Packing For a Long Motorcycle Trip - Episode 1

Packing for a long motorcycle trip can be daunting, especially when you throw in the fact that you’re going to be tent camping as well.  There’s a lot to bring for such travels and you have to be selective in what you take because of weight and space restrictions.  Though our Bushtec motorcycle trailer allows us more packing opportunities, you still can’t bring everything.

Leaving The Kitchen Sink Behind

And even after two previous test runs of riding and camping, it was still hard to decide what needed to stay and what could come.  So after kissing my hairdryer and the kitchen sink goodbye, it was departure time.

Motorcycle riding – what could be more magical than having the wind in your face, the open road beckoning and the freedom calling you to just keep motoring onward, ever onward?  It’s where you feel (for better or worse) every change in the temperature, every single bump in the road, every wind gust, every bug in the county – all while seated in the same position for endless miles and miles.  And after a few hundred miles, you start to feel the rhyme of the road spread throughout your entire body – and you sigh deeply.  Ahhhh, the freedom of the open road!

Hot!  Hot!  Hot!

Texas in July takes on a whole different dimension when you’re riding a motorcycle.  It’s hellishly hot!  Though we love and adore the back roads, on the first day of our travels we try to get out of Texas as quickly as possible, blazing along on Interstates rather than dawdling on the back roads.   Therefore, we opted for the Highway 287 going from Denton, Texas to Tucumcari, New Mexico.  Though there wasn’t much to see, we did come across a huge convoy of combines heading northward to the ripening fields of some unknown state.  I felt rather small and insignificant rolling past these massive lumbering beasts.

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Originally our goal was Amarillo, but we thought it would be better to keep motoring on down the road and make it to Tucumcari.  This town is a great place to stop and step back in time along the original Route 66.  There are a number of historic motels and restaurants along with a museum for those who wish to linger for a bit.

All in all, we managed 442 miles and were off the road by 4:00.  Not bad for the first day!