Preparations

 In less than a week I'll be on my annual bike trip to the Smoky Mountains. While the amount of planning has gone down each year there is still a certain amount of preparation. You'd think the most important thing would be prepping the bike. Yes thats necessary but more important is to make sure I'm physically ready. No I haven't been working out. These days being physically ready means not tripping and breaking a leg or not cutting myself open during a chainsaw test run at work. It also means going down a different aisle in the grocery store if I hear some little snot nose brat has a cough or the sniffles. I try to avoid anyone that looks like a walking germ factory.
 Other preparations do include bike maintenance and yesterday I serviced the air cleaner. The KandN filter is washed and then reoiled. I run the rain sock most of the time and the old one was wearing out so I bought a new sock. Lots of loc-tite used here during reassembly. Theres 12 screws total holding this thing together and on the bike. Harleys vibrate like a dog shaking water off itself and I just envision parts hitting the hiway if I don't use thread locker on the bolts.

 Another little task I wanted to get done was to update the radio on the bike. I have no idea what little fixes this update includes but it was a big file that I downloaded on a thumb drive then uploaded to the stereo. I walked away while it was updating and the package "image installer" shown in the pic is the only update I noticed. I don't always listen to tunes when riding but might as well have the radio working right for when I do.

 Another pre-vacation preparation is deciding what to pack. Wadding up a bunch of nice Harley shirts in a saddlebag is kinda a drag. They always come out more wrinkled than an elephants nut sack. I have a favorite shirt and I guess its made of rayon. It seems to pack pretty good and doesn't wrinkle too bad till after you wash it. I don't do laundry on vacation so I'm set. My wife bought me four more.

 Those are some serious vacation shirts. Another packing task is selecting socks for the trip. I like socks. If my feet are jacked up I get grumpy. The trick is choosing socks that are comfortable but near the end of their useful life. Why? Because I ain't haulin stinky socks back and forth across the middle of the country. Once removed from the feet they will be tossed into a motel garbage can. I have enough smell issues without contaminating all my laundry with foot odor, and having my bike smell like a rendering truck on a hot summer day is not my idea of a vacation.

Later.