Robin: Hey everybody, I'm Robin Dean. I'm Travis Burleson. And this is the Writing Obsession podcast.

Travis: Live, sort of.

Robin: We are live at Doc's on the Fox in Waterford, Wisconsin. We tried to do this a week ago but somebody forgot to hit the record button.

Travis: Yeah, somebody forgot to hit it.

Robin: That would be me. It was me. I'm the person I'm referring to is me. At any rate, we are planning a long trip. Travis is taking some time off here and our intention is to spend three days getting to the GS Resources Dave Davis Memorial Rally in Farmington, Missouri. We've got three days to get there. We're going to make it interesting. We have three days to return from it. We're going to make that interesting as well. And I've already gotten started here. I have a route that intends to make the transit between Chicagoland to Columbus, Ohio less lame. I originally called this map Indiana un-suck because it's just, I mean, getting through northern Indiana is terrible. Love you, southern Indiana. And northern Indiana, you gotta, that's some of the most boring motorcycling there ever was.

Travis: Anyhow, as you can see, it's, you know, if I zoom in, all flat farm country, so basically skirting farms and making right angle turns.

Robin: So we zoom in here, you can see that we basically are just going in rectangular paths. Wherever I can find a twist, I take it, but we're just staying in farmland. This is all that is farmland, avoiding any major traffic and following that in a zigzag pattern with constant B-lines and yawns from one grain cellar to the other until we reach Columbus, Ohio. Boom. Marker, zoom out. All right, so there we go. It puts us in North Columbus, which is basically where my sister lives. I think we'll have a place to stay there. You know, big shout out to everybody that we're going to be visiting. I know we're going to Columbus, Ohio, possibly Mitchell, Indiana area. Actually, what is that? Something with a B, but we'll figure that out in a moment. So here we are with our boring route that has gotten us through the suck that is Indiana into Columbus, and now it's time to move on to our next destination. What is our next destination? What are you doing? What are you doing?

Travis: I'm looking at where, the town you forgot in Indiana.

Robin: Indianapolis?

Travis: No, wherever we're going.

Robin: We're going straight to Columbus. Oh, okay. All the way. It's about 400 and some odd miles, but it's so boring.

Travis: I mean, yeah, we'll be going, you know, we're going 55 the whole way.

Robin: Oh, totally. Always the speed limit because speed limit motorcycle. Yes.

Travis: Well, we were, I think, planning on going over to Zanesville.

Robin: Right, so don't click that yet. Here's what you do. We're looking to pick up the Triple Nickel. They call it the Triple Nickel because it's highway 555. 555, and that starts basically in Zanesville, Ohio. So we'll go from Columbus to Zanesville, and for any of you who are still getting to know RideWithGPS.com, this follow road stuff is usually what turns people off of it because it can get a little bit hairy in how it behaves. The secret is to tap your next destination into Zanesville, Ohio. Boom. Do you want to route to this point? Yes, I do, and now we're in Zanesville. If I zoom in, we find highway 555 there, the Triple Nickel. You got to follow roads until you need to adjust to the route. What's our next destination?

Travis: I think the end of the Nickel, which...

Robin: Remember the name of Coolville?

Travis: Yeah, I think Coolville. Let's zoom in and see what the, that's right, where I think it ends right near Parkersburg there, but it's before Coolville. The Triple Nickel connects up just east of Coolville, closer to Parkersburg with the West Virginia border.

Robin: All right, and that's basically our grand finale for that particular leg. So we'll end it in Coolville. Now watch what's going to happen here. I hit, you know, Coolville.

Travis: It always ends in Coolville, Robin, because you and I are there.

Robin: That's right. You want to route to this point? Yes, I do, and it's going to take what route? Let's see. Let's see. This is where people tend to have a beef. They end up trying to grab the line using the follow roads mechanism, and that doesn't always work. So add or remove control points allows you to click on the line without altering it and then drag it where you want it. In this case, we want 555. Keep on scrolling up and make sure that, you know, be insistent on the Triple Nickel. There's 555 again, and that's, that's it. I pretty much nailed it.

Travis: Yeah, that's where I want to go. Yeah, I think it merges with 669 for a couple miles there, but...

Robin: For a hot minute. All right, so we're looking good there. Now we're in Coolville. Now this is where things got a little bit interesting. There's a, there's a lot of ways we could go to end up in the next destination, which is what? Let's see. It was, uh...

Travis: It was like Cincinnati-ish. I think... But then we decided that that wasn't far enough, or that was too far.

