Today We Leave for the Top of Alaska – [Alaska E5] Moto Travel Diaries

So today is our launch day, our relaunch day - Maiden Voyage Part Deux. We still don't exactly know where we're going to go today, but that's how it is every day. But we couldn't be more excited. Yup, it's pretty early in the morning. I think it's going to be a hot one today. Weather forecast is pretty hot and humid, but that's the Midwest in the summertime. We could not be more excited. It's kickoff day! Hey everyone! Welcome back to Notiers Frontiers Diaries. So it is the second day of our gra

nd summer voyage to Alaska! Yesterday was a phenomenal day. It has been stressful getting ready and prepared. Of course, just like with every trip, there's always some hiccups at first. But... It went fairly smooth. It went fairly smooth, but I think it is still stressful, I think that's fair to say. How you doing today on our little launch day, love? Well, I'm a little tired just because it's been somewhat stressful getting everything ready these past few days. And I've been so excited, it's be

en kind of hard to sleep. But besides that, I'm doing awesome. I know that once we get on the road, and once I can see the road just stretch out for miles in front of me, we get out of Chicago, we get out of the city traffic, and it's just the countryside and I can see the horizons, I know I'm going to feel so much better. Our departure once again was not like a grand farewell amongst friends and family. But our friends and family did say goodbye all in their own time. And we were super busy the

re at the end. I had no time. Right. So Tim, how has getting the bike prepared been going for you? I'm glad I have smarter friends than I do, thank you Andy with Heavy Enduro. ABS is on this side, so that means the tire's going up this way. So I'm going to put in my PDM, that will run up to my auxiliary here. And then I got a fuel pump error because the gas tank was off, but I freaked out and I took everything off. I did put on my Barkbusters, which are good. And I made it so the clearance... Yo

u can see where the exhaust had been digging in. So I might want to take that off, bang it out. But I think what I've physically touched and have done, which sadly has to do with some of the electronic stuff, I don't think I'm going to fry my CPU, and have the bike turn into a burning fall of flames. Burning flaw of flame... Burning ball of flames. Burning... yes. Today is our our first day on the road, and it will also be our first major test ride, because all the other test rides we've done ha

ven't been more than just a couple hours. And there's only been two or three of them, so nothing like figuring it out on the fly. That's what we do best. That's what we do best. I mean, it was very similar to the first time that we set off on a grand voyage, because we had to quit our jobs, we had to get rid of a lot of stuff, basically kind of get rid of all the things that we weren't using and condense all of our belongings into one place for storage. Which isn't a lot. It's not a lot of stuff

, no, but it is something. And it's something you have to think about when you have no place to call home, and you're completely nomadic. What do you do with all of that all? All right. We are pretty much ready. You can see that this room is all cleared out. So we did have to figure that out, and it all kind of came together at the end. You were working on the motorcycle quite a bit, and you got new tires on it, you got new suspension, the big monoshock, because that was our biggest concern with

our motorcycle last time. Well, and I'll say this, and every time you bring up that I did stuff, but a big shout out with Andy with Heavy Enduro, big shout out to Carl's for the suspension, because that was not me. So I did the electronics. You did. Yeah, I put on the Ruby lights, which are awesome. Things tied together at the last minute there. And we took off a day after we had originally proposed. Yeah, we were a little bit late. But that's okay, you know, all in due time. You have to be fle

xible with these things. And we headed off from Chicago in a general southwest direction to go towards Flagstaff, Arizona was our eventual destination for Overland Expo West. And I will say that southern Illinois gets very beautiful, but our little cut across the state, and it's my home state, but things got a lot nicer once we crossed the Mississippi into Missouri. Yes. So part of the problem was getting out of Chicago, that's always a problem. A lot of highways involved. And then the other pro

blem is that we stuck to the highway in order to cover some ground throughout Illinois. If you get off of the main highways, the interstates, and you get onto the back roads of Illinois, it can be really, really beautiful. But we were just highwaying it the whole way to the Mississippi. But once we got to the Mississippi River, we crossed it, which was a big achievement for us anyway. The last time we tried to cross the Mississippi, we got stuck about halfway across. Yeah. It was pretty disastro

us. The motorcycle stopped working, we had to be towed all the way to Colorado, it was... It was a disaster. But this is a different motorcycle. Yes, and so far it's been really good. The little gas gauge is broken. On the dash, the gas gauge, it'll get stuck on full, but that's not the biggest deal. Remember, this is a new bike for us, but not a new motorcycle. This is a used bike, so even though it had very few miles on it, only 1,500 miles on it, there's been a couple quirks. Besides the gas

thing, we were able to cross the Mississippi without any problems whatsoever. The bike has been wonderful, it's been running really smooth, the suspension feels really, really good. It sure does. And even though it was 95 degrees out, in fact at some point in time, the temperature gauge said 98, 99 degrees, and super humid. But we got to our first campsite on this trip so far, and it was called Cuivre River. Cui-vre? I don't know French, but Cuivre River Campground, and it was lovely. So we made

