The unnecessay packing list (or weird stuff I or others have packed)

    Mouth wash
    Expired subblock
    Hand cream
    30 gig video iPod
    5 pairs of rechargeable batteries without a charger.
    second GPS system
    2 stuffed animals one including batteries enabling the dog to bark

Quotes from the road:

“It remains to be seen if he will join a rebel group.” Tagline for my presentation at the Lima chapter of South American Explorers’ Club

Another rider: We’re lucky, aren’t we.
Me: Yes
After me and another rider talked about our trips on the Belgrano train into Buenos Aires from Dakar Motos.

“Are you going to go back to NY and live as a Communist”
Told to me by an Argentine friend when I said that it is hard not to become a Communist when you see all the extreme poverty in South America.

Not those tomatoes, the ones down here (what I told the fruit man in Buneos Aires as I asked for some tomatoes and a voluptuous woman passed by catching our attention)

    I don’t think that’s normal. (woman’s reply when I told her about my trip.)
    Are you crazy (many people when I answer “yes” I rode the motorcycle all the way from New York, but first I went to Alaska.)
    You are an example. (Italian girl when I explained how and why I left New York)
    We need to clone you (Motorcycle tour guide when I told him how long I had been traveling. He was referring to the fact that very few people from the United State do serious traveling.)
    When are you coming home. (What my parents ask every time I call home.)
    Do you have a sidecar. (Hostal owner when he sees me carrying my gear into the room.)
    Get professional!!! One rider to another rider who didn’t carry business cards for the trip.
    I always wanted to do that….
    Did you forget anything?
    You got a lot of stuff?
    I have a motorcycle (from various people riding around in motor-homes)
    Do you get lonely?
    I must say that Jacob has good aim (conversation in a household where the children’s aim in the bathroom was less than stellar).
    Welcome to the banana republic (told by local Colombian when I discovered the only atm in town was out of service.
    Keep them for your fan club. (told by lady at the Medellin immigration office after she explained that I didn’t need to bring another set of photos to renew my visa.)
    Children are a problem, money is my solution.

    Favorite Roads:

    ******* Carretera Austral and then south all the way on Ruta 40 to Perito Moreno *********

      Pretty much all of Peru except the Panamerican.
      Cassiar Highway, British Columbia, Canada

      Denali Highway, Alaska (short but sweet)

    Cauca Department, Colombia

    Near Death Experiences:

      Side of a narrow two land road in Iowa backroad when I stopped to check the signs.

      Sliding up and down hills in the mud on the Dempster Highway.

      Losing my front brake while riding the Top of the World highway in Alaska.

      The *2* times my chain came off the sprocket at high speed.

      Getting into someone’s car and then getting robbed, despite knowing never to get into a stranger’s car)

      Crash in Baja in the sand– broken leg and bruised ribs.

    Favorite Cities (other than New York):

    Rio de Janeiro (except for the exchange rate)

    Buenos Aires

    Montreal

    San Francisco

    Medellin (nothing really to see or do here but they friendliest city on earth)