Gulf Coast Getaway, Day 0

Showers
Saturday May 22, 2010
Copyright(c) 2010, Jim Beachy

Tomorrow Kitty and I plan to start our two-week two-up tour, our Gulf Coast Getaway, and today is Packing Day. We plan to wander southward to the Florida Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and then spend 5 days with our Mississippi family before heading home. Our original plans had to be modified a bit because Kitty has a seminar she needs to attend on Saturday June 5, so we’ll be getting home two days earlier than we might, and I had to reverse all my GPS routes to accommodate the changes.

But instead of packing, we’re heading to a baby shower for my niece who lives about 100 miles away in Harrisonburg, Virginia. We’d more or less planned to take the Gold Wing to the baby shower but there are rain showers all over the area, so we opt for the comfort of our SUV. I’m not the most frequent attendee of baby showers but I hated to send Kitty up there by herself to find her way in what to her is an unfamiliar area. In spite of the fact that I feel a certain urgency to be packing, I relax and enjoy the time with various family members and meeting some new people. Among all those women at the shower, there are four guys. My creative and clever sister has strategically placed tiny baby clothes on a makeshift clothesline draped in front of their large high-definition television screen, apparently to make sure the party doesn’t get co-opted by Guys Watching Sports.

When we get home at around 5:00 PM I slowly start packing and fitting things into the trailer and saddlebags while Kitty does the last laundry for the trip. It’s a bit of a different packing technique than usual because we will be spending five days in Gulf Coast shorts-and-flip-flops weather at Kevin’s house. Don’t you just hate those long walks on the beach in long jeans and motorcycle riding boots?

I’d detailed the bike and trailer last weekend, so there’s little to do in terms of cleaning or polishing. Using my digital air pressure gauge, I carefully make sure the air pressure in the trailer and bike tires is perfect for the estimated load we’ll be carrying: 21 psi for the trailer tires, 20 psi for the trailer suspension, 33 psi for the front bike tire, 41 psi for the rear. For all those years when I ran Dunlop Elite series tires on my Gold Wing, I always inflated to the maximum recommended pressure of 41 psi, but with this Michelin StreetPilot GT set I’m running manufacturer’s inflation specifications. We’ll see how that works out – after about 8,000 miles there’s no sign of wear front or rear so the early results of my experiment seem positive.

I have a moment of panic when I can’t find the locking pin for the trailer hitch. Then I remember I bought a new key-lock system last year and had put it into one of the interior side pockets of the trailer when I last parked it. I treat all the locks and fittings on both the bike and trailer with WD-40 oil and my preparations are complete. Extra tools are packed; GPS routes and waypoints are loaded and the GPS is mounted on the bike: we are taking along an extra bag filled with memorabilia from Kevin’s childhood that Kitty figures rightfully belong with him; the laundry is done and our bags are packed.

Tomorrow I imagine we will need to do the Dance of Rainsuit before heading southward for a lazy day’s ride. I fall asleep dreaming of leaky rainsuits that strangely enough, pool water on the inside of my waterproof Cruiserworks riding boots and soak my socks.