1 day and a wake-up!

We're finally there! The last few hours before we leave. Which means we actually started packing our gear. And bathed the dog. We also fixed up a t-shirt for him in order to mitigate some of his shedding. Yes, I'm a hopeless optimist.


We were originally going to head north, making our first camp at the base in Shreveport. However, in order for YoManBob to

see the Grand Canyon and Old Faithful (he must fly back at the end of the month - from wherever we are at the time), we rearranged some stops.


Oh! And I just found out that Mt Rainier is NOT the highest elevation in the continental U.S., after I went through all the trouble of routing us there. It's only the 3rd highest. The highest is Mt Whitney, which I knew but for some reason kept forgetting. Probably because I wanted to finally reach Washington. 


I briefly considered rerouting away from Mt Rainier - the nerve of it daring to be other than what I thought! - but decided it was too much trouble, especially after yesterday's mapping "oops". We may still omit it from our route.

Like this one, but black (of course!)

As I put the finishing touches on our route, I started to second guess my bike's ability to handle the ride. A lot of mountains to deal with. Then I remembered the time Dennis and I went to San Antonio (450 miles, one way), riding 2-up, on a Yamaha Exciter, a single air cooled cylinder 250 with no saddle bags, bald tires, worn out chain and sprockets (had to change them in San Antonio), and not even a sissy bar or luggage rack. 


Yes, we were that crazy. Oh, that's also the time a bee got in my helmet and stung me behind the ear, the swelling making me lose my equilibrium. Fun times... 


My twin-cylinder, cruising-ready baby would have left it in the dust! So, no worries. Dennis says I'm taking advantage because his OLD Exciter is not here to defend itself - psh!


In any case, we are firm believers in "if anything's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there."
(100 points if you can guess that movie reference and 300 if you guess the reference on the title's post!)