Robin: Yeah, the road, also the roads aren't all that, I mean, there's some good riding there, but if we go far, we, it wasn't far enough. I think we want to go to, like, Mitchell, Indiana area. So... Excuse me.

Travis: Because we wanted to do Brown County the next day.

Robin: Yes. Brown County is what's going to lead us to Farmington, Missouri. Here's Paoli. Here's French Lick. We're in the area right now. There's a very particular town there, Bedford. We want Bedford.

Travis: Oh, Bedford, yeah.

Robin: Yeah, so...

Travis: So I think we were maybe going to follow 50 there. Yes. Maybe some diversions.

Robin: Whatever it is, I want it to be good. Bedford. See what I'm doing here. Bedford, Indiana. And yes, I want to route there, and it takes 50.

Travis: Yeah, 50 is the most direct route, because it's a federal highway.

Robin: All right. Now, is there any, are there any deviations we want? Any, uh, interesting riding we'd like to...

Travis: Um, yeah, let's just kind of follow the route and see where we'd like to alter it. I mean, it looks like it's not a bad route on 50.

Robin: I'm handing it off to you. So Travis is going to take the reins here. You can use the trackball if you like. And then the secret is, if you want to move Mac, click, hold, drag. Yeah. And if you want to change the route, you'll click on the line to create the control point.

Travis: Do we want to go through Cincinnati? Did we decide that maybe Cincinnati was a stop, that it was too long of a day to get all the way to Bedford?

Robin: Um, I don't know where we're at here. If you zoom out, I know if we have three days total, and we're starting off the trip that's one day in and of itself.

Travis: Yeah. So getting from, you know, the Chicago suburbs or Madison, in my case, you have to remember to get into Columbus, I have to ride like two more extra hours.

Robin: Right. So here's Zanesville, and that is where we are. That is right here. Now from Zanesville, so do the math, the entire map in its totality is over 800 miles. So we're looking at about 400 miles if we wanted to go all the way to whatever that is. I forgot what it was.

Travis: 400 mile day?

Robin: Yeah, I mean I'm not against it, but the real question becomes if we did a 400 mile day.

Travis: Because then where are we going, um, so that'd be Wednesday, so Thursday though it takes us to our final destination. We don't have to be there until the evening. Is that near Evansville you said?

Robin: It's uh, no, no, no, it's Farmington, Missouri.

Travis: Oh, Farmington, Missouri. Yeah. Missouri.

Robin: Yeah, Farmington, Missouri, which is in the heart of Mark Twain National Forest, the Ozarks. Here we go. Yep, that's where we're going to end up.

Travis: So I feel like Bedford is pretty, I think what we had discovered before is that if we want to, let's do, we want to do some like Brown County, Indiana stuff, right?

Robin: We're going to do 450. We're going to do 450 to the end, and then jot over to Farmington.

Travis: I mean we could go via the Shawnee National Forest, I'm sure there's probably something in there.

Robin: That's what I would hope we would do. Anything involving the National Forest is going to be prettier riding, it's going to be better riding.

Travis: Yeah, if nothing else it will be pretty. Pretty, oh so pretty. Let's see if there's any, I mean there's a couple of like, you know, these sorts of roads, but you never know if they're gravel, gravel, or you know, dew track.

Robin: Didn't you say you found a street view last time?

Travis: In uh, Google Maps.

Robin: Yeah, well this is using Google Maps.

Travis: Oh, let's see if there's a street view of these.

Robin: Look at that, looking good.

Travis: It looks like a two lane, I mean it might be a little on the rough side, but.

Robin: That'd be fun. That looks like a good time. I mean there, yeah, I see a two lane, I see painted lines and guardrails, but that's a lot better than, than uh, four lanes of blah.

Travis: Yeah, now how do we exit that?

Robin: Oh, you uh, zoom out. Um, yeah, oh, uh, no, hold on.

Travis: Yeah, toggle.

Robin: Let me take control, and then zoom will not happen, and then this.

Travis: And those are your controls. Is there, is there another map control?

Robin: Watch this, boom.

Travis: Um, can we do like escape, escape key?

Robin: Stop playing nice. Remove marker. What is this? Okay.

Travis: Well, can you uh, since you have a map, what would be scroll wheel, would be uh, double tap and drag? Yes. No, I can't. You can, you can zoom in, but you can't zoom out. So if I do, oh. Oh, there we go.

Robin: Fixed.

Travis: Figured that out.

