This was a longish trip, 4,000 miles from Milwaukee WI to Amado AZ to visit the Overland Expo, put on by Overland Journal. The trip was used as a test trip for my upcoming plan to ride around the planet for a while, and the following was written for a general audience with that in mind.


The whole report is pretty long, and so I will be breaking it up into bits. And I will really, really try to get the whole thing up this weekend. It will also be slow on pics to start out with, but will get better I promise. I took almost 500 pictures on the trip.


I needed a test trip to try out the Ural (named Despair) before the BigTrip, and when listening to Sidestand Up I heard Carla King discussing the Overland Expo. It was the first weekend of April in Amado Az. The distance was about 2000 miles one way, and the weather was marginal for a two wheel trip (Weather in the Midwest in March can be just about anything you can imagine), but Despair, with the sidecar, there wasn't much to worry about.


I put in for two and a half weeks of vacation, and asked right away if it would be approved. The expo wasn't that far away, and I wanted to sign up for the Overland Experience package, which included camping and other things. Since that was $270, I wanted to make sure I would have the time off. My boss approved it with a casual wave of his hand, and I signed up the next day.


After signing up I had the option to pick classes. Experience attendees could register for classes in advance, and had more classes to choose from. In fact the array was intimidating, but reading the descriptions help narrow things down. The Overland Expo is for all overlanders, and many of the classes being offered seemed intended for four wheel travel. Skipping that section I focused on the motorcycle courses, and ignoring the advice to include down time during every day, signed up for everything that interested me.


Alas, or luckily, quite a few of the classes were already full, and so I ended up with most of Friday free, and blocks of time off on other days. Looking at the vendor list I thought I would be able to find things to do with the time.


With my time at the expo blocked off, it was time to figure out how to get there. I wanted to see mountains, and perhaps more importantly learn how Despair did in the mountains. Since I missed my chance to see the Badlands during the day twice now heading west out of Milwaukee, then south to Arizona seemed like it would work. On the ride back I thought it would be good to visit Moonshine, since Terry Hammond passed away last year. The Moonshine Lunch Run was slotted for the weekend after the Overland Expo, so it would a bit of a rush to cross to the country but I thought it would be achievable. A casual conversation brought up the issues of weather, and how it might still be a bit cold in March. I could ride in it, with the sidecar and heated gear, but looking at stuff would be tricky, and camping just about impossible, or at least uncomfortable. I decided to also look into a more southernly route.


While at work one day, one of my bosses asked if I would be able to work with him on opening day of baseball, which is an extremely busy day (working in EMS). I had found about a few days after I was given my vacation that opening day was the monday after the expo, so there was no way I would be able to get there. There is a long standing rule that vacation on days of “Anticipated High Call Volume” would be denied out of hand, and I started to hear through the work grapevine that several people had been denied their vacation for that day. I had tried to keep a long profile with my approved vacation, but now had to point out I wouldn't be working that day. There was a certain amount of drama, but it wasn't my mistake and I pointed about I had already put money down on the expo. I offered to cancel the vacation if work would refund the money (which I said was $300). They said no, and everything was still on.


I made an appointment to get vaccinations before I left for the Expo, a rather long phone conversation where the receptionist seemed confused by the number of countries I was planning to visit. “It's overland to Argentina,” I explained, “I have to go through all the countries between here and there.” While I had origionally planned for the visit Thursday morning she asked me to move it to Wednesday, concerned about how long I would tie up the doctor for I guess.


The last couple of weeks passed by, the date of the trip approaching. The bike got fresh oil and tires. I decided to pack more food and other supplies than usual. I had the space, after all. I did try to keep some sense to what I was packing, mainly adding more consumables. I remembered the HU video pointing out one advantage to sidecar travel was being able to stay away from civilization for longer periods. Three gallons of water, lots of food and different things to cook it in. I was probably able to last 3 or 4 days without resupply (except gas, of course).


My last day of work passed with quiet uneventfulness, which was just how I wanted it. My doctors appointment to get stabbed with needles. I was up just as early as any day I had to go to work, which I found extremely distrubing on the first day of vacation, and showed up at the clinic 15 minutes early. They had emailed me most of the paperwork I was going to need, and I showed up with forms already filled out. If the receptionist appreciated my preparedness she did a good job of hiding it. I was allowed in back right on time, and after a brief exam by a nurse the doctor came in.


