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Summer Adventure 2018

When it is over 95 degrees it is proven to be cooler with gear on. Not mesh gear.

[HERE] is an article that defends your point.
It reads, in part, ...

In a sort of reverse wind chill, when the air temperature is higher than the skin temperature, you will see the opposite effect. As you travel at high speeds in high heat, the amount of heat entering the body through convection drastically increases. One might think that wearing more clothes in such heat would be a bad idea, but the opposite is true. The amount of heat that has to be lost through evaporation, or sweat, also must increase.
- Domingo Chang
 
Start date is July 14. Glympse will let folks track this ride with amazing accuracy.

The goal is to post at least one entry with pictures every day.

So today let's test glympse...
Try
Glympse.com/!strat3
That will be active for the next 12 hours.
Does it work?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Hmmm. Glympse doesn't like my time at this side of the Atlantic. I will keep trying anyway.....
 
Hmmm. Glympse doesn't like my time at this side of the Atlantic. I will keep trying anyway.....
I plan to run glympse at that same URL 12 hours daily from camp site to camp site. I hope you will see more then.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
Pictures Tent Modify

As promised, today's entry will be about the tent.

I started with a Coleman Sundome 2 tent [HERE].
I've always admired the tents that are suspended from the arcing poles with hook, so I found a 1/2" Grommet installation kit at the hardware store.
rivets.jpg
This installs the Grommet and cuts the hole at the same time. Very simple to use.
(Edit: it doesn't cut the hole at the same time. You cut the hole with the supplied part, then put the grommet assembly through the hole.)

As the Sun Dome tent comes with sleeves, you're ment to
  • lay the tent flat
  • thread the poles in the sleeves
  • attach pole ends to tent corners
This, by itself, is not difficult, but it's not as elegant as it could be. I used the Grommets to make holes in the tent sleeves so I didn't have to thread the poles in the sleeves at all.

carbiner.jpg

The first hook comes at the very center of the tent. I used cheap carabiner hooks from Amazon.
tent center up.jpg

  • lay tent flat
  • bend poles to connect to tent corners
  • lift tent center and hook it on to one of the poles (actually two carabiner here... one for each pole)

that done, the rest of the hooks connect to the arcing poles...NB: Sleeves NOT used.
tent no roof.jpg

Trying to bend the poles WHILE IN THE SLEEVES to connect them to the corners is NOT fun. Could be easier, and now it is... and it didn't cost a lot.

Finished tent looks like this:
tent done.jpg
 
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Super cool!! I've never seen that trick before using the gromets and mini-carabiners! That's a great trick with a lot of other applications too!! Thanks for sharing that one! :{)
 
The Luci Lantern

I'm off today to visit family, so today's entry will be about the lantern I like to use.

It's the "Luci" brand solar powered. I ride with it collapsed and under webbing on top of the top box.
It charges there all day while I ride to the next camp site.
luci.jpg
at $20 it's a dependable modern device. [HERE] on Amazon and [HERE] for the maker.
Watching the video on the Amazon page explains a lot.
It's one of the first things I look for when going camping... wouldn't go without it.
 
more gear: the chair

After just a few camping rides, I realized it would be nice to have a place to sit by the camp fire.
Sometimes, there are concrete pic nic tables, but these are rare at the "Free" camp sites.

I packed a cheap, heavy, canvas folding chair for a while, but it stuck out too much on the sides.... sooo

I went and did some reading on camping chairs and found [THIS]
Moon Lence Camping Chair $31 Amazon
chair.jpg
It is inexpensive at $31 compared to others I researched well above $100!
It disassembles down to a very small package that I hang from the front side of the top box.
(I'll have a photo of it on the top box when next at home.)
 
Good tip! I have a similar chair for a similar price. It works great and packs very small.
 
Today will be a desert training ride... just to see if the NC is up to the heat and miles.
You can follow on

Glympse - Default Viewer

Not sure how far I can go out and back but I need the practice.
Leaving as soon as I can get out the gate!
 
I agree with you on the troubles of finding campsites in the dark. In my youth I did that way too many times. We’d find a site of some sort, wake up in the morning, then have a look around in daylight to see where we actually were. I’m wiser now, setting up camp well before dark.

I’m impressed by your tolerance for heat, taking a trip like that in the summer. Ride on!

I still remember a camping trip from 50 years ago at Lake Isabella near Bakersfield where my dad and I pitched our tent in dark. we complained about how hard the ground was. got up the next morning to find we had set up our tent on the asphalt parking pad.... Doh!
>T
 
picture cup holder

Yesterday's outing into desert heat was a success. I spent a couple hundred miles touring around Palm Springs in the 106F heat. It's not exactly fun, but it was easier than I remembered.
More importantly, the NC behaved predictably. The heat caused it no trouble at all.

At that temp., I should have been in the full coat, not the mesh coat, but I couldn't bring myself to switch.

I did attach my home-made cup holder to the left bag strap fitting. I can remove/and replace the cup for a quick drink without looking. The cup comes from WalMart, and is double-hulled. The straw is made to it can't slip out.
Also: the folded up chair is at the top of the photo hanging on the front of the top box.
cupholder.jpg

Departure date is July 13 or 14...Time to start packing...throwing in the odd items that need to go in the saddle bags.
 
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sleep change

Departure is less than two weeks away, so I'm fine-tuning what to take along.

The INTEX Air Mattress from Walmart ($8) is hard to beat... except when it doesn't work.
I decided to research sleep mats, the self-inflating, built in pump variety, but these seem inadequate with us "side sleepers" (I found out I'm one of those) AND they cost around $80. Not a good solution.

One article mentioned a very small, portable cot, so I went on to read about those.
I found [THIS] that costs about the same as a good sleeping pad.
MARCHWAY Ultralight Folding Tent Camping Cot $80
marchwaycot1.jpg
Of all people, I'm reluctant to spend that kind of money on a sleeping device especially when the INTEX inflatable twin mattress costs $8 and may be found at any Walmart.

My calculus is always: I could buy 10 INTEX for 1 MARCHWAY. I figure I get about 3 to 4 uses from each INTEX before I need to buy another... soooo the MARCHWAY will have to work flawlessly (10 x 4) OR 40 times to pay for itself. That's one way to think of it.

Still, there is a certain level of misery that attends the INTEX when it deflates in the middle of the night leaving me to rest on the cold hard ground. I'm hoping the MARCHWAY will never do that.

As far as camping with it 40 times? I can hope that I live that long.
 
According to Intex, their air mattresses stretches and appears to loose air when they only are stretching. I have one, read that in their directions. Tried sleeping on it for a week; re-inflating every night but by the morning, almost flat. Thought I had a hole in it, I couldnt find a hole and bought another one (they are cheap) and the other one doing the same thing. Their directions state after 3 or 4 inflations, the stretching should be complete but nope....still does it after a week of inflating every night.
 
Their directions state after 3 or 4 inflations, the stretching should be complete but nope....still does it after a week of inflating every night.

That's what I find when I camp. On a good night, I'll top it off with the pump right before sleep and then get all the way to morning without any part of me resting on the ground or "bottoming out", as they say.

On a bad night all of me is resting on the earth well before morning. 3-4 good nights has been tops for one mattress, and at $8, that's acceptable.... unless I can find something that's consistently more durable.

Here's hoping.
 
Few things in this life more frustrating than that! btw Strat, that is a really cool collapsible cot! If i hadn't just recently bought a really nice cot/tent i'd have me one of them there cots you got! I like it a lot, super easy to set up and use. Now i've just got to figure out how to get it on the bike hahaha. :{)

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-One-Person-Cot-Tent/373471042
 
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