Robin: All right, so where were we? So we're going, I mean, is Bedford too far? You know, truth be told, if any of it's too far, we can always just, yeah.

Travis: Yeah, because I thought maybe we had thought uh, Cincinnati or um, one of these parks here, if we wanted to do camping.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: I mean, you got friends in Cincinnati too.

Robin: I got friends in Cincinnati. Shout out to a whole bunch of people. I mean, some of them aren't there anymore, but shout out to Don Gock and his lovely wife, and uh, Matt Hawkins and tons of people that, that's just off the top of my head on an empty stomach, so.

Travis: Yeah, it looks like there's, this looks like a campground at Versailles. Yeah. State park, and it's state park, and I know you prefer state parks because they have showers.

Robin: Yes. I like bathing. I think that this will be a really good opportunity for us to camp I like bathing daily, I cannot lie. You other stinkers.

Travis: Can't deny.

Robin: All right, where are you?

Travis: Yeah, anyway, um, so that might be a better, yeah, because like then, what, let's uh, let's figure out, let's go day three, and let's figure out the route from Indiana into, get rid of that. Um, let's figure out the route, let's add 450. Yeah, we wanted to take 450 out of Bedford, right?

Robin: Hit that.

Travis: Yeah, so let's put in our final, oh yeah, go ahead. Let's put in our final destination, and then um, Farmington MO.

Robin: Yeah, I want to route there, what are you kidding me?

Travis: Farmo.

Robin: Bam. All right. And then the fun part, which is then you uh, you can drag it to whichever bit you want.

Travis: Yeah, we need to like add control points and all that sort of stuff.

Robin: Yeah, fortunately when we added the control point for Bedford, that locks us in, so we can now drag this leg to wherever we want it to be. That's 50.

Travis: Pretty much taking us in 50. Um.

Robin: And just zoom out.

Travis: Bedford, there we go.

Robin: There you go. And I like where you're at with taking the forest.

Travis: Yeah, going, going maybe further south before.

Robin: Yeah, we want to take 450 to our wits end. There you go.

Travis: Yeah, 450 and 550 was kind of the deal, right?

Robin: Yes, from the start. Drag that up to, click and hold, and 450, bam, let go. And it locks in.

Travis: And then do we want to come down like this?

Robin: I'm okay with it. I, you know, we might be running into uh, like endurance restraints.

Travis: Yeah, like what's, that's kind of the thing is the time frame. Yeah. Um.

Robin: I mean 150 is amazing too. And it's kind of, you know, it's like are we spending our time in, in uh, the brown canny, the amazing and beautiful brown canny maps, or are we trying to get to Bedford, or to Farmington?

Travis: Missouri, yeah. I mean we can take this like five down.

Robin: How far further south do we need to get before we had to do a straight shot?

Travis: We come down here to like 56, trying to see how far south we need to go to get to where we're going. Pretty far south. Yeah, well what if we did uh. So we came down here into um.

Robin: Yeah, rock the Hoosier National Forest stuff.

Travis: Like Kentucky.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: I like it.

Travis: And then, and then head due west.

Robin: Let's do it. Because that'll put us in Shawnee, you know. There's going to be parkways, all kinds of stuff. Question is what, which one do you want to do?

Travis: How are the roads going to be?

Robin: Yeah, you're in control at this point. I hit a, you need to create a control point at the end of 450 just to make sure it's locked in. And then, yeah, just click it. And then from there on out, you can control this entire line. Yeah. So those are, those are notched in.

Travis: Yeah, let's um.

Robin: Whether you use that or this, it's up to you.

Travis: I'd rather be using, you know, like Windows controls.

Robin: But that's nice. That's nice that, you know, I like my computers to do what they're supposed to do. What am I talking about? Mac never does what it's supposed to do. It tells you what you want to do.

Travis: Yeah. Um, yeah, let's head, yeah, through, um, this forest here.

Robin: Mm-hmm.

Travis: Uh, Windham Road, all that. Looks like, looks like there's a lot, yeah, that you can do. But, uh, then, yeah, we gotta see if there's Butler Ridge, maybe down to 56. Yeah, dude. That's gonna be fun. Then we need to get down into Kentucky. Is that French? Yeah, I think so. Might be Italian. Uh, yeah, there's a lot of small roads there, though. Like, I kind of want to avoid really minor roads if we can.

Robin: Yeah, take it from a man who has a lot of family in Kentucky. Some of those people you want to avoid, get to know.

