Alaska: What Worked, What Didn't Work
BMW R1200GS - I can't say enough good things about this motorcycle. There's a reason it's won all those Motorcycle of the Year and other awards since its inception. Often dubbed the "Swiss Army Knife of Motorcycles," I think that's selling the bike a bit short. By calling it the perfect do-everything motorcycle, you imply that it does nothing exceptionally well, like a multitool you carry so that you don't have to carry a variety of tools that would actually do the job right. Well, IMO, the GS pretty much does everything right. The riding position is extremely comfortable and natural, both when sitting and when standing up. Power and performance is good. It handles well on and off road. Excellent brakes (though I wish they weren't linked). Great suspension. Low maintenance (I definitely did not miss having to lube a chain every day!). Good gas mileage (42-45 mpg). I honestly can't think of a better motorcycle for traveling long distance, especially where road conditions might be less than ideal. I might go so far as to say if I could only have one motorcycle, the GS would be it ... but that would limit my offroad ability just a bit too much, I think. Something lighter, like my Dakar, would probably have to be my choice for a one-and-only motorcycle - maybe the new F800GS. But for most riding situations, I can't think of a better, more versatile mount than the R1200GS. Also (for whatever this observation's worth), most of the bikes I saw in the Great White North were GSs. Mine now has over 33,000 miles on it. A good scrubbing, some scheduled maintenance, a few new stickers, and she'll be ready to go on another adventure.
METZLER TOURANCE - What a great tire! I'll never run anything else on the GS. Knobbies would have been nice on the Haul Road, but, really, the Tourances handled everything admirably. And they certainly rule the roost when it comes to longevity. The rear Tourance that I removed with over 8,000 miles on it would have come damn close to getting me home. The front, now with nearly 11,000 miles on it, looks like it'll be around for quite a while yet. 15,000 miles doesn't seem unreasonable.
ROK STRAPS - Not to intentionally go for the easy cliché, but ROK Straps rock! I'd heard good things about these straps for years, but couldn't see spending nearly $20 a set for them, not when bungee cords are so cheap. Finally decided to try a set of ROK straps for this trip, though, initially buying one set to test, then going back for two more. For the Alaska trip, I used two sets and carried the third as a spare. These straps are great: easy to use, never worked loose, shock-corded at one end for easy adjustment, attach really well to the bike, etc. Love 'em and don't expect I'll travel without them from here on out.
DRY BAGS - I've had good luck with cheap dry bags. The ones I used on this trip are H2-ZERO bags. Kept all my stuff nice and dry. The red one I've been using now for several years and it's holding up well. Bought it for about $35 at a sporting goods store. The blue one I bought new for this trip. Ordered it online (look here) for less than twenty bucks. Can't beat that. The blue one rolls down from the end - like a duffle bag - so it's a bit less convenient than the red bag.
TWISTED THROTTLE'S CROSSBAR - I bought and installed this crossbar as a convenient mount for my GPS. The crossbar mounts to the handlebar with aluminum straps at each end. Neither strap survived the vibration of the Haul Road. The bar was only about $20, but, hey, save your money.
CAMERAS -- I carried two cameras with me, my Nikon D60 D-SLR and an Olympus 1030SW. Most of the wildlife shots, especially those taken at a distance, were taken with my Nikon. I carried two lenses, an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm, generally using the bigger lens. In fact, the only time I used the smaller lens on the Nikon was during our plane ride at Denali. For quick shots, I generally grabbed the little Olympus point and shoot. I cannot say enough good things about this camera. The SW in the model number refers to it being both waterproof and shockproof. Diving in the Turks and Caicos Islands this spring, I tested the waterproofness of the camera, shooting pics of stingrays as we were feeding them in the surf, and the camera passed with flying colors - though I never submerged it more than a few feet under water (it says it's waterproof to 33 feet, I think). A quick rinse in fresh water later at the hotel and the camera was just fine. That alone is enough to sell me on the camera ... but let me tell you about the shockproof test I inadvertently put it through. While riding at about 70 mph in Canada, I dropped the camera. I had pulled it out to take a quick photo while moving and then had simply slipped it into the map pocket on my tankbag, rather than back into the tankbag itself. It rode there for a while, but then somehow slipped from the map pocket and fell. I felt something bounce off my thigh, grabbed for it but missed, and then looked in my mirror to see it doing that horrible tumbling across the highway behind me. I stopped and went back for it, thinking the camera was probably toast but nonetheless wanting the memory card with my pics. To my surprise, with the exception of a few bumps and bruises, the camera was just fine. Works like new and everything. Now, I'm sure by "shockproof," Olympus is actually referring to a single impact drop from a height of three or four feet - not a drop and tumble from a motorcycle doing 70 mph. The fact that the camera was wearing one of those protective rubber condom thingies probably helped a great deal, at least with the cosmetic blemishes you might expect the camera to acquire from such a tumble. I'm utterly amazed at the 1030SW's toughness. And it takes great pictures!
