My customer changed his mind. My trip for this year has been canceled. Yes, I'm disappointed!
"No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter
with the enemy's main strength" (or "no plan survives contact with the
enemy,") - Heimuth von Molitke
I don't plan for just this reason. I tend to think about thinks in terms of options and contingencies. Maybe I plan to have those things. Everything else seems to work out.
Based on Heimuth's quite, I need to ask myself what are the enemies main strengths, or for that matter, who is the enemy.
Well, Mother Nature can sometimes be the enemy. I recall a specific trip last year during Winter Storm Boreas where Mother Nature was in a hell of a mood; although, I wouldn't call her the enemy. She's more like a fickle friend. Sometimes, she's your best friend - warm days, sunny skies, light winds and sometimes, she I'd just like to tune up that attitude she brings. That said, in order to deal with my fickle friends special problems, I bring heated gear, rain gear, sunscreen, sunglasses and consult weather maps every step of the way. Now, in this case, I could be off the grid, so I may have to do some weather planning a couple days out and use a wet thumb to tell wind direction.
Mechanical failures. Now there's an enemy. There's nothing fickle about mechanical failures. They plain old suck. It just so happens that my warranty will expire in about 5,000 miles. I need to get that many miles in and then some as I don't want to leave with a freshly "fixed" bike. Ok, more riding. I can do that. There's barely anything on my bike that can be fixed outside of a hole in the tire. So, now my list of prep items reads like this:
Heated Gear
Rain Gear
Sunscreen
Sunglasses
Computer
Put 6,000 miles on the bike in the next 12 weeks and get warranty service at 5,000 miles.
Tire kit
BMW MOA Anonymous book
Money
My "Tire kit" also includes things like JB Weld, a few tools, including a T-25 that is needed to get anything off my bike anyway. Except to help another stranded biker, I don't think I've every pulled any of it out for self-rescue. Hopefully, there won't be a first. I also carry a first aid kit with me. I know. If I wreck, a Band-aid will be of little use to me; but, I have opened the first aid kit for other simple matters. The funny thing about the first aid kit is that I leave it in the bike when others need it...like at the car accident I stopped at in South Dakota. The first arriving PD will have a kit and they can get their stuff replaced. Moving on.
Lack of sleep. Here's another enemy that isn't bad until it's really bad...like when you're searching for a place at O-DARK-THIRTY and everything is booked for miles. This is also the biggest expense of the trip. To deal with this enemy, I will bring more money and I'll even check to see if I can use my Best Western points on a couple rooms along the way. I have a ton of points. I've never cashed them in. I think it's time to step up to the challenge. Just in case I can't find a room and on the odd chance that I might want to sleep under the stars somewhere, I'll bring my camping gear. The individual components of my camping gear have been well thought out and used many times. There's no need for me to go through that list - I can pick up the bag and go.
Stench. Really, this is only an enemy if I want to be considerate of other people. I know what I smell like when I've been forced to remain in the same clothes for days on end without a shower. I can live with it as long as it takes. There is a chance that I might want to go out and have dinner at a restaurant and not wear my riding gear (which I'll add to the list), so, I should bring a change of clothes, a pair of sneakers, a tooth brush, tooth paste and soap. Shave? Hell no. Blades are expensive. Shaving is totally unnecessary.
Now, we have a list going. I'm going on a trip to Alaska and I'm going to bring:
Heated Gear
Rain Gear
Sunscreen
Sunglasses
Computer
Put 6,000 miles on the bike in the next 12 weeks and get warranty service at 5,000 miles.
Tire kit
BMW MOA Anonymous book
Money
First Aid Kit
Best Western Points
Camping Gear
More Money
Change of clothes
Sneakers
Riding Gear
Tooth brush
Tooth Paste
Soap
The only other enemy I can think of is an empty fuel tank. For that, I will bring more money. I might do the Dalton Highway and I know that it has limited gas...414 miles. I won't make it in one tank. This sucks. Now, I might have to plan for an enemy that I haven't met yet. To safely put gas cans on my bike is going to take some engineering... My mind kind of works like this when it comes to this sort of thing.
Fortunately, I think there is a simple solution.
This will only be necessary if I decide to go up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. This is considered a rite of passage. I've been told, and I'm paraphrasing - "... it's the shittiest road on the planet. You can plan on dropping that gorgeous bike of yours and it would be a damn shame to see it get banged up. I recommend that you rent something for that trip."
More later...
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