Travis: The, um, yeah, but we came down, like, took, well, two, we could just take, what, wait, 150 is good, right? 150 is great. Take 150 and then take 145. Okay. Kind of stay on the, you know, more major roads.

Robin: Let's do that.

Travis: And come down to the Ohio River.

Robin: You want me to lock it up?

Travis: Yeah, let's do that. So, let's do.

Robin: Leave that, leave that. You have to create a new one.

Travis: Well, I want to come.

Robin: Oh, you're gonna move it a little bit? I'm trying. Well, that's, that's exactly what people do wrong. Okay, let go of that.

Travis: I'll set it up, like, here.

Robin: Yeah, put it, put it there, actually. And then move it from there. We can join. Watch this. You can join 150 right here and then you grab it here.

Travis: Okay, that's a better.

Robin: And then drag this down.

Travis: Like, 145 is kind of what I was thinking.

Robin: Right here? Yeah. So, these end up being notches that are pegged into place. You have to just create a new notch and then drag it where you want to go. Yeah. That puts us on 160 and all that stuff. You know, I don't know where you wanted to pick up what, but we're starting to get further south. The more we stay in that green until we head due west.

Travis: Yeah, I'm gonna say we'll go down to the Ohio River and follow the Ohio River Valley.

Robin: I want to do that. That sounds like a lot of fun. It'll be a long day, but I'm down, man. Well, you know, the real thing is, we gotta start super early, you know?

Travis: Go through Chelsea City. Do you want to do this on the Indiana side or the Kentucky side, I guess? The Kentucky side takes us through, like, Owensboro and it's like more city.

Robin: Let's say, let's avoid that then. Let's stay as rural, socially, socially conjoined to the rural as possible. You got a point where you want to go and release it?

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: It's actually pretty, it's pretty fun.

Travis: Yeah, and unlike Google Map, it's not going to stop you after, like, 10 entries or whatever, right?

Robin: You want 66? Yeah. The best thing I can tell you then is release it around here somewhere and then create a new one. Oh, you're good. Okay, click that one.

Travis: Yeah, I'm going to zoom in and send better precision.

Robin: There you go.

Travis: There we go. Yeah, I just didn't, it wasn't close enough to have any sort of precision.

Robin: This looks pretty good, man. This looks fun.

Travis: Evansville, it's a pretty cool town. Isn't there a college in Evansville?

Robin: Yes, and is that, that's Mount Vernon, Indiana? Not to be confused with my wife's hometown of Mount Vernon, Illinois.

Travis: Yeah, or Mount Vernon, Wisconsin.

Robin: Springfield.

Travis: Springfield, Springfield. It's a hell of a town. It's cool. It's up.

Robin: All right, the Shawnee National Forest would be a good, if we pick this, whatever that road is.

Travis: Take one down and cut through?

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Or we could do, well, that looks better. Maybe the Keeper's Ridge. Maybe one. Let's see.

Robin: Right here. What is this? I want to follow this down and then I want to pick up.

Travis: Oh, right on the edge in Shawnee Town.

Robin: Yeah, skip the obvious roads.

Travis: Shawnee, New Haven Road.

Robin: Yeah, so right here, create a lock right here. Lock that in place. New Haven. Yep. Lock that up, click that and leave it and then grab and pull into this so that we, yes, drag that all the way over.

Travis: Shawnee Town.

Robin: Yeah. That's cool, that's cool, that's cool. Let go. Yeah.

Travis: And click again.

Robin: Yeah. And then we'll break it through here. It gets easier over time. It gets fast too. Click that and do Carver's Ridge and Sparks Hill. That's one. Oh, what the? Let go.

Travis: See if we can do it. See if there's a road there. See if it's got pavement.

Robin: Oh my goodness, that would be awesome. We should have zoomed in this close to begin with. See, can you put a person there?

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Then you got a street view.

Travis: Williams Tower Road. Nope. Uh-uh, so we ain't doing that. That's questionable then, yeah. Let's see if I can.

Robin: Oh, that looks, yeah.

Travis: Yeah, that might be a little sketch.

Robin: Google don't go here. Google don't come here. You go away, guns.

Travis: Yeah, so that might be a sketchy, I mean, not that like it's going to be unsafe or anything, but it might just suddenly not become pavement.

Robin: Or it might not be safe.

Travis: And if we were on, you know, if we were on Triumph Tigers or, you know, BMW.

Robin: Where's Norman Reedus, man? When's Norman Reedus coming to visit us?

Travis: We could, we could maybe, you know.