it to... what is the state park name? Cuivre. Cleave? Cui-vre! So, cleavage. Cui-vre! I don't know what it means. It's the name of the river. It's like Starved Rock almost. Yeah. Oh, it's so windy. So we just pulled up to our first campsite. Made it from Chicago down to... wherever we are. In Missouri. In Missouri. I think we're close to Hannibal, Missouri, close to the Mississippi River. There's a lake down there. We're at a nice little spot, super sunny. It's a hot day though. It is a very ho

t day, so we're going to go set up the tent, and then we're going to jump in that lake. I can't go that low. No? They had a little beach there, and we were so hot! So the beach doesn't look that beautiful. Yeah, up close it's not as romantic as one would assume from afar. Is it warm? It's okay-ish warm. Oh yeah, I think it's fine. But then it gets murky, and then we can't tell if there's gators. Oh my God! We were a little not so eager to jump into the water just because it, I think with all the

spring rains, it had gotten really murky, and muddy, and filled with things, and leaves. And I am afraid of not leaves, but things. Things in the water. There's a lot of things in the water. You can't see down, it's definitely like murky Missouri pond. I think this is not the cleanest, most refreshing. It's just like putting air on my face. Hot air. It's like the same thing. Oh yeah, it's the same temperature as the outside air, which means it's 98 degrees. And I don't know how far south you go

t to go where gators start popping up randomly. It feels like it should be now, but I know it's not. But there's definitely water snakes out there. Some of them can be quite poisonous, I remember that from living in Arkansas. Missouri and Arkansas are neighbors, so I would think that sometimes in that murky pond water, you do have to be a little careful. But we decided we're so hot, we're going swimming anyway. This is yup... where the cottonmouths live. What? What, what? Leaves. Leaves? Oh God.

Who knows if they're of three... Ew! Yeah, this is where it gets gross. Yeah, good? And there were geese with little baby geeselings... Oh so cute! Yeah, and there's these two ducks that introduced themselves. Right, they came right up to us. They were awesome. I named them. What's your name? What's going on there? So I think we're on a first name basis, and so they're like, "Yeah, we can go talk to Tim and Marisa." And it was nice. It was nice. It was super refreshing. And then Paul and Stanle

y, the ducks... Paul and Stanley came by. They came right up to us, I don't know why they were so... Because we're cool humans. They're cool ducks. That's just how the world works. It was so nice camping there. We arrived quite late in the evening, and so by the time we were making dinner on our stove, it was already dark out. But it was such a perfect night, we left the tent without the rain fly so that we could look up at the stars. Marisa always wants the rain fly on. We'll be in the desert a

nd she'll be like, "No. No. Rain fly." Not always. But like 99.9 percent of the time. But it was so hot, I was like, "No, we have to sleep without the rainfly. There's not a cloud in the sky." Spent the first night in the new tent. Marisa's still sleeping. So hopefully tonight we're also going to sleep without the rain fly. There are clouds in the sky this time. We'll have it be on hand. Yeah, we'll have it close by for emergencies. But we're going to try it again, because it cooled off once the

sun set, and it was just a really, really pleasant night. I woke up to the sound of a woodpecker. You woke up an hour after I woke up to the sound of that same woodpecker. He was making the rounds. And I was just so excited for this day to come, and all the days of just getting on the motorcycle, and having nothing to worry about but finding accommodation, water, and food, and the road ahead of us. Who woke up? Me, finally. And it's been a while, my butt is... Yep, my butt hurts. It was like a

five hour day, six hours when you add in when we stop and stuff. Today's ride was through Mark Twain National Forest. Oh, gorgeous! Missouri is beautiful! Especially at this time of year, all the trees are flowering, and as you ride by, you can smell it. It's that smell of pollen, like sweet, sweet honey. And there's so many beautiful lakes and ponds just tucked in between the rolling hills. Horse farms, and then dairy farms, I love passing all the farmland. We see horses now... Everybody used t

o have horses and only the rich people had cars, and now everybody has cars, and only the rich people have horses. That is so true! Conundrum! We're going to the first campsite that we ever went to on our original trip more than four years ago. Actually, five years ago now, in 2017. And how we came upon this campsite was we originally wanted to camp at the first campsite that we had when we were going through the Americas four years ago, five years ago now. It was the first campsite just heading

straight west from Carbondale, Illinois. But this time we started from Chicago, and so we had one pit stop over last night. And it looks like it's next to a lake as well. Really? Which I don't recall. All I remember is that it was kind of like in the middle of nowhere, it felt. But this is definitely where we stayed. Yeah. I think it's even, it's one of these two. But, I think it was this one. It's definitely this one. Ahhh, here it is! And when we got there it was... I don't remember getting t

