no! If I look (with my headlamp) and there is something batting it around it’ll see me!” Back into the hammock!



I may have slept 3 hours that night. I went to bed about half an hour after sunset. We have about 12 hours of darkness right now.



In the middle of the night my bladder of drinking water ran dry.



Day 2




It started to sprinkle as I packed up camp. There would be no oatmeal for breakfast. I had no water. I tried eating the cold Mexican whatever as I walked because it had water in it, but my body still wasn’t into it.



Before setting out I checked my map. Backwards over smaller mountains, then call Dachary to come pick me up? Or, forwards over slightly bigger mountains, then call Dachary to come pick me up?



I was exhausted.



I was dehydrated.



I don’t like going backwards.



I misread the height of the mountains ahead of me.



It started to rain.



The mountain I slept near the base of got very steep.



Streams are not typically found near the top of mountains.



I licked leaves.



I paused… a lot. Few steps. Pause. Ten steps. Pause. “Oooh, a flat stretch”. I could handle flat stretches. More mountain. Pause. Ten steps. Pause.



Eventually, miraculously, there was a stream.



I carefully dropped my pack. I kneeled. I got out my dirty water bag, and filter. I stood. I walked over to the stream. I knelt. The stream was so shallow I only got it half full.  I stood.  I drank from the filter. Too thirsty to wait for me to fill my water bladder.  I knelt. I half filled it again. I stood. I walked to my bag. I squeezed the water through the filter into my bladder.



I was so tired. Every movement took a small eternity. I honestly believe it took me 30 minutes to do this small action. I didn’t have the energy to go back to the stream, kneel, refil, go back to the backpack, squeeze…  In total I’d probably drunk, and stored a half a liter. I knew I needed more water. I didn’t have enough energy to gather it.





“Just one more little climb” I told myself, “then a saddle, and one big peak.”



As I hiked, the mild burning sensation in my bladder and urethra increased.



What I didn’t realize until some time later in the day, that the “big peak” after the saddle, was Greylock Mountain. The tallest mountain in Massachusetts. It’s not huge by any means, but it’s huge with no sleep, no food, and not enough water.



I thought Greylock Mountain was the mountain on the far side of the town of Greylock. Not the one on the near side.



Not far from the summit, I encountered a couple of day hikers. I asked them how far to town. They were confused. They said they didn’t know. Eventually, they told me of a visitors center and a parking lot, and the name of the  trail they took. “Visitors centers have water! Parking lots can be driven to!” I sat down, fired up my phone  (decent reception on top of a mountain next to a town), and found their trail, and the parking lot on Google Maps. I texted Dachary to come get me. “It should take me about 30 minutes. Maybe a little more.” I said. This was based on Google Maps estimate, and just a guess from what I saw on the map.  A little bit up the Appalachian



It was the Jones Nose trail. I don’t know who “Jones” was but he must have had very little nose, because that trail is fucking steep at places. It even includes rock scrambles. I went down each step like an old man. I carefully placed each pole. Then one foot down. Lower onto the other foot. Try to ignore the pain in my knees.  Repeat.



It took me two hours.



Two thirds of the way down my bowels declared they had to go.  A few minutes later they informed me that no, they had to go now. A large boulder came into sight in the very spares underbrush. I tried to dig a hole behind it, but the dirt was infested with roots. I did the best I could.



I pooped in a hole. I tried to wipe with a leaf. That didn’t work. I didn’t want to have to pack out the toilet paper but… “fuck it”. I grabbed some, I wiped. I didn’t realize how close my ass was to the ground. I was so tired. “Why does the back of my hand feel warm?… oh crap.” I’d wiped poop from my ass and then wiped the back of my hand in poo on the ground.



I have now peed on my left hand and pooped on my right in less than 24 hours. Fortunately there was moist moss nearby. I wiped my hand on that… again, and again, and again.



I packed up the papers. I picked up my bag. I carried on.



Two energetic day hikers came down the trail as I was coming back onto it. I let them pass. They’d surely be faster with their youth, and energy, and lack of heavy packs.



A sign on the trail said “5 mi” to the parking lot. I could only assume it meant minutes not miles, because google said I was only 1.5 miles away from Dachary. The trail couldn’t be that winding could it?



It wasn’t, but it wasn’t 5 minutes either.  I don’t know how long it took. It was a small eternity, and then there was a field, with a Dachary, and 2 dogs in it. So close. So far away. I called out. Dachary sent the dogs. They didn’t recognize me but they believed her claims they could go find me.  I stumbled as Lita approached. “Bark! Weird stumbling person!”



Eventually there was a car too. On the way home I peed in the woods once. Then I had her redirect us to the nearest gas station because we’d left the woods, and I couldn’t make it 20 mins. home before my bowels exploded. A porta-potty by an electrical sub-station saved the day.



Conclusions



The Ozark Highlands Trail would probably be much easier than what I’d just done. Many of the problems were simply hiking without food, water and sleep. But, it also kicked my ass.



Eventually I decided it wouldn’t be wise to fly to AR and find that I really wasn’t up to it. One of the worst parts about hiking is that when you’re not near anyone you’re really not near anyone. There’s no, “fuck it, GPS take me to a hotel”



I’d like to do more hiking, but safety first.



Take 2



I still had ~$400 non-refundable plane tickets. I didn’t want to waste them. What could I do?



Some quick math told me that I could, fairly easily, ride a 50cc scooter from Arkansas to Vermont over the Trans American Trail. There’s a variant of it that stretches from Tennessee up to New York, and that’s almost all the way home.



Used scooters weren’t really a practical option. I’d need to buy it sight-unseen, and have the person overnight the title / bill of sale to me in VT, so that I could get plates before my flight. No, it’d have to be a new one. I’d love a Honda Ruckus, but they’re crazy expensive new.



I found a dealer near-ish to the airport with a [Genuine Roughouse](http://www.genuinescooters.com/roughhouse.html) for sale. I told the slightly surprised sales woman that as it was the end of season, and they had four in stock from a few years ago, if she would make me a very good deal, I would give her my American Express card number over the phone for it right then. She did.



After a quick check with her boss, they asked me to email them a picture of the card, plus my license. I agreed, as long as I could encrypt the file. I get it. This is a little weird. The boss wanted a little piece of mind it wasn’t a scam.



I emailed them the stuff (password to be given over the phone) at the end of the day. We’d finish the thing tomorrow.



Next up. I called the guy who has the maps for the Trans America Trail, and arranged for him to overnight them to me. Not cheap to FedEx but [insert diety] damn it! I’m going to make this vacation work!



The next day the boss got cold feet. He said he’d hold it for me and I could just pay when I got there on Saturday. I explained that that wouldn’t help, because I couldn’t legally drive it home without it being registered. They didn’t seem to believe the idea that there were states that didn’t offer a temporary waiver after purchase.



The annoying thing about this is that if her boss had used his brain he’d see that this made no sense as a scam. There’d be a week pause between purchase an pickup. Plenty for someone to be warned by their credit card company about an expensive out of state purchase. I’d be spending hundreds of dollars to fly in (and could prove it) plus an outrageous cab fare to come pick it up. It would make so much more sense to scam a dealer in a neighboring state than effing Arkansas.



The only other dealer that was close enough to the airport to be worth considering wanted to charge me $500 more. This would also result in more sales tax too. I was already unhappy about spending $$$ on this.



Take 3



Take 3 … Take 3… um… I could hike the Puppy Dog Route. That’s a series of connected dirt roads from the Massachusetts border up through Vermont to the Canadian border. Yeah, I could do that. Hiking dirt roads shouldn’t be that bad. Should be easier than the Appalacian Trail or Long Trail around here by a metric boatload.



I… don’t actually want to.



My confidence in hiking distances, right now, is pretty much shot.



I just want to go on a journey, that I can accomplish not “maybe can” or even “probably can”. And the “journey” part is important. Traveling isn’t about the destinations for me. It’s about the motion.



Eventually, after much. “It’s silly” “I want it” “It doesn’t make any financial sense” type of back and forth with myself and Dachary I decided to try and buy a used ruckus. “I can sell it in the spring.” I say, because I could, and realistically it wouldn’t loose any value.



So, eventually, cragstilst + email = meeting… with a guy who had a bad-ass looking scooter on craigslist. Except, the picture in craigslist wasn’t a picture of the scooter he had. Oh and the battery probably needs charging.  Fuck it. FUCK IT. I’m so sick of trying so hard and having every plan fall through. Fuck It. I’ll take it.



I totally could have gotten the price down probably by two or three hundred but I honestly didn’t have it in me to deal. I need a fucking vacation. Getting my BMW F650 would have taken $$$ and  longer to get on the road than I had vacation time. And the PDR only takes 3 days on a motorcycle. Not enough. No, a scooter fit the bill perfectly.

Boston to California

Sat, 11 Feb 2017 23:44:43 +0000

On August 31st 2016 we threw the dogs in the back of our Outback, crossed our fingers, hoped the money would sort itself out along the way, and headed west.

Along the way way we ran towards a burning minivan, visited most of the national parks in the Northwest, saw buffalo, watched a prairie dog get eaten, failed to camp, had emergency dentistry, got up close and personal with the Redwoods, touched the Pacific, got bit by bedbugs (again), stumbled across the Boneville Salt Flats, finished visiting all the lower 48 states, and smiled… a lot.

Westward Ho – Day 19

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:48:12 +0000

Buffalo, NY to Cambridge, MA

(kay)

I was awoken to the sound of 20-something chattering far too loudly in the hall outside our door. I so wanted to stick my head out and say “Really?… REALLY?!” but I was naked. Eventually they wandered off, but soon thereafter Lita started staring at me. So, I got up, walked the dogs, and took my shower, then crawled into bed to wake Dachary.

Westward Ho – Day 18

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 01:25:21 +0000

Peru, IL to Buffalo, NY

(Dachary here)

I’m not generally a heavy sleeper, and with having to take penicillin every 6 hours, I have to wake up in the middle of the night to take pills… so I woke up around 3am, and found myself itching, bad. I went to the bathroom, and tried not to think too much about it, and went back to bed. And laid there, itching. After 15 minutes or so, I went back to the bathroom, turned on the light… and discovered that I had developed some red, painful, itchy welts. Uh-oh. After staring at them for a minute, I went and woke up Kay, saying I think I might have bedbug bites, and asked him to come take a look.

Westward Ho – Day 17

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:38:21 +0000

Lexington NE to Peru IL

(Kay)

I argued against today’s post. She was having none of that. “No!” she said, “We must blog alllllllll the days!” or…. something like that. I may be exaggerating slightly.

Before we hit the road today, she took a call from a client, then wrote up a couple newsletters for him while I drove through the boring end of Nebraska.

Eventually she emerged and we listened to the end of an Accidental Tech Podcast. She claims she doesn’t like listening to “talking people” and that they put her to sleep, but she was eagerly checking for the next episode before it came out yesterday. ;)

Westward Ho – Day 16

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 01:50:02 +0000

Rock Springs, WY to Lexington, NE

(Dachary here)

We drove. A lot. And had to keep stopping, because after yesterday’s unpleasant digestive issues, I was paranoid. I didn’t want a repeat of emergency pooping in a field somewhere.

Also, the dogs had run out of dog food, and the only pet food store we could find was in the middle of Cheyenne, which resulted in a lengthy diversion.

Also, I missed my window for breakfast, because with the antibiotics, I can’t eat for two hours before taking it or one hour after…

Westward Ho – Day 15

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 14:08:06 +0000

Winnemucca NV – Rock Springs – WY

(Kay)

We got up early today because we knew we would be crossing a time zone and loosing an hour today. Just outside of town, we started commenting on the curious cloud that had been pushed down along the mountain range before us. Then, we found ourselves driving through it.

The landscape on the other side was pretty cool too…

Westward Ho – Day 14

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 14:09:01 +0000

Redding, WA to Winnemucca, NV

(Dachary here)

Get up, get on the road, make tracks. That’s pretty much our daily objective for the next 6 days until we get home. The Internet wanted us to route to I-80, and then take that across the country until it becomes I-90, and then take that home. While that’s pretty boring, and we’ve driven large stretches of it before, it’s also the fastest and most direct route… so that’s the plan.

Westward Ho – Day 13

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 03:52:04 +0000

Grants Pass, OR to Redding, CA

(Dachary here)

Redwoods!

Leaving Grants Pass was uneventful. I tried stopping at one of the coffee shacks that seem to be so ubiquitous here out West (it got good reviews on Yelp, but I probably wouldn’t have picked it if I’d known it was a coffee shack) but the mocha turned out to be not drinkable - I trashed it at the first rest stop. Seattle and PDX, I miss you already.

Westward Ho – Day 12

Mon, 12 Sep 2016 03:26:26 +0000

Tumwater, WA to Grants Pass, OR

(Dachary here)

I slept. And slept. And slept some more. I had hardly slept at all on Friday night - woke up in the middle of the night and my mouth was in horrible pain, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So between the lack of sleep, the drain of being in pain, the drain of my body fighting off an infection, and the painkillers - I passed out and cold have easily slept all day long.

Westward Ho – Day 11

Sat, 10 Sep 2016 14:50:20 +0000

Seattle WA to Tumwater WA

(Kay) As per usual, Lita informs us that it’s time to get up and go for a walk. While I’m taking care of that Dachary starts researching the place she has an appt. with. We booked it from the road thinking that any place that prominently advertises itself as dealing with emergency dentistry, even on the weekends, can handle all the standard things that go wrong in one’s mouth, including wisdom teeth. This turned out to not be the case.

Westward Ho – Day 9 & 10

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 15:27:53 +0000

Kalispell MT to Bellingham WA to Seattle WA (Kay)

Day 9

was… a lot of driving. there’s no direct way across the state because of the cascade mountains. So, you end up going south around them. In the morning Dachary spent maybe an hour trying to figure out where we should stop for the night. During the drive I spent another hour. For many reasons, there was no good answer. It sucked, but eventually (well after lunch) we decided on Bellingham, and went for it.
About the most notable thing from the drive was finding the actual end of a rainbow. It’s in a protected meadow thing in Montana,

Westward Ho – Day 8

Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:00:39 +0000

Missoula MT to Kalispell MT
(Kay)

We snuck out of the house without incident. Well, mostly. Jeff’s dog started barking when it realized we were all going outside without it.

At the end of the road we plotted our route, and set off for Glacier National Park’s west entrance. As has proven to be the way of Montana the sky was frequently spitting rain at us the whole way.

There had been much debate if we should go through the park west to east, and then come back around the bottom, or go around the bottom and go through the park east to west. Either way we would end up at the same place. We checked the weather and decided we’d be best head through the park first in hopes of avoiding the rain.

Westward Ho – Day 7

Wed, 07 Sep 2016 04:31:21 +0000

Butte, MT to Missoula, MT

(Dachary here)

Waking up in Butte and starting my workout was more difficult than it had been since we set out on the trip. I can’t decide if it’s because I’m getting out of the habit (or just tired) - or if it’s because I’m not at sea level, and maybe I’m not very good at being at altitude. When we went into Bolivia a few years ago, I had major altitude issues, so I may just be one of those people who needs time to acclimatize to being above sea level.

Westward Ho – Day 6

Tue, 06 Sep 2016 13:44:53 +0000

Dickinson, ND to Butte, MT

(Dachary here)

One nice thing about still being on East Coast time: when the little dog wakes you up for a walk at 5:30am, it FEELS like 7:30, so you can walk her, have breakfast and be on the road by 7am… which feels like 9. The best of all worlds! Sleeping in, AND getting an early start! This time zone change is awesome… let us not adjust to it and keep waking up early.

Westward Ho – Day 5

Mon, 05 Sep 2016 03:22:42 +0000

(Kay Eau Claire, WI – Dickinson, ND)

Today, was a day of driving…

We got up. She exercised. We eschewed the almost non-existent continental breakfast and went to McDonalds. Despite her not being much of a fan of McDonalds in any form, her meal disappeared in record speed.

We drove.

The dogs slept.

We drove.

The speed limit went up.

We drove.

We had to pee.

Westward Ho – Day 4

Sun, 04 Sep 2016 12:23:02 +0000

Anderson, In to Eau Claire, WI

(Dachary here)

Upon waking, Kay asked me if I intended to exercise in the fancy-pants fitness center in our hotel. I was tempted - it felt kind of stupid to bypass real equipment in favor of my kettlebell later - but I was a little emotionally wrung-out and restless after yesterday, so I just wanted to hit the road. We packed up and got the heck out of dodge, after a series of mishaps:

Westward Ho – Day 3

Sat, 03 Sep 2016 02:18:18 +0000

(Kay) Today has been an emotional roller-coaster.

Let me back up a bit though.

We took a gamble when we set out. We’re a bit tight on money (too many bills every month), but our annual review was just completed at work. Mine was two years late, so a retroactive “merit increase” was coming my way. The money would have been enough to pay for gas, hotels, and food. So, we’d be good. But, we couldn’t be 100% sure it would come this paycheck. We were reasonably sure though.

Westward Ho – Day 2

Fri, 02 Sep 2016 13:42:43 +0000

(Dachary)

It was a restless night, with Lita poking Kay repeatedly for dog walks. We’re always a little paranoid about her potty training in a hotel room (me more than Kay) after she got over-excited on a trip last year and peed on our dog bed. Thankfully, it wasn’t the hotel room floor - but we don’t want a first time for that, so we err on the side of additional walks. Between her needing to pee all the pees, and Kay needing to do that, and me being woken up when the two of them got up and down, it was pretty restless for all of us.

Westward Ho – Day 1

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 03:00:37 +0000

Preamble

We’ve got 2.5 weeks. We’re heading west until we run out of west, or time. Going as fast as we can until we get close to the rockies (~500 miles a day, and hotels at night). Stopping quickly at relatives along the way. Hoping to see as many National Parks as we can along the way, and not freeze to death in Glacier National Park, or any of the others in the Northwest while we camp.

Overland Expo East 2015

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:01 +0000

Wow, we owe you a lot of updates, readers, but today I want to jump ahead to a recent event, because I’ve got something on my mind. We attended Overland Expo East this year - our first time at OE. We tried to go to West in 2014, but you may recall that our Vanagon broke down at the New Mexico/Arizona state border, and we spent the weekend (and the following weekend) getting work done in Flagstaff instead of attending Overland Expo just a few miles away.