She had an impressive stack of papers, which turned out to be descriptions of all the different shots, pills and other medical concerns regarding each country I had listed when I called to set up the appointment, which was just about every country in South America. It was more than a little daunting. We started to chat, and it turned out the only shot I really needed was Yellow Fever, since I already had Hep B, Hep A was only good for six months (and getting it now would mean it was expired by the time I would need it). I would have to take some typhoid pills (the pills are good for 5 years, the shot for only 3. But the pills are more touchy and taking them wrong is the same as doing nothing) before I left, and then bring some pills for malaria along with. I am not a fan of medication, but I am not a fan of malaria either so would have to deal.





The doctor also talked about a rabies vaccine, but talking it over with her it seemed a bit like a waste of money, since I would still have to get shots after any bite, and it wasn't guaranteed effective. At $500 for each of the three shots I would need I decided to pass. This meant I got out of the appointment with only one poke, for Yellow Fever. Both the doctor and nurse warned me I would be get general body aches and generally feel like crap later for the next day or two, which I hoped to skip. I was planning to leave at 1am the next morning.


I stopped for a late breakfast, went home and packed the bike for the trip. I was a little surprised at the amount of stuff I decided to bring with, and how the bike still seemed empty when it was loaded up. I was going to be wearing my cold weather stuff, so that would eventually go into the sidecar, and I have two different mattresses since I couldn't decided which one I liked better. I added some more food, then walked to a local pizza place for lunch, returned home and went to bed.


I never sleep well before a road trip. Its not nerves, I just want to be going, like a child on Christmas eve, knowing I have to sleep before Santa will show up but desperately wanting to go and start opening presents right now. I've learned some meditation techniques and some other tricks to force sleep to come, but it is always short, fitful, and at 11pm, an hour before my alarm went off, I gave up and started to get ready.


It was chilly out, 26 degrees according to my smart phone, no where near the temps that would stop me from riding, though I did decided to put on my heated socks. There had also been some snow to the southwest, it wasn't supposed to have accumulated, but it might be good to have the extra wheel.


I filled up the fuel tank and added some fuel to the gas can I carry. The process is simple, fill the tank then add gas to the can to reach a nice even number ($15 or $20). The can slowly fills up, then when full empty it into the main tank. Alternatively, if I have to cross an area with reduced availablty of gas, then just make sure both are full, and empty it as soon as I can. Gas in the can goes back faster, I think, and leaving it in there for any length of time seems to cause me problems later.


On the road, headed SW towards Rockford, IL, I noticed I wasn't really staying warm. The little lights on the controller for my heated suit were lit up, bright a cheery, but the cold was still creeping in. I had the heat turned all the way up, something I hadn't had to do during the worst of Wisconsin's winter, but now it just wasn't enough. I started stopping more often to warm up. I should have bared up and sorted out what was wrong, but it was still cold out, and I had allowed myself to get cold before stopping to find out what was wrong. I couldn't bring myself to start poking at wiring when my hands were already cold.


As I headed south and west, and the sun started to poke its head over the horizon, I warmed up some (as did the air around me) and I got out the volt meter to see what was going on. I still don't know know, but while 12v were going into the fuse block on the sidecar (Where the heated gear was wired), only 3v were coming out. I moved the wires directly to the battery, and was rewarded by a massive wave of heat when I plugged back in.


The plan had been to eat lunch in Kansas City, then sleep in the area of Wichita. I had spent a lot of time looking at the weather before I left, and had noticed the area of cold in the north more or less ended at the Kansas/Oklahoma border. Sleeping in Wichita meant I would probably be able to camp the next night in Oklahoma, where it was likely to be much warmer overnight. But the heated gear issues had slowed me down, and I was eatting dinner in Kansas City instead of lunch. Worse, I had wanted to go to Masterpiece Barbeque, but it had apparently closed (Poor internet research there, huh?) and was replaced with a Jack Stacks, which isn't bad but is a chain place and not really what I had been looking for. Arthur Bryant's is also in KC, and fantastic, but was on the other side of town and I didn't feel up to downtown at rush hour. So I caved and headed into Jack Stacks.






The food was good, the crowd was upscale downtown. The portion was disappointingly small, but I was full when I left so I guess I can't complain. I decided to take some pictures, and get Blue out of his bag for a couple shots. Then I was back on the bike, pointed for Wichita. I hadn't gone far, though, before hitting a sort of mental wall. It was about 7pm, and I had been riding since about 1230am. It hadn't been easy riding, either. I saw a sign for a historical Santa Fe Trail stagecoach stop, and decided it would be cool to see, found a motel, and called it a day.

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I write books about motorcycle travel. Small, cheap, motorcycle travel. Also superheroes.