North America by Motorcycle with my Dog
Saturday, July 19, 2003
Holy smokes. All sorts of delays before taking off. Luckily I gave myself a good 5 day cushion, anticipating some last minute delays.
The first main issue was cargo. I had planned on taking a bunch of equipment, which ended up being more or less somewhat too much by about 80 pounds or so. The test ride from San Jose to Berkeley was fun but it was way too much gear. I had to re-organize everything and ditch a bunch of gear including a portable battery which was going to be used to charge misc items durin the day. Instead, I made some last minute electrical changes and modified the bike's battery to have a cigarette lighter attachment, to which I attach a small 60w converter and then some item, as well as an adapter cable for the flexi solar panel I'm carrying. Now, I have an ultimate setup where during the day riding, I am charging the bikes battery with both the alternator and solar panel. I tested the battery drain using a voltmeter and found that with the solar panel, I can easily plug in any single item while riding and get only a very slight drain or sometimes positive flow. I also ditched some extra tools and misc items, along with excess clothes, so now I have three days worth and less clean underwear.
After rejiggering all the gear and cargo, I was able to get a decent load balance, and keep all the essentials, plus the video camera and equipment for charging.
I also had to replace one of the turn lights, and now we're ready.
I woke up planning to take off early, but once again something happened and I got delayed in the morning helping fix a windows problem on my friends laptop. The total time it took to do that was about 4 hours. A pain in the butt, but now its done and off we ride, a bit late start, so we may only get to shatsa tonight, but its a long day so we'll see.
Next update from somewhere on the road...
adios, amigos
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Made some money at the garage sale, thogh not much. Enough to get out of Cali, at least. Getting the rest of the way, who knows. Uh, hehe.
I've gone through one, nay, two configurations so far with all the gear for the trip. The bike keeps looking smaller and smaller compared to the gear I'm trying to drag along.
I need one more afternoon to get it all squared away.
The big debate at the moment is just how necessary it it really to bring a portable power supply. Lots of pros and cons about bringing the battery and solar panel. We'll have to see how it goes this afternoon.
Got the tickets to the concert in Limestone, Maine from the UPS guy yesterday. They sent two copies - two seperate envelopes, for saftey, I guess, but they both showed up at the same time delivered from the same truck. I'm not sure If I see the safety features in that strategy completely.
Last night I tripped over a fan at my buddy Ed's hose at 3 in the morning. Cut my big toe on my left foot. It's gonna hurt for a while. I resolved to be careful when waking up to take a pissat in the middle of america somewhere.
Scheduled departure date is tomorrow morning at 8am or earlier. Start looking out for me around 8:15.
Thursday, July 10, 2003
bluedog homepage
The Map