WOLFMAN EXPLORER TANKBAG - I love tankbags. There's one on nearly every motorcycle I own. I'd always heard good things about Wolfman products and decided to try one for the GS. It's the perfect bag for that bike. Fits great, doesn't get in my way, and holds plenty of stuff. My only complaint about Wolfman is that they sell the rain cover for the bag separately (IMO, for what they charge, the bag should be included), but get this (being the cheap SOB that I am, you know I didn't spring for the rain cover): despite the near constant rain endured on the Alaska trip, the things in my tankbag remained mostly dry. Yeah, there was a bit of dampness, but never enough to concern me, even with expensive camera gear in the bag. I had brought along some plastic trash bags to wrap around the tankbag and anything else I got worried about, but I never used them.
SLEEPING BAG - If I were to do this trip again, I'd leave the sleeping bag behind. Never touched it, even those nights when we stayed in cabins where we feared bedding might not be provided. Not carrying the bag wouldn't have saved a lot on weight, but it would have freed up a large space on the back of the bike. Same for the towel that I carried, figuring I would need it somewhere. Toward the end of the trip, I actually wound up shredding my towel and using it for rags (I'd brought an old, throw-away towel just for that purpose). I never used the swimming trunks I brought either (but that's because we didn't visit the hot springs as planned) and I could have done without the sneakers I dragged along - so those are a couple other items
that would have lightened my load a bit and freed up some space on the bike.
WIDDER ELECTRIC VEST - I've praised my electric gear before and must do so again. If you keep your core temp up, your heart keeps sending warm blood to your extremities. It's as simple as that. I never travel anywhere where it might drop below 50 degrees without my electric vest. It got used a LOT on this trip.
RAIN GEAR - Over the years, I've come to the realization that everything that was once waterproof eventually fails. My Cortech boots used to keep my feet nice and dry, but they failed miserably on this trip, leaving me with generally wet and very cold feet. (I have a brand new pair of Sidi Discovery boots at home, but haven't broken them in and didn't want to risk being uncomfortable on the trip. They would have been a better boot choice and probably would have kept my feet dry.) The Cortechs are about 3 years old now, have seen tens of thousands of miles of riding, and are essentially my daily footwear around the office since I ride most days of the week ... so, color them worn out. Great boots, and I will buy a new pair to replace them, but evidently the Gortex-like lining just doesn't do its job forever. Same problem with the Fieldsheer pants I was wearing. They used to keep me high and dry, even in a steady, day-long downpour. No more. When it was raining bad on this trip, I broke out a rainsuit, which generally kept me dry (except for my feet). I've had these fail after a couple years of hard use, too, so I think the best strategy is to buy the cheapest rain suits that you can find and toss them quite often. The only problem with the rainsuit is that they don't breathe and are hot to wear, and if you're stubborn like me, you generally wait until you're already wet before you pull over to don the damn thing.
SHOEI MULTITEC HELMET - I developed something of a love-hate relationship with this helmet. First of all, Shoei's sizing just seems off to me. I generally wear a large in helmets, however, even Shoe's medium size is too loose on me. Second, the helmet fogs up horribly. This was a constant problem on the trip. Third complaint: a cold driving rain somehow always seemed to find my left ear. For the life of me, I could not figure out how rain was getting into that helmet, but it did. Not just in my ear, but rain would also run down the inside of the visor from time to time. The visor is also extremely tight and difficult to raise, partially because the plastic tab is so small and difficult to locate while wearing gloves but mostly because the damn mechanism is so tight. I hoped it would loosen up over the course of the trip, but it really never did. Having said all that, the helmet's modular function works extremely well, raising and lowering easily, even while wearing gloves, and locking in place with a nice, firm "click." (Danny was constantly beating on his Shark helmet to get the chin piece to lock into place. His words: "If you treat this helmet like a cheap piece of crap, it does all right.") Ventilation in the Shoei was excellent. It was reasonably quiet. And fit and finish are up to Shoei's usual standards. It's not going to be an around-the-town helmet for me, but you'll probably see it on future trips.
