Back to business

OK. So a lot has been happening, but I've been a little distracted the last couple days to keep up here.

First, I got a couple questions:

1. Why do I blog about a motorcycle trip and the month leading up to it, and not about my life in general?

The short answer is that I really like motorcycles and they're easy for me to talk about.

The medium answer is that I'm generally a pretty private person, and tend to prefer to keep my life off the internets. (Which is also the reason I'm the last person on the planet who doesn't have a facebook profile and why shaub.net is such a wealth of information.) But somehow Moto2our blogging seems more anonymous. I know, it makes no sense.

The long answer is that every time you undertake a trip like this, you realize you have forgotten everything you did to prep before the last one. A written record is invaluable for planning the next one. I know myself well enough to know that I won't sit down and write about the things that go into a trip like this, unless I can do it in fits and starts like this. So this becomes documentation for later reference.

2. How much does something like this cost?

Well, the way I see it, the money spent on the bike doesn't count. I'd need to do these things anyway. And food doesn't count, because I'd need to eat anyway. Same for drinks, entertainment, etc.

In my mind, the only actual extra costs are lodging and gas.

I never book lodging in advance, because I never know where I'll end the day. That means you can't look for good deals. You take what you get. Normally you can find something for between 89 and 129 a night. I'm looking at 6 or 7 nights without a place to stay. Assume that Montreal, Bar Harbor and Cape Cod (potential stopping points) will be more expensive than the average. And I love the Cosmopolitan in Toronto at any price, which just compounds things.

Gas for 3000 miles is about 75 gallons. Canadian gas is 5.40 a gallon.

What it all boils down to is that I don't want to add it up. It is what it is. I'd say it's cheaper than a week in the Caribbean, but actually a friend and I are spending a week in Barbados this September for 500$ each, including flights. So that's not even true.

EDIT: Just found the following in the Mototour06 blog:
After hotels and $150 each on gas, our biggest expense is, by far, liquid. More spendy than food. To stay hydrated, we're each going through about 5 big gatorades a day and countless waters. Tracking the costs of a big gatorade has almost become a game. Low is $1.09 at the Boiled Peanuts Gas Station in Highlands, NC. High was $2.50 tonight in Nowhere, KY.

-------------------------------------

On to trip prep. I have brake pads on the way, which is the last maintenance item on my list. Hopefully I can get those on before the weekend. I'm riding to WV to visit some friends, and it would be great to get them on and make sure everything is ok with them.

There is a little sense of urgency building. The general rule (which I like to adhere to) is to not make any changes to your bike a week before a long trip. You have a good chance of messing something up, and a week gives it ample time to surface. I started doing the math today, and realized Moto2our starts in 9 days (and I'll only be in DC for 7 of the next 17 days).

I ordered the new shocks yesterday, and found out if I had done it last friday, I could have had them in time for the trip. That kind of sucks. But I'll get over it. They cost 1/5 what my whole bike cost. At that price, they better be The Truth.

The tires are scrubbed in. The bike is running well. Trip planning is coming along (more on that later). I'm starting to pile up things to take. Everything is on track.