Tony's Follies: Testing the Little Mule

It is the day of departure for my long awaited journey. The Ride of Americas officially begins today. I have spent much of the last year planning and working out the logistics of the trip. What to ride? When to go? How to take care of home stuff? How do I pay for it? How long will it last? What should I take? These were all major questions to be answered. For the most part all of these things have been sorted out in one way or another and nothing is holding me back now. I will be on the road very soon.
Now in the early morning of my departure I am restless. I can't sleep and my stomach is in knots. I am both excited and nervous. I am worried of what may go wrong and hoping that everything goes wrong at the same time. I am seeking adventure. Adventure is something we don't often truly experience. I have to put myself into places and circumstances where it is more likely to occur. It can not be planned. It can not be bought. Adventure comes as it will without intervention. Like hurricane Wilma a few years ago. These are the stories that are most worth telling. I want these adversities and want to tell the stories. These stories may one day make me an interesting old person. These stories fill my head now. I hope that in sharing these stories with you they will become more meaningful and memorable to me. This is why I write these blogs and I sincerely hope you enjoy them and I leave you wanting more.
So here we go.
Adventure 101
It all begins with a plan. Lyle helped me with a lot of the work on the bike. He thought it would be a good idea to give it a test ride and see if all systems are truly "GO" for throttle up. It would really suck to have a false start and have to return to base right away.
So I took a little ride down to Buena Vista Colorado. It is about 150 miles off the beaten path from Denver and it just so happens there was a dual sport rally happening there this weekend.
Of course the bike performed flawlessly and I had a great time testing the Little Mule. I purposely rode it hard on some very challenging dirt roads and trails. The gear was also under test for this trip. It also did everything it needed to and I even got about 30 min of heavy rain on the new suit.
Here is a little video I made of the trip to show you a little taste of what you might see during the Ride of Americas.