Tips for Long Distance Travels - MISCELLANEOUS

[bamabikeguy]

Part 3 "other stuff off the top of my head".

NEVER DRINK TAP WATER- unless you are tough old geezers like some of the forum veterans, folks that live closer to the ground.

But if you are a tenderfoot, pampered city slicker, BUY bottled water. Water is what causes diarreah, your body is used to local water, but 100 miles away it is full of a whole seperate set of "stuff", and your body will react.

Make sure you have water bottles filled before making camp. Nothing worse than sitting in the dark Kansas night and eating granola bars then finding you knocked over the water bottle.......


NEVER LITTER.

You will ALWAYS find a better campsite the following morning, just a mile up the road.

There are ALWAYS abandoned farmhouses and barns. Part of the Freedom Principle is being in the pine timberlands of South Georgia, slipping around a locked gate and finding a great spot half a mile from the road, plenty of pinestraw to make up for the leaking air mattress.....

BUY LOCAL You could carry extra batteries, OR buy/dispose of them in whatever small village you happen to be in when the flashlight burns out or the camera dies.

PATRONIZE "ALL YOU CAN EAT LUNCH BUFFETS"- between 1 and 2 o'clock p.m.

I leave at dawn, "extra traffic wary and vigilant" during the commuting times, the lunch times and the school bus afternoon times. I plot my route accordingly, hit major areas around 9 to 11 in the morning if I can possibly do it.

BUY A 12" GEL SADDLE-SHOCK ABSORBING SEAT POST. Every little bit helps.

HAVE CURVED HANDLEBARS. My engine has a thumb throttle, so I can slip a "clothes line" wire on the throttle, both hands free to move around. I guess a wrist throttle is a different matter, imagine coast to coast is out of the question. Straight handlebars will irritate your elbows after a few hours. Curved handlebars allow better ability to move around and stretch......

Well, I had 12 puppies born yesterday, expecting another litter, plus the nanny goats are about to drop kids, got to go do farm stuff. Hope the tips help, and we will probably find more ideas pretty easily.....

Later

Paul

 

[gone_fishin]

bamabikeguy...obviously i don't have time this week to read your stuff, but i wanted to thank you for your involvement and contribution...8) 8)

 

[sideshowsideswipe]

I'm so jealous that you have done these things...

 

[zekej]

bamabike guy

Yep, there's nothing like southern hospitality.

 

[uncle_punk13]

Hi guys,
If I might join in...
In your initial preparations for travel, after you have triple check your tools, supplies, etc. Go back into the garage, and grab that one tool that you thought,"Naw, I won't need that", then go back through and the one or two things that you thought, "OH, I can't live without that", toss it back in the garage!
*LMAO*
I'm being facetious, but still, I had this happen; half the crap I brought with ended up in a box in the support truck untouched, and the one tool I really needed I had to blow some $$$ on because I didn't think I'd need it!
One thing I always tell folks though:
Truck stops are your friend! They have everything you'll need- tools, lighting, food, laundry, showers, fuel, etc.
There are numerous little "nuances" that never would have occured to me, such as:
Pot holes come fast and are hard to avoid, be aware and do your best to dodge 'em. I've got a nasty tale about that, and the stop sign shaped potato chip wheel to prove it.
Road kill stinks for about a half mile before AND after, *GAG*, and can sometimes come up all of a sudden cresting a hill. It's kinda nasty if you happen to run into/over it.
Bugs are a good source of protien.
The wind draft from semi trucks is never the same, never predictable. I always crouched into a tuck when approaching from ahead, and behind, and prepared for the turbulent 'wash'. Sometimes it was nothing, sometimes it felt like slamming into a brick wall. Sometimes it moved the bike sideways.
Always stop for a few minutes to stretch after 2 -3 Hours of riding time, at the end of the day your muscles and joints will thank you for it.
Ummmm, I guess that's all for now.
I say these things with a smile and a laugh, but there is truth to it...
Rif

 

[gone_fishin]

i am sooo doing a long run this coming summer 8)

 

[bamabikeguy]

Truck Drivers are a friend-

Once word got out over the CB airwaves about my Denver stunt, when I spoke to drivers, they had already heard about "the crazy guy on the red bike".

On the return thru Oklahoma at least 8 or 10 strangers said they heard about me in Kansas a week earlier on "Trucker's" or "Paul Harvey" radio.

The ONLY time I had a problem was in So. Oklahoma, where three (3) log haulers honked coming behind me, not a head's up "toot" but heartattacking type blares. I gave the first guy the "one finger salute", that might have egged the following trucks on.... but still....

I read the "company" name on the door, and within 20 minutes was at a truckstop. I asked the truckers to put the word out that those guys were a**holes, and I knew the phone number".

Never had another truck honk at me....ever.

 

[uncle_punk13]

Most truck drivers were cool to me as well (my dad just retired from driving this past fall, and my brother still drives), but in Indiana, I was travelling along on a small, narrow, and winding back road with no shoulder. I soon found that the big rigs were using this road as a way to go around the chicken coops (scales) on the highway. Most of these guys were all right, giving me as much room as they could, and I them. But one empty parking lot (car hauler) didn't budge an inch. He clipped my handlebar, and I was sent careening wildly out of control! This, I found out later, was to be the begining of the end for my bike. I was fortunate that in this place, the ditch had nearly disappeared and the road sloped down into a yard.
I was wildly careening at 40 M.P.h. across this persons front yard (It must have looked like something from an old Harold Lloyd film!!!). I didn't go down but the bike felt 'different' after that.
My dad imeediately got on the C.B. in the support truck and let a few things be known.
Later we happene upon a small truck stop, and one of the drivers came over to talk with us a little. He let us know that we had some friends out there now lookin' out for us...
I'm not sure what that meant, but hey, I'll take all the good fortune I can get...
Sorry for ramblin' this thread just made me reminisce a little bit.

 

[Cookie]

have not gone on a long distance run (yet) but I have had to do some training for athletics so this might help eat an orange or pickle to help prevent muscle cramps (they are better than bananas 2 sq or 3 of dark chocolate will open the arteries and increase the blood flow lowers the cholesterol and reduces blood clotting and it will give your legs and heat a lift after a long day .....make your own trail mix rasins, banana chips, apricots, pumpkin or sunflower seeds one golf ball size has a lot of potassium, iron, and antioxidants.

A good first aid kit is essential with plenty of band aids it is irritating to have that one little cut leak all day getting everything sticky.

cookie

 

[bamabikeguy]

Carry an Amulet- Since I have twice as much to worry about, I always carry two when traveling.

My son's Iraqi Freedom medal, a key reason I'm a p***off Jimmy Carter energy saving anti-establishmentarian. He and his wife are fighting just to get the "educational assistance" they promised at enlistment.

The other was given me by the Sisters at Sacred Heart for my 50th birthday, Sister Eleanor said "He's the patron saint of a happy death", to which Jeff Baumgardner replied "I have 10 bucks in the Crabtree Deathpool, that he gets taken out by an Oldsmobile, Jay has 10 bucks on any German vehicle".

Anyway, that one can't be used as a charm, but it does have a neat exorcism verse engraved, that can be recited at camp when thinking about "rude drivers".....

http://www.mountosb.org/bfp.html

Oh, I can get smaller versions of that in bulk, so I'll give them free at the Indiana rally.

I just thought of something, does Jeff drive an Oldsmobile???...