here, but I remember the campsite. And once I saw the campsite, I was like, "The tent was there. The bike was there." Well, you want to check out the campground? Ummm... I like this. All right. I just wanted to see if we could swim real quick. Yeah. Then I saw on Google Maps when I zoomed out, there's a little lake down here. Yeah. I said, "Well, let's go check out the lake before we set up the camp. Maybe we'll swim." Yeah, we were so early we were like, "Well, swimming was very refreshing yest

erday. It's pretty hot again, so let's go swim in the lake." We got down here, and it was gorgeous. So where we originally had camped four years ago, five years ago, was right up this mountainside, if you will. And we used freecampsites.net to find it. But I did notice, which I don't remember having noticed last time, was a lake was right by. And so I said, "Well, let's go check that out." And look at this view! Look at this! I'm going to camp here. I mean we came here, and we were like, "All ri

ght!" Look, there's a butterfly flying around! There's the sound of birds and water. So yeah, we like reliving memories just as much as the next person, but also creating new ones. Don't know if I'll go swimming in here, because I'm scared of things. Yeah, it looks a little... It looks like that's cottonmouth ville. Dragonflies mating! Oh wow. Now, not necessarily swimmable, because it is still pretty full of logs, and mud, and grit, and whatnot. There's not a proper swimming area here. Yeah. We

're proper swimming area people. Yeah I mean, it is swimmable technically. It's definitely, it's water. Someone could swim in it. Somebody has, somebody will... But it's not us. So we're going to set up camp right now, and then relax. Yes. You Tim, had a spider in the ear hole of your helmet. And you put it on, or you were about to put it on, you just looked in the ear hole, and there was a spider right there. Can you imagine! Oh! It's like my worst nightmare. And then in Botswana, I had a whole

termite colony start making a termite mound within my helmet. So I always cover my helmet with a bag. I've had scorpions in them, I've had spiders in them, I had a spider in my boots this morning, even with the bag. I mean, it just happens sometimes. But we had a friend that had a snake in his boots. So I always dump it before, and shake it, and really kind of pound the boot out before I put it on in the morning. Because yeah, I'm not putting my foot in there and finding a scorpion or a snake.

There's no way. Beautiful lake. Someone's swimming. Yeah, they're jumping off the thing. Oh my gosh. We're camped way over there. Oh yeah. You can almost see the tent. You can see the bike. Lame. I'm trying to build up my iron butt again. Yeah. There'll be people out there like, "A five-hour day!" But it hurt. I mean we'd been in Chicago working, not riding the motorcycle, for so many months. So this was, we'd had a couple test rides on the motorcycle before, but this was the first time that we'

d actually gone a distance and really rode it for a long time. So yeah, my butt hurts. My thighs and knees kind of hurt a little bit. Everything else is good. You had one small problem on the ride over here. It's user error, I'm an idiot. Is there anything right there? I like having my visor open on my helmet as I ride, just because, I do. And these new Klim helmets we have are Transitions. They're so cool. They're really awesome. But I still like just the extra burst of fresh air. And I have my

sunglasses on as I'm doing it, so I'm not just playing Russian roulette with my eyes versus nature. But a bee went through the visor and got stuck, and then just started stinging... multiple times! And I'm freaking out, and I had to pull over. "Marisa hold my glove. And I'll get off real quick." I'm like, "Ahhh!" I totally got stung. She's like, "I don't see anything." And then I looked, and I have one megapore. Like, "No, that's where it stung me." My pore doesn't like... I don't see anything.

You can totally see where it got me. It took just a couple minutes, and it started swelling up. But it went down. You kind of see it, it's red right there. Yeah, and it hurt in the moment. But I'm gonna live, folks. This isn't going to stop me. But are you going to ride with your visor down now? I'm going to ride with my visor down, except for the last little bit, I'm not going to lock it. I'm going to just leave it open. But I did take off my bottom chin strap thing that is on the bottom of th

e modular part, because then a lot of air does get in. Oh, the bottom chin thing to get more air flow in. Yeah. That's a good idea. And if anything gets in, then I'll revise my plan again. Klim thought about everything, and put everything in its place. And I'm just starting to, I'm like, "Yeah, no! Who needs this?" Oh, a bee stung me, I'm going to put on the non-bee stinger device. That's why. Close your helmets guys, this is simple stuff. If I worked at Klim, I'd be so disappointed. Like, "What

an idiot." It's been three continents... With the visor open. You've never closed your visor. You get stung all along the way. So tomorrow's journey... We're going to OKC. We're going to Oklahoma City to see the Dragoos again. From there we are heading across Texas and New Mexico, towards Arizona. So out of the humid forests and towards the desert, that's where we're headed. So yeah, stay tuned, we'll see what happens tomorrow. Hopefully no more bees. No, my visor's down. So I hope you like thi

s video. If you did, please give us a big thumbs up, and hit the subscribe button below. And we'll be seeing you next time. Stay safe everybody. Bye! Peace. I think yesterday as we were going through Illinois, it was uh... what's it called? It was... Boring.