Skip to main content

okay it's cold!

In the 30's and thus well below freezing at 75mph. At least it's sunny! I am finally feeling the cold, actually caught myself shivering a couple times! Even though it's colder than most of the hard times I has westbound I'm holding up much much better, thanks to my gear (I should get north face to sponsor me haha).

One thing that's starting to worry me is that I am almost home (300 miles or so) and am starting to 'check out.'. I read this great book awhile back by survival expert Laurence Gonzalez and his main point about 'accidents' (usually mistakes) is that they almost always happen on the way home from something, once the 'danger' is past.

Whether it's climbing a mountain or a boat trip you stop thinking about where you are and what is around you and start thinking about being home. I blame this for my only 'major' motorcycle accident - after 8 hours of heavy hiking I was riding home and not paying attention at all. When I got up after sliding and rolling 100+ feet I could clearly see the gravel all over the corner and should have seen it on the bike - but I was thinking of getting home fast and not paying attention.

Anyway, I'm trying to be careful not to let that happen again! :)

BTW this new Angry Whopper thing is kinda good!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gear Review: Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks

In the past couple months on the road I think I’ve spent more time riding my scooter through rain than I have in the dry – this is clearly reflected in the fact that as time has gone by I’ve invested more and more money in things to keep my stuff dry, since wet gear sucks. One of my favorite purchases for this trip is the pair of Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks I picked up just before leaving, in 13L and 20L sizes. They cost me around $20 each and are one of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased in years – extremely durable, effective, and simple to use.

5 Things that Suck about Traveling Solo

I find it telling that it seems a majority of the interesting travel blogs I run across are written by solo travelers, most often women. I think there’s a reason why we write more than people who travel with friends or in groups and that it’s pretty self evident: it’s an outlet for our loneliness. In the last year and a half, the vast majority of my time has been spent away from home, alone. As I write this, it’s been over a month since I’ve conversed with anyone in my native language, and I can remember every single conversation in English for the month before that. The truth is, I don’t think I could have done this without the internet – without a blog to share my thoughts, without Facebook to see what my friends are up to, without the occasional e-mail to provide a façade of normalcy… without these things I’d likely have driven myself insane with my internal dialogue. Now, I grant, there’s a reason I travel alone and I do love it, but lately it seems all I run across in the blogosp

Jury Duty: Not Like TV (or: Longest Post EVER)

Prepare yourself for by far the longest blog post ever – if you’re at all curious about real life jury duty or enjoy all those cop & lawyer shows then give it a go - this recount of the trial and details given for evidence will blow your mind, make you think twice about the effectiveness of our police officers and the impartiality of our juries… Shortly before leaving on my trip in January, I was summoned for DC Grand Jury Duty .  I was able to have it rescheduled to begin on June 7 and made it back to the US only a few days before it was due to start.  After thinking about it I really felt that I would not be comfortable spending 27 days of 8:30AM to 5PM in an “office” for $30 a day, especially with the changes to the economy going on right now – I’d rather enjoy that time. Upon arriving at the courtroom for Grand Jury Duty, I quickly noted that there were over 40 people in the room, considerably more than the number required for the Grand Jury.  Once we were checked in, the c