Two wheels to Adventure: Mexico or bust!

This post will be a departure from my usual nature-y topics.  In fact, it might even be taken as a bit of a gloat...if it wasn't an assignment from my husband, that is.  See, for the first time EVER, my partner of 14 years is planning a vacation for the two of us!  I know, incredible right?  I was just as astounded as you are right now when he proposed that we go on a vacation and that he would take care of everything...every...thing.  These words came out of the man who told me one Valentine's Day, just after we boarded a flight to Hawaii for a vacation in which I planned every detail (as usual), that his agreement to go on the trip was his Valentine's Day gift to me.  As if the tiny effort it took for him to wake up that morning, throw some underwear in a sack, and tell his boss he'd be back in a week was somehow a romantic gesture!  I was understandably irritated and wasn't at all sure at that moment that I wanted him on that trip anymore.  But that's another story.

My first foray into motorcycle riding with my husband. (10 years ago)

Who has two thumbs and just got her motorcycle license? (3 years ago)

This one is a happy story that involves me, my now thoughtful husband (not the buffoon I mentioned earlier), and a motorcycle.  It has been a desire of ours for a number of years to drive our motorcycles on a long road trip together.  We have imagined ourselves biking across the southern United States, or Europe, or maybe somewhere more exotic, like New Zealand.  We are both intrigued by the adventure of finding our way across beautiful new landscapes, meeting interesting people, eating tasty local food, and soaking in milder weather, and the other pleasures of self-guided travel.  Or, maybe that's what I like and Peter just wants to ride his motorcycle.  Yes, that's more like it.  See, my husband already takes an annual motorcycle trip in Alaska with guy friends to locations far off the beaten path and usually swarming with mosquitoes.  They call it the "Dead End Tour", for reasons I think you can figure out, but I've never gone with him.  Something about plagues of biting insects, hundreds of miles of gravel roads, the predictably poor weather of Alaska, and the barren sameness of their "Dead End" destinations just doesn't appeal to me. 

You can't tell, but I'm sure he's smiling behind that helmet. Now just picture me on the back.

Well, at last, Peter has decided that it's time for us to live OUR motorcycle dream (or at least one version of it).  His plan is for us to ride double on his Suzuki V-Strom 1000 (pictured above) from Phoenix, Arizona, into the northern parts of Mexico and then up the coast of California in two weeks.  My preference would have been to ride my own motorcycle on this trip (a Kawasaki Versys 650 pictured below), but the cost to get it back and forth from Alaska was too prohibitive.  Based on shipping, you'd think we lived in a foreign country or something!  Fortunately, my motorcycle man keeps a two-wheeled toy at his sister's house in Northern California and it just makes sense to share it.  I decided I can suck it up for a couple hundred miles a day and just stare at the back of his helmet if it means we have more money to spend on good food and hotels.  And let me just say here, that staying in hotels is my husband's idea, not mine.  Remember, he is the one doing the planning and I'm just going along for the ride.

Unfortunately, my bike will be sitting out this trip.

And this is where my assignment comes in.  My man wants me to document our travels, just like those adventurists we've envied via their films, books, youtube videos, and what-not.  So, this is the first installment (or episode, should I say) of our own motorcycle adventure.  A 'His and Hers' road trip featuring a married couple on a motorbike riding across deserts, borders, and beaches without much more of a plan than that.  As typical Alaskans going on vacation in the winter, our main goal is to be somewhere warmer than back home.  Everything after that is just icing on the cake.  So, you are now invited to join us in our experiences.  I will leave for Phoenix in just 17 days to await my husband's arrival and soak in a few extra rays of Vitamin D.  Then it's helmet hair and stiff motorcycle suits after that as we make our way to Mexico and beyond.

Planning the route for our trip-for-two.

My first adventure is trying to pack everything I'll need into a single pannier (that's the metal luggage thing that hangs on the side of the motorcycle).  My list is long and space is short, but I'm an expert packer so I'm not worried.  The biggest limitation will be the number of shoes I can take.

My list of must-haves.

My "suitcase".

Well, there you have it.  This is my prelude to a new adventure, which seems like it needs a name.  Married Motorbiking?  The Sunshine or Bust Tour?  Man with a Plan Motorcycle Adventure?  Those are all terrible ideas, I know, but maybe we'll think of something.  For now, look for updates from the road beginning February 1st.  Bon Voyage!