Loaded up and out the door

This morning dawned bright and crisp – there was a light coating of frost to remind us that we were destined for a cold ride today. We had called it quits last night after installing the upgraded suspension components (that had only arrived earlier yesterday) and packing our panniers. This morning we repacked our panniers, trying to trim our load down a little. We settled on 63 lbs (me) and 54 lbs (Angela), plus a 30 lbs dry bag with our tent, tarp and a chair

We left the house an hour later than our arbitrarily-determined departure time and began with a quick loop through the neighbourhood. After all, we hadn’t tested the new suspension or the new luggage system on the Honda, and neither of us had ridden fully loaded in almost a year, so a loop around the neighbourhood should be sufficient, right?

Avoiding the interstates, we made it out of Norfolk and fought the strong winds as we headed south for the day’s destination – Holly Ridge, NC. We will swap bikes daily so each of us can take turns riding the Honda to evaluate whether this bike will work better than our current first choice (Yamaha’s Tenere 700).

The day was uneventful, and we arrived at our pre-arranged camp site, set up camp and struggled to settle in for a long winter’s nap. After all, it is forecast to dip to 36°F before morning!