Robin: Charlie Borman, that noise. Yeah.

Travis: Yeah, but let's stay, let's stay in Shawnee and go.

Robin: Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. I like that there. Release. That's locked in.

Travis: That looks good. Right, and then it's kind of just to think of it just a straight shot for us a little bit.

Robin: Nice mellow, you know, we got to get there type thing.

Travis: Yeah, I mean, we could can try and continue down the Ohio River, but I think it's fine just to cut across at that point. Yeah, because we're already further south than we need to be.

Robin: Yeah, we're further south and we're heading due north. How many miles is this? This is where things get interesting. I click on this arrow up, and then look at where we start that day. We got 1,000 miles on our docket already.

Travis: You know, that's not really that bad. Can we, where do we start? Can we jump to a place?

Robin: Zoom out. And then, yes, you can just scroll over this.

Travis: Oh, and it shows where you're at.

Robin: Yeah, so you got the dot there.

Travis: Where do we start at? Well, we camp in Cincinnati.

Robin: Yeah, that's 275 miles.

Travis: It's a 500, well.

Robin: No, that's not bad, really. Zoom in a little bit, so we can really, really make sure we're on the right spot. Scroll to, we're starting in Bedford.

Travis: So, if we go to, if we make it to Bedford, that's 840, that's another 400-mile day.

Robin: I can do it if you can. Yeah. You got it?

Travis: Sure, I mean, it's August. We got daylight.

Robin: Yeah, we can get up early.

Travis: Get an early schedule.

Robin: What's, okay, so two, now we're moving into camping territory, by the way. So, here's two general rules. Don't, we do not set up camp after dark. No. Ever. Camp is always set up by, we'll check the sunrise for every day. Camp is set up at least, I mean, it's done being set up at least two hours before sundown. Done. So, that puts us, you know, five to six o'clock range. But, I mean, if I get eight hours of sleep, I'm good to go any time. So, if we get up at five and on the road by seven, I'll be showering. This is a big secret. Shower the night before. Shower the freaking night before, then we get up, and boom, we're out the door, right?

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: I can do that. And here's the other rule that I was coming up with, is two, if you're too tired, you're too tired, and then you convert to beeline mode, and we pick up the slab if we really have.

Travis: Yeah, we can always jump on 64, pretty much anywhere along from Coolsville.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Down, we can pretty much, at any point, just, like, call it and jump on Interstate 64, or, you know, or US 50. You know, US 50 goes all the way to St. Louis, pretty much takes us right there. Which, I mean, we'll be on 50 all the way from, we'll be on 50 all the way from Coolsville to Bedford. So, the rest, I mean, most, I mean, not that 50 has something in it. It's, you know, it'll be sweepers. It's not going to be tight, sporty turns, but it'll be picturesque.

Robin: Yes.

Travis: And after doing the triple nickel, after doing, like, a 500-mile day, that'll be a nice respite, and just time to cruise.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: While not slabbing, because, actually, I find those, you know, US 50 is going to be easier than the slab. You know, the Interstate just beats you up so hard.

Robin: Yeah, it's just constant.

Travis: The pavement, the noise in the trucks, and the, that concrete pavement beats Brazil. You know, if you're on a nice two-lane asphalt, it just tends to be much less, uh, jarring to your, I've never chosen my words better than saying that eventually the Horizon just becomes two-dimensional. Oh, yeah.

Robin: You're just staring at a wall of, of semi-3D. They just get so hypnotically boring. This is the way to do it.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Um, and see, I'm going to save this now. Save. This was the original name, Pseudo Unsuck. We're going to call this, um, 2016, uh, DDMR Big Route, just for now. I'll change the name later, you know. The Dave Davis Memorial Rally, Big Route, HGTV, www.TheRidingObsession.com. I'm riding a motorcycle. The roads will be beautiful, I'm sure of it. You can see it. We're going to leave this one public for people to enjoy. Yeah. Refresh. Save. Refresh.

Travis: Refresh.

Robin: Refresh.

Travis: Oh, I got refreshed on that one.

Robin: Um, so let's, um, from here, well, you gotta wait for this. It's going to notify us when it finishes saving.

Travis: Ah, okay.

Robin: Yep. There you go. Saved. You have saved. I'm going to hit close, and now I'm going to say this. Why don't we take a break from this for this week, and we will discuss our route back home during the next episode.

Travis: Yeah, but you want to take, well, you want to take the River Road back up to, uh, Wisconsin.

