So many news since last update. Let’s go chronologically.
US National Parks Annual Pass
So, since I’m planning to travel around a big part of the USA, I thought it would make sense to get a hold of a national park pass as I may cross and visit a few ones during this first short term adventure. Not sure how I came to this idea, possibly reading some post on ADV-Rider (adventure riding forums worldwide) OR NC700 forum (forums dedicated to the Honda NC700/750 bikes, worldwide), but I started searching about US national parks passes and came to USGS site and pages… Wait, I think I remember I was reading about mosquitoes and Nile Virus and came to that page about some camps and then I must have clicked a link on passes, or something like that… old people: they click everywhere 😉
So I ended checking the price of a day visit to a park, and many seemed to be around USD9,00, so a quick calculation showed me that riding around the states it was highly probable I would cross more than 10 state parks… Price of the annual pass if you’re no teenager, grand-pa or vet: USD80,00… No hesitation, pass bought… Since I was not sure I’d get the pass in time with normal shipping, I opted for expedited, for 5 more bucks, and… got it 2 days later…
I guess showing that may be a good way to convince the custom guard I’m just travelling around with no intention to stay there and become an illegal alien (reminds me of an old Genesis song…)
Then I remembered I needed some camping gear…
MEC Shopping
So, I went to the Mountain Equipment Cooperative, and started putting a bunch of stuff in my cart:
- A MEC Wanderer 2 tent and its footprint
- A MEC Thor 2 Windstopper sleeping bag… I know -30ºC protection may be very warm in Central and Latin America, but hey, better boiling – I love heat – than frozen dead
- A Therm-a-Rest MondoKing 3D pad… yeah, R-value 11.4, I somehow love my comfort 😉
- a waterproof bag for the sleeping bag
- a medical-aid kit
- some anti-mosquitoes spray
- an inflatable MEC pillow (again, comfort, comfort, my neck hurts without a pillow… aging people!)
- a foldable chair
- a set of kitchen pots and pans
- a Stanley SS Vacuum Coffee System with integrated French press (I know, impressive, I have to try that soon!)
- a Thermos coffee mug
- a large camping towel and a smaller one
- a gas canister and a basic stove
- some ustensils and a small kit of cooking ones
- a plate and a bowl
- a pocket knife and a multi-use tool
- a few more things probably, I can’t even remember…
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say… well here it is, at least part of it:
Well that’s been quite some more money away from my bank account, my bank manager might start to be scared… 🙂
More bike gear
Really? Yes, really. I still needed handguards, to protect my hands again bad weather and possible unidentified flying objects, but also to protect my clutch and brake levers, in case of – doh! – fall… Better to plan for the worst, than see it happen 😉
I also bought a folding gear shift lever, after noticing each time (2) my bike went down at a stop, the shift lever ended bent and it was a pain in the a** to straighten it back.
I hesitated to buy the crash bars, because they seem so small I’m still not convinced they are really useful… I have the feeling my side cases and the skid plate may protect the bike enough… although… well, they were not available, and there would be a delay of 2 weeks, so I skipped that purchase for now… will see later.
Oh, and I finally ordered a set of Continental TKC-80 tires… Off-road I come!.. slowly 🙂
More wiring
After noticing one more time my own tracker was draining the battery after a few days not using the bike, I decided to take action and to deal with rewiring the SAE connector to the switched circuit and also I needed a cigarette outlet to be able to plug my mini tire pump (and anything that plugs into a cigarette outlet I guess…). So I jumped to the electronic store and bought a bunch of stuff – not too expensive, fortunately.
Also I start to get used to removing the seat, then the fairing, then play with wires… Not that I really like it, but, hey, what has to be done has to be done!
I’m not super happy with my wiring, inside the frunk, except for the cigarette outlet, because I have 2 badly shaped more-or-less-square holes with two SAE cables finished with a SAE connector coming out of each one – one is directly connected to the battery (to use with the battery tender for instance) and the other one is switched (for the USB adaptor). Result is not super, but at least I should have what I need…
I’ll update this post with a picture later, maybe…
And that finishes this post. See you soon for more!
