Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Preparation - H

OK, with preparations A though G complete, I am sitting in my living room at 11pm looking at all the crap I have to stuff in my carry-on for the flight down to gather the bikes. What ever happened to "Hey man, let's do this low tech, we don't need a bunch of crap that will just break or get stolen. Paper maps and a spanish dictionary, you know, hard core!"

Clearly, I am soft core, as I look across the table at my digital camera, GPS, SPOT Messenger, HD Helmet Cam, ipod (with espanol lessons), two way radios, various mounts, chargers, cables, and scads of memory... Tony has a laptop, crackberry and, among other things, a whole wiring system that he needs to install so we can charge all this shit from the bike. Next time, I am gonna do this on a Honda Ruckus (that's a scooter for the uninitiated...) with knap sap with a change of gitch.

Ahem.

After the panic of getting the bikes down to Georgia in October to beat the winter winds, I have since had time to settle into a new job, and sort out a bunch of crap that needs to get done. Did I mention I had to quit my job to do this trip? Turns out it was a good move. I get the feeling that maybe my new co-workers, who are great, don't understand why I am doing this (as most folks don't), but they at least pretend to be supportive. What more can a guy ask for? Seriously though, I like my new job alot, and kinda sorta am looking forward to getting back. (No, I am not drunk.)

I digress....

Since parking the bikes in Valdosta, We have ordered up spare shifters, brake levers, two way radio headsets with PTT and some nifty security thingamajigs to baffle the banditos that we may encounter on the back side of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. We gotta sort though all this stuff in Georgia before we hit the road. We also have tires ready and waiting in Dilley, Texas, outside of San Antonio at a guy named Hank's place. Met him on the internet, hopefully he exists. With fresh tires and oil, we will roll into Mexico for the real start of SOREASS2010.

We have also received a myriad of vaccines and shots, including: Hepatitis A&B, yellow fever, reagular flu, H1N1, Diptheria, mumps, measles, rubella, choloera and e-coli (montezuma). We are also toting malerone, cipro and some epipens for when I feed Tony some shellfish for shits and giggles. I pretty much feel invincible, but also poor. That shit was like $600! I guess it beats the alternative though. So who will have the first rumbles after a roadside burrito? Stay tuned for every graffic detail.
Not much else to say really. I am just psyched to get going. I hope you all enjoy tagging along on this trip, there will be tonnes of weird stuff and interesting photos. After riding the Trans-Labrador highway, then touring Newfoundland, then a crown-water backroad tour of New Brunswick, this is set to be the best ride yet. Nothing left to do exept drive to Bangor. Yee-hah.
Shitty place to park a boat.

2 comments:

  1. If I were going to do it, i would choose a Honda Jazz, the Ruckus isn't hard core enough. I would put chains on the tires of the Jazz and let 'er rip :) :) hahahah

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just watched your videos and I am officially carsick (bikesick??) Looks like fun.

    ReplyDelete