In Memoriam, Bandido, Adventure Dog

Sat, 04 Apr 2015 17:44:08 +0000

It is with heavy heart that I must report the time has come to say farewell to Bandido, our faithful adventure dog. It didn’t matter if we were taking a drive to the coffee shop, or a ride on the Ural across the country, he was always happy to head out and eager to face whatever adventure the road might bring us. I’d be a damn lucky person if I could approach every day with the same unfettered joy he demonstrated day after day in the years that I was blessed to know him.

It’s the Experiences in Life You Remember

Fri, 27 Mar 2015 18:00:16 +0000

I had an awesome chat with a friend on Wednesday night about our respective travels. We mentioned something that happened on our Latin American trip, the friend said “I’d love to do a trip like that… it reminds me of this thing that happened when I spent a month in Japan” - and we spent the next hour sharing travel stories.

Life is Short

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 19:00:30 +0000

Bandido is our adventure dog. Ben, my dog, is happy to go along with us because he wants to be where the pack is, but Bandido is the one who lives for adventure. He’s thrilled when we hop in the Vanagon, whether it’s for a ride to the coffee shop or a cross-country adventure.

Some of you may remember that Bandido is originally the reason we changed up our adventuring style to include the dogs. When we went on our Boston to Ushuaia trip, we left the dogs at home with live-in dogsitters. They got to stay rent-free in our apartment with the deal that they’d take good care of our doggies while we were gone. One of them had a dog of their own, and we had multiple meetings with both girls, so we thought the dogs would be well cared-for… so imagine our surprise when we got home, and within days of our return, Bandido bit me. And it wasn’t just me he was feeling hostile toward.

The Finances of Big Travel

Fri, 13 Mar 2015 17:00:53 +0000

When we went on our Boston to Ushuaia trip, we were still maintaining an apartment back in Boston. We had house-sitters living in our apartment and taking care of our dogs while we traveled. Between paying rent, paying utilities and paying on some debt we had, we were paying probably an additional $2,500 a month just to maintain our life back home. Over the four months of our trip, that added up to $10,000. That eats into your travel fund quickly, so part of the delay in planning for our around-the-world trip has been dealing with our intent to eliminate expenses at home.

Nova Scotia

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 15:34:48 +0000

On August 24, 2013, we grabbed the Ural, and Dachary’s F650, and headed toward Nova Scotia for a nice little mini trip. Last year’s trip to Colorado had shown us that we didn’t want to cover quite so much ground on such a tight timeframe, leaving us basically no downtime, so we decided on a shorter trip to just relax and enjoy.

We didn’t count on the rain. Oh, so much rain. But there was much dogs in sidecar. And a lot of mud. And a surprise motorcycle rally. And beautiful scenery.

Sally is Yellow! And General Updates

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 15:12:28 +0000

Wow, we sort of dropped off the face of the planet, didn’t we? Sorry to leave you hanging, readers! We were waiting on our remaining posts until we were able to upload our pictures, which we couldn’t do until we got home for some reason (I think Kay was having trouble with his laptop) and then we got busy with the minutiae of life…

Well, we made it home. I owe you a better post, and I’ll deliver in the next few weeks now that it’s been brought to my attention that I owe you, but summary:

Boston to Arizona

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 14:12:53 +0000

In May, 2014, we attempted to travel to Arizona for Overland Expo in our 1981 VW Vanagon camper van - after investing a lot of time and money into modernizing the camping interior.

Spoiler alert: all did not go as planned.

Sorry this one had so few posts - trying to cover a lot of miles in not so much time in a vehicle that’s maybe not intended for it… well, we tried not blogging for a change. (Kay was very unhappy with this, and insists we blog everything from now on.)

Setting Out and Fleeing Fire

Thu, 22 May 2014 21:38:18 +0000

We set out for the Grand Canyon, finally freed from the chains of mechanical maintenance, performance was…not great. Frankly, it was worse than before things started going wrong. We were the slowest thing on the road, but we were moving again. I could deal. Too much sitting. Dachary wasn’t thrilled, but she knew how frustrated I’d been with giving up so much of our trip to the van so she was willing to go along with it, until the squealing.

The Challenges of 32-y/o Vanagon Life

Sun, 18 May 2014 21:14:44 +0000

It all started with the gas cap bodge. The rest of our race across the country to get to Flagstaff in time for Overland Expo became one long series of increasingly urgent mechanical issues.

We were stopped at a gas station to fill up, take a break and walk the dogs. When we got back in the van and started to drive up the on-ramp onto the interstate, we noticed a “thwap, thwap, thwap” sound bouncing off the jersey barrier on the side of the ramp. It was coming from our van. Kay described it like the sound of a playing card in bicycle spokes, only “meatier”.

Points West

Tue, 13 May 2014 21:15:48 +0000

It’s that time again. Time for the Corporate Runaways to set out on another adventure. It’s another little one this time; just 6-8 thousand miles around the US.

First though, let me back up and set the stage. In our last adventure we headed north to Nova Scotia: one of us on the Ural, the dogs in the sidecar, and one of us on a BMW F650GS.

It was… an educational trip. Mostly we learned how much it sucks to be wet day, after day, after day, after day…. We also learned that while the dogs love riding in the sidecar, we felt bad about keeping them in such a small space when you’ve got the sides rolled down to keep them dry for days on end.

VW Vanagon: Acquired!

Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:01:18 +0000

Ack! I just realized we haven’t kept our readers updated about our new project! In September, we flew out to Flagstaff, Arizona, bought a 1982 VW Vanagon diesel camper van, and drove it home! We had some adventures along the way, which we really need to write up.

Now that it’s home, we’re in the process of doing a restoration. It’s old, so it needs a lot of stuff replaced just due to the age of the vehicle. There are also a ton of small projects that the prior owner never got around to addressing, and a lot of stuff we want to do to enhance the livability of the van. So we sold the Ural to channel money into working on the van - it went home to its new owner last week!

Changing Tack

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 03:31:52 +0000

The last two adventures have been hard; each in its own way. We learn. We adjust. We try again.

Going to Colorado was a brutal slog. We firmly believe that having a deadline is the worst thing for an adventure. Being forced to just go go go without the time to stop and smell the roses… it sucks. Doing it in hundred degree weather with hot blowing winds sucks doubly so.

Day 16 – Bar Harbour, Maine to Home

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 01:55:29 +0000

Dark Skies likes it when we’re inside the US borders, and rewarded us with a precise window, telling us when the rain would stop, and how long we had to pack everything before it started again. We followed its lead, pilled and fed the dogs, and packed up whilst the current bout petered out. Then went out, and started dismantling the tent, and removing its guts so that we could transplant them into panniers and bags.

Day 15 – Moncton, NB to Bar Harbor, Maine

Sun, 08 Sep 2013 03:00:14 +0000

Today’s mission: make miles. We have 2 days to cover around 550 miles to home - do-able, but those are surprisingly long days on the Ural - particularly if we want to stop anywhere.

Started off the day with the Comfort Inn continental breakfast. This one was a definite step-up from some of the other continental breakfasts we’ve had - there were hard-boiled eggs, the bread products seemed fresh, and they also had yogurt. We filled up on breakfast before loading up ourselves and the dogs to head out.

Day 14 – Antigonish, NS to Moncton, NB

Sat, 07 Sep 2013 03:00:25 +0000

Not being able to get the window closed last night led to a surprisingly chilly night. Kay and I hunkered down in the bed, under the blanket and comforter, under the down sleeping bag, and under a pile of dog. It’s a testament to the cold that the dogs stayed piled on the bed with us. My dog, Ben, generally won’t sleep on the bed at night; he’ll hang out when the lights are on, but once they go out, he moves to the floor - usually right next to the bed so he can still be close to us. But it was so cold in the room that he stayed on the bed last night, and none of us wanted to get up this morning.

Day 13 – Baddeck to Antigonish

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 00:20:51 +0000

It started with sun, actual, honest to goodness sun. Not, overcast with sun peeking out, but sun, with an occasional cloud.

If we have learned anything from our time in Nova Scotia is that their weather forecasting is even worse than ours.

After packing up the smelliest hotel room ever (excessively moist boots and tent) we left the door open and the fan on, in hopes that it would have a chance to air out before the cleaning lady got there and passed out from the stench, then let the dogs jump into their sidecar and set out. I’m still wearing trash bags in my boots, because apparently 36 hours isn’t long enough to dry them once they’ve reached total saturation, unless you’re in a much drier climate, or do the newspaper trick, which someone on ADV Rider mentioned, and I’d totally forgotten about.

Day 12 – Baddeck to… Baddeck

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 02:00:56 +0000

With heavy rain/thunderstorms in the forecast, we had decided to stay in Baddeck today and stay warm and dry in a hotel room. When the day dawned, it was overcast but dry. We debated whether we should chance it and head out, but our boots were still VERY wet, our gear was still wet, and the idea of a day off sounded good. So we decided to stick around and just relax for the day.

Day 11 – Ingonish to Baddeck

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:08:20 +0000

In the days to come, people will ask us “How was Nova Scotia?”, and we will respond, “Wet.” Eventually they will say something like “Was it pretty?”, and we will respond that “The portions of it that weren’t enshrouded with clouds and fog were beautiful.”

It’s been that kind of a day. Actually, it’s been that kind of a week, so far.

We’ve come to the conclusion that the enjoyment of a motorcycling adventure decreases in direct proportion to the wetness of the rider. Take, for example, the day we rode the Trans Canada Trail up to Inverness. It started off well enough, a bit overcast, mildly misty on and off. As we encountered our first deep puddles I was laughing gleefully as the water repeatedly engulfed my left boot, or splashed up my front. But, as the splashings continued, and the rain picked up, things went from dry, to mildly damp, to downright drenched.

Day 10 – Margaree Harbour to Ingonish, via the Cabot Trail

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 02:00:24 +0000

At long last, the day had dawned - today was the day we would ride the Cabot Trail! As it’s THE thing that everyone says you must do in Nova Scotia, we’d been looking forward to this as one of the highlights of the trip. After stopping early yesterday, we were both feeling fairly well rested today, and we woke up early and were breakfasted and loaded up on the bikes by 9:30ish.

Day 9 – Boylston to Margaree Harbour

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 23:22:58 +0000

The day started off moist. When I woke up, I spotted a couple of places where the tent fly was laying against the tent body, and it was wet. That seems like the first time that has happened with this tent, but Kay’s confident it has happened before. Either way, it might have something to do with my dog laying against the sides of the tent - I’m convinced that’s how the poles have acquired the slight bend they now sport. When we ventured out of the tent, it looked like we were in a cloud. Mist was everywhere - fog coming off the bay, I assumed. (We actually discovered later that there was a lake just up a bit from where we’d been camping, which might have helped to generate the mist… either way, the tent fly was soaked and nothing we could do was gonna dry it.)

Day 8 – Dartmouth to Boylston

Sat, 31 Aug 2013 22:49:33 +0000

Despite complaining about the room, we both ended up getting a pretty good night’s sleep.

Whilst packing the bikes in the morning we encountered the couple in the room next door. Turns out they’re also from Massachusetts and had just done the Cabot trail in their car. He was complaining about all the curves, saying “I don’t think I’ve ever used the brakes so much in my life!”, and suggesting that there may be too many for a motorcycle. We tried to assure him that motorcyclists are happiest when the curves are most plentiful, but I don’t think he really grasped it as he stood there with his Black Lab. Though, he was amused to see how the dogs climbed into the sidecar and got strapped in.

Day 7 – Halifax to Dartmouth

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 22:17:30 +0000

Last night was hard.

We’d pulled in relatively early, around 5:00, and started pulling photos from cameras right away. The goal was to get everything uploaded, and the posts written then spend some time relaxing. We’d both gotten sicker as the day had gone on, but we’d forgotten just how much time these posts take to put together.

On our Americas Trip we spent about two hours a night putting together posts. One person would write and the other would relax. It was work, and sometimes we really didn’t want to do it, but it wasn’t too bad. Last night we spent six hours pulling photos from six cameras (2 ruggedized for on the bike, 2 video, 2 iPhones, and a DSLR), going through them, choosing which ones to upload, titling them and tagging their locations, adding titles to the video, uploading the video…. and we were so exhausted that the actually writing ended up being more of the “this happened, then that happened” sort, instead of posts that describe an experience, which is what we think makes a great ride report.

Day 6 – Shelburne, NS to Halifax, NS

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 00:15:56 +0000

Sure enough - we’re getting sick again. Woke up late this morning (at around 8:30) and I didn’t want to get out of bed. Kay said that he hadn’t slept well last night - he hadn’t been able to fall asleep until after 1:30am, and when he did, he slept fitfully. I’d fared better, but I managed to set up my sleeping pad on a rock, and then let too much air out of it, so I kept getting a rock in the hip and did a lot of tossing and turning. I’d also managed to get utterly mosquito-eaten when I stepped out of the tent to answer the call of nature. Neither of us was in great shape.

Day 5 – Kentville, NS to Shelburne, NS

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 02:00:07 +0000

I woke up this morning more-or-less with the sun, and Kay was still sound asleep. So were the dogs. I ventured forth to the washroom, and then I decided to treat myself and Kay to a little morning pick-me-up - hot water for him to make tea, and me to make coffee!

Yes, I brought a hand coffee grinder (burr grinder, of course), fancy coffee beans, creamer and sugar, and a tumbler so I could make coffee. Plus the JetBoil has a french press attachment. Tasty morning ritual, huzzah! Kay stirred while I was making hot water, so he put his leaves in for his tea to steep and I had my coffee. I grabbed my Kindle to read with my coffee - woot! Kay had apparently been in the habit of listening to podcasts in the morning lately, so he asked me to read aloud to him. So I did. It was a pleasant morning.

Day 4 – Amherst to Kentville

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 01:12:35 +0000

We woke bright and early… for no apparent reason, got dressed and wandered across the street to grab breakfast at Tim Hortons, which was tasty, but I scoffed mine down to get back to work on uploading images and inserting them into posts.

Next thing we know it’s almost about 10:40, and with a suspected checkout time of 11:00 we initiated UltraPack(tm).

The ride was largely uneventful until Dachary noticed a placemark we’d added to the GPS passing off to our side. “Hey, it’s that wild animal park. You still wanna go?” “Hell yes!” I respond. So we do. A little backtracking and we’re at the Shubenacadie Provincial Wildlife Park although the road signage would have you believe it’s a Ducks Unlimited place, which it technically is.

Day 3 – Saint John, New Brunswick to Amherst, Nova Scotia

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:58:30 +0000

Day 3 - Saint John, New Brunswick to Amherst Nova Scotia

Guess what?

We’re in a hotel.

sighs

Despite that, the day was great.

Started out in New Brunswick

..after buttoning up the dogs against the chill and wet in the air.

Made some pit stops at the ATM and Wall Mart for drugs (NyQuil and Tylenol with Codine! :D ), and got the first drips of the day whilst waiting in the parking lot. So, we dug out the rain gloves, and Dachary grabbed her FroggTogg rain pants, just in case some real rain set in, which it did just a few miles down the road.

Day 2 – Rockland, ME to Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada)

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 11:53:55 +0000

Day 2 Rockland Maine to Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada)

We made a conscious decision about this trip. We were going to spend time where we felt it important to do so. We weren’t going to stress about making miles. We were just going to enjoy.

Skye made us popovers and saussagey eggs, then we chatted in the grass outside, shared some great music finds (her’s was Lhasa which I think I actually turned her on to years ago, mine was Daniel Waples, uploaded the video of the dogs in the Ural (damn that took long to get processed and uploaded)…

Day 1 – Boston, MA to Rockland, ME

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 02:00:43 +0000

How is it that with weeks of prep, detailed packing checklists and days of nothing but trip-related stuff after work, we still manage to be unprepared at the beginning of a multi-week motorcycle trip?

This time, I blame the SPOT tracker. I had a note on my checklist weeks ago to have Kay renew our SPOT tracker subscription - largely so that the family could follow along and not worry about us - and I feel like I have a vague memory of Kay ranting about having to get the physical tracker to find a number on it in order to renew our subscription. So I just assumed the physical tracker was sitting next to his chair, and we could just grab it and add it to our kit when it was time to pack. We even ordered new Lithium batteries for it.

Every trip begins with… shopping!

Tue, 13 Aug 2013 14:26:02 +0000

As we prep for our upcoming trip to Nova Scotia, there’s a very important trip prep ritual going on… shopping!

Now let’s just get one thing straight: we’re not new at this. In fact, you’d think after the Americas trip, and last year’s Colorado trip with the dogs, we’d have everything we need - wouldn’t you?

Well, there’s some stuff we’ve had on our list to get “someday” - and there’s also a lot of stuff that we’ve been refining over the various weekend camping trips and the extended trips we’ve done. We’ve actually replaced a lot of the original kit from our Americas trip. Kay is working on a detailed writeup of the iterations we’ve done, but in the meantime, let us leave you with a little slice of life on what our pre-trip ritual looks like:

Heading to Nova Scotia in Two Weeks!

Fri, 09 Aug 2013 01:13:09 +0000

After last year’s hot, hot HOT trip to Colorado and back for vacation, we’ve decided to do things a little differently this year. We’ve waited until the end of summer, and we’re heading up to nearby Nova Scotia instead of driving across the country!

We’ll be leaving Boston on August 24, and plan to return on September 8. Along the way, we expect to see the highest tides in the world at the Bay of Fundy, ride the world-renowned Cabot Trail, explore endless miles of scenic coastline - and yes, we’re bringing the dogs! Ideally, we’ll cover fewer miles per day, stop a lot more frequently, and take a more leisurely trip in much more tolerable temperatures than last year’s slog through the heat wave.

We’re Still Here! Minor Life Updates

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 22:19:06 +0000

Hey everyone - we haven’t forgotten you - we’re still here! We owe you a post about our post-trip Ural diagnostics - we finally figured out that the problem with the Ural’s performance was the timing. That’s all better now, but we’re still getting shite gas mileage, so we need to take it into the dealer.

My bike (Nargo) just got a new set of fork springs and feels like a brand new ride - lovely!

Boston to Colorado

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:17:41 +0000

On July 19th we grabbed the Ural, and Dachary’s BMW, threw the dogs in the sidecar, and set off across America during one of the hottest summers on record. It was a mad dash to get to Colorado, and back (via Canada) before the last of Kay’s vacation days.

