The calm

Prepping is super fun, until the last few days. I’m still waiting on a new sleeping pad because I determined that 31 days of camping is bullshit, but if I must camp most of the days, I’m going to need to sleep well. I ordered a Megamat 10 and a Megamat Lite, and I’ll determine which one is the acceptable ratio of packability and comfort to take with me. I’m also still figuring out if I’m going to take the 6L water bladder, or the Rotopax. It’s contingent on whether some hardware gets here in time. Shipping on things is delayed due to Covid, and so we’ll see. At this moment, if I had to leave, I’d be fine, but pissed because I’d sleep like shit. On Monday, when the Megamat 10 gets here, I’d feel a lot better about leaving. And by Friday, regardless of what’s here, I’m leaving Saturday morning. One more week of worthlessly obsessing about the route and packing list when there isn’t a damn thing I can do about prepping but wait.

Stormy, my 2015 FJR 1300, on the other hand, is all set to go. I managed to mount a single Rotopax mount on the tail in some kind of whirlwind of miraculous coincidence of me having all the right hardware in my junk box. But it’s on, and dare I say, elegantly mounted. I’ll at least have 1.75 gallons of extra fuel for the Nevada desert, where there’s about 150 miles between towns. I’m preparing for the one gas station that, for whatever reason, doesn’t have fuel, and I need to make it to the next town. I figure 1.75 gallons will get me at least 65 miles extra down the road, giving my bike a total of about 315 mile range. Terrifying, if you ask me. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, is that if you plan for the worst case scenario, it never happens. Just kidding, it still is just as likely to happen.