Here I am leaving on the first leg of what was originally planned to be a 14 day 3400 mile loop around 11 western states. Well plans change and since I'm writing this a few weeks after my return I'll tell you right now it ended up to be a 19 day 4800 mile loop around 10 western states. Never did make it to New Mexico. My first days leg was approximately 400 miles and here is the route. No neat motorcycle or scenic roads... just getting into position to make it to Glacier NP the following day.
My first days ride was from my home in Portland OR to Newport WA. This was possibly the most emotional phase of my journey. It felt like breaking away from the gravitational pull of the earth. Leaving behind my family, my home, my job, and all the responsibilities that always kept me in one place. I had never done anything like this in my life. The emotional pull of all that I was leaving behind really surprised me and not until the next day would I begin to feel the excitement of the adventure I was embarking on.
I am not a big time camper and I was wondering how I would adapt to this motorcycle lite version of camping. Actually it didn't take very long to grow on me. I liked that I could set up camp in about 30 to 40 minutes. And pack it all back up in an hour or less. One problem I had was with my sleeping bag. The inside has this material that tends to stick to your clothing and skin and I found having to fully wake up to just change sleeping positions. After about 3 rough nights I discovered that if I turned the sleeping bag inside out so the the slippery nylon outer shell was on the inside I slept just fine. By the time I got to Utah my self inflating air mattress developed a leak to so I stopped at REI to get a repair kit and a few other necessities.
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