We discovered Americas highest stoplight, the worlds largest ball of twine, and what it’s like to stand in a hair drier you can’t unplug. Though it was too many miles in too short of a time, we learned a lot, discovered that our dogs share our love of the open road, and got to spend time exploring the world again.

Dogs in Sidecars

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:58:54 +0000

Part of this journey was to test how they felt about spending day after day in the sidecar, and how they handled hot weather in it. Because of the miles we had to cover, this ended up being an even bigger test of that. When left to our own devices we’ll spend about eight hours a day “on the road”. That includes all the breaks for breakfast lunch, fuel, bathrooms, and simply stretching the legs. Those breaks just get a bit longer with the dogs.

Post-trip Ural Thoughts

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:38 +0000

We’ve finally hit 10,000 km on the Ural, and most of that was done on this trip. So, how I we feel about it after 18 straight days of riding over 5,000 miles from sea level to 12,000+ feet in elevation (and back), in temperatures from 60° to 110°, averaging nearly 10 hours on the road each day? And more importantly, do I think we should take this around the world with us?

Day 18 – Poland, NY to Cambridge, MA

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:38:41 +0000

We’d left the tent fly partially obscuring the tent because the weather forecast had said it might rain on us, and the day started with Dachary waking me up because it was starting to rain. I jumped out of the tent and pulled the fly completely over us to keep the rain out. It seemed like as good a time as any to pack up and start the trek home, so Dachary checked the weather forecast and saw a decent window in the rain to let us get out. We packed quickly and made good time, getting out of the campground in under an hour. It felt like some kind of record.

Day 17 – Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada to Poland, NY, USA

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 02:35:14 +0000

During the evening a snazzy 1977 Honda… something parked beside the Ural. As we packed up the bikes in the morning I found myself talking bikes with its owner / maintainer. Apparently parts are getting hard to find for…whatever it is, but as he talked he smiled with memories of hours spent wrenching on it.

He and his girlfriend wandered off to the free continental breakfast, which Dachary and I had both forgotten about. I decided to go scout it out and see if it was worth bothering with. It seemed borderline, but eating here would save time, so we went for it. It was the wrong choice. The cantaloupe was mealy, the muffins tasted of excessive preservatives (neither of us had more than two bites), the orange juice was fermenting, the donuts were lame, the coffee undrinkable. The pre-packaged yogurt was decent, but didn’t really constitute enough breakfast to sustain us.

Day 16 – Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to Bracebridge, Ontario

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 02:36:19 +0000

When the alarm went off at 7AM, Kay and I both groaned. Neither of us had slept particularly well, and his back was already hurting. Not a good way to start the day. I decided that I felt gross and wanted to shower before we headed out, and I needed to wash some socks and underwear anyway, so we headed out for a quick morning walk with the dogs and I was going to shower. Alas, my shower with clothes washing took FAR longer than I had anticipated, and when I got back to our campsite, I found that Kay had already taken everything out of the tent and disassembled it. Unfortunately, this meant that I had zero shelter from the mosquitos. I jumped back and forth from task to task frantically, without really finishing things, because the mosquitos were driving me to distraction and I just wanted to be *gone* before they could get more of me.

Day 15 – Merrill, Wisconsin to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:53:15 +0000

I woke up before the alarm went off and went ahead and turned it off. Hit the bathroom and started doing my morning stuff, and the next thing I know it’s 6:30AM and Kay still isn’t awake. I woke him up, and we were still on the road by 7:15. Which just goes to show - Kay can sleep in an extra half hour and it doesn’t make any difference in the time it takes to get on the road. Our baseline is an hour when we’re in a hotel. I feel like we ought to be able to improve that, but we don’t really dawdle…

Day 14 – Marshall, MN to Merrill, WI

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:34 +0000

Day 14 - Marshall, MN to Merrill, WI

We got up at 6:00 AM. I walked the dogs in the light of a beautiful sunrise.

Despite our attempts at efficiency it was still an hour before we were on the road.

The weather was cool, and it wasn’t long before we had a hundred miles under our belt. Along the way we sat for a few minutes waiting for a pilot vehicle at the end of more road construction. Dachary had an interesting discussion with the woman and discovered that she’d been there since about 5AM and would be standing out in the sun until 8PM. Talk about a long day!

Day 13 – Mitchell, SD to Marshall, MN

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:18:33 +0000

We were too tired to do the service last night, and also way too far behind in the posts. We opted for the less physically taxing task of choosing and uploading images, writing the final day’s post, and putting images into old posts. It took a while, but finally, finally we were caught up.

Dachary set the alarm for seven, we got dressed, and headed down to do the 7,500 km service. Dachary left me alone for a few minutes which resulted in three quarts of oil going in instead of two. I thought it needed three and a bit, not two and a bit. Already overheated and hungry she was less than thrilled. I got back under the bike and started draining. Eventually, we got the right amount.

Day 12 – Mt. Rushmore, SD to Mitchell, SD

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:49:30 +0000

The Badlands awaited us, along with the burning sun. Determined to avoid her killing rays, we got up at five… much to the annoyance of the tent dweller in the next space, I’m sure.

On the road at 6:30 through the touristy town of Keystone. No breakfast for us, as everything was still closed. In addition to being a day of miles, today would be a day of oil changing, and we had no oil, and no oil pan. A Walmart was needed. Fortunately Dachary spotted one not far out of Keystone. “It’s probably closed.” we thought, but as we rounded the curve we saw a bunch of cars out front. What we didn’t see until later was the row of porta-potties, the craft paper behind each window, or the construction workers out front… back on the road.

Day 11 – Wheatland, WY to Keystone, SD

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 03:56:12 +0000

I should have gotten that Diet Coke. As I sit here typing today’s report, I’m longing for that Diet Coke. I’m dreaming of its sweet not-sugary goodness and blessed carbonation sizzling down my throat. But no. I walked away without getting it.

Let me backtrack to this morning.

We woke up in the sketchy motel, and I was happy to discover I seemed to be free of the little red bites that indicate bedbugs. (Don’t ask me how I know what bedbug bites look like. I live in a big city. ‘Nuff said.)

Day 10 – Lake granby, CO to Wheatland, WY

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 04:15:13 +0000

The original plan was to leave Lake Granby, and the rest of the F650.com folks on Sunday, but then we realized that we’d set ourselves up to do 420 miles to the next campsite, just around the corner from Mt. Rushmore.

On the F650s, without dogs, that wouldn’t be a problem, but the Ural is still being inconsistent, and generally tops out aroud sixty even when it’s running well. The dogs slow things down even more.

Day 9 – Lake Granby, Colorado to Lake Granby, Colorado

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:51:56 +0000

Hooray! We’d arrived at our destination so we didn’t have to set an alarm to get up at a certain time! It was worthy of a celebration and sleeping in. Unfortunately, my body has now been programmed to wake up between 5:30 and 6:30AM and sleeping in a tent I’m even more inclined to this timeline, as the sun comes up and it gets light (and I have to put on clothes and shoes and wander off to the pit toilet to pee, instead of having the convenience of a bathroom just a few steps away) so by 6:30AM, I was wide awake. I tried poking my phone, but cell signal in Lake Granby is, unsurprisingly, sparse… so I laid there for a while, and then wandered off to where the early risers were starting to gather.

Day 8 – Denver, Colorado to Lake Granby, Colorado

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 03:54:33 +0000

It was a nice day, and we were excited to finally get to our destination: the F650.com 2012 High Country Summit at Lake Granby, Colorado. At the last minute, we’d remembered that two of the people we met on our Americas trip, Eric and Sabrina, lived somewhere in Colorado. A little poking on the internet led us to Eric’s website, so Kay emailed and texted him… and Lo! and Behold! They lived in Denver! Woot! So they were able to meet up for last-minute breakfast, which was awesome. We caught up a bit on how our respective trips had gone, talked travel and motorcycling, and had an all around good time catching up with them. It was so fortuitous that we were able to meet up with them!

Day 7 – Colby, KS to Denver, CO

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:00:51 +0000

The day started with a bit of extra sleep and some decent complimentary hotel breakfast of eggs, sausage, biscuits, and gravy. When I went out to walk the dogs it was eighty-something, but there was a cool moisture in the air. It was nice, almost refreshing.

We got on the road at 8:30, somewhat later than usual, but we needed the sleep, and the food. It was 11:30 at our second gas stop, but it had a Wendy’s and I invoked the rule about having to stop and eat if it was even remotely close to meal-time. Unlike Latin America it wasn’t an issue of there not being food at meal-time, it was an issue of eating gas-station food at meal time if we skipped this.

Day 6 – Holton, KS to Colby, KS

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 03:27:20 +0000

Yesterday involved entirely too much hair-dryer action. Today we would get up even earlier to avoid it. So, we got up at 4:45 which is actually 3:45 in our home time-zone, which we left less than a week ago. As I write this it’s 6:20 PM and Dachary and I just forced ourselves up from a nap, because sleep is an evil thing that must be avoided at all costs…. or something. I’m not sure. I think I hear its siren call still.

Day 5 – Keokuk, Iowa to Holton, KS

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:21:38 +0000

We adhered to our plan and got up at 5AM - Kay walked the dogs before it was even light outside, while I worked on packing stuff up. (Kay tends to wander around inefficiently when he’s doing an open-ended thing like packing, so it just works out better if he has a series of tasks, like walking the dogs, taking some of the luggage out to the bike, etc. while I do things that require more fuzzy logic.) When Kay came back, he reported that it wasn’t too bad outside. He was right! Even though the weather said it was already 80 degrees, we were pleased to find that it felt fairly mild.

Day 4 – Anderson, IN to Keokuk, IA

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:34:32 +0000

Unsurprisingly, we got off to a late start. Kay was futzing with the Internet in the morning, and I was, too, and my grandpa showed up shortly before 8AM to see us off. We were still packing and I was still dealing with Internet stuff, so I sent Kay down to check on the “continental breakfast” while I wrapped up the tasks. His report was uninspiring, so I made an executive decision that we were having breakfast at Cracker Barrel with my grandpa. Done. We called my aunt, who was also scheduled to show up to see us off, and advised her of the change in plans. So we met up and headed to Cracker Barrel, where the dogs waited patiently in the sidecar while I had breakfast with my family.

Day 3 – Youngston, OH to Anderson, IN

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:11:02 +0000

With things dried we packed up and made the first decision of the day: where to have breakfast. Neither of us wanted McDonalds, and there was a Perkins just across the way. Dachary claims this is “kind of like a Denny’s” which sounded much better than McDonalds to both of us, but at the same time we needed to make miles fast today so that we’d have time to spend with Dachary’s family tonight. So, McDonalds it was.

Day 2 Followup

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:05:09 +0000

A few things to add

The Pine Hill campground place had a shower system was either ingenious or sadistic. I’m not sure which. You pulled a chain which caused water to come out. The water was connected directly to the hot water heater. The longer you pulled the hotter it got. Pretty soon you’d pull for a quick half-second blast scrub, pull, scrub, repeat until clean. I’ve never used so little water in a shower.

Day 2 – Endicott, NY to Youngstown, OH

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 02:44:18 +0000

Rain tap-tap-tapping on our tent woke me this morning, bright and early. So early, in fact, that while I really wanted to make a trip to the bathroom building, I didn’t feel like dealing with the dogs. And when we’re up, they’re up. So I tossed and turned for a while trying to convince my bladder that I was still asleep, until I glanced over and saw Kay doing a similar dance and gave up. By then it was around 6AM.

Day 1 – Cambridge, Massachusetts to Endicott, New York

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:37:11 +0000

Day 1 Cambridge, Massachusetts to Endicott, New York

Dachary and I both had plenty of paying work that had to get done yesterday, and we still hadn’t packed the bikes. Fortunately, we had a checklist… a six page checklist. Unfortunately, the checklist didn’t include spare keys, which we didn’t discover until half an hour down the road. Dachary asked if we should go back or be “irresponsible”. I said “fuck it.” I wasn’t going back, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

BOS -> CO – 2 dogs in a Ural

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:33:40 +0000

Cross-country and back on a 2012 Ural Patrol in the hottest part of the year with two dogs in 17 days? More than 5,000 miles and an international border crossing? Time constraints? Maintenance intervals? And side trips to visit family?

So begins our test trip driving our new Ural and an F650GS cross-country from Boston to Colorado, carrying our two dogs. If all goes well on this trip, planning for a RTW will kick into high gear!

Weekend Camping Trip 2: Camping with Canines in Vermont

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 15:31:08 +0000

Our Pemi weekend camping trip was so fun and successful that we decided to do it all over again the following weekend! We knew we’d have a lot going on as we got closer to our trip to Colorado in July, so we wanted to get the dogs out for rides and camping as much as possible just to get them used to the idea. Kay hadn’t been feeling well - I think he’d been worn out and was really stressed by some big deadlines at work - but he agreed that we needed to get them out while we could so we settled on camping.

Check out my review of motorcycle camping sleeping pads

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:45:49 +0000

I’ve been writing reviews of the products we used on the trip (and the stuff we’ve replaced it with) over on my motorcycle blog, as well as answering questions about motorcycle travel and all that good stuff. It was my personal writing, not necessarily related to Corporate Runaways, so I haven’t been cross-posting it here.

Well, Kay pointed out that you all following us here might be interested in this stuff, since clearly you’re interested in motorcycle travel or you wouldn’t be following us in the first place… so if you want to check it out, here is this week’s review of Sleeping Pads for Motorcycle Camping.

Boston to Ushuaia

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 02:25:25 +0000

On December 7th, 2010, we set out from Cambridge Massachusetts, USA heading for the southernmost city in the wold; Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina. 98 days later, we reached our goal and began the trip north to Buenos Aires, where we’d catch a plane home.

We’ve written daily accounts of the highs and lows of our journey from Day 1 to Day 118 when we finally made it home.

Along the way we covered over 17,000 miles in fourteen countries, saw ruins, volcanoes, poverty, penguins, glaciers, deserts, jungles, and more…

Camping at Pemi

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 13:00:30 +0000

More dog acclimatization through camping

Pemi: 6/8-10/12

Our local BMW club (the Yankee Beemers) has a handful of campouts every summer, and the first one we were able to attend was at the Pemi River Campground up in Thornton NH. Normally, it’s a two hour drive, but the Ural hadn’t been broken in enough to handle highway speeds, so Dachary had to take slow, back-roads all the way up there, and with a break along the way it took her nearly five hours. I would have loved to have joined her on the way up, but I had that dastardly “work” thing, and my team at work was in the middle of a stressy push for a big release.

We’ve Created a Monster!

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:09:13 +0000

Doggle-Wearing Dogs
Over the past week, we’ve been gradually taking the dogs on progressively longer rides in the Ural to help them get used to it. They’re both taking to it: they now get all excited when I bring out the harnesses, and both dogs happily hop into the sidecar under their own steam. No more need to lift Ben up and put him inside. And Bandido, as it turns out, has become an absolute crazy about Ural rides! He’s taken to following me around the house, barking excitedly whenever I get up and change rooms because he’s hoping we’re about to go for a ride. We’ve created a monster, I fear. These are a few of our dog-meet-Ural adventures in the past week:

Acclimating the Canines: Part II

Mon, 28 May 2012 03:08:59 +0000

Today was another GLORIOUS day in Boston, and the Ural is grounded because we’re up against our 500km service, but we decided to put on just a few more clicks, and give the dogs another opportunity to acclimatize to the Ural.

Brought the rig to the house around 11 or 11:30AM and started working on installing our mounting system so we can hook the dogs’ harnesses into the Ural. The mounting system installed very easily (frighteningly so) but the door was more of an issue, ultimately involving the Dremel, hammer, the creative use of cord, and some future riveting. All said, it was around 3PM when we’d had lunch and were ready to take the dogs out for a ride.

Canine Restraint System for the Ural

Mon, 28 May 2012 02:59:23 +0000

Being ATGATT people ourselves, there was no way we could let the dogs ride unrestrained in a moving motorcycle. I know from my old days working with a personal injury attorney what can happen when an unrestrained dog turns into a projectile in an accident. Doing it in an open-air vehicle seems like even more of a recipe for disaster.

So. For peace of mind, if nothing else, we wanted to come up with a good restraint system for the dogs when they ride in the sidecar.

Ural Break-In Ride to Twisted Throttle

Mon, 28 May 2012 02:47:18 +0000

The Ural needed breaking in. Twisted Throttle had a bag I wanted for the Ural’s rear luggage rack. A plan was hatched.

We would use the Twisted Throttle .GPX file to navigate a backroads route from Brookline, just outside of Boston, to the new Twisted Throttle headquarters.

It was around 140km to Twisted Throttle. (These Russian bikes don’t speak miles.) We had all day.

Left at around 9:30AM after a delicious breakfast. I function best on a bike when I am properly fed, so that was a priority.

Acclimating the Canines: Part I

Sun, 27 May 2012 14:19:09 +0000

Dogs, dogs, dogs.

The whole reason we got a Ural was so we could bring the dogs with us on our motorcycle trips. No more missed camping trips or weekend events because our dog-sitter isn’t available. And no worries about returning home to broken or abused pups, like on our Americas trip.

Now that we’ve got a functional Ural, it’s time to start acclimating the dogs!

We put in the custom Pooch Pad that we got for the dogs (a fancy padded cushion that replaces the stock seat in the Ural, giving the dogs a flat cushion that runs the entire length of the sidecar) and brought the dogs out in their new harnesses.

Complications Explained

Sat, 26 May 2012 01:33:37 +0000

So, as we mentioned in the last post, we had some trouble getting the Ural home from the dealer.

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Now, being relatively ignorant when it comes to Urals and Boxer-style engines we did pretty much what you’d expect. We went and asked people who were familiar with them.

Introducing the Dogs… to Doggles!

Mon, 21 May 2012 23:18:16 +0000

For our next “big” trip, we want to do a RTW with the dogs. That’s why we bought the Ural - hopefully both dogs will fit comfortably in the sidecar or we may have to buy a second Ural - but we’ve been slowly stocking up on gear for the dogs and trying to address the unique travel challenges of having the dogs ride in a sidecar rig. And one thing that many owners agree on is: Doggles!

Complications

Sat, 19 May 2012 01:02:59 +0000

We were pretty happy to be picking up the Ural Thursday…

But before we got home…

…there were complications.

We’re working with the dealer now to resolve this, and once we have all the details we’ll post the full story.

Bringing Home our New Ural… Almost

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:38 +0000

I was very excited to pick up our new 2012 Ural Patrol this afternoon!