Robin: Yeah, we've got everything done for this route except for our way back, and we're going to get to that eventually in the next podcast. We'll discuss our approach to camping and how we intend on returning via the, uh, the River Run, but what we're looking at now is, uh, camping gear, what we're going to bring, who's in charge of what. Um, I've got the screen recording right now for those of you watching the video version, and I've got the, our, our, uh, camping gear packing checklist from TheRidingObsession.com, easy to find under the travel menu. Um, we're going to make a list of that, which one, we'll make a list of that, which each of us needs to make sure we bring, and that which we only need one of, and who's in charge of bringing it.

Travis: So, like, what's, what's, what's shared, and who's bringing it, and then the stuff that we just need to bring for ourselves.

Robin: Yeah, and in the video right now, immediately, I can see under writing, each one of us is going to need to have all this. So, you got a helmet, neck gear, jacket, pants. I'll bring my warm leather gloves. We don't need cold.

Travis: Well, we need, uh, easy pass. We're going to take the slab around Chicago probably, huh?

Robin: Yeah, I mean, I'll bring it. I've got mine. Do you have one?

Travis: Yeah, so take, like, 294 or whatever around, or 355.

Robin: Yep, and...

Travis: Just that one stamp there, so we can go through this whole way.

Robin: These are things we're both going to need. You're going to need one of your own. So, everything under this entire section, under writing from that page, is something that each of us needs to bring for our own individual needs.

Travis: I don't, I don't have an extra communicator.

Robin: Well, then you're just out of luck, aren't you?

Travis: Yeah, I guess so.

Robin: Then, as for food, now, my wife gets these really nice high-end meal bars. They're pretty good. They're protein-based. It's vegetable protein. I'll probably do that for breakfast. I have a water filter, so I will bring... I'm going to say you're, like, I'll bring an entire box of those meal bars, and we can do that.

Travis: Yeah, I mean, if you want to split carry them, you can just give me a handful of them.

Robin: Yeah, so we need one box of meal bars. I've got a water filter. I will bring that. Okay, sweet. There we go. For everybody who's listening to this, what I'm doing is I'm typing out which I'm responsible versus figuring out what Travis is going to be bringing. We'll both need to bring our own clean canteen, right?

Travis: Yeah, I have my big one-liter.

Robin: Nice, and I'll bring instant coffee. Vitamins and supplements, that's, like, our own thing. That's individual. Yeah. Clothing. Do you want to wear any of my clothing? No, not if I can help it. All right, there you go. So, socks, pretty good. Money belts, we're good there. Okay, now we're getting to Travis' territory.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Shelter. So, do you have a base tent? Yeah. And you have the tent?

Travis: Yeah. So, it's a four-man? Yeah, it's a Kelty four-man. You've seen it.

Robin: Is it this one specifically? I think we use this one as the two-person.

Travis: Is it this one? Yeah. Grand Mesa three? Yeah, if it's not that one, it's very similar to that with the fly on the outside. Oh, so a little bigger? Yeah, it might be the same. Okay, cool.

Robin: Yeah, so we got that covered. And individually, so you're in charge of bringing the tent. Yeah, I'll bring the tent. Are you going to have a sleeping mat? Hold on. Tent and tarp, Travis. That is individual stuff. So, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, inflatable pillow, all that stuff. I got my own.

Travis: I'll have my own inflatable, like, sleeping mat.

Robin: I'm probably going to bring an actual inflatable, depending on my space, I'll bring the actual inflatable mattress and the electric battery operated pump.

Travis: How big is that? It's going to be about... No, not the pump, the mattress.

Robin: The mattress rolled up is about that big.

Travis: How big is it when you unroll it and inflate it?

Robin: It's a single, it's like a size of a two-thirds of a twin bed.

Travis: Okay, yeah, mine is like that, but it's like the self-inflating guy. I mean, you still have to, like, blow it up a little bit when you get it ready.

Robin: Well, one I'd like to get is, let's see here, a sleeping pad. This one, the Nemo, that's one I'd like to be getting, but it's pricey.

Travis: Oh, yeah. Oh, it's like 85 bucks, 89 bucks for a cover, and then 580 something for the actual thing.

Robin: Wait a minute, what's the range? $483? That's bogus. No way.

Travis: No way. Maybe you can buy, like, a pack of them or something.

Robin: I think it's 89 bucks. I think it's $89, and this is, like, some...

Travis: Weird glitch on the thing.

Robin: Yeah, reseller is just overdoing it. So, this, which one is this?

