This is not my first motorcycle trip – not even my first on this bike. And this isn’t the first time I’ve gone camping with this motorcycle. This, however, will be the first time I’m going camping on my motorcycle for consecutive days. And that consecutive-day thing? I haven’t camped for consecutive days since I was in Boy Scouts – for those of you keeping score, that was a long time ago. A long time ago.

But, like riding a bicycle, there are a lot of things I haven’t forgotten. Boy Scouts served me very well in that regard. I didn’t appreciate it enough at the time, but while the motto is “Be Prepared,” what didn’t sink in until decades later was it wasn’t “be prepared for what’s at hand.” No, it’s “be prepared for life.” I appreciate that now.

Funds are tight these days, as I’ve described previously, so I designed this trip to be as thrifty as possible – only one of the planned campgrounds costs anything (and then it’s only $15). I’ve got all my food on the bike. And I’m leaving this morning and coming back late Friday because I have vacation time to spend from my Dayjob, but if I miss a weekend bartending gig, there’s no vacation pay.

The trip hinges on a trip over Sherman Pass Road – if that sounds familiar, it could be because it’s number 20 on my bucket list. And there’s a number of other bucket list items I’m aiming to cross off the list in the next five days. We’ll see…

I add that caveat because this is a big open-ended adventure. Not one of the campgrounds I’m heading for allow reservations, so we’ll see if I end up in, say, my planned Leavis Flat campground tonight or I have to scramble to find somewhere else. Tomorrow night I’m planning to be in (or, rather, above) Death Valley, so I’m thinking there may not be a lot of call for camping in the desert at the end of June. But I don’t know for sure! I’ve mentally built in contingencies and my mind set is flexible.

I’m hoping to post updates from the road, but I’m not counting on it. Without question I’m going to take a lot of pictures and publish a proper trip report once I get back. Until then, here’s to an amazing adventure!

Have bike, will travel.