FOGTECH - This stuff is overpriced crap. Save your money. I originally bought it because of a glowing review at Webbikeworld (and for that reason I no longer trust their reviews, as they generally fail to put products through any sort of real world test; for example, when they tested this stuff, they held visors over a boiling pot of water to determine whether the visor steamed up). You apply it to the inside of your visor and let it dry. Problem is - and I've tried this on several visor brands now - it leaves a squirrelly haze that interferes with your vision. I'm sure at that point, it probably does keep the visor from fogging up, but if you're looking through a distorted coke-bottle-glasses miasma, who cares? So, what you wind up doing is trying to wipe away the haze, eventually having to resort to using a wet rag. Then you notice that the Fogtech packet says "To remove, use water." Crap. Utter crap. Want to try some? I still have a few packets I'll gladly sell you.
PIAA 510 OFFROAD LIGHTS - Great while they lasted, the Haul Road claimed both bulbs in my PIAAs. Vibration would be my guess. This was incredibly frustrating because Danny had mounted cheap, $15 Walmart lights on his Strom ... AND THEY WORKED JUST FINE. I spent something like $180 on the PIAAs - top-of-the-line OFFroad equipment, made to endure that sort of vibration and abuse, right? - and they failed me. Does PIAA use cheap bulbs? You wouldn't know it from the replacement costs. A single PIAA replacement bulb costs more than Danny's entire lighting setup. WTF? To make matters worse, the last week of the trip, the headlight bulb in the GS went out as well. I was down to only my high beam until I stopped somewhere in Canada and bought a replacement bulb for the GS's headlight. I figured the PIAAs could wait until I got home (besides, I needed an offset screwdriver to open the lens and I hadn't brought one). While the PIAAs were working, I think they did a great job of making me visible to motorists, which is why I had installed them (It's not like we had any darkness to ride in up there).
BEAD POPPER - Funny how something I initially thought was so worthless would ultimately become an essential part of my tool kit. If you're doing tire changes by hand, you need one of these. It's sure a lot quicker than a lot of insane jumping up and down, running over the tire with a vehicle, or any other crazy bead-breaking techniques I've seen tried.
DEET - Really works. I had some Deep Woods Off wipes in little one-time-use packets. The mosquitoes thought that was pretty funny. "Hey, loan me one of those wipes, so I can freshen up a bit, eh?" Danny brought some Deet and just a little bit of that stuff had the skeeters hovering and buzzing angrily, terrified to land on your flesh. You know what else worked? Those mosquito coil thingies that you light. When we stayed at the Moose Creek Lodge in their cabin, the ladies were thoughtful enough to provide one. You could light it for 15 minutes or so and it would clear the room of skeeters like magic. We swiped what was left of the coil and took it with us, using it several more times on the trip.
GARMIN ZUMO GPS - What an awesome piece of technology. Don't leave home without a GPS. Never had a lick of trouble with mine ... well, except for the fact that for some strange reason the display switches into night mode within a certain range of the Arctic Circle. The first time it happened, I thought it was dust fooling the daylight sensor, but then when it happened again crossing the Arctic Circle, I realized it was some bizarre firmware bug. Didn't even help changing the settings to permanent daylight display mode; the GPS still went into night time mode around the Arctic Circle, clearing up on its own a certain distance away.
FREE WIRELESS INTERNET - More prevalent than you might think, even in the Great White North. The real problem on a trip like this is finding the time and energy to use it. I'd also brought along a book to read ... never opened it. Strange, my Wild Turkey American Honey got used up in the first week...
CREDIT CARDS - For some inexplicable reason, the Canadians will put all these bogus "pending" charges on your credit cards when you use them. If you're checking your account online, you'll see these appear in totally random amounts ranging from 80-90 bucks to a couple hundred. They'll be labeled as "pending." Check again a day or two later and the pending charge will have been replaced with the actual charge, say a ten dollar tank of gas or whatever. Don't know why they do this. I guess when you swipe the card, it authorizes up to a certain amount. It's probably an even, logical amount in Canadian dollars, but then gets converted to US currency, hence the random and bizarre figure. Later, the actual charge comes in from the merchant, replacing the authorized/pending amount. Anyway, my point (I do have one) is not to panic if you see this going on, think someone has stolen your card number and is running up charges on your credit card, and call to have the card canceled. Remember, you're on vacation. Don't worry; be happy.