Travis: Yeah, so, like, the size. 20 regular is $130, man. I'm telling you. I bet, I bet there's, like, the super, I bet the super light or something. It's super expensive.

Robin: Super light, what's that? Insulated Select Air 25. Pricey stuff, man.

Travis: Yeah, what's the Air 20? Air Light. It's the Air Light.

Robin: 109. Air 20R.

Travis: With the insulated one.

Robin: 89 bucks. That's the one I was Insulated 25.

Travis: Insulated Light.

Robin: 140.

Travis: Yeah, weird glitch on Amazon. Something odd.

Robin: Anyhow, that's something I wanted to get, but for now I've just got this other one that's a Coleman. So, okay, then some inflatable pillow. Cookware. Now we get interested. I've got this collapsible stove, the Vargo Hexagon, I believe. Yeah, Vargo Hexagon wood stove. I'll bring that, but you've got the gas one that might be more.

Travis: The gas one will be, you don't have to track down sticks or wood or anything.

Robin: Right. I will bring this because it's a quick boil. I'll bring the fuel things as well, the fire starter cubes.

Travis: Yeah, but that also requires, like, actual fire fuel.

Robin: It does, but, well, the fire starter cubes?

Travis: Yeah, like, well, like, if we're wanting to use that stove, we'll need sticks and some pieces of wood and stuff to put in there.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Like, you can't just run it off of the starter cube.

Robin: Yeah, you can't. You can boil a clean canteen, a small clean canteen, full boil on one cube because it burns so slow, or a couple of cubes if you really like. Those all have a little box in them. They're flat, they're easy to stash. I've got space for them. I've got an alcohol stove, but I have yet to make this thing work. It's like every time I put isopropyl in there, the isopropyl just doesn't want to burn.

Travis: Isopropyl doesn't burn very well. Is it designed for isopropyl or ethanol? It's denatured alcohol. Yeah, that's not isopropyl alcohol.

Robin: I always thought it was. Okay, so now I'm corrected.

Travis: Yep, no, denatured alcohol is like what I use to clean brake parts.

Robin: Oh.

Travis: Yeah, because the ice, like, you just go to Walgreens to buy isopropyl alcohol, that's like 20% water.

Robin: Okay, well, I'll bring the collapsible stove, I'll bring the cubes, bring a spark lighter, you probably will too.

Travis: Yeah, I'll bring a lighter.

Robin: I'll bring a stove. I'll even bring this alcohol fuel because if you have denatured alcohol, we'll pour some into it.

Travis: But then we got to carry, I don't want to use that because we have to carry a big bottle of denatured alcohol around.

Robin: I'll bring it. It's in a small little canister, it's a rubberized, it's an alcohol carrier.

Travis: Oh, does it give you a carrying can for the containment? Okay, yeah, because a denatured alcohol comes in like a kerosene can.

Robin: Yeah, no, it's smaller than that. The thing I've got is like...

Travis: You fill it up.

Robin: Yeah, it's an inch wide.

Travis: And then a seal, and you bring it with. Okay, you don't have to bring a kerosene can of alcohol with.

Robin: Okay. Right, and I can bring that. I've also got a compact grill that I can bring.

Travis: Now we got an assembly. Yeah, see this thing is we don't need three stoves or two. We should decide on which one we want to bring. What are we going to cook? We're going to make coffee. The only thing we're going to do is we're going to make coffee. Maybe instant oatmeal if we're in a pinch.

Robin: Okay, so we're going to be eating out for dinner? Yeah. Okay.

Travis: Yeah, I don't see the point in like doing full, schlepping full camping gear.

Robin: I like it.

Travis: I don't think we're going to be that intense.

Robin: Then at least what about... Okay, we'll bring the micro-dualist though.

Travis: Yes, because that's a pot and dining stuff for both of us. So that's about two mugs, two bowls, two sporks, and a pot.

Robin: All right, so you've got that, right? Yeah, I have a dualist. All right, so micro-dualist, Travis.

Travis: I also have a little MSR like jet stove, but I have to like bring like you have to bring like the special fuel canister for that.

Robin: I'll leave that one up to you. And then, okay, so for utilities, I always bring this stuff anyhow. I think some of this is individual. If I see anything that could be one, like a headlamp. Yeah, you want a headlamp each. Yeah, work gloves, duct tape. I got duct tape, natural twine, small hammer. This is all... Well, okay, so like chain lubricant. We should probably have some chain lubricant, but then again we could just use oil from like a local shop. So maybe we just go that route.

