Well, I leave Alaska in twelve days.  I am feeling very conflicted about this trip. On the one hand, I love traveling by motorcycle and even though I am 70 years old, I can still do it fairly well. On the other hand, I will be alone south of the border and my Spanish leaves something to be desired. I think my conflicting feelings are the main reason I have delayed this ride in previous years. I have to wonder if the idea of the ride is more attractive than the ride itself.

The first leg is from Anchorage to Haines, Alaska. It is 800 miles via Tok and Haines Junction. I will be catching the COLUMBIA, one of two ferries which runs to Bellingham, Washington.  I plan on sleeping in the observation lounge as it takes three and a half days for the trip. From Bellingham, I will be riding 2100 miles east to St Louis, Missouri, so I can ride with my sister and her partner back out to Utah and show them some of the national parks.  After returning to Missouri, I will switch bikes (taking my Harley Road King to Utah) and head toward the border hoping to cross into Mexico in mid October.

Now I have done a lot of traveling since my retirement in 2007 and have a few favored items which I will not leave home without.

First is my laptop which in my case is a MacBook Air.  It allows me to write, watch Netflicks, edit my photos and keep in touch with family and friends.  Netflicks is available in over 130 countries and often has better programing than in the USA.

Second is a Garmin InReach2 GPS and satilite communicator.  It can send emergency messages to activate search and rescue with the touch of a button.  Additionally, it can send canned texts with location information to family and friends.  It requires a monthly fee and I believe the plan I chose the fee is $25.00/month. I looked at several devices and settled on the InReach2 but the Zoleo at half the price works well when paired with your cell phone.  Both are available at REI or Amazon.

I never leave home without the Steripen.  It is a water purification device which uses UV light and takes 30 seconds to do a liter of water.  With all the travel I have done I have never had a case of Montezuma's Revenge.  I treat all water, including bottled water, with the steripen.  It works on bacteria, guardia, and viruses but does not remove solids.  Even if all you drink is bottled water, you do not know the source of the water or how it has been purified.  It is available for about $69.

I also travel with noise cancelling earphones.  I like the Bose and use the ear bud models as a small compact package.  I may jump on a flight back to Alaska for the holidays and the noise cancelling qualities are well worth it.  And they make listening to videos on Netflix a pleasure.

Last but not least is a high tech notepad and pen.  At 70, if it is not written down it did not happen.  A notepad allows you to jot down notes for your blog, write down phone numbers or email addresses etc.  I spent 30 minutes earlier today looking for my steripen.  It turns out I had packed it on the bike and not in one of my travel bags.  I plan on writing down an inventory of what is in each of the seven individual bags on the motorcycle.  It will keep me from having to open and seach each one (why do you always find what you are searching for in the last bag?)

Finally, a small grip.  In this age of technology why do I have to carry three different cords to charge batteries?  My iphone has a unique charger, the GPS has a unique power cord, the camera uses a USBC and the bluetooth comm system on my helmut uses a different one from all of the above.  Luckily, i can use the notebook and pen to record where the various cords are stored.