Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally report: PART 1

Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally report: PART 1
As I mention before, I took off Friday to head to Panama Beach Florida, I got up early, got the wife and kids of to work and school (the way it should be, while I stayed home) then I started to pack…yea I know I should have packed the night before but I did not, I did wash my bike the day before. I was packed and ready to go sometime around 9:00am but the day before while washing the bike I noticed the bikes windshield could be raised a couple more inches by just removing 4 bolts (sounds easy…right) well to my surprise the bolts came right out and I moved the windshield right up, I put two bolts back in to hold it into place (this took about 5 minutes) then came the last two bolts!!!!!! You guessed it they were not going back in……time to call out the big guns…..DAD!!!!!!!!! Sometime it pays to have your parents living in your back yard…Ha-ha. Well pop came out and we pushed and pulled on the windshield until we managed to get the bolts back in to place….it only took one HOUR!!!!
It was an hour well spent, no more love bugs crashing into my forehead at 70 mph, so I pulled out of the drive way at 10:06am. I little about what I packed, one saddle bag carried my rain suit and rain gear with room to tuck my canon digital camera in between, the other saddle bag carried my every day stuff…baseball cap, a gallon zip lock bag full of chargers, iPod, maps, and my diabetic kit with room to spare in case I bought something I needed to bring home. I put my pants and shirts in a Adidas gym bag and decided not to carry my regular tent (this proved to be a big mistake) and carry my hammock tent instead, I also brought my 20 degree sleeping bag, I hear it was getting into the mid fifties at night. I used two motorcycle hold down straps to strap it to the passenger back rest, this worked great the bags ended up making a very nice back rest for me while on the road.


Just a photo of my sleeping bag, hammock tent
and my zip lock bag full of stuff before I loaded
it onto my bike