Neutral light wouldn’t come on in the parking lot, but the service coordinator told us to make note of it for the 500k service and they’d adjust it then.

Less than 10k down the road, it was dying when idling at stop lights. At 10k, I pulled into a parking lot and we called the dealer, who walked us through adjusting the idle screws on the carb. (Was duly impressed with the size of the Ural stock toolkit - WAY bigger than our BMW stock toolkits.)

Always carry spare valve cores

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:01:38 +0000

Most people don’t think about their valve cores. We think they’re an essential part of the motorcyclist’s toolkit.

Eventually the rubber gasket will compress, and sometimes the moisture in your tire’s air will corrode them, and sooner, or later they will get stuck in an open position spewing air out. Mine did this last week, and Dachary’s has been sticking open and requiring a tap to get it to stop leaking. Neither is a good thing when correct tire pressure is so essential to keeping you safe on a motorcycle.

Acquiring our Russian Bride… er Bike

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:49:08 +0000

Today we drove out to Ural of New England to turn over our cashier’s check for the bike (yikes! Neither of us has ever paid cash for something that expensive before!) and fill out the paperwork. We had a last minute snafu as we were gearing up and doing our normal pre-ride check before getting out on the bikes… Kay’s valve stem on the rear tire started spurting air, and he couldn’t get it to stop. It’s stuck in the open position. We grabbed the Cycle Pump, and our valve stem tool, but were unable to tighten it. With time a-wasting (as Kay was on the clock and taking a “long lunch” from work) we opted to deal with the tire later and rent a Zipcar to drive out to Ural NE to do our paperwork.

Sidecar Class!

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:45:51 +0000

Yesterday was S/TEP - Sidecar/Trike Education Program - through Ironstone Ventures, a local motorcycle education school here in Massachusetts. I took my MSF class through them in 2010, so I was delighted to find they had a sidecar class, too! After some minor snafu where the website said to show up at the range at 8AM, but the group was actually meeting in the classroom 8 miles away, we got to the right place and started our education.

The great tent debate

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:38 +0000

We’ve been evaluating tents for months now. When we finally found one we thought might be suitable we went to the HUBB to see what advice people had to offer on the topic of choosing easily camouflaged colors (green), or something that stands out (bright orange). Almost everyone suggested we go with the green, but it wasn’t easy to find many people who had any real experience that would suggest a real difference. If you’re debating how important it is to have an easily hidden tent color I recommend you check out the thread on Horizons Unlimited.

Tonight we learned to weld

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 03:30:46 +0000

We’ve always thought it would be good to be able to do a little welding. You spend enough time on the road and something’s bound to break, and in planning for the next trip we’ve got a few things that will benefit from some welding. We may not do it ourselves, but we love the idea of know how. So, we signed up for a welding class. Two actually…

On-the-bike Photography

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 01:46:52 +0000

What’s here

When we set off on our last adventure we had no idea what to look for when choosing cameras for on-the-bike photography, but after taking hundreds of photos from the saddle I’ve learned a number of things that you’re likely to find useful. This post is all about providing you with advice for choosing the best camera for on-the-bike photography, techniques for getting the pictures you want, and how to get them without dying.

Buying a Russian Bride… er Ural

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:21:48 +0000

We’ve just put a down payment on a new Ural. She’s on a slow boat from Russia at the moment, but that’s ok. We’ll wait.

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Why a Ural

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:49:48 +0000

As we mentioned in the last post, we’ve decided to get a Ural for our upcoming Round-the-world adventure.

The reasons behind this choice, and related concerns, are something that may interest anyone who’s been following our journey, or is considering traveling with their canine friends.

Some Backstory

[](/2012/03/10/why-a-ural/bandido_and_bike/" rel=“attachment wp-att-1224)

As many of you know, when we returned to the states we discovered that my dog (Bandido) was broken. When we left he was literally the friendliest dog in the park. When we returned he bit Dachary, and snapped at or bit other people in the park. We don’t know what the dogsitters do, but we heard, after the fact, that they had some problems with him, and we can only assume he was abused in response. After nearyly a year of careful rehabilitation he is only beginning to return to his old self.

Shopping for the Ural

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:04:01 +0000

We’ve pretty much concluded at this point that the next big trip is going to be a RTW (or as much of it as can be navigated with dogs) with the dogs. We’ve pondered various options, and neither of us really likes the idea of a trailer for the dogs - so we’re going with a Ural! Plenty of people travel with dogs in a sidecar, and we both feel that buying a rig that’s designed to be a sidecar from the ground up is a better option than trying to hack one of our F650s for a sidecar, so Ural it is!

Preliminary musings on the next big trip

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:23:53 +0000

We’ve been ruminating on our next big trip, and I’m getting excited about the idea because it looks like we’ve got a few of the major details decided.

When we got home from this trip, Kay’s dog was “broken.” Some negative interaction he’d had with the dogsitters had turned him into a biter - and he’d *never* been a biter before we left. We had to buy him a muzzle and work for months to help him become more comfortable and reliable. He’s only *just* getting back to normal, and we’ve been home for over 8 months now.

A Year Ago We Left on an Epic Motorcycle Trip…

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:55:03 +0000

…from Boston to Ushuaia, at the very bottom of South America.

It’s really hard to summarize what that trip has meant to me. It showed me a whole new way of living life; a way of being grateful every day that you wake up, knowing you’ve got a whole day of riding before you, seeing new places, meeting new people and being on the road. There’s a joy in being on the road every day; a rightness in seeing this world we live in, living out of a couple of panniers and spending eight hours a day on a motorcycle.

More than a hobby

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:21:38 +0000

You can’t let fear hold you back.

I was catching up with an old coworker the other day. When I told him of our plans to follow our dream and become full-time professional adventurers he felt determined to show us how foolish we were being, and save us from loosing everything and winding up homeless.

The reality is that what we’re doing scares him, and countless others. People are afraid of going out and trying to live the life they dream of. Even worse, for many like him, our success would invalidate his decision to set aside his own dream in pursuit of a regular paycheck and “security” for his family. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one who’s done this.

[Review] CamelBak Hydration System

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:38:18 +0000

One of our readers recently sent me a question asking about how we like our CamelBak backpacks, whether we’d take different models or use some other way of keeping hydrated. Kay and I have had a ton of conversations about CamelBaks and it never occurred to me I hadn’t shared our thoughts here! In short, we feel that CamelBaks are absolutely essential pieces of gear for any motorcycle trip. Here’s what I said to our reader about our respective CamelBak backpacks, and what we’d change today:

Shout-out to BMW MOA Rally folks!

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:16:35 +0000

Hey all - just a quick note to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who stopped us at the BMW MOA Rally to say hi and tell us that they enjoyed reading our RR! I’ll admit it was a bit weird at first to have strangers recognize us, but we both really appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to chat with us for a few minutes and tell us that they really enjoyed reading everything. We loved getting the comments here, of course, but it’s something else entirely to have people walk up to us in the street and start chatting. We had a blast talking to all of you!

[Review] L.L. Bean Microlight Solo

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:24:35 +0000

Quick summary:

I set the L.L. Bean Microlight Solo up and took it down every day for over two weeks and thought it was excellent. It is absolutely worth your consideration for a solo adventure.

Note: this review was originally published in September of 2009 on a blog documenting Kay’s last adventure around the United States. In our travels across the Americas we used the REI Quarter Dome T3.

[Review] TCX Infinity Boots

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:19:15 +0000

There was a lot of back-and-forth in my head trying to decide which boot to get before our trip across the Americas. I knew I needed something new. After having ridden numerous times with boots that left my feet soggy and squishy in the portable water bags that my prior boots turned into every time it rained I knew I wanted something waterproof too. And the TCX Infinitys absolutely lived up to that requirement. After downpours, drizzles, streams, mud, and more the waterproofing has never left my feet so much as damp.

The Survey

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:23:14 +0000

We’re putting together a book to help people prepare for their next, or first, motorcycle adventure, but there are plenty of books out there that help you deal with big obvious questions, like what bike, or hard vs. soft panniers. We need your help to create something different. We want a book of advice: tips, tricks, and lessons learned on the road. Imagine your best friend is going on their first motorcycle adventure and you are giving him a brain dump of all the things you’ve learned on your adventures. Yes, the big lessons, but also the little ones, like carrying a couple of dryer sheets to keep in your dirty laundry bag for the day you inevitably have to wear things again between washes.

Catch Us on SideStand Up!

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:02:57 +0000

Pat McGhie has invited us to be on “The World’s Only Motorcycle Radio Road Show” SideStand Up!

We’ll be on the show tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14 in a roughly 20 minute segment between 7 and 9PM. You can catch us live, or the podcast will also be available via iTunes if you miss the live show.

Join us as we talk about the trip, the prep and how it’s changed our lives since we’ve been home!

Bike reclaiming: successful!

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:13:50 +0000

We showed up at Continental Cargo Terminal (122 Harborside Drive, East Boston) at around 8:15ish and showed them the air waybills we had from Buenos Aires. They charged us $35 per bike in some sort of processing fee, and gave us the actual air waybills with a sticker that we’d need to have customs sign off on our bike. Kicker is, customs in in South Boston. So we took a cab from the airport to 88 Black Falcon Drive, Suite 240 in South Boston - Customs and Border Security or something like that.

Operation: Reclaim the Bikes – Day 3

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:41:20 +0000

We thought yesterday would be the hard part - actually getting the bikes to the airport and getting them ready to go out. So today our plan was to chill a bit, do some work in the morning and head over to the office in the afternoon to pay and collect our waybills. Neither of us has gotten as much work done this week as we’d planned, and we’re technically both still working on this trip - I had some deadlines to meet and Kay is technically “working remotely” so he wanted to get some stuff done before we headed out. So we have yummy breakfast in the lobby and then back to the room to work for a few hours.

Operation: Reclaim the Bikes – Day 2

Tue, 31 May 2011 14:39:21 +0000

Our swanky gay hotel included a breakfast buffet, but being Argentina, we were expecting a lame breadfast. We were quite pleased to find, when we went down to grab a quick meal, that it’s actually a huge spread, including many non-bread items - scrambled eggs, “bacon,” these weird sausage things, lunchmeat, fruit, cereal, yogurt and several types of bread. We enjoy our tasty non-breadfast, go back to the room, make sure we’ve got all the papers and I suit up. Dachary’s stressing about the time. I’m not, but that’s only because I don’t actually know what time it is.

Operation: Reclaim the Bikes – Day 0-1

Tue, 31 May 2011 01:07:57 +0000

On Sunday, May 29 we began the journey to Buenos Aires to reclaim our bikes. I was very casual about packing for the trip right up until about 7PM on Saturday, at which point I realized we had more to do than I thought and panicked mildly. We wanted to bring the old Scorpion helmets so as not to subject our beloved Arais to two more trips through baggage handling, but discovered on Saturday night that to switch the Cardo headsets over to the Scorpions would be too much of a PITA. (It would involve adhesive, instead of the clip mounts.) So we bubble-wrapped our Arai helmets, wrapped them in our riding jackets, put our back armor underneath them and crammed the rest of our riding gear in for padding.

What worked, and what didn’t. A gear review

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:13:00 +0000

Most of the items we brought with us worked as expected. Some were outstanding and require special mention. Some items seriously disappointed us. Some items simply deserve some comments to help you when considering items for your next trip.

Outstanding items:

The Wolfman Rainier tank bag

Normally we don’t think much about tank bags. You get the size you want and they either work, or they don’t, and they’re not worth much mention, but throughout the trip we kept commenting about how much we loved these. Excellent build quality, and so much expandability that when we encountered another rider with one fully expanded we didn’t recognize it. The expandability was great, as it made it easy to stow things in the tank bag for a short time. Have some soda left from lunch? No problem, just stick it in your tank bag. Grab some cookies or a bag of chips to snack on later? Tank bag can hold it - just expand the zipper. At one point, Kay had octane booster and a quart of oil in the tank bag in addition to all the normal stuff he stored in there (big, expensive camera, Spanish-English dictionary, stickers, helmet cleaning stuff, toilet paper, etc.) and it still had more room.

Some Trip, Mileage and Riding Stats

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:39:09 +0000

[B]Days of trip including departure and day of flying home:[/B] 117
[B]Days of not riding:[/B] 21
[B]Days in United States:[/B] 10
[B]Miles in United States:[/B] 2,569
[B]Days in Mexico:[/B] 16
[B]Miles in Mexico:[/B] 2,041
[B]Days in Central America:[/B] 23
[B]Miles in Central America:[/B] 2,137
[B]Days in South America:[/B] 68
[B]Miles in South America:[/B] 11,225

[B]Total Miles: 17,972[/B]

[B]Average Daily Mileage in US:[/B] 256.9
[B]Average Daily Mileage in Mexico:[/B] 127.56
[B]Average Daily Mileage in Central America:[/B] 91.91
[B]Average Daily Mileage in South America:[/B] 165.07

Day 117-118: Flying Home (Buenos Aires, Argentina to Boston, MA)

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:06:32 +0000

Saturday dawned bright and early as we got up, showered and put the finishing touches on our packing at around 7AM, all the time trying not to wake Gus the Canadian. Javier from Dakar Motos said he’d try to make it to the shop in the morning to see us off and lock up after we left, but since Gus was scheduled to arrive, that took the pressure off and Javier didn’t make it. The taxi was scheduled to show up at 8:30AM… at 8:20 I went out to take our trash out to the bin and the taxi was there.

Day 116 – Buenos Aires

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:03:22 +0000

Last night’s home-cooked meal (pasta and beef chunks) didn’t go over so well with Dachary’s intestines and I was sent to fetch breadfast. ‘Twas a good thing though, because on the way there was a dead dog up against the curb. He would have been a cute one too. I really didn’t think it would have been good for Dachary to see that now, so I decide to not mention it either. We’re sad about leaving the bikes. We’re not sure how we feel about the end of the trip, we’re really missing our beasts, and sometimes seeing hurt doggies can really get to her. I’ve mostly tried to just compartmentalize that on the trip. Dogs get hurt, get mistreated… there’s nothing I can do about it. Their lives and circumstances are so radically different in Latin America.

Costs for The Trip

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:38:03 +0000

We did some quick and dirty math, and these numbers aren’t down-to-the-dollar accurate, but they’re within a few hundred dollars in most cases. So for those of you wondering what a trip like this costs, here’s how it broke down for us:

Total Spent During the Trip: $17,000 ($20,200)

Transporting us*: $3,600
Transporting the bikes: $1,800
(Future transport of bikes back home will be an additional $3,200)
Bike service: $2,000
Other repairs/replacements: $1,200
Hotels/Gas/Restaurants**: $8,400

Day 115 – Buenos Aires

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:37:53 +0000

Day 115 - The search for Spock… er… luggage (Buenos Aires).

The neighbors started arguing early last night. Initially I thought that the guy yelling was mentally retarded. Then I realized he was just yelling in Spanish. Unfortunately, they continued for hours and I couldn’t sleep through it. Then I was too hot.. then… Yeah, that’s right. I’m a picky bitch. :P

Anyway, we get up, hunt down some pandas at the Panderia, eat breadfast, and figure out what else we can pack in my panniers. We’ve decided to take mine on the plane and store Dachary’s here at Dakar Motos. We’d like to take them all but Copa only allows two checked bags and United Airlines allows zero… well, zero for free. First bag $25. Second bag $35. Go over size or weight on either of those and it’s another $100, per bag. If we had of known we would have taken the slightly more expensive itinerary because it was all Copa and would have required any baggage fees or a fracking long layover in DC. The end cost would have been about the same and the hassle would have been far less. Also, with the bullshit over the price skyrocketing after our card was declined on the flight we tried to book first I accidentally purchased the flight protection from Travelocity. Hopefully I’ll remember to try calling them tomorrow and see if we can get that refunded.

Day 114 – Buenos Aires

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:23:32 +0000

Today was the day. We were meeting Ed at the parking garage at 11AM to drop off our bikes.

It was a tough day.

We know we’re doing the right thing. We’re happy we’re going to be keeping our bikes, and we know it’s just a matter of time till we get the money to come and claim them. It’s a slightly daunting number to raise in 7 months (how long we have left until our Temporary Vehicle Import Permits expire) - basically we have to be putting away $1,000 per month, which is a lot but we believe it’s do-able. It would be better if Kay had a job to go back to, and if most of my clients didn’t pay on a Net 30 which means about 6 weeks before I have good money coming in again…

Day 113 – Buenos Aires

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:36:40 +0000

Day 113 - Buenos Aires

Today was an unexpected punch in the emotional gut.

Javier had no space left in the shop to store any more bikes and wasn’t comfortable with storing ours in the enclosed back yard until space opened up. I think he, reasonably, didn’t want to be responsible if someone climbed the wall and stole bits off of them. We’d be happy to sign something saying we’re ok with that possibility, but people sign shit like that all the time and then get pissed when it actually happens, so I can’t blame him.

Day 112 – Tres Arroyes to Buenos Aires!

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:33:19 +0000

Today was the day - we were going to make a final push to get to Buenos Aires and Dakar Motos before the day was out, there to find out the fate of our bikes and wait for our plane to fly home on Saturday. We woke up at the same time as always, and made a concerted effort to get out of the hotel early-ish - we were ready to go by 9:00AM, but when we went to load up the bikes, we discovered it was warmer. Much warmer. So much warmer that it was time to shed layers.

Day 111 – El Condor to Tres Arroyes

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:05:40 +0000

As it was rather chilly this morning, I wasn’t tempted to linger and wake up slowly. When the alarm went off, I immediately made my morning trip to the bathroom, and then came back and crawled into the sleeping bag and started packing stuff away. Whenever we spend more than a night in the tent, all kinds of stuff invariably ends up in there and needs to be put in its appropriate place so it can go back in the panniers.

Day 110 – El Condor

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 23:42:08 +0000

There was rain in the forecast last night, and as we ate dinner in a nearby restaurant we watched cloud lightning as the edge of the storm rolled in and the wind just kept picking up.

For me it was exciting because it wasn’t just wind blowing like it does on the plains of Patagonia. This was wind with a purpose. It was bringing a storm. When would it come? What would it be like? As a precaution, I pounded down the tent pegs some more so the wind wouldn’t rip the fly away, and then huddled in the tent listening to the fly flap and flap and waiting for the rain.

