August 2019 trip post.

I realized I never posted the map of my route. Don't mind the dead-space line; that's where my SPOT unit ran out of battery power. It was a great trip.

Downtime

I've been pretty sick off and on since late October so haven't done a lot. The spate of gear review posts were all done one day that I had energy. Mostly my riding has been necessary stuff like to the grocery store. Here's to more rides in 2020!

Motorcycle load out

I have some time to kill at the motorcycle shop so I'm going to post about my decisions for how I packed for the trip. There were three things of concern: 1) Gear that is actually necessary. 2) Load Triangle. 3) Avoid single points of failure. #1 doesn't mean I used everything I packed, but … Continue reading Motorcycle load out →

August wrap-up

Life got away from me. After St Louis I was in North Carolina and then New Orleans. What follows is a variety of photos. Cheoah lake. Bridal Veil Falls, near Highlands, North Carolina Wheels Through Time museum Ruby Falls

Road conversations.

When you're a woman who travels by herself on a motorcycle you can have some interesting conversations. In North Carolina I stayed at a campground that specialized in motorcycle campers. One morning I was doing laundry and chain maintenance and an older man struck up a conversation. Realizing that mine was the only bike still … Continue reading Road conversations. →

Rain!

Rain is a likely experience with motorcycle travel. I hit it three times. One was in the mountains of North Carolina when I was just having fun. This was my second day on the road. My goal was St Louis. At first I thought I could shoot that gap but then saw it was closing. … Continue reading Rain! →

More hard riding.

From southern Illinois to the North Carolina mountains means Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, and today that was hot riding. 430 miles with Tail of the Dragon and a bunch of miles of NC 28 at the end of it with the ethereal scenes below. I have a campsite next to a babbling brook, though.

Back on the road

I'm staying at a campground in southern Illinois Sunday night. No photos; I was busy beating potentially severe thunderstorms. Further, I have no connection from my campsite.

Day two, and the end of the first leg.

A peaceful morning arrived. I hadn't slept well; probably need something better than that bed pad, plus there was distant but loud noise, possibly port operations or a pipeline manufacturer nearby. I left my boots in the tent vestibule. Good thing I remembered to shake them out first this morning: one had a frog. My … Continue reading Day two, and the end of the first leg. →

Setting out.

450 miles today. About 350 of those in 90-100F heat. It broke close to my destination due to rain, which I missed - came in behind the front. I was rewarded with this view from my campsite.