CANADIAN CURRENCY - Don't try to slip the cashier at McDonald's a few Canadian coins when you pay for your Big Mac. He'll panic, call for the store manager, and damn near bring in Homeland Security to figure out what kinda commie bastard you are. How self-centered are we here in the States? Walk into the smallest business in Canada and hand them U.S. currency. They won't bat an eye. They'll take it, figure out the exchange rate, and count back your change in Canadian money. I've experienced the same thing in Mexico and other countries. But just try to pay for something in the States with foreign currency ... Can't be done.
MARVIN THE MOOSE - He really did know his way around up north. Danny kept making wrong turns, so maybe I should have put Marvin on his bike...?
METZLER TOURANCE - What a great tire! I'll never run anything else on the GS. Knobbies would have been nice on the Haul Road, but, really, the Tourances handled everything admirably. And they certainly rule the roost when it comes to longevity. The rear Tourance that I removed with over 8,000 miles on it would have come damn close to getting me home. The front, now with nearly 11,000 miles on it, looks like it'll be around for quite a while yet. 15,000 miles doesn't seem unreasonable.
ROK STRAPS - Not to intentionally go for the easy cliché, but ROK Straps rock! I'd heard good things about these straps for years, but couldn't see spending nearly $20 a set for them, not when bungee cords are so cheap. Finally decided to try a set of ROK straps for this trip, though, initially buying one set to test, then going back for two more. For the Alaska trip, I used two sets and carried the third as a spare. These straps are great: easy to use, never worked loose, shock-corded at one end for easy adjustment, attach really well to the bike, etc. Love 'em and don't expect I'll travel without them from here on out.
DRY BAGS - I've had good luck with cheap dry bags. The ones I used on this trip are H2-ZERO bags. Kept all my stuff nice and dry. The red one I've been using now for several years and it's holding up well. Bought it for about $35 at a sporting goods store. The blue one I bought new for this trip. Ordered it online (look here) for less than twenty bucks. Can't beat that. The blue one rolls down from the end - like a duffle bag - so it's a bit less convenient than the red bag.
TWISTED THROTTLE'S CROSSBAR - I bought and installed this crossbar as a convenient mount for my GPS. The crossbar mounts to the handlebar with aluminum straps at each end. Neither strap survived the vibration of the Haul Road. The bar was only about $20, but, hey, save your money.
CAMERAS -- I carried two cameras with me, my Nikon D60 D-SLR and an Olympus 1030SW. Most of the wildlife shots, especially those taken at a distance, were taken with my Nikon. I carried two lenses, an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm, generally using the bigger lens. In fact, the only time I used the smaller lens on the Nikon was during our plane ride at Denali. For quick shots, I generally grabbed the little Olympus point and shoot. I cannot say enough good things about this camera. The SW in the model number refers to it being both waterproof and shockproof. Diving in the Turks and Caicos Islands this spring, I tested the waterproofness of the camera, shooting pics of stingrays as we were feeding them in the surf, and the camera passed with flying colors - though I never submerged it more than a few feet under water (it says it's waterproof to 33 feet, I think). A quick rinse in fresh water later at the hotel and the camera was just fine. That alone is enough to sell me on the camera ... but let me tell you about the shockproof test I inadvertently put it through. While riding at about 70 mph in Canada, I dropped the camera. I had pulled it out to take a quick photo while moving and then had simply slipped it into the map pocket on my tankbag, rather than back into the tankbag itself. It rode there for a while, but then somehow slipped from the map pocket and fell. I felt something bounce off my thigh, grabbed for it but missed, and then looked in my mirror to see it doing that horrible tumbling across the highway behind me. I stopped and went back for it, thinking the camera was probably toast but nonetheless wanting the memory card with my pics. To my surprise, with the exception of a few bumps and bruises, the camera was just fine. Works like new and everything. Now, I'm sure by "shockproof," Olympus is actually referring to a single impact drop from a height of three or four feet - not a drop and tumble from a motorcycle doing 70 mph. The fact that the camera was wearing one of those protective rubber condom thingies probably helped a great deal, at least with the cosmetic blemishes you might expect the camera to acquire from such a tumble. I'm utterly amazed at the 1030SW's toughness. And it takes great pictures!