Day 109 – Trelew to El Condor

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:05:44 +0000

We poked into the restaurant on the off chance that there would be some sort of desayuno, and there was - they had media-lunas (croissants) and we got coffee and tea. Sadly, the coffee wasn’t drinkable - probably more of the instant crap they love so much here in South America - so I gobbled my croissants quickly and we headed back to the room to get ready. Surprisingly, in spite of it being a place with internet and us spending some time chatting with a guy who was staying in one of the other rooms, we got out early (for us) at around 9:30AM. Grabbed gas at the gas station next door and hit the road.

Day 108 – Comodoro Rivadavia to Trelew, Argentina

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:42:21 +0000

Penguins!!!!

Er… sorry. Couldn’t contain myself.

The day started with the sound of wind, and me taking experimental trip into it to find croissants.

When we got off the bikes yesterday I was sweating my ass off. It had started off cool, and when the winds picked up enough we’d both turned on our jackets just a wee bit. But at the end, walking around looking for a hotel left me sweating. This morning I decided to forego the thermal leggings and the rain liner in the top. I swapped the Cyclone Buff for the lightweight one and pondered swapping in the summer weight gloves, but Dachary stopped me with the simple reminder that we’re always too warm when we start, and then just right, or even cool, when we’re on the highway.

Day 107 – Tres Cerros to Comodoro Rivadavia

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:48:56 +0000

Slept very well last night, but was still super tired on waking up and kept hitting snooze. Eventually I dragged myself into the shower, which made me cold again (the room was cold and the shower wasn’t producing enough water to warm me up) so I had to crawl back into bed to warm up before venturing out for breakfast. Today’s croissants were just as lame as the last time we stayed here, but the coffee was actually tasty today, and I bought a carton of “multifruital” juice (pear, orange, banana and pineapple) and breakfast was surprisingly decent.

Day 106 – Rio Gallegos to Tres Cerros (again)

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:41:18 +0000

I realized this morning that the money from the stocks we sold should be in my account, and as a result i should a) no longer be negative and b) should be able to buy the plane tickets. So, I hop over to Orbitz and Travelocity to see if the price has gone up since the last time we checked. Yup. But, oddly, if we travel three days earlier than the cheapest day last time we get a few hundred bucks off. I go to book it but my card is rejected.

Day 105 – El Calafate to Rio Gallegos (AGAIN).

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:39:35 +0000

Last night, a little after midnight we woke to the sound of rain pouring on our tent and Dachary really needing to pee. I remembered I’d shoved a teeny umbrella in my Camelbak, which made the endeavor slightly more bearable. Upon seeing the time I decided to try and hold mine for another seven hours or so; hoping the rain would be gone by then.

(Yeah, that’s right, another morning of wet ass thanks to my Airhawk cover)

Day 104 – El Calafate

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:07:39 +0000

Didn’t set the alarm today and woke up at 8:30AM - it was glorious. Naomi and Alberto were packing up to head out, and Kay and I sat around and chatted with them for a bit before heading into town for breakfast. Happily, the lunch place we found on our first afternoon here also had breakfast, so we had an Americano - tons of food. Toast with butter and jam, corn flakes, fruit salad, juice and… the coveted eggs. Plus coffee for me and tea for Kay. It was a lot of food but we were so happy to have a real breakfast that we dug in and ate pretty much all of it.

Day 103 – El Calafate & Perito Moreno Glacier

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:26:57 +0000

Didn’t particularly want to get up this morning because it was cold and I just wanted to stay inside the sleeping bag, but Naomi and Alberto were heading out to the glacier and then off to Chile, so we wanted to ride with them to the glacier and didn’t want to make them late getting to Chile. So Kay went off to shower while I wandered off in search of an ATM. One ATM out of cash, but five blocks further into town I found some money. Yay money!

Day 102 – Rio Gallegos to El Calafate

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:49:43 +0000

We got a surprise e-mail from Naomi with directions to the campground in El Calafete where we were headed, and they were staying.

We were pretty bundled up against the cold and the rainclouds we saw off in the distance, and the road was a lot more of the same we’ve been seeing lately so there wasn’t much to note from the early riding until I asked Dachary how she was doing and she responded that she was “… trying to figure out if I’m getting shocked” … “O… k…” That’s not good. I’m imagining some intermittent little shock being delivered from her electric jacket until maybe ten minutes later she tells me to pull over. She never tells me to pull over so I’m pretty concerned.

Day 101 – Rio Grande to Rio Gallegos, Argentina

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:06:38 +0000

Breadfast initially consisted of yesterday’s leftover rolls at the restaurant. I went and asked the lady if they had any croissants, since, while we may not be a fan of Breadfast we do enjoy the Argentinian croissants with a bit of sweet brushed over the top. “Oh, yes. I’ll go across the street and get them.” Across the street being the delicious bakery.

Breadfast was much improved upon her return as neither of us was interested in the leftover rolls.

Day 100 – Ushuaia to Rio Grande

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:42:17 +0000

\We actually managed to get up, get some work done, have breakfast and still beat check-out time, which was a bit of a miracle since my panniers were torn apart… Kay had gone looking yesterday for a fuzzy for his Cardo microphone and that resulted in dismantling my panniers. They always take too long to put back together when we have to dig deep down for something.

Got out just after 10AM, and we were sweating as we bundled up. This is one of the most annoying things about wearing all of these layers. When you’re getting ready, you overheat in zero seconds flat… but we’ve both been riding in cold enough at this point to know that we’d need the layers, so the key is to get moving as quickly as possible. And sure enough, once we hit the road, I turned my electrics up.

Day 99 – Ushuaia

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:28:30 +0000

We weren’t going anywhere today. That was the plan at least.

And, we did a pretty good job of sticking to it. There was talk of taking a taxi to the chairlift, and the chairlift to the “glacier”… but then we learned that it was kinda lame, as glaciers go, and there was like one to two miles of walking after tho top of the chairlift and Dachary was still hurting, so we nixed that idea. Plus, we’re going to Perito Moreno Glacier, which is definitely not lame, as glaciers go.

Day 98 – Rio Grande to Ushuaia!

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:56:08 +0000

The room was nice, but checkout is at 10, so we can’t lay about much even though we’ve got a short day ahead of us. It’s odd though. In Central America the checkout times were as late as 1PM. In Peru they were either late, or early. After Peru it’s always been 10 AM. On the one hand that’s not bad because it means we can’t dally. On the other hand we don’t generally get out before 10 when there’s a breakfast included, and especially not when there’s internet.

Day 97 – Rio Gallegos to Rio Grande

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:51:41 +0000

As usual, breakfast plus internet equals us scraping out right around the 10am check-out time, and getting a later start than intended. We knew we had around 100km of dirt today, plus two border crossings, and didn’t think we’d be able to make it far past Rio Grande, but I was secretly hoping to get there early enough to push on to Ushuaia and try to make it all the way. So I was slightly disappointed by the late start, but still secretly optimistic. I didn’t share these thoughts with Kay.

Day 96 -Tres Cerros to Rio Gallegos, Argentina

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 14:11:13 +0000

“Breadfast” was even worse than expected. We go to the restaurant but it’s closed, and we’re instructed to go acquire breadfast in the gas station seating area. So we go, and sit, and wonder how exactly this is supposed to work. How are they to tell the difference between people coming in to sit from the gas station and people wanting breakfast without… whatever else they’d buy?

We sit. Nothing happens. We watch others do the same. Nothing happens to them either. Eventually one ends up talking to an employee. He gets up, acquires his bread products from the glass cabinet that holds them, then goes back to his seat. Hmm… I must have missed something, because how does he get his coffee or tea?

Day 95 – Perito Moreno – Tres Cerros, Argentina

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 02:39:22 +0000

It was decided. Pavement was the way to go. From Perito Moreno we could cut east to the coast, then down Route 3 (the Panamerican). There’s a hundred kilometers or so of dirt towards the end that there’s no getting around but Dachary was willing to do that.

Before going out though we head to the hotel restaurant for “breadfast” They call it breakfast, but no. Argentina doesn’t have breakfast as far as we can tell. The waiter brought us a basket of breads some jelly, some butter (this has been surprisingly rare), some coffee, and tea. I thought when he went away that maybe he’d return with eggs, but no. Not even in the Hotel Americano.

Day 94 – Sarmiento to Perito Moreno

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:29:38 +0000

Routa 40… what can I say about Routa 40? It’s wonderful, glorious and wild.

And today, it totally kicked my ass.

We knew that today we’d hit dirt. And we’ve been warned (in this thread, even) that Routa 40 is gravel and sand, and would be outside our comfort zone (mine, that is). But that warning didn’t prepare me for the reality of today’s riding.

Let’s be clear - I’ve done very little riding on unpaved surfaces. Before we left, we did some dirt rides in New England, but the dirt we rode back home was mild and well-behaved. And it was just dirt. Mostly hard-packed.

Day 93 – El Bolson to Sarmiento

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:43:54 +0000

Because we have internet the morning takes longer. We’re figuring out when the cheapest day to fly home will be (still haven’t purchased the tickets), checking on the stocks that are funding this (plummeting since the day we left), and e-mailing our dogsitter. Checkout time is 10:00, or maybe 10:30, depending on which sign you read but Dachary read the 10:00 one and starts stressing and getting a bit grumpy about not going over (since we’re getting close). I’m not sure why since the guy won’t care about a few minutes over, and even if he was an ass about it he can’t do anything because we paid in cash.

Day 92 – Piedra de Aguila to El Bolson

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:41:01 +0000

The day started off, as usual, with us getting out of the hotel late because there was internet. Even though it wasn’t particularly *good* internet, I thought of a couple of things we should do/check at the last minute which of course took longer than it should have. In the end, it was after 10AM when we got out of the hotel, and I’d suggested that we skip the lame hotel breakfast (i.e. bread) entirely and get some sandwiches at the gas station down the road, so it was 11AM before we hit the road.

Day 91 – Santa Isabel to Piedro Del Aguila

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:42:05 +0000

The alarm went off. She hit snooze. The alarm went off. She hit snooze. The alarm went off. She hit snooze. I asked her why she didn’t just turn the alarm off. She did…

We hadn’t slept in in a while and both really wished we could have yesterday so I fully encouraged the extra sleeping.

Eventually we got out of bed and loaded the bikes. I wandered around to the restaurant and asked the guy if they had breakfast, he seemed a bit confused and suggested the “machina” which I’m pretty sure was an instant coffee machine, and not, an instant breakfast machine. Thanks, but… no.

Day 90 – Mendoza(ish) to Santa Isabel

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 01:38:34 +0000

We’d set the alarm for 7, and hit snooze twice, because we wanted to be up by eight, when we thought he was going to come by with the change, but we were both exhausted and would have really preferred more sleep, especially if we had of know no-one was going to come at eight.

Last night’s confusion over where or when we’d get the change for the room was quickly resolved through a lucky meeting with the guy and asking… “where? am I supposed to get the change?” to which he told me his boss would bring it. “Oh, when?” “11 o’clock.” “Ah. But I need to go…” “Hmm… let me ask this guy here if he can make change.”

Day 89 – Los Andes, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 01:19:51 +0000

Breakfast in the loooooove hotel was, predictably, lame. We got instant coffee (which I won’t knowingly drink - yes, I’m a coffee snob too stupid to bring my own), toast, yogurt and “Sprim” peach juice. Which, really, is better than some of the breakfasts we’ve had… but a couple of pieces of dry toast, a yogurt and a cup of juice isn’t my idea of a good way to start a chilly morning on the bike.

Day 88 – Santiago to Los Andes

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 01:27:43 +0000

Theoretically, the bikes should have been done yesterday afternoon. We’d also been keeping an eye on the package from RevZilla, and it looked like it arrived yesterday afternoon. So we were looking forward to getting to the BMW dealer, picking up the bikes and the package, and then heading for Argentina.

The day did not go as planned.

We emailed BMW first thing in the morning (7:30am, and they open at 8) and waited for a reply while we showered, packed our panniers and had breakfast. Nothing by around 9:30, so we decided to load some money onto a Skype account and call them. We spent a while futzing around with trying to find Kay’s user name and password, which he’s forgotten, and the reminder email didn’t seem to come through. So I got my laptop back out, fired it up, added money and prepared to make calls.

Day 87 – Santiago, Chile

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:57:39 +0000

[QUICK NOTE]Our internet connection is too slow to upload pictures today, but it’s been a while since we updated so we wanted to post anyway. We’ll go back and edit later when we have pictures to share, and apologies in the meantime for all the words and no photos to break it up![END NOTE]

As we always find on a “day off,” there’s a certain pleasure to waking up and knowing you don’t have to make any miles today. The only reason we set the alarm at all was to make sure we didn’t miss breakfast, which was included with the hotel. Leisurely got up, read a bit, went down to breakfast (which was surprisingly lame) and generally enjoyed being lazy. Went out afterward to get me some Diet Coke, because I’m *really* enjoying being in a country where I can find it again, and then back to the room to be lazy.

Day 86 – Catapilco to Santiago

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:26:54 +0000

Waking up in the tent this morning was a lot easier than last time. Falling asleep early (like 8:30PM early) made waking up at 7AM a much easier task. I didn’t grump at Kay, and because I was paranoid about someone finding us in the cemetery and getting upset, we were quite efficient at packing up. We were on the road around 8AM, where it was chilly and misty. I don’t think I was fully awake yet when we hit the first tunnel, which was LONG. Longest tunnel we’ve been in on the trip. But it was well-lit, so go Chile. You’ve got your shit together.

Day 85 – Vallenar to Catapilco Chile

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:23:53 +0000

There was net, so, as per usual, we left later than we intended. Everything takes longer when there’s a net connection we’re free to use.

Breakfast, included in the room, was probably the lamest yet in Chile. We go to the “Comedor” which was just a normal room with tables set up in it, each one with a saran wrapped plate of sliced ham and cheese, and a couple common tables with hot water (for instant coffee or tea), a pan of cold scrambled eggs, and a thing of yogurt by each place setting.

Day 84 – Chanaral to Vallenar

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:06:17 +0000

One of the nice things about the expensive hostel where we stayed was that breakfast was included. So we went out shortly after 8AM to grab breakfast, and sat down in the restaurant. The server from the night before poked his head out, said “Desayuno?” and when we indicated yes, gabbled some Spanish at us. We assumed he was getting a menu… so we sat and waited and read our books on our various devices. (I’m reading on my iPhone and Kay is reading on his iPad, because we ran out of paper books a long time ago.)

Day 83 – Quillagua to Chanaral

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 03:22:50 +0000

We still haven’t gotten the hang of Chile time. Set the alarm for 7am, which is when we’ve been waking up, and it was barely light - sunrise apparently isn’t until 7:33AM. We hit snooze once and then the need to pee drove me out of the tent to our hole. My intestines seemed unhappy and threatened to make me use the hole for something else, but apparently I haven’t degenerated to a complete savage yet as I found myself unable to poo squatting over a hole in broad view in full daylight.

Day 82 – Arica to Quillagua, Chile

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 03:19:37 +0000

Did I mention we lost another hour when we came into Chile? That’s two hours lost in less than 48. We woke up at 9 Chilean time. 7 our time, which is when we normally have the alarm set. Breakfast was included with the room, but we thought we were too late to get it. McDonalds. McDonalds works. Not the most spectacular breakfast offerings but not bad either. I head out and discover that Chileans have no appreciation for breakfast, if McDonalds is any indication.

Day 81 – Villa Loza-Tolar, Bolivia to Arica, Chile

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:15:16 +0000

Dachary didn’t wake up with a splitting headache, which was good, but she was completely winded by walking across the street to get breakfast, which was bad. Went back to the room and the double whammy of street crossing and food digestion made Dachary need to lie down for a few minutes. I know, this sounds totally freaking pathetic, but you just can’t get your head around the effects of oxygen deprivation until you’ve experienced it.

Day 80 – La Paz to Villa Loza-Tolar, Bolivia

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:08:46 +0000

We’re both exhausted, but wake up a bit before the alarm and Dachary has a *splitting* headache. The kind where you have to tell people to talk more quietly because it hurts too much to hear them at normal volumes.

When she does get up to go to the bathroom it’s both exhausting and dizzymaking and the cough is making an appearance. She doesn’t have a cold. It’s the altitude. The plan was to go to to Potosi and then to the Salar de Uyuni, but Potosi is at least another 300 meters higher, and that’s enough to require more acclimatization, when she’s obviously not made any progress on acclimatizing to 3,800 meters even though we’ve been at this altitude for two days now.

Day 79 – Puno Peru to La Paz Bolivia

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:28:46 +0000

(as per usual all conversations are in spanish)

There was a piece of paper on the front desk last night promising breakfast from 6-9. I asked the lady about it and she said it was on the second floor. So, we headed out of our rooms in the morning, wandered the corridors until we found a totally abandoned set of tables and chairs.

I went down to the desk and asked if the restaurant was open. “Yes, but there are no employees.” … They must have a different definition of “open” than I do. So, we go out the front door and one of the guys points to the restaurant across the street saying that they do breakfast.

Day 78 – La Joya to Puno Peru

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:43:26 +0000

Pulled out of the hotel and around the corner to the restaurant where I got the food last night. Only problem? Unlike last night, this morning there were freaking flies everywhere. Didn’t realize this until we were sat and ordered though… so we endured. Fortunately we’d stumbled across the name of a breakfast meal that involves eggs: a cubana. Dachary ordered it at lunch one day thinking it was going to be a Cuban (the sandwich) but it’s two fried eggs over rice, with fried plantains. This morning the plantains were probably actually bananas, and they were just warm, not really fried, so it turned out Dachary didn’t mind them. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much appetite, and the flies weren’t helping. We both kind-of regretted stopping, but my tummy did not.

Day 77 – Lomas to La Joya

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:34:52 +0000

Woke up in Lomas with no real desire to dawdle. A rooster started crowing around 3:30AM and I was awake (I thought incontrovertibly) by 5AM, but I managed to get back to sleep until the alarm went off. Packed quickly and had our stuff loaded on the bikes by around 8:20AM… but the woman who owned the hospedaje was nowhere in sight. And she had Kay’s passport, which she was holding as security against the room. Another family was leaving at the same time as we were getting ready, and the woman knew where the owner of the hospedaje was (apparently she owns a shop, too, a couple of blocks away) and showed Kay where to go find her. A few minutes later, Kay comes back and says “she’s coming,” and a few minutes after that, she shows up, grabs Kay’s passport from somewhere inside and waits for us to ride off. It’s around 8:40 when we hit the road, and just before 9AM when we return to the Pan Americana.

