Weather

According to my Tassie friend Tim,

there is a joke here that a "West Coast shower" takes about 3 days to pass over.

Looks like a visit to fabled and beautiful Strahan might be wet, but..............

I admit that I do love it when tourists in their house-sized SUVs ask me, in a very concerned tone,

what do you do when it rains????

well, i respond, either i stop, or -- i keep riding.

they always seem very disappointed with that response; not sure what answer would match their expectations: I melt?

Once, riding back from the Big Bend across Texas, it was raining so hard and for so long across that vast flatness that i took my own advice and stopped under an overpass; after 20 minutes i got tired of being splashed by the trucks roaring by and so rode into the nearest town... i pulled my motorcycle under the porch overhang of a restaurant and entered, squishing my way to a booth.... and then the owner came over and asked if he could put my soaked gloves into his oven to dry..............ah, Texas: your generosity always touches me.

it's only water, and through the past 20 years, my Aerostich riding gear has kept me completely dry in a lot of profoundly rainy and potentially miserable situations:

1997: on the Autobahn at 85mph thru a full day of solid walls of water on the way to muddy training at BMW's Hechlingen Enduro School

what seemed like endless days of rain in Alaska, 2000:

toward the Candian Rockies in 2006:

Thomas, does your red GS seem....ah.... tired?



photo by Thomas Feddersen

2006: Near Jasper, BC -- had these beasts charged, i figured the armor in my Aerostich would protect me, but i wasn't too sure if BMW warranties the GS against assault by horned ruminants:


photo by Thomas Feddersen

somewhere in the West, 2006, do these make me look like Mickey Mouse on acid?


photo by Thomas Feddersen


Heading to the Hyderseek rally in Alaska; David MacKenzie during a day of wet riding thru British Columbia's deep forests to Port Hardy -- up the length of Vancouver Island: May, 2008.


Snow in Idaho: June (!) 2008
photo by Danielle Sarandon

and in 2009 charming some very surprised ladies in Lake Superior on the way back from our Lake Superior Tour
( http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=498475 ) :

photo by Dan Cohen


While Tim lives on the north side of the island, there will be rain. I've been so used to living in Colorado's glorious dry climate (14% average humidity in the winter) that i have to keep in mind that there are places where wet is normal. Hmmmm.

You can see the weather here:

http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/tas/

it doesn't just SEEM i ride in the rain a lot -- i do.

back to packing.




If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time - Edith Wharton