Europe 2013: Check Yourself (with Test Trips!)

July 29, 2013

Although I had done a number of longer trips on the motorcycle, I was a bit out of practice, so I took advantage of a number of opportunities that came up to get myself back in practice. I also wanted to test working with the little tablet and keyboard in lieu of a Real Computer.

The first thing to do was to make the tablet (a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, if you're interested) my go-to choice for mobile computing. This worked out pretty well, and with the addition of the USB connectvity kit (a set of adapters), I was able to deal with SD cards from the camera. Other than minor annoyances which come with trying to force a tablet into a role it wasn't really designed for, it all works surprisingly well.

On to the bike tests. The first was a trip down to Newport, Oregon over the 4th of July week. My mom was scheduled to solo with the Newport Symphony Orchestra, and I decided to ride down to attend the concerts. So I packed up my stuff on the bike, plotted a course that almost completely avoided the freeway, and set out.

The first test was using the new GPS. I love having a GPS on my handlebars, and the new one was no exception. It is, however, a considerably different beast from its predecessors, and misses out on a number of features, while adding many more. The interface is also a bit different to use, and it took me a while to get used to it. However, I did get it sorted out, and we're friends now. Not best friends yet, but on pretty good terms.

The trip itself was quite enjoyable, consisting of a ride across the Southworth ferry, angling down to Aberdeen via US highways and two-lane roads, and a jaunt down 101. It took me about 10 hours to get down to Newport, vs. the 6 it would have taken if I'd stuck to freeways and high-speed roads, but it was so worth it. The roads were lovely, the scenery was beautiful (seriously, 101 is like driving through a postcard series). I even had a strong tailwind for the final leg, and managed to get 65 MPG.

Once I got there, I ran out to go shopping for some items we were missing, and realized that my headlamp had blown on the high beam. I'd been expecting this at some point, so I grabbed a spare while I was out, and got the light changed. My parents got back from their rehearsal while I was tidying up, and we chatted a bit.

The stay in Newport was lovely, very relaxed and enjoyable without some of the stress I've been under at home. The night before I was set to leave, I finally got my motorcycle gear back on to go shopping for my return-trip food. At about 9 pm, the night before I was supposed to ride back, I realized with a sudden sinking feeling: I couldn't find my key. Not like, "Oh, haha, it's on the nightstand," couldn't find it. I mean, we turned the whole house upside-down. Over the course of more than an hour and a half, every single bag and article of clothing was unpacked, checked, and repacked. I never lose keys, so I was pretty concerned. Did it fall out of my pocket on the beach? In a restaurant? Somewhere I'd been walking? We talked it out, reasoning out based on the facts we had where it could have been lost. The overwhelming probability was that it had to be in the house.

Finally, as much to be thorough as anything else, I moved everything in the kitchen garbage can, piece-by-piece, to a new bag. There, at the bottom of the can, was my key, next to the packaging from the new headlamp. In my distraction at having people come home mid-maintenance, I must have gathered stuff up a pile of mostly-garbage, and tossed it into the can. The piece that wasn't garbage? The key, of course.

Important lesson: spare keys, and key codes. I had already been plotting spare keys for my Europe trip, but this really hammered it home. I will have at least three keys while in Europe: one on my keychain, one packed with passport, credit cards and cash, and probably one gaff-taped to the frame of the bike itself (a recommendation from many seasoned moto-travelers). If I have access to the key code for my bike, I'll also be writing that down so I could get a new one cut from the code if I had to.

The second trip was to ride out to Mt. Rainier with folks from Annex Theatre for our annual Retreat. This trip went flawlessly, from a motorcycle perspective, and allowed me to get more comfortable with the GPS. It did have a humorous moment that drove home the need for good maps: I got to a closed road, and literally couldn't think of an alternate route short of riding 30 miles out to I-5, 20 miles down I-5, and 40 miles back in on an alternate road. There was a clearly-marked detour set up, but before I clued in to that (having ridden the route many times before, and thus being heads-down regarding signs), I spent a tense five minutes trying to figure out how to tell the GPS to reroute me based on the closed road. It's basically not possible, from what I can tell. Having a backup paper map will be vital, particularly in Europe, where I won't have a smartphone with a data connection to fall back on. I also added a compass to my packing list, on general principles.

And so, with a pair of 10 hour rides, and a pair of 3 hour rides under my belt, plus a bunch of previous experience in packing, riding strategies and navigating once I'm out of familiar territory, I'm feeling pretty good about my prep for the trip, as far as I can take it while still in the US.

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Created by Ian Johnston. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.