Day 76 – Ica to Lomas

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:24:29 +0000

Today got off to a good start, as the hotel served breakfast. I had a nice coffee, eggs and bread, and Kay dug out a tea bag we’ve been carrying around since the US and had a nice cup of tea. He says that on the next trip, he’s bringing some good tea with us. I should probably do the same with coffee. It’s amazing what a comforting, tasty warm drink can do for morale.

Day 75 – Lima to Ica Peru

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 01:24:37 +0000

One bright side of the hotel, It had breakfast. We went down and ordered some eggs (complementary breakfast was toast, juice and coffee/tea) and reveled in a tasty breakfast, which has been far and few between in Peru. No-one here seems to do breakfast. Whilst we were there, a woman at the next table was having trouble understanding what the waiter was saying, so I told her what he meant, and then she asked me to translate for her.

Day 74 – Just north of Lima to Lima, Peru

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 02:00:35 +0000

The plan for this morning was to find the BMW dealer in Lima to get a new tire for Kay’s bike, and maybe ask about the problems I’ve been having with my bike. I honestly didn’t expect they’d be able to get the bike in and serviced quickly, and I didn’t want to spend days in Lima waiting for it at this point, given the tightness of our schedule now, so I figured we’d just get a tire for Kay and move on.

Day 73 – Chimbote to just north of Lima Peru

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:49:51 +0000

Up and out without breakfast again, a quick stop for Gasohol before heading back into the desert.

Company Uniform
(Both of the women working at this station were done up like this)

Around lunch time we were going around a roundabout when I spotted a restaurant with wooden chairs and a nicely lettered menu of the day, and a little voice inside me said “eat there!” so I listened to it, and passed on the word. We pulled in, I intentionally hopped off the wrong side of the bike, and slowly pulled it down after me.

Day 72 – Chiclayo to Chimbote Peru

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:00:14 +0000

Day 72 - Chiclayo to Chimbote Peru

Roof Dog
(Roof-dog guards our bikes)

Packed up the bikes and headed out without breakfast again. We’re having trouble finding places in Peru that advertise breakfast. We don’t know if they simply don’t do breakfast here in restaurants or if they just assume that you know that if they’re open they do it. We’re leaning towards the former.

Day 71 – Talara to Chiclayo Peru

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:56:52 +0000

Day 71 - Talara to Chiclayo Peru

Last night did not go as planned. Dachary didn’t get around to the work she wanted to get done, but decided that since it was just a little revision work she’d do it in the morning.

Unfortunately, we discovered that there was a thump-thump-thumpitdy nightclub somewhere nearby, and none of the local drivers seem to give a shit about the fact that people may be trying to sleep in the town and continue to communicate with each other via horn until the wee hours.

Day 70 – Machala, Ecuador to Talara, Peru

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:33:07 +0000

Waking up in the Love Hotel was surprisingly conducive to us getting on the road. No place nearby for breakfast, no dawdling over packing our bikes - get up, get our stuff together and load the bikes up. I opted for a quick shower before we left, because you never know when you’ll have hot water again… and while we were showering, an odd noise started. When we went downstairs, we looked out the window above the garage door and saw that the odd noise was caused by POURING rain. Pouring. So back upstairs to our “suite” and put in the rain liners in our pants, and put the rain covers on our tank bags… and out into the rain.

Day 69 – Somewhere south of Ambato to Machala Ecuador.

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 01:46:31 +0000

The day started off with a grumble. Unbeknownst to me, Dachary hadn’t fallen asleep until 2 AM, and I had woken her up shortly after thinking she hadn’t taken the evening’s antibiotics. Turns out she had. In the morning, I woke up shortly after 7am, went to the bathroom and decided to take a shower. Apparently that woke Dachary up again. She grumbled a bit but fell back asleep, so I let her sleep in until 8:30 (an extra hour more than normal) but at that point she was all “let me sleeeeeep”, then got up and grumped at me for a while.

Day 68 – Somewhere just south of Ambato Ecuador

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 01:40:15 +0000

We decided to stay another day because even getting up from bed in the morning to go to the bathroom left Dachary dizzy and queazy. (And going to the bathroom convinced her that she needed to stay near a bathroom.) We read, we… actually, that’s about it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, some Top Gear. Some Dr. Who. Dachary didn’t feel up to leaving the room so I brought her the meals in bed. Luckily the beds were comfy, with nice, warm, soft blankets and comforters.

Day 67 – Somewhere north of Quito to Somewhere south of Ambato Ecuador

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:36:39 +0000

We caught Joe and Vern as they were doing their final packing, chatted for a bit, and wished them the best before heading to breakfast. Great guys, and we’ll miss their company but we like eating breakfast and lunch and stopping to pee (since we drink constantly from the Camelbacks).

Day 66 – Pasto Colombia to …. somewhere in Ecuador.

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:24:25 +0000

We decided to ride out of Pasto with Joe and Vern this morning because: they knew the way out (or had a GPS that would get us out), they were going to the church at Las Lajas and Joe, having seen it before and not feeling like walking back up the hill, was going to sit with the bikes while Vern went down, and Joe had been through the border crossing twice before. While the South American border crossings are widely reported to be cake it’d been so long since we’d crossed a border we both felt a bit out of the habit, and in no mood to turn down the ability to cross with someone who’d been there before.

Day 65 – Tunia to Pasto

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:51:29 +0000

Today started off with a chance encounter with a couple of travelers from Oregon. They’ve traveled through Central America in their RV, spending some time in Mexico along the way, and now they’re headed toward Argentina where I think they intend to make a new home in their retirement. Spent longer than planned chatting so we got on the road a bit late, alas.

The first leg from Tunia to Pasto got progressively worse as we rode along. At places, it resembled the roads in Honduras, which have been the worse paved roads we’ve ridden. It was heavily potholed and bumpy with patches, although because we were on motos, we were able to pick good lines through most of it. I was just surprised by the condition of the road because A) It was the Pan American and B) All of the other paved roads we’ve ridden in Colombia have been in MUCH better condition.

Day 64 – Flandes to Tunia

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:37:11 +0000

We knew the mountain crossing from Ibague to Armenia takes roughly three hours, so we got up early today and hit the road at a respectable time. We were on the bikes shortly after 8AM, stopped for breakfast and gas and got really “on the road” at 9. Made good time to Ibague and found a road that bypasses it so we wouldn’t have to go through the city. But it was starting to drizzle. Or rain.

Day 63 – Zipaquira to Flandes

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 01:35:13 +0000

We think Colombia is beautiful and awesome and our favorite country of the trip so far, but we woke up this morning ready to get to Bogota, get Kay’s license plate, and get moving. We’ve spent longer than we intended here, waiting for the plate, which cuts the rest of our trip short. Just 7 weeks to get down to Ushuaia and then up to Buenos Aires to fly home!

Day 62 – Zipaquira and Catedral de Sal

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 01:32:43 +0000

Upon checking into the hotel that had semi-functional internet access last night, we discovered that Kay’s new license plate had already been delivered to FedEx in Bogota. We figured we could scrap the plans to see Catedral de Sal and ride to Bogota, grab it and get on the road, but Kay was really interested in seeing it and since we’d already gotten there, decided we should stick around and see it. So I did some research and found lots of great reviews about it, and info saying that it would take a half day to see everything there.

Day 61 – Neiva to Zapiquira

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 01:46:28 +0000

At some point in the middle of the night the rain started. Torrential downpours. It would pause for a few minutes, then start back up again, and continued in that fashion until the alarm went off.

We were not thrilled.

We dawdled a little as we packed, or, I did, hoping it would let up, but it didn’t seem interested, so we put in our rain liners and started hauling things out to the bikes. The overpriced hotel restaurant had all the chairs up on the tables, so we didn’t even consider breakfast there, but as we lugged things out, the guy in charge enthusiastically offered us some juice. Which, it should be noted, is never from a jug. Juice in Latin America is always fresh-squeezed / blended.

Day 60 – Mocoa to Neiva Colombia

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 01:31:44 +0000

The morning was uneventful save for one thing. We got breakfast, retrieved or bikes from the parking lot across the street, started putting our bags on them, and then, checked the tires because my rear looked a little low, and turned out to be just as low as it looked.

So, I dug down to the bottom of one of my panniers for the CyclePump, pulled it out, filled it and the front up (Dachary’s didn’t need any) shoved it back in shoved the other things back in, squished my toiletries bag back in and pressed against the blade of my razor with the crook of my thumb, slicing open the toiletries bag (now no longer a dry sac) and the crook of my thumb.

Day 59 – Mocoa Colombia

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:59:09 +0000

Wow, almost two months now.

Today our friend in the states managed to make it through the snow-drifts to the Registry of Motor Vehicles and procure a new plate (and registration) for my bike. It didn’t require any convincing with tales of dangerous colombian drug dealers. In fact, all it required, literally, was a copy of my registration, which I find rather disturbing, because with the Mass. registration being so amazingly forgeable it seems that just about anyone could go in and fuck with someone else vehicle.

Day 58 – Mocoa, Colombia

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:03:38 +0000

We were hoping for good news this morning from the RMV back home, but apparently Boston just got another umpteen feet of snow dumped on it and the RMV is closed and the Governor has told everyone to stay home. So our friend will try again tomorrow, and we wait in limbo in Mocoa to see if we can get a new plate for Kay’s bike.

In the meantime, we went out this morning to explore the town and see what else we could accomplish here.

In Love with Colombia

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:35:18 +0000

Lest anyone think we get overwhelmed with the bad, we wanted to share our thoughts on Colombia. I’m writing this up but Kay will edit and add notes and I think we’re both in agreement about this spectacular country.

Everyone who rides here says “Don’t skip Colombia.” We’ve read a ton of reports by people who talk about how beautiful it is here, and how fabulous the people are here. As a result, we never really thought about skipping Colombia and traveling straight to Quito, but I don’t think either of us anticipated exactly how much we’d enjoy Colombia.

What’s broken so far…

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:28:29 +0000

Just a recap of the items that have failed or broken in some way, so far.

Airhawk - front strap ripped out of cover. Cory (Oso Blanco on ADVRider.com) had the same problem with his apparently.
Beadrider - the heavy duty fishing line that holds the beads together is breaking apart and beads are falling out. It and the Airhawk appear to be from repeatedly being struck by the foot when throwing it over the seat.
Touratech sidestand foot - Both have had the bottom layer of the edge closest to the bike (when extended) bend down either slightly or severely.

Day 57 – Tarqui Colombia to Mocoa Colombia

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:15:40 +0000

The day started out pretty well. We emerged from our room with smiles and found that the place with the tasty chicken last night also did breakfast. We weren’t specific enough with our responses and ended up with hot soup with beef broth, and some of the most deliciously tender roast beef and rice. Neither of us like the idea of warm soup for breakfast on a warm day, but it wasn’t bad. We’ll be more specific next time.

Day 56 – San Andrés Colombia to Taqui Colombia

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:56:14 +0000

So yesterday Dachary decided we should check the oil. A sensible thing. She suggested her bike felt a little rougher. Then again, we had been riding over dirt for the past couple days so everything was rougher… Anyway, we check and there’s nothing. We ran the bikes for like thirty seconds and still nothing. We kinda freaked.

It was decided that I should ride back to Inza (about half an hour each way) to procure oil because Dachary is fucking sunburnt on her arms, chest and back and the idea of riding an extra hour with a jacket over burnt skin is not within her definition of “happy”. Because I’m returning to the hotel, I leave my panniers and dry sack and ride with just the tank bag - the bike is light and unencumbered.

Day 55 – San Andres and Tierradentro

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:20:29 +0000

Yesterday was a glorious day of doing nothing (and waiting for our laundry to be done) after arriving early in the day in San Andres. Today the plan was to check out Tierradentro, which involved some hiking and wandering around. We slept in, and it was glorious. Glorious, glorious, glorious. All night, we heard the stream flowing merrily nearby, night-time bugs and sweet silence. In the morning, a cock crowed to welcome the day but there was no obnoxious noise of huge trucks driving by, or a busy town waking up noisily at 6AM. In short, it was peaceful, relaxing and lovely.

Day 54 – Inza to San Andrés

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 04:07:13 +0000

Probably our shortest day on the bikes.

Inza wakes up around 6 AM and gets to work. Driving, moving, sledge hammering, phone ringing, clothes washing, etc. I’m not entirely sure how but we managed to get back to sleep a couple times until about 8:30 when we went downstairs and discovered a very full town square.

We extracted the bikes from their hidey-holes and into the town square with surprisingly little difficulty. I walked it forward and when we got to an unturnable corner Dachary and I (mostly Dachary) would grab the back end and pull it around in the appropriate direction.

Day 53 – Cali to Inza Colombia

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:07:32 +0000

The day started off badly, but in the end, was one of my favorites.

Dachary woke up in a grump from last night, and our “personal communications” weren’t particularly spectacular, especially after we spent a lot of time debugging the latest version of the iPad magazine app (still broken). And figuring out where exactly we were going at Tierradentro because Dachary discovered there were multiple sites and we wanted to be sure we were going to the right place.

Day 52 – Ibagué to Cali Colombia

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:07:26 +0000

Today has been a hodgepodge of emotions.

We took the elevator down to the hotel lobby, and one of the bell-hops asked us to wait, then ran back up to check if we’d grabbed anything from the “minibar” (fridge of soda, beer, and assorted toiletries). When he came back down he informed the desk that we hadn’t and they then informed us that they’d accidentally only charged us the rate for one person and they’d need another 8000 pesos (a little over $4).

Day 51 – Bogota, Colombia to Ibagué, Colombia

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 04:14:32 +0000

Neither of us slept particularly well last night, and today started out with us tired and uncomfortable after a night of tossing and turning. We’d set the alarm for 7AM so we could get out and acquire insurance before we needed to check-out, and that turned out to be perfect, because by 7:05AM, the hotel was full of noise; people talking, laughing and generally having a good time in the dining area just around the corner from our room. Even with the “windows” closed, it was loud. We couldn’t have slept any later if we wanted to.

Day 50 – Bogota Colombia to Bogota Colombia

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:09:48 +0000

Yesterday had a mind of its own and the results were dizzying. Today was similar, and radically different.

We packed our things and left the pimp room in a cab, sans breakfast. It was a residential area and there simply wasn’t anywhere to go for desayun. Someone asked if it was a per-hour hotel. We’re not really sure. The cabbie did the negotiating and took 2/3 of the total for himself. From one perspective you could be pissed because we got charged 3 times as much as the room cost. On the other hand, we asked for a $60 a night room (you try finding something cheaper near any international airport and see how far you get) and we were given a $60 room.

Day 49 – Santiago, Panama to Bogota, Columbia

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:00:02 +0000

The day started out innocently enough. We got up. Researched places to stay in Panama City. Ate breakfast at the McDonalds next to our hotel and loaded up the bikes. We set off a bit later than we’d planned - didn’t get on the road until 10:20AM. But we weren’t that far from Panama City, so we knew we could make the city today and we thought we might be able to get to Girag to confirm what we needed to do to ship the bikes and find out what day they’d go out.

Day 48 – San Vito, Costa Rica to Santiago, Panama

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 02:36:23 +0000

Did some digging around regarding border crossings last night and found Rio Sereno, which was just a handful of kilometers away from San Vito where we stayed last night. Everyone who’s used it says that Rio Sereno is teeny but very fast and has none of the hassle of the Pan American crossing at Paso Canoas - in part, because the road leading to it isn’t paved. And also, there’s no customs on the Costa Rica side, although the Panama side has both immigration and customs. This means that you can cross out of Costa Rica but you can’t check your moto out, and you can’t cross into Costa Rica with a moto at this crossing.

Day 47 – San Jose to San Vito Costa Rica

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 03:35:09 +0000

Norval, at the BMW dealership, suggested San Vito as a possible destination to us. Take route 2 (the Pan American) south and hang a left on 237 to San Vito. “Should take you about 5 hours with a break for lunch, and it’s really beautiful.” he suggested. Plus, it’s only an hour from the border and has some decent hotels.

So, we take our time getting going because it’s only going to be a five hour day and leave at 10. It takes us an hour to get out of San Jose because we’re not locals and don’t know the fast way. Also, we have to stop for gas, which always seems to take more time than you expect.

Day 46 – Fraijane to San Hose, Costa Rica (Again)

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:01:44 +0000

So, yes. The bike was overheating. After dinner and Googling (the only net access was in the restaurant) we went back out to the bike checked the oil level and then ran the bike until the overheating light came on to see if the fan would kick in. It didn’t.

So, we went back to the cabin (tiny one all to ourself. Rustic and cute) and I pulled out the iPad to check my downloaded copy of the F650.com FAQ (damn I love this device) while Dachary checked the Haynes manual. The Haynes manual had better pictures and, seemingly clearer instructions.

Day 45 – San Jose to Fraijanes, Costa Rica

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:20:48 +0000

Slept late this morning (but neither of us slept particularly well - the B&B room was nice enough but the bed was really uncomfortable) and went out to the dining room for breakfast, which was a luxury. Fresh-made rice and beans, eggs, and toast. Poked around the internet for a bit to find out about potential destinations and decided to visit Volcan Poás tomorrow morning. The plan was to go hang out at the BMW dealer until our bikes were ready, and then ride up to a hotel very close to the park and spend the night, ready to go check it out early in the AM and then ride on.

Day 44 – La Fortuna to San Jose, Costa Rica

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:39:49 +0000

Woke up today with the intention of going to San Jose to the BMW dealer there to try to get a new headlight for Kay’s bike. We spent some time this morning researching hotels in San Jose, because most of the ones we saw were either friggin’ expensive or far from the BMW dealer, and ended up spending far more time than we’d planned poking the internet. We also wanted to look up a rough translation for the parts we wanted in case no-one spoke English, and that took time, too, as we kept changing our minds.

Day 43 – The Volcano (La Fortuna Costa Rica)

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:23:10 +0000

The tour of Arenal Volcano was scheduled to pick us up at our hotel at 7:50 and would involve three hours of hiking so we took off in search of breakfast a bit late (as per usual) headed for the Burger King because it was barely 7 and Central America doesn’t really do well with the getting up early thing. Unfortunately, the Burger King was at the far end of town (a tiny town but still) and was closed (fuckers), but the restaurant next door was open and we powered our way through breakfast and hurried back to the hotel, where, three blocks away, we saw a tour van pulling down our street. “oh shit. Want me to run?” … I did. It was our van, and i caught them before they left without us. They were ten minutes early, we ran into the room, grabbed cameras, forgot deodorant and hat (me) and Off (Dachary) and hopped in the van.

