AAA Benefits for Trip Planning

After many years of persistent reminding from my Mother about AAA benefits I should be using, I broke down and stopped by a local AAA store in Fairfax, VA and I am sold. I walked in the door only to be stunned by the amount of staff they had sitting there waiting to help you plan and map any of your wildest travel ideas. This is all of course FREE with your membership with AAA. The receptionist sat me down with a travel planner and I launched into my plans for a cross country motorcycle trip where I would be camping all along the way. Jane (the AAA planner) whipped open a large map of the U.S. and said point to where you want to go and we'll get you all the information you need. As I pointed at each location Jane was logging it into her computer terminal planning my route. Once we had finished Jane said I should receive my TripTik in the mail within 8 days. A TripTik has turn-by-turn directions of my whole trip broken down by each stop I make and includes things to do along the way. It's really awesome. Also before I walked out the door Jane handed me 3 bags full of maps for each state, tourbooks of each state, and camping guides for each state. I will never doubt Mother's advice again hahaha.

Practice Run #1

With "Practice Run #1" under my belt I plan on giving my lessons learned from the trip. Over the weekend I rode from DC to South Carolina to visit my family and celebrate my Dad's 65th Birthday. One way trip was a total of 390 miles and almost exactly the same amount of mileage I plan on covering (400 miles) during a typical days ride cross-country. All in all I covered approximately 900 miles during this trip due to a couple detours, one being a tour of the Red Oak Brewery in North Carolina (well worth it).
Lesson's Learned:
1) I can only ride for 100 miles (or 1hr 30mins) before I need to get off and rest
2) Bring a dirty rag to wipe off bugs from your helmet visor
3) Wear REI Boxer's to avoid "bunching" in the crotch (haha:) and sweating
4) Be ready to talk to at least one person every time you stop ("So where you headed?")
5) Pack fewer items in my bag (UltraLight packing mantra...count ounces)
6) If it is even slightly chilly out double up your clothing for riding the highway
7) Wear earplugs to avoid longterm hearing damage from wind-noise
8) (IMPORTANT)Make sure your strapped duffle bag has been fully tested for staying on the bike at 70 MPH
9) Add little "side trips" to break up the endless highway miles
10) Pack a good pillow to use with your sleeping setup

I hope this list helps some of you with your planning and things learned from my experience. In the next posts I will list all the gear I packed (with pictures) in my duffle bag and how I plan to improve upon it. Also I will be covering more UltraLight (UL) motorcycle packing ideas to save weight on the trip.