On the Auto Train

August 7, 2015

Bike is loaded on the trailer that goes on the train.

A few pics of my sleeper room on the train.

Rolling through Jacksonville.  

Bedtime!  They come in and make the bed for you.

Nighty!


August 8, 2015

It's 8am. I'm near Fredericksburg VA. 

Along the Potomac River.

This is a great way to travel! I like it.

Should be arriving soon at the station. As soon as the bike is unloaded, I'll be on the road.

The bike is back home.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Finally got the bike back.  It was supposed to have been finished yesterday but it wasn't ready when I went to pick it up.  They hadn't even started on it.  

It's a good thing the bike died when I was close to home.  If I had been out in the boonies this would have been much worse.  MUCH worse!  At least I could wait it out at home and I went back to work for the week so I wouldn't waste my leave time.  

So now all I have to do is load up the bike, clean up the mess I made in the house during the week, and get back on the road on Friday.  

And yes, I repacked everything again and I'm going to shuffle a couple more things around again.  It's really hard to try to keep track of stuff when you're travelling in tight quarters like this.  I can only bring just a few things on the train and on the ferries so I need to pick and choose wisely.  And have it ready so I'm not fumbling around when I get to the loading areas.  

Well, that's it for now.

And... I'm off!! Edit: And I'm back home.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Ok, I'm ready to roll.  Here's the beastie:

  

I sure hope I don't drop it.  I'll never be able to pick it up!

Latah gatahs!

Update:  Well, I got about 20 miles down the road and the bike died at a stop light.  I had no battery power at all.  Called AAA for a tow truck (which remarkably arrived fairly quickly) and had it taken to the motorcycle shop in town.  They diagnosed a fried stator.  This is a known issue on these bikes.  And of course my warranty ran out in March.  

Anyway, I'm getting an aftermarket stator overnighted so that it'll be here by Monday morning and the bike will be fixed on Monday.  I've changed my train reservation for next Friday the 7th and I've pushed the ferry reservations out one week.  I won't have a cabin on the ferry but thems the breaks.  

Stay tuned for the restart next Friday!

Here I go again!

Monday, July 27, 2015

Time to finish what I started a couple of years ago.  If you look back, you'll see that I went on a trip to ride the Trans Labrador Hwy in Canada.  I crashed and was not able to continue.  Well, now I'm going back to see what I didn't get to see then.  

The plan is to take the AutoTrain from Sanford FL to Lorton VA and then ride my 2014 Vstrom 650 from there up to eastern Canada.  I'll take the ferry across to Newfoundland and spend a week touring there.  Then I'll go to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and wherever else I decide to go.  Then I'll go around the Gaspe Peninsula.  I've heard that's a beautiful drive.  Then I'll start heading south toward home.

I've been prepping for months - gathering stuff, deciding what to take and what not to take, packing and repacking, fretting and stressing.  I'm just about ready.  As of today, I'm only waiting for a new tank bag to arrive to complete the ensemble.  

Last night - as with many nights recently - I laid in bed thinking about everything and decided I needed to repack again.  I have all my camping gear and clothes in a large Wolfman duffle bag.  I decided I want my clothes more readily available so I'm going to repack again tonight.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Even though I feel like I've limited the stuff I need to take, I sure do have a lot of stuff!!!  I'll be camping some so I have to take camping gear including minimal food prep items and a little food (ramen noodles and canned chicken).  Clothes I've minimized pretty well I think.  Tools - I always have a ton of tools as if I would be able to fix something on the road.  Reality says that I'll probably just have to call in a tow truck.  Then there's the electronic gear.  A Garmin Montana 650T gps, Passport 8500 radar detector, SPOT3, Sansa Clip+ for music, Lumix point-and-shoot camera, GoPro Hero3, and my Samsung Galaxy Note 4.  Of course all that requires various recharging items and spare batteries.  Good grief!  But there's one thing I REALLY wanted to bring with and I think I've figured out how I can bring it.  That's my ukulele.  And that's where the repacking comes in tonight.  I'm going to try to pack my clothes in with the ukulele because if I stop at a hotel or something, I'll want to bring in the uke and my clothes. Might as well pack them together so I only have to tote that one bag and my tank bag.

So that's it for now.  I hope to update this as I go (unlike with the Wild West tour I did).  Of course internet access may prevent that but I'll try to catch up as I can.

Stay tuned!

Hike Glacier National Park

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

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Hiked Highline Trail to Haystack Butte.  8 miles

Sheep and goats galore

Unbelievably fantastic.

Glacier National Park

Monday, September 2, 2013

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Drive through Glacier NP

Kayak Flathead River

Sunday, September 1, 2013

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Kayak Flathead River

20.12 miles

5.5 hours

Polebridge to Big Creek