WOLFMAN EXPLORER TANKBAG - I love tankbags. There's one on nearly every motorcycle I own. I'd always heard good things about Wolfman products and decided to try one for the GS. It's the perfect bag for that bike. Fits great, doesn't get in my way, and holds plenty of stuff. My only complaint about Wolfman is that they sell the rain cover for the bag separately (IMO, for what they charge, the bag should be included), but get this (being the cheap SOB that I am, you know I didn't spring for the rain cover): despite the near constant rain endured on the Alaska trip, the things in my tankbag remained mostly dry. Yeah, there was a bit of dampness, but never enough to concern me, even with expensive camera gear in the bag. I had brought along some plastic trash bags to wrap around the tankbag and anything else I got worried about, but I never used them.
SLEEPING BAG - If I were to do this trip again, I'd leave the sleeping bag behind. Never touched it, even those nights when we stayed in cabins where we feared bedding might not be provided. Not carrying the bag wouldn't have saved a lot on weight, but it would have freed up a large space on the back of the bike. Same for the towel that I carried, figuring I would need it somewhere. Toward the end of the trip, I actually wound up shredding my towel and using it for rags (I'd brought an old, throw-away towel just for that purpose). I never used the swimming trunks I brought either (but that's because we didn't visit the hot springs as planned) and I could have done without the sneakers I dragged along - so those are a couple other items
that would have lightened my load a bit and freed up some space on the bike.
WIDDER ELECTRIC VEST - I've praised my electric gear before and must do so again. If you keep your core temp up, your heart keeps sending warm blood to your extremities. It's as simple as that. I never travel anywhere where it might drop below 50 degrees without my electric vest. It got used a LOT on this trip.
RAIN GEAR - Over the years, I've come to the realization that everything that was once waterproof eventually fails. My Cortech boots used to keep my feet nice and dry, but they failed miserably on this trip, leaving me with generally wet and very cold feet. (I have a brand new pair of Sidi Discovery boots at home, but haven't broken them in and didn't want to risk being uncomfortable on the trip. They would have been a better boot choice and probably would have kept my feet dry.) The Cortechs are about 3 years old now, have seen tens of thousands of miles of riding, and are essentially my daily footwear around the office since I ride most days of the week ... so, color them worn out. Great boots, and I will buy a new pair to replace them, but evidently the Gortex-like lining just doesn't do its job forever. Same problem with the Fieldsheer pants I was wearing. They used to keep me high and dry, even in a steady, day-long downpour. No more. When it was raining bad on this trip, I broke out a rainsuit, which generally kept me dry (except for my feet). I've had these fail after a couple years of hard use, too, so I think the best strategy is to buy the cheapest rain suits that you can find and toss them quite often. The only problem with the rainsuit is that they don't breathe and are hot to wear, and if you're stubborn like me, you generally wait until you're already wet before you pull over to don the damn thing.
SHOEI MULTITEC HELMET - I developed something of a love-hate relationship with this helmet. First of all, Shoei's sizing just seems off to me. I generally wear a large in helmets, however, even Shoe's medium size is too loose on me. Second, the helmet fogs up horribly. This was a constant problem on the trip. Third complaint: a cold driving rain somehow always seemed to find my left ear. For the life of me, I could not figure out how rain was getting into that helmet, but it did. Not just in my ear, but rain would also run down the inside of the visor from time to time. The visor is also extremely tight and difficult to raise, partially because the plastic tab is so small and difficult to locate while wearing gloves but mostly because the damn mechanism is so tight. I hoped it would loosen up over the course of the trip, but it really never did. Having said all that, the helmet's modular function works extremely well, raising and lowering easily, even while wearing gloves, and locking in place with a nice, firm "click." (Danny was constantly beating on his Shark helmet to get the chin piece to lock into place. His words: "If you treat this helmet like a cheap piece of crap, it does all right.") Ventilation in the Shoei was excellent. It was reasonably quiet. And fit and finish are up to Shoei's usual standards. It's not going to be an around-the-town helmet for me, but you'll probably see it on future trips.
FOGTECH - This stuff is overpriced crap. Save your money. I originally bought it because of a glowing review at Webbikeworld (and for that reason I no longer trust their reviews, as they generally fail to put products through any sort of real world test; for example, when they tested this stuff, they held visors over a boiling pot of water to determine whether the visor steamed up). You apply it to the inside