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Re: [ST] Planning Motorcycle Tour - What do I bring?



And speaking of keys...  Always, ALWAYS, put an item in the same spot and
don't be a litter bug.  On multi-week trips I'll typically have the three
bags and the tank bag.  I always put items in the same place so I don't have
to look in this bag and then that to find what I want.  Well, almost always.
This is important.  

Last summer I was doing the Four Corners ride starting in Maine, then Key
West, and an Iron Butt Association 50CC Quest on my way to San Diego.  I
always kept my spare key in my left pant pocket as I was using two different
jackets on the trip, one with a liner for the colder temps and a perf jacket
for the hot days.  At my last gas stop before San Diego I for some reason
took out the key and put it in one of the jacket pockets, but didn't
remember this.  After long days on the bike you can sometimes do things you
don't remember.  The next morning while leaving my hosts' house in San Diego
I couldn't find my spare keys.  I was sure I had left them on the counter at
the gas station.  Fortunately since I was doing an Iron Butt ride I had the
gas stations number on the gas receipt, however, they said there were no
keys there.  So I continued on to the Grand Canyon.  I got to the hotel at
about midnight and really needed to use the facilities.  I thought I'd take
in the trunk, check in, and relieve the pressure.  In my haste to remove the
trunk I broke the key off in the lock.  All of a sudden going to the
bathroom wasn't my biggest problem.  So I go check in and relieve one
pressure before the I kill myself over the other pressure I created.  Back
out at the bike my first challenge is to remove the broken key which was
luckily easy as enough was sticking out of the lock.  Not being a litter bug
and wanting to keep this bit so as to remind me not to loose my spare keys
6000 miles from home I put it in a jacket pocket.  To my great surprise and
relief what did I find, my spare keys!  Why didn't I find them that morning?
Because that jacket was in the trunk.  As mentioned, the moral of this story
is to be consistent in everything you do on a ride and keep nature natural
and don't litter.   

Doug Bailey "Hound Dawg"



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