Travis: I don't need that if I can.

Robin: You want to be in charge of that one?

Travis: Yeah, I'll bring a can of chain lube.

Robin: All right, so the PJ, is that what it is? Yeah. Okay, so chain lubricant, Travis.

Travis: Do we want... I can bring my hatchet.

Robin: No harm there, because then we can have fires.

Travis: Yeah, because we're going to be using that. Little stove of yours.

Robin: Yes.

Travis: And that is also a hammer.

Robin: I say bring the hatchet. Yeah, the lady out there is really going for it. Here at Docs and the Fox, the party's always going.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: All right, so I will bring... I have a roadside toolkit that I'm confident and satisfied with. It covers pretty much all ground.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: If you have any specific sockets that you want to bring, check with me online and let me know.

Travis: Basically just the axle stuff?

Robin: Yeah, I mean I've got a 22, I've got a 24. I think mine's a 27. And I think I have a 27. Okay. So I'll check that, make sure I bring that for a roadside toolkit. Okay, so for toiletries, you're on your own. You got shower sandals, hand sanitizer, toothbrush, toothpaste, insect repellent, sunscreen. I can bring that. Sure. All right, so...

Travis: And that's basically just for like the evening. Like it's not something where we're not going to be camping and lounging in a campground for any time. It's mostly just like set up camp, get some food, go to bed, get up, write camp, get on the road. Exactly. We're not going on a camping trip. We're going on a summer trip.

Robin: That covers that. Electronics. I can cover this too. I've got... I've got the tender access. Yeah, I got that. USB battery storage. I can bring that. This is the big one, the four-port USB hub so you don't have to worry about nothing. You bring cables for your devices, I have the outlet.

Travis: Okay, because yeah, I mean I have a USB two-port charger that just plugs onto my SAE battery tender guy. Okay. So I can use that.

Robin: Okay. So these will be individual? Yeah. All right, well if there's like a motel, I've got the four-port USB hub. Yeah. And the USB cable. All right, the downtime, collapsible chairs to do. Okay.

Travis: I don't know how much of this we need.

Robin: I'm not bringing a chair.

Travis: No.

Robin: I might bring a flask. That's on me. You're on your own there.

Travis: I would drink a drink for some drinky drink during time.

Robin: Yep, I will bring the Lampy 5000. Reading material is up to you. I've got a deck of cards. I've got a whole room. They fit, they're compact, they fit. Sure, yeah. This is really, it doesn't take up much space. None of this takes up much space. You know, it's like, and for clothes for a trip like this, I'm going to be bringing the Scrubba.

Travis: So the Scrubba. For an in-depth review of the Scrubba, you can check out TheRottyHipSession.com, a portable laundry washing device.

Robin: Works pretty well. And then, so I'll bring that, I'm going to bring like two pairs of socks, two pairs of underwear, one pair of denim.

Travis: You just run the Scrubba every night.

Robin: I'll just wash my undies, underlings, and then that'll be it. No big deal.

Travis: Yeah, I'm just kind of debating on that. Like I could probably bring half as much I need for the whole trip and then do a wash somewhere halfway.

Robin: No, you can use it. You know, you can use it. We'll have a way to do laundry. You just got to have a way to hang it up. Like to dry is the only downside. You want to bring, I'll bring all my clothes to QuickDry.

Travis: Yeah, I'll be wearing like wicking sport underwear and wicking sport shirts and everything else will be motorcycle gear. Socks is about the only thing.

Robin: About an hour when it's dry in the sun.

Travis: Yeah, socks you can put over a campfire, yeah, or in the sun.

Robin: I've got QuickDry socks. All right. So all right, that covers who's bringing what in terms of the camping gear. I've saved that up. And for our next episode, we're going to discuss the basics of camping on a motorcycle trip like this, as well as our journey home, how we intend to approach the Great River Road. Is that what's called?

Travis: Yeah, Great River Road.

Robin: Between, where is that? Farmington, Missouri, all the way up to the northern reaches of Wisconsin. Use enough whatever time we have left to have a good time on the bikes before saying c'est la vie and heading on home.

Travis: See how far we get. Maybe lacrosse, not that far north.

Robin: Yeah, that works.

Travis: I don't want to go all the way to Duluth. I mean, if we have the time, I suppose we could.

Robin: And so on that note, for the Riding Obsession, I'm Robin Dean. I'm Travis Burleson. Safe travels, everyone.