Day 42 Playa Tamarindo Costa Rica to La Fortuna Costa Rica

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 01:14:10 +0000

Last night we met a local in the next-door restaurant who told us that he’d been on one of the turtle tours where they take you to watch sea turtles coming to the beach to lay their eggs. Unfortunately when he did they sat around until 11 pm playing dominoes without a turtle in sight. That was a few years ago, and he said that this year they’ve been coming back in significantly greater numbers, which is good for the turtles, but at $40 per person plus the cost of a hotel close enough that we wouldn’t have to ride the bikes to the pick-up and then deal with hiking the beach in gear… we debated the value of the attempt. Decided we’d rather just save the money and go directly to the Arenal Volcano.

Day 41 – Granada Nicaragua to Playa Tamarindo Costa Rica

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 03:25:16 +0000

Day 41 - Granada Nicaragua to Playa Tamarindo Costa Rica

This morning Dachary woke up angry. I blame it on a combination of mosquito bites and her having her period. She was angry / grumpy and determined and nothing was going to get in her way. Especially her hair God Damn It! The Hair dies now!

It had gotten long enough that the front was starting to dangle into her eyes. She demanded the scissors from the first aid kit. She was going to do something about it. I pointed out that they were crappy scissors for hair, and we could just go to a hair place, but knew better than to push the issue. Scissors were procured.

Day 40 – Granada… again

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 02:46:06 +0000

Day 40 - Granada… again

We weren’t sure when we got up if we would be taking off or not. The desire, was definitely to take off, but as breakfast finished, Dachary was feeling weak, and a bit woozy and that’s no state to be in when trying to muscle around a heavy bike in hundred degree weather and standing around baking at borders. So we paid for another night.

More Ponderings from Kay

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:40:56 +0000

Changing Expectations

I suspect that everyone’s first real international adventure ride where you venture far from your home turf overturns a lot of the initial expectations we set out with.

The biggest one, for us, has been the camping thing. This is probably no surprise to anyone reading this but… We obviously expected to camp a lot more. Neither of us really wanted to be in a hotel every night, and we’re still hoping, but I fear it may not be until Bolivia, or Peru that that actually happens (assuming we have enough funds left to get there).

Tips for Women Motorcycle Riders in Latin America

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:28:01 +0000

Being a woman rider on the road in Latin America presents some unique challenges. After nearly 40 days on the road, here’s what I’ve brought, and here’s what I’d do differently if I were packing again:

I Brought…

Four t-shirts - two short-sleeved and two sleeveless. I originally planned to bring only three but snuck an extra one in at the last minute because my clothes took up so little space.
Two bras - one normal bra and one sports bra, which was supposed to dry fast and wick sweat better.
Four pairs of ExOfficio underwear. I brought regular cotton underwear on one of our three-day test trips and it got whiffy and wasn’t that easy to clean. ExOfficio is AWESOME - dries super fast, doesn’t smell as much as cotton, and feels more comfortable under the gear.
Five pairs of socks - three pairs of thicker Smart Wool socks, and two pairs of thin merino wool socks.
One pair of pants.
One box of tampons (sans box).
One small GoTube of shampoo.
One small GoTube of shower gel.
Razor and spare blades.
Travel toothbrush.
Regular-size thing of toothpaste.
Clear-gel deodorant.
Fast-drying camping towel.
Toilet paper.

I’d Bring Next Time…

Day 38 – Granada, Nicaragua

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 04:33:30 +0000

The plan was to unwind for a few days in Granada. We’ve been pushing hard for a while and our tummies have been having trouble recently so it seemed to make sense to set up base somewhere and relax and recover. The Rough Guide made Granada seem like a good spot to do that, and our initial impressions of the town agreed. The buildings are pretty and there are plenty of amenities for tourists here, as we seem to be the reason the town has been restored in the first place. It was a bit of a challenge to find a hotel with parking for the bikes, and we paid a bit more than we normally would for the room when we did find one, but we’ve deemed a bit of R&R worth the cost.

Day 37 Esteli Nicaragua, to Granada Nicaragua

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:30:16 +0000

Nicaragua, I’m kinda digging you… except for your corrupt border officials and police.

We woke up in Esteli Nicaragua and promptly hit snooze. Neither of us were doing well. We haven’t really mentioned it, but in addition to my being queazy in the mornings both of us have had diarrhea since Copan Ruinas. Not “OMG MUST GO NOW” bad, but when we sit, it ain’t coming out like it’s supposed to. Dachary’s had started to clear up, but we suspect that the shit meal we had at Hamburlooca last night did us in.

Day 36 – ? Honduras to Esteli, Nicaragua

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:22:38 +0000

Day 36 - ? Honduras to Esteli, Nicaragua

After yesterday’s trouble at the El Salvador/Honduras border, neither of us was looking forward to dealing with the Honduras/Nicaragua border. I think we were both kind of dreading it, but we faced the day with as much optimism as we could muster, and grabbed breakfast at the hotel restaurant because we still didn’t have any lempiras and they would take our dollars. Luckily, they gave us change for our dollars in lempiras so we had enough to buy some bottled water at a gas station along the way (we’d left the stuff on the bikes last night which meant we didn’t have the stuff to pump water).

Day 35 – San Miguel, El Salvador to ?, Honduras

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:59:10 +0000

Ahh Honduras, you bureaucratic ass wipe…

A little before 5 AM Dachary wakes up and realizes we haven’t taken the Malaria pills. Fuck. We do. I then stress over the effects of taking the pill near the morning. Which gets me all stomach acidy, which gets me stressed, which makes my stomach tense and acidy, which makes me stress… I don’t really sleep much between then and 7 when the alarm goes off. The air conditioning (luxury I know) which was controllable by degree, was such that at the 25 deg c setting we froze, and at 26 deg c we were covered with a sticky patina of quasi-sweat. This didn’t help.

Day 34 – San Salvador to San Miguel, El Salvador – 84 Miles

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:17:51 +0000

Neither of us was particularly eager to stay in the shitty San Salvador hotel longer than we needed to, so we were on the road pretty quick after we woke up - by 7:45AM (possibly our earliest start of the trip?)

How shitty was the hotel?

This was the shower…

And our door lock? A padlock… from a different room.

Day 33 – La Palmas, El Salvador to San Salvador, El Salvador

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:16:29 +0000

Or, the day the Rough Guide led us horribly astray.

It all started well. A good breakfast at La Palmas, and a leisurely packing up since we had such a short ride to San Salvador after repacking. The land, we were told, where you could “buy anything”. We were going there for the mythical Latin American stash of Lithium AAA batteries. There was a little time spent grabbing the Cycle Pump and putting some air back in my rear tire, but it went quickly and our mood was good.

Day 32 – Copan Ruinas, Honduras to La Palma, El Salvador

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:33:14 +0000

Today started out with the both of us still in a bad mood from yesterday’s theft. Neither of us slept very well - hippie drummers in front of the hotel kept us up half the night, and the AC did a decent job of drowning them out… until someone came by and turned off the circuit that the AC and everything else in our room was running on during the night. So no more AC. Roosters started crowing effing early (well before a hint of sun on the horizon - like around 3:30AM, I think, and sunrise was after 6AM) and it just wasn’t very restful.

Day 31 Copán Ruinas, Honduras

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 03:44:59 +0000

Day 31 was not a happy day my friends. I can’t even claim that it “started out well” because it didn’t. A little before eight AM I heard someone futzing with the lock whilst I was sitting around getting ready.. I spoke up but suspected the worst. Someone trying to sneak into the room and get our stuff. The lock fidgeting stopped.

About half an hour later we attempted to head to the ruins. I say “attempted” because it turns out we were locked in our room. Dachary couldn’t find the keys anywhere and it was a dual bolt deadbolt. The top one controlled by the key outside. The bottom one controlled from the inside or by closing the door.

Day 30 – La Unión, Guatemala to Copan Ruinas, Honduras

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:23:05 +0000

Or, why you should always bring a book.

*This post co-written by both Kay and Dachary - Kay writing some as Dachary worked for clients, and Dachary writing some as Kay effs with his ContourHD in an attempt to reclaim the USB port.*

We backtracked our way out of La Unión without fanfare. It was however our quickest morning ever. We had nothing to pack, really, and whilst we were very grateful for the bed, you could feel each spring pressing into you. It was as if there was nothing but the bed-sheet between you and them. I’ve slept on pieces of hard dirt and asphalt that were more comfortable.

Guatemala… Sweet, beautiful Guatemala

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:09:44 +0000

I loved Guatemala. She was so beautiful, and the riding was so wonderful. Miles and miles between settlements with nice roads and even nicer people. Oh my gods the level of kindness and generosity we encountered here was incredible. The 3 kids on a moto who drove us out of the squirrely, complicated, town of La Union, then the woman in La Union who helped us with directions, then drove us back through town to the hotel, and helped pick up Dacharys bike when we dropped it (twice). The hotel clerk who walked us to the parking, helped carry a pannier back, then wouldn’t be content with sending me up the street to get food. No, he led me there, helped get the process of ordering stared, and then waited while the food was cooked.

Day 29 – Flores, Guatemala to La Union, Guatemala

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:49:43 +0000

Today started off bright and sunny in Flores, and we were well-rested and happy to be on the bikes. The plan was to ride down CA-13 until it intersected with CA-9, and then cut across on a little red road on the map from Gualan to where it intersected with CA-11 not terribly far from El Florido, the border crossing into Honduras. We figured we’d get halfway today, find a place to stay and then ride the rest of the way and cross into Honduras tomorrow.

Day 28 – Tikal

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:36:08 +0000

We planned to see Tikal today, and given our experience at Palenque (getting all hot, sweaty and overheated at the ruins and then absolutely drooping on the ride afterwards) we decided to establish a base of operations at nearby Flores and spend two nights, instead. That way we could leave the bikes at the hotel, ride up to Tikal in a bus and wear our walking around shoes and pants instead of our motorcycle pants. Afterwards, we could catch a ride back to Flores and shower and chill in the hotel, instead of trying to ride somewhere with the rest of the day.

Day 27 – Tenosique Mexico to Flores Guatemala

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:27:12 +0000

The hotel didn’t work out so well. The guy next door had the TV on loudly all night (we could almost drown it out with the Air Conditioner) and turned it off less than five minutes after we got up. Dachary’s got what looks suspiciously like bedbug bites too. So skip the California Auto Hotel.

There’s a thread on Horizons Unlimited with details on the road from Palenque to the El Ceibo border crossing and on to Flores which we were following. Unfortunately the directions were… less than perfect, but we figured it out, and I’ve added lots of details there if you’re interested.

Day 26 – Palenque to Tenosique – 61 miles

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 04:30:47 +0000

Today went according to plan, but not design.

Woke up with the tent fly drenched. Not a surprise, we slept in a freaking jungle. I am happy to report that everything inside the tent was condensation-free. Yay REI Quarter-Dome. I asked Frank ( www.krad-vagabunden.de ) about breakfast possibilities and he suggested running out to the supermarket quickly before they started charging tolls to get back down the road to the ruins (and the campground). Neither of us were thrilled with that idea since we were still breaking camp and simply didn’t want to deal. Instead we decided to hit the park on sugary treats and grab food there if we could. Yeah, not a brilliant idea, but the ruins were only 3k away.

Day 25 – San Cristobal de Las Casas to Palenque – 159 Miles

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 03:03:32 +0000

Got off to a slightly late start after uploading things to the web while we had Internet, and saying goodbye to Stephen, Eric and Sabrina. We weren’t too concerned, though, as Eric had told us that one of his teachers said it was 5 hours to Palenque, and we’d be passing 300 topes. 300! That was such a high (and precise) number that Kay decided to count them.

Guess what?

Day 24 – San Cristobal de Las Casas

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:03:51 +0000

Today we decided to hang out in San Cristobal de Las Casas with some other adventure riders - Stephen, who’s currently tooling around Mexico on his KLR (or waiting for parts for his KLR to be repaired, more accurately) and Eric and Sabrina, who are riding 2-up on a BMW F650 Dakar. They’ve been in San Cristobal for a while and know some great spots, from delicious food to interesting and humbling sites to see. Today, we puttered around while Eric and Sabrina spent the morning taking their Spanish classes at the language school here, and then we went over to San Juan Chamula, an independent Mayan state about 10 KM from San Cristobal.

Day 23 – Cintalpa to San Cristobal De Las Casas

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:46:06 +0000

Today’s goal was to reach San Cristobal de Las Casas, where we were planning to meet up with Stephen who is riding from Chicago to Central or South America. Stephen and a couple of other riders (Eric and Sabrina) are currently hanging out in San Cristobal - Stephen is waiting for a part to fix his bike, and Eric and Sabrina are taking Spanish classes at a language school here.

We headed out around 9:30AM (we got a slightly late start because Kay started feeling nauseous again today… we think the problem is when you take the anti-malaria pills first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, and then exert yourself, so Kay spent a fair amount of time resting between loading up the bike and generally taking it easy, and didn’t actually hurl).

Day 22 – El Camon to Cintalpa – 226 Miles

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 02:14:07 +0000

The morning started on a positive note: neither us nor our belongings were carried off by bugs in the night. However, we’d gotten rather cold at one point and with only sheets on the bed, Kay grabbed his BMW jacket and put it over his legs. The bed was also quite possibly the cheapest bed I’ve ever slept in - no matter how I rolled over or tried to get out of the way, I ended up rolling into Kay. We spent the night in a lump in the middle of the bed. Listening to one of our neighbors watch Spanish TV LOUDLY, whilst another (possibly the same) made loud banging sounds.

Day 21 – Oaxaca to El Camon – 89 Miles

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 02:09:36 +0000

The plan today was to get up early and visit the ruins of Monte Alban. Unfortunately, the hotel last night had internet and we ended up screwing around on the Web longer than we intended. By the time we got to Monte Alban, it was around 10:30AM, and we still hadn’t eaten breakfast. We hadn’t had dinner last night, so it was imperative to feed me - I was extremely crashy and would have been no good at all for the ruins. We ate breakfast at the cafe at the Monte Alban site (mine was surprisingly tasty), so it was close to 11:30 by the time we entered the ruins themselves.

Day 20 Altotonga to Oaxaca

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 01:47:25 +0000

You know, we kind of liked our cheap little room I think. Except that the toilet paper roll was directly under a pipe which got condensation and dripped on it. It was cold, of course, because few of the hotels seem to have heat, but there were plenty of thick blankets that Dachary stole and kept me pressed against her all night. We slept in till 8 (normally we wake before seven) and continued our way south. The room felt cold, but when we went outside, we discovered that the room was actually quite warm… it was COLD outside!

Day 19 – Christmas – Papantla to Altotongo via El Tajin – 100 miles

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:33:43 +0000

Today was Christmas in every meaning of the word… well, excluding the fact that Christ was born in June or July….but that’s not the point. Today was Christmas.

The past two days had eaten away at us, me especially. Dachary may have had that hard sugar crashy day, but last night I lay in bed lamenting the recent days. I was frustrated about our inability to just ride somewhere without constantly having to slow or stop for teeny towns and their topes, or the fact that you simply can’t go ten minutes down the road without encountering more people, topes, towns, hovels, topes, dogs, and more topes. Our hotel room last night had gone from having “character” to smelling like a cesspool, and as we were finishing packing the bikes I was wondering if maybe this whole adventure motorcycling through foreign countries thing wasn’t for me. Maybe I should have just done the Trans-America-Trail, or explore some of the Canadian wilderness in the summer.

Day 18 – Apizaco to Papantla

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 03:37:03 +0000

Woke up this morning and neither of us was particularly well-rested. I’d climbed into my sleeping bag and liner last night because our hotel room was so cold, and halfway through the night, Kay had to give in and grab his sleeping bag, too. It was ridiculous. When we woke up this morning, neither of us wanted to shower (too cold) so we packed our stuff and hit the road. This was perhaps our earliest start yet - we were out of the hotel at 8AM and on the road by 8:20.

Day 17 – Mexico City to Apizaco

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:06:47 +0000

It’s two days before Christmas and today has been filled with ups and downs.

It started with us going down to the lobby of the hotel to look up directions to quickly escape the grasp of Mexico City, a task which we have since learned is impossible. And then we spent an hour re-evaluating the latest version of the iPad magazine app we’re having built because the guy doesn’t believe that he hasn’t squashed all the bugs. We confirmed that no, there were still plenty left.

SENA SMH-10 Motorcycle Headset Debacle

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:15:41 +0000

We wanted to love the Sena SMH-10. We really did. We loved the usability. It has nice big, loud speakers (painfully so if you’ve got it cranked without earplugs)*. The usability was great. It has one big dial that you press to connect, disconnect, or switch connections. No precision required. No feeling around for a particular small button to press when wearing gloves… but to be blunt, we think the quality is crap.

Day 15 – Tula, Mexico to Mexico City, Mexico

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:20:25 +0000

We got out of our room and around the corner to Atlantes de Tula shortly after it opened, which turned out to be perfect because the three shanty towns of vendors along the one kilometer path from the entrance to the actual pyramids were not yet staffed.

We learned a few things during this visit:

it doesn’t matter if it’s only 55 deg F out. Don’t bring your riding jacket. They may throw in a 1k hike in a rising sun just for the hell of it.
My hat was made by idiots. It’s waterproof and *freaking hot*. If my head was cold i’d put on a cold weather hat. I plan on taking my leatherman to the lining.
Mexicans have an odd way of preserving archeological finds that seems to frequently involve adding concrete.
Atlantes de Tula is absolutely not worth the drive. If you’re nearby it’s not bad. The museum had hardly anything in it and hardly any of that was actually *from* the site.

Day 14 – Chapulhuecan to Tula – 149 Miles

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:19:07 +0000

Today was another day of beautiful but slow riding. The day started out with the same type of riding we encountered yesterday - beautiful mountain twisties through lush jungle with amazing vistas. The speed was still 40KPH for most of the day, and the twists were tight enough and frequent enough to warrant it. There were a couple of parts where we could get up to 60KPH (not quite 40MPH) but for the most part, it was slow going.

