Part 2: More Style Less Escapism!

Alfred, NY

This should be coming to you from the road, but sorry, again no such luck with my expected departure.  Yet after an $80 trip to the budget travelers haven Wally World I now feel like I'm almost ready to go.  I have my food, I've got my camping gear, and I'm pretty sure I have a plan: 2 months to cross the US.  First I'll point the handle bars West towards Seattle to meet up with an old friend from last summer, then down to San Fran, next to my brother then home again (doesn't seem so long when I say it like that huh?).  In 7 and a half weeks I hope to hit as many sites in the US as possible (hopefully remembering to take pics from the beginning this time!).

While almost 8 weeks seems like plenty of time, and in reality it should be close to the same mileage I did last summer a few things will be different this time which should only add to the adventure.  For starters I finally broke down and purchased a GPS unit (with a special attachment for the bike to hopefully keep it dry and far removed from the pavement at speed) so if everything goes well I should be ditching the highways almost completely sticking to back roads to maximize the enjoyment of the drives and hopefully the pics for the blog.

Secondly to offset the high price of hotels and limited amount of hostels in the US I will be looking for camp grounds for the majority of my stays.  While I'm definitely no stranger to a tent spending the majority of my two month trip in one during the middle of our summer should prove to be interesting as well.  On top of the that, its been a while since I've cooked with a backpackers stove so let's cross our fingers that my wilderness culinary skills return.

Lastly I feel much more prepared as I've (kinda) done this before (right???).  Sure I'll probably couch surf in cities with no hostels or when the money gets tight.  And I will definitely be using the majority of the hostels that I can find, but other then that it'll be just me, Saphira, and the great out doors! 

Speaking of Saphira though I'm happy to say that she's no longer the sandblasted paint scratched scrap yard blue that she used to be!  After an incredible 3 day marathon of prep, paint, tape, and then paint again session  she's now a brilliant white with a red racing stripe running down her (pic 1,2).  The plastic fairings are a red border on top of a smooth brilliant white finish and I couldn't be happier with the rattle can job (thanks for the help mom!).  On top of that I've outfitted her with a windshield, a new seat, brand spankin new saddle bags, and a second charger for the GPS, while my dad replaced a couple of the gaskets that so ungloriously jettisoned much needed oil.  But just in case your worried about her looking too nice, I made sure to keep the hideously disfigured trunk the old chipped fadded, but stickered(!!) light blue.  Either way she's ready to rock and honestly so am I.  In the next few days I'll figure out a general itinerary and post that, but until then dreams of hitting the open road will be filling my head.   I've gotten maybe two more days left in Alfred and I plan to fill it with as much time spent with friends, family, and loved ones as possible.  Oh and did I mention I got cowboy boots (pic 3)??