Heading Out

I had put in a couple of good practice long days on the bike, while prepping for the long days I found the range of the bike to be a bit of a challenge. Once I got to about 200-250 miles I would end up looking for fuel. On the big trip the 250 miles range is probably not going to be too much of a challenge.

In an unfortunate development just a couple of days prior to the roadtrip my tank gauge dropped to zero available and didnt come back. So I am starting my first really major roadtrip without a working gas gauge. Ripping the bike apart to get to the tank just before going out was asking for trouble.

Day 1 on the trip, pulled out with a very overloaded cycle and was off to Myrtle, I really did a poor job on the load-out. I was packed in super-tight so ended up a bit bloodied but so be it.

Things started getting a bit uncomfortable on the ride, and as I was becoming acclimatized to the ongoing nags of being packed in tight I came up with a great idea, if I just put my boots on the black-top I could keep my legs stretched out. This worked pretty well until North Carolina as the reduced road maintenance caused my boot to snag on the black-top and rocked up under one of my paniers. I was pretty sure I had fractured a toe based on how sore it was. Of course that was not a challenge until I had to get off the machine so I voted to keep rolling.

I got to stop for the first time at South of the Border, Pedro is a handsome chap, a lot of it was closed when I got there but since it was a bit of a tourist trap (should I have said spoiler alert) that was probably not for the worst.
Rolled down to Myrtle and spent the night with Brew-Daug and the family, was great catching up with them, just wish I had longer to hang out.