Day 13 – Ciudad Valles to Chapulhuecan – 109 miles

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:09:39 +0000

We got on the road today at around 10AM. Took time out this morning to do a Pimsleur Spanish before we left, and we hope to do another one tonight. We’re putting ourselves on a two-a-day schedule in an effort to become a bit more proficient. We do seem to be doing fine on the extremely rudimentary Spanish we have, though - we’ve been able to buy things and book hotels and ask for directions. We just can’t carry on a conversation.

Early observations on Mexico.

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:35:15 +0000

Speed limits are rules of thumb, but the local and federal police will pull you over for traffic violations.
The speed limits on anything other than major highways are maddeningly slow. This is probably the reason they are treated as a rule of thumb.
Mexicans drivers are reasonably sane but generally incapable of adhering to the maddeningly slow speed limits.
When two or more people live, or set up shop, alongside the road it is a town and the speed limit drops to 60 kph. When 100 people or more live, or set up shop, alongside the road it is a city and the speed limit drops to 40 kph. When 1000 people live, or set up shop, alongside the road it is a major city and the speed limit drops to 20 kph. I suspect in Mexico City the speed limit is negative 50.
If someone is driving below the speed limit it is because their vehicle is incapable of exceeding it.
Vehicles are passed whenever people feel like passing them. The presence of a Police officer does not affect this. It simply results in getting pulled over afterwards.
Finding someone who drives the speed limit is statistically equivalent to finding a white tiger.
Signage on the roads is excellent.
80% of the time the next speed limit sign will be less than or equal to the last sign.
50% of the time when the speed limit rises to what seems a reasonable speed it will halve itself within 250 meters.
Mexicans are terrified of speed bumps. It’s the only explanation for how slowly they traverse them.
Mexican sign makers are terrified of curves. They are all “Peligroso”.
That totaled car of yours that the insurance company wrote off is now living in Mexico, being happily driven.
If anyone in Iowa is missing a car it is in Mexico (surprising number of Iowa plates).
License plates are optional.
Going to the USA, purchasing a shit car/bus, filling it with broken bicycles, appliances, wheelchairs, and / or mattresses and bringing it back to Mexico is a popular business plan.
Army guys searching for drugs don’t like to be filmed (duh).
Unless you’re way past the time when you should have eaten, keep driving and you will eventually find a guy with some sort of makeshift barbecue.
The surprise military and police checkpoints don’t seem particularly interested in adventure riders (so far).
The poor people don’t quite *get* commerce. The logic seems to be: Bob is selling X. I have, or can get, X. I should set up a stand selling X next to Bob’s. Oh look, Bob and Mary are selling X. I have, or can get, X. I should set up a stand selling X next to Bob’s and Mary’s. Repeat until there are 8 stands selling exactly the same thing less than 200 feet from each other. Nothing else is for sale unless there happens to be a convenience store along the same section of road.
Mexicans drink oil. It is the only explanation for the sheer number of stands selling bottled oils.
When Mexicans aren’t drinking oil they’re drinking beer. It is the only explanation for the sheer number of roadside beer stores.
Signs displaying the Coca-Cola logo are purely for tourists because drinking soda would cut into the oil and beer consumption and the roadside economy would collapse.
Mexican Pizza places think 8pm is a good time to close.
Adventure riders in full gear and loaded bikes do not generate particularly more interest than they do in the US, although no-one has a clue what we’re wearing.
Our 40 year old copy of Berlitz Passport to Spanish (with a helpful section on finding the Telegram office and sending telegrams) has been incredibly helpful. I copied important sections of it to a folded six panel sheet along with a few extra phrases and stuck it in our tank bags. I’ll post it to our site.
Getting along with only a handful of useful phrases and being able to count to 1000 is surprisingly easy.
When you order two of the same item and say “Quanto Cuesto?” they will tell you how much one of them is, not both.
Food here isn’t notably cheaper, it just costs what it ought to in the US.
non-sketchy Hotels aren’t notably cheaper.
the going rate for the kiss-no-tell motels is $100 Mex for 4 hours. This is frequently noted as 100x4 on the signs. It’s probably the most secure option if you’re concerned about your bike.
You need never change your own tire, or repair your own tubes except in a dire emergency. There is always a Vulaniziadora (possibly also called Tepulche?) around the next corner, although most of them appear to be of very questionable quality.
Mexican hotel beds are incredibly hard. This is a rule. Just accept it.

Day 12 – Crossroads in Mexico to Ciudad Vallos – 284 miles

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:27:34 +0000

Got the flat tire fixed in a jiffy by the vulcaniziador, and after all of our futzing around, and it took us a while to re-pack the bikes and get on the road. All told, it was around 10am when we finally left. We ran to the Oxxo convenience store next door to grab some breakfast - I got a pre-made sandwich with some kind of spicy shredded meat (we’re still not sure what kind), and some pink-fruit-filled buns, and Kay got some biscuits that were tasty but surprisingly dry. We also grabbed some cookies that had a picture of the Quaker Oats guy on the front, which it turns out was surprisingly tasty, but didn’t seem to involve oatmeal or granola. This cost us around $5.

Day 11 – McAllen, TX to ?, Mexico – 121 Miles

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:34:38 +0000

Today has been a draining day. We woke up at 6:30AM to try to get everything packed up and cross the border early, if Kay’s back was ok. Kay’s back was *mostly* ok and neither of us particularly wanted to sit around in McAllen any longer than we had to, so we decided to head out.

We packed everything up. We’re still carrying around extra tires because we haven’t gotten around to mounting my new ones yet (and the tread on my existing tires is actually quite good still, considering that they have 8k miles on them - I just don’t particularly trust them in iffy conditions). We headed out, determined to change some cash at a bank before we crossed into Mexico. It took a while to get cash out of an ATM, and then to get it changed. Then we stopped at a grocery store to grab some emergency rations in case we’d get to “hidey camp” this evening (mac & cheese) and get gas, and that took longer than expected.

Day 10 – Mathis, TX to McAllen, TX – 201 miles

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:43:06 +0000

I think the biggest rule of adventuring is that things won’t go according to plan. Today was a good example of that. We took showers last night and washed our underwear, which we (being the urban sophisticates that we are) left drying on our bikes along with the towels. We we work up the entire park was in a deep fog and everything was covered with a thick layer of dew.

Day 9 – Burrs of DOOM!

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:36:17 +0000

Woke up today to sunrise on the beach. We got to watch the sun come up over the Gulf of Mexico, and it was beautiful. We were camped maybe 100 feet from the water, in what seemed like it would be a glorious, picturesque paradise. Instead, we woke to find a fine spray of sea water all over everything.

The air felt moist, and yet, within minutes there was a film of salty sea spray on both bikes, the panniers, the spare tires, the dry sacks - anything we left outside. By the morning the tent fly was soaked in salt spray, and there was no chance of drying it because salt would continue to spray as we sat around trying to dry it. Somehow the water even seeped up from the sand, through the footprint, the tent floor and our foam sleeping pads to cover the bottom of our sleeping bags in a wet, slurry mess. We’re at a loss to explain it.

Day 8 – Are We Real Adventure Riders Yet?

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:31:18 +0000

Day 8 got off to another late start, as we had an email from our magazine app developer with a new build that we needed to check out. Took a while to futz around with that, and it was 10:30AM by the time we hit the road. Arrived in Baton Rouge just after noon, where we picked up my new Anakee 2 tires at Hebert Cycles.

The shop offered to mount them for us, but they were going to charge me an hour of shop service to mount them and we didn’t feel like spending $88 to do something we could do ourselves. So we threw the tires on the back of the bikes and headed toward our destination - Sea Rim State Park in Texas.

Recommended Hairstyles for Women on the Road

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:34:07 +0000

Ok, ladies - lets get real. Dealing with hair on a long motorcycle trip is a crap-shoot. I’ve had long hair and I’ve had short hair, and short hair has always been easier to maintain. It doesn’t look as crappy when you can’t wash it regularly, and it isn’t as hot when you’re in hot-hot lands. I’ve tried wearing my long hair in a hair tie under the helmet, which is do-able in warm weather. In cold temps, however, with all of the layers at the neck, doing the hair in a hair tie just wasn’t viable. It became too hard to turn my head for a head-check before turning and changing lanes, which was downright dangerous. So for all of the aforementioned reasons, I decided to cut my hair short before we left on this trip.

Camera Alignment 101

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:03:18 +0000

Using the V.O.I. P.O.V resulted in a lot of missed shots. I’d push the record button on the remote, and it’d be a crap shoot as to if I’d actually get anything or not. Plus the Contour HD had way better picture quality (ignoring the fact that it had higher resolution) and there’s rarely a question of if you’ll record when you tell it to. You slide it forward, it records. It’s not perfect. When it’s not recording it’ll turn off after a while to conserve battery. So, you’ve got to make sure it’s still on, but, the P.O.V. was always on and still failed to get shots.

Day 6 – Practice for Patagonia

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:38:54 +0000

The weather reports at the end of day five were pretty conclusive. Get out of town now! The only problem was that the temperature had dropped and Dachary’s electric liner was still on the fritz, but the choice was either get stuck in town for days because of the crap weather or take a chance today. So, we took a chance and I made her promise to request we pull over if the jacket failed again and she was feeling particularly chilled.

Day 5 – Temps Warm Up, Heated Jacket Dies

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 14:15:25 +0000

Day 5 - Temps Warm Up, Heated Jacket Dies

Got another late start today, but this time it’s because I had to get some work done for a client this morning and then go to McDonalds to use their wifi to send it, since the stupid hotel didn’t have WiFi that worked. We also had an email from our iPad app developer (we’re planning to do an iPad magazine from the road, and our app is in the final stages) and we had to download and review his most recent revisions and send him bug notes. By the time we finished doing this and futzing around via McDonalds’ painfully slow WiFi connection, it was noon when we hit the road.

Day 4 – In Which More Things Break

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:17:58 +0000

Today got off to a slow start. Trouble sleeping last night, and dreading the cold this morning, we didn’t get out of the hotel till 10AM. When we came out we discovered two things: one it was wonderfully warm “We could ride all day in this!” and then that Kay’s rear tire was flat. We thought maybe we’d be able to make it to the gas station for air, which was located at the end of the block, but it quickly became apparent that the bike wasn’t going anywhere until we aired it up. Dealing would have been painful if not for the nearly 40 degrees of warmth.

Day 3 – Big Push, Big Cold

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 02:02:20 +0000

With all the delays of the past couple of days, we were both getting a bit discouraged by our lack of progress and apprehensive about what might happen next. Our big goal has always been to get further south where it gets warm, but we just haven’t been able to make the miles we’d expected. We’d planned to be much further along, but we made a big push today - from Aberdeen, MD to Burlington, NC - 384 miles.

Day 2 – The War of Attrition Continues

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 03:09:34 +0000

Day 1’s casualty was Kay’s glasses. Day 2’s casualty was my boots. I’d gotten the Rev’It Rival H20 boots just a couple of months ago from RevZilla. I called up Neil at RevZilla who spent nearly 40 minutes on the phone with me measuring the calf-size of boots and we decided the Rev’It boots would be my best bet. We didn’t know it until today but it turns out women’s calf muscles extend lower than mens, which makes them wider at the top of boots, and explains why it’s so hard to find an adventure boot that fits a woman well. Anyway, they were great - up until a few weeks ago.

Day 1 – Leaving the Great Cold North (Or Not!)

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:06:52 +0000

Motorcycle trips always seem to take longer than you expect to prep, and a 4-month trip over 20,000 miles warrants the extra time. We’d done as much as possible to get ready to go before the big day came, but there was still a lot we had to do the morning of to get the house and dogs ready for the house/dog-sitter, and get us ready for the road. We had some last-minute packing to do, and a few last-minute scores of things we thought we’d forgotten and had to unpack and then re-pack to check. Long story short, we didn’t get on the road until after 11AM, and didn’t hit the interstate (where we’ll be spending much of our time in the U.S.) until close to noon.

Departure Delayed

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 15:51:04 +0000

One day, possibly two. The house wasn’t ready for the house-sitters, and there was no way to get it all done and sleep before leaving today. The forecast says Monday may have snow south of us whilst Tuesday may have snow here in Boston. Today would have been the better day to leave…

[Company Uniforms] Gerbing’s vs. Aerostich’s Heated Gear

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:52:06 +0000

Summary

The Home Office requires regular reports to determine which employee gear is performing well and should be included in the official company uniform, and what gear is under-performing. Both employees have recently acquired heated gear: Dachary got the Gerbing’s Heated Jacket Liner, and Kay got the Aerostich Kanetsu TLTec Wind Blocker Electric Vest (and sleeves). After a recent test ride involving 180 miles on the interstate in ~40 degree temps, it has been determined that official company policy shall include the Gerbing’s Heated Jacket Liner.

[Company Uniform]Recommended Vendor: RevZilla

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 04:57:35 +0000

HQ has used several vendors to secure office supplies and company uniforms for employees, and a few vendors have stood out head-and-shoulders above the rest in customer service, shipping times and follow-up. RevZilla is one of the best vendors HQ has had the pleasure of dealing with, and continues to be a recommended vendor for any motorcycle uniform-related purchases.

Purchasing Assistance

RevZilla is fantastic about providing purchasing assistance to customers. From videos covering detailed breakdowns of the gear they carry, to individualized purchasing assistance, RevZilla is a motorcycle gear vendor that has come to be the standard by which Corporate Runaways judges all vendors. Dachary, in particular, has had some fantastic personalized purchasing assistance and highly recommends RevZilla as a perferred vendor.

[Field Report] Experiments With Mud.

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:45:08 +0000

Summary Damage Report:

One, maybe two, cracked ribs
Severely bent left pedal mount

Recommended Purchases:

Nikwax
2nd ContourHD camera (details to follow in separate memo)

Notable Products:

Fastway Pedals

Details:

Sunday’s practice run ended up a little more “interesting” than anticipated.

Some people from ADV Rider had put together a trail ride through the Arcadia State Park last sunday and we went along to get more off-road experience. As everyone who came was on a “big bike” (with one exception) the trails we were taking weren’t supposed to be particularly tricky, and overall they weren’t. But in the process we discovered that Dachary has a nemesis: mud. While inexperience and, at times, a lack of confidence was certainly a contributing factor to the four drops, we’re still unsure as to the primary cause of three of them. We do believe that the Trailwings tires she currently has on her bike are quite possibly the most inaptly named tires on the market as they are horrible in mud.

[Office Supplies] Recommended Vendor: Optimus / Katadyn

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:02:30 +0000

Company:

Optimus of Sweeden (part of the Katadyn Group)

Reason(s) for recommendation:

pro-active concern about customer safety
willing to go the “extra mile”
well reviewed products

Details:

When it came time to choose a camp stove we did a lot of research, and read a lot of reviews on the available choices. Typical stove reviews involved complaints about stability, burners that lacked any degree of control (either fully on or nearly off), longevity, etc., etc.. In the end we decided it was worth the extra money to get an Optimus Nova stove because there were only two stoves we found that got continuously excellent reviews from serious users, and the Optimus didn’t screw around with any plastic parts like the other one did. While we’ve only used it on test runs so far, it’s been living up to its reviews and we’ve been quite pleased.

[Office Supplies] 4 sets of luggage for 2 bikes

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:39:37 +0000

The home office has written to inquire as to why four sets of luggage have been purchased for two motorcycles.

Factors resulting in unexpected luggage overages:

Love;
Unforeseen vehicle changes resulting from above;
Inability to adequately test ride used vehicles before purchase;
New employee inexperience.

Recommended procedural changes for future purchases:

Company policy should be modified to prevent the purchase of any non-BMW vehicles.
New employees without prior BMW experience should begin riding them at the earliest possible opportunity.
All other issues were unavoidable.

Detailed Explanation:

Planning:

The plan was simple. I (Kay) was going to take my Genuine Stella and ride south to the Yucatan before turning around and heading for home. But then everything changed.

[Company Vehicles] Pre-Trip Service Report

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 02:11:56 +0000

Athletes have a full physical before every sports season. Why should high-performance motorcycles that are about to go on a major trip be any different?

Starting out on a 20,000 mile trip with motorcycles in excellent operating condition just made sense to us, so we send our motorcycles up to Max BMW to have the professionals give them a very thorough once-over. This is what they did to both bikes before we left:

[Office Supplies] Happy-Trail 38L Teton Pannier Mods

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 17:33:13 +0000

So far we’re pretty pleased with the Happy-Trail 38L Teton Panniers, but we’ll hold off until they’ve been a few thousand miles over crap roads before writing a full review. In the meantime we thought you might be interested in the mods we’ve made to them.

Things we’ve added:

Carry handles
Touratech 2 Bottle holder
Touratech 2 liter Canister holder
Rubber Feet
Padlocks
Retro-reflective stickers

Carry Handles

[Field Report] Puppy Dog Route

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:28:16 +0000

or, the Puppy Dog Route… take 1

The plan was to hit the road early Saturday morning, head up to Troy Vt (about three and a half hours on the highway), camp in sub-freezing weather to test how well our gear could handle it, and then spend the next two days riding the PDR from north to south, with one more camp stop along the way. It was supposed to be our last real ride before winter really sets in and it gets too cold for camping without seriously heavy-duty winter gear, or too cold for riding without the same. One day on the slab for two days on the dirt. We ended up with two days on the slab for one on the dirt with minor hypothermia, one off, a hurt wrist, serious dehydration headaches and more. In short, it was a good test run. It just wasn’t nearly as enjoyable of one as we’d hoped.

[Offsite Meeting] And then there was the bear…

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:00:00 +0000

We rode the Trans-Massachusetts-Trail yesterday. A series of dirt roads starting at the border of Connecticut and Massachusetts and working its way north to route 2 where it meets up with the start of the Puppy Dog Trail, which winds its way north all the way to the Canadian border (we'll be doing that one shortly). Near the end of the trip we stopped for a break in the woods to address the "call of nature" and grab a snack.

[Field Report] Trans-Massachusetts Trail

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:44:09 +0000

Living in Boston there’s not a lot a lot of places to practice riding on dirt, but there is the Trans-Massachusetts Trail, which hooks up with the Puppy Dog Route (maps here) at its north end and continues north to the Canadian border. We’ll be doing the Puppy Dog soon, but in the meantime the TMT makes for a good day trip, and being a collection of roads specifically chosen for people unfamiliar with dirt riding it was a great choice for introducing Dachary to dirt.