Monday, January 29, 2024

In Florida 1/5/17

 Rode a bit over 400 miles today and finished up at a Wal-Mart in the pan handle of Florida. May have to spend 2 nights here as a storm passes then it will be riding with highs in the 40s for a couple days before the warmth of Arizona. I have a week to get to Yuma so no need to ride in yuck-o weather.




Sunday, January 28, 2024

On the road again 1/4/17

 It was a cloudy but beautiful day for a ride today. Headed south to South Carolina. I-95 is always full of traffic and had stand still traffic to about 5mph twice today. Quite exhausting riding Blue that slow. Hopefully will get up and on the road early in the morning. Goal is Louisiana by end of day... Quite a long ride so we will see where I get.






Looking to be a wet ride 12/31/17

 Leaving Monday... hoping some of this rain passes.


1/2/17


I decided to wait one more day. Mother Nature isn't agreeing with me today. Lots of bad weather around with no way around it. Tomorrow it looks like I will start the day off with rain but be dry by the afternoon. Had to modify my route a bit but looks like 60+ degree temps for tomorrow... luckily a bit of a heat wave thru the southeast to let me pass before winter hits again.


1/3/17

Big storms this am... looks like it is finally clearing up. Can't wait to be on the road but waiting til tomorrow. Hopefully a nice, enjoyable, long ride tomorrow. I'm ready to ride!!!

Time 12/29/16

 One of the things I don't understand about society is the little emphasis given on time with the actual humans around you. Sure, it's the holidays and now is the time we spend with family and friends but how important is the time spent with people in your life? For me, there is one thing I can give and that is time. My time with my friend is coming to an end, as I am preparing to hit the road, I always get a little sad when I leave somewhere but I am more thankful of the time I got to spend with whoever I am with. It may not be much to give but time is all I have.




New Bern Civil War Park 12/27/16

 Had a nice stroll at the New Bern North Carolina Civil War Park today... thought this plaque was interesting




Off grid I go 12/26/16

 Santa brought me this very Awesome gift this year. It is an electric generator that will charge and run everything I have... I just ordered the solar panel that will charge it. I can't wait to put it to good use. Next Monday I'll be back to my life on the road heading west to spend the rest of the winter somewhere in the desert.



We tried this mini crockpot we found at the Salvation Army with my new electric generator.  Success! It took about 2 hours for it to be ready to eat. Pretty comparable to when we tried it out plugging it into the wall when we first got the crockpot. Quite excited!!

So far we have charged a smart phone 3 times, a kindle once and an iPad twice before the cheese dip and we are still around 50%. Solar panel should come tomorrow to see how long it takes to charge.



Testing out the 60W foldable solar panel I got to charge the electric generator. Getting the last few rays of the day. It should take somewhere around 5 hours to fully charge from a dead to almost dead generator. It's a charge the generator during the day and charge the electronics at night... but since it can charge everything for a few days an hour or so every day or two of charging should keep it nice and charged. I can also charge my phone and iPad with just the solar panel... at 60W the solar panel could charge the battery in TicTac also. Renewable energy all the way for this woman... now to work on turning Blue into an electric solar powered motorcycle.




Sprouts 12/23/16

 Getting some sprouts in the garden... very excited!




What to eat 12/18/16

 Starting to think about what kind of food I want to bring with me. Lucky for me my friend has a dehydrator so we are going to dehydrate a few things and make some meals all I will have to do is add water. This will help a ton with saving money on food and eating better... getting closer to be back on the road. Getting excited about what's to come!


We got out the dehydrator preparing food for my travels. This morning my friend made up some Strawberry Leather we are dehydrating as I type. She puréed frozen strawberries, a bit of honey and a little lemon juice.  Spread it on the plate that goes in the dehydrator and by tonight it should be done. The house smells like strawberries. YUM!!


This is a 5 Pound Bag of Frozen vegetables dehydrated. To rehydrate it is 1 to 2 ratio. 1 vegetable to 2 water. Let it soak for around 15 minutes.




I found this thermal Bento Box that comes with 4 bowels. 2 stay hot or cold for up to 6 hours and 2 are room temperature. I wanted to see if I put boiling water and what I wanted to eat inside the hot bowels if it would hydrate and cook the food. I am looking for something I could prepare quick and easy in the morning and eat for lunch. I tested out the dehydrated mixed vegetables we did the other day and the dried ravioli we found at Big Lots. It worked perfectly! I just left it alone but did check on it after 2 hours and it was ready to eat but I left it for 5 hours and it was hot and ready to eat. All I have to do is boil water in the morning and forget about it... my kind of meal.



We pretty much finished up the food I will be taking with me... at least 6 weeks of food in 2 reusable shopping bags. Can't beat that! Dried fruits and veggies, grains and lentils are a lot of it. We separated them into serving sizes so all I have to do is boil water, put the food and boiling water in the Bento Box and there is a meal. Also snacks of fruit leather, sweet potato chips, carrot chips, and apple chips. Will be a great start to my winter in the desert. Can't wait!!


Start f traveling garden 12/15/16

 We planted in 2 of the 5 gallon grow bags today. We are going to see what happens. I have 3 more grow bags I can use to either spread out what grows or I may grow peppers and grape tomatoes.  We will see.

We used a combination of soils to keep the weight low, hopefully help keep in some of the water and also to help the seeds grow.




Traveling Garden 12/11/16

 I have been working very part time the last couple weeks packing and shipping items for Bootstrap Farmer. They sell items to help you set up a greenhouse in your back yard. They gave me a few grow bags to try out and I decided I am going to start a small grow bag garden to take with me on the road. 

A few considerations:

Weight is always a consideration. 

1) because I don't want to be lifting heavy bags in and out of TicTac every day.

2) weight in the trailer is always something to consider. I want the trailer light for an easier pull and less strain on the bike.

Weight will be a contributing factor to what type of soil I use.

Since the garden will be small I want to grow food that is high in nutrients and hardy because the weather and conditions will always be changing.

I also have to think about water... where will the water come from and how I can keep the plants watered without using too much of a resource Yoska and I also need. The plants will also be traveling on my bed and then taken out when we stop. I sure don't want to sleep on a wet bed every night so this is also something to consider... when to water and how to transport.

I am going to start from seed this week while I am at my friend's house to get them growing in a stable environment.  They will have a couple weeks to get their roots. 

Pictures to come after the plants are planted. I will also give detail on what I decided to plant, soil used and how I decided to transport.

I have a black thumb so should be interesting.