The Zen and the art of Motorcycle packing

The night before a long tour on a motorbike is always frantic: fitting all your rain gear (and God knows I will need it), your t-shirts; deciding what to ditch, keeping your finger crossed that you will not need it. In my case this is even more challenging, because I need to leave empty space for the local food/staples I plan on buying while on the road...I know, I am crazy. Especially because the saddle bags I have on the bike aren't big.

My bike and its tiny saddlebags - I will have an additional bag on the pillion seat, though.

As I had mentioned a few weeks ago, tomorrow I will leave for 4 days of an intense motorcycling and culinary tour of Lake Michigan. The list of the food I need to try is long (fish fry, frozen custard, pasties, Michigan's peaches) and the miles are aplenty (approximately 1000, i.e. 1600km).

I have slightly changed the route that I had indicated in my previous post: since I have already recently been in Door County, I will skip that. And although I will still reach Lake Superior for exploring the Pictured Rocks National Seashore, I will then go back directly to Lake Michigan. This will shorten by total trip of around 120 miles (200km). Even so, I will have to ride every day between 4-5 hours. Unfortunately the weather forecasts indicate that the rain will be my companion Friday and Saturday. Not fun.


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The rain puts an extra struggle on packing, because you have to factor in the risk (i.e. the 100% certitude) that you will be soaked wet by the end of the day, so you will need more clothes. As anyone who has ever traveled on a motorcycle knows, the real trick is to reduce to the minimum your pack. But there is a bare minimum below which I don't think one should go. For instance, I like to change my underwear at least once a day (I know, this could be TMI).

Anyway, the Tetris game has started.

Packing: rain gear (in the white , clothes, underwear, boots and gloves.

I will be reading emails and checking FB on my phone. So, if you want to drop me a line with a suggestion of a restaurant I should definitively try, write me to: m AT tuscanfoodie.com

I may post a couple of photos on the road, we will see. In the meantime, don't forget to "like" the new Facebook page of the Tuscan Foodie, where I will post some updates for sure.