Well before I start this final list as part of THE LIST series I would like to mention the recent purchase of a brand new R 1200 GS Adventure, yes I did trade-in the 1150 GS, and I sold the Harley. So all I have now is the Goldwing and the GS.
My Final list is for you the traveler, things I believe that one should do before embarking on a long trip.
1-Get into shape; no round is not the shape I was thinking about. Riding for hours on end concentrating on the road takes a lot of effort, and sitting in front of the computer all day at a desk job doesn't increase your stamina. Depending on how often you exercise this may not be an issue, however for most of the riders that I have met this is required. If you really want to enjoy the trip and not feel tired all the time then a healthy exercise plan at least two weeks before the event is required.
2-Get insured; the worst thing to happen on a trip is to get sick and can't afford the medical treatment of another country, or survive an accident and not be able to get your self and the bike home. There are several types of insurance that one must have like health insurance, motorcycle insurance, travel insurance, I have even heard of an insurance to ship you and your bike home if any thing happened.
3-Go to the Dentist; you do not want to spend time getting over a root canal in another country because your tooth cracked due to the fact that your lat dental checkup was two year ago.
4-Learn the language and culture; when traveling to foreign countries I believe it makes things more enjoyable and easier when a few words of the language have been learnt and maybe a custom or two. I am not saying you need to be know every language of every country that you visit , I just mean the normal "Hello", "goodbye", "thank you", " please", and "where is the bathroom" kind of words that show that you are visiting the country for the people as well as the land.
This concludes my list series for traveling long distance, please expand on this as you see fit I am sure I missed some thing here or there, and know that there will come a time when you had wished you had packed that extra tool or part which would have made your trip easier. In fact it is at this time that you should stop and notice that if we wanted to travel with ease we could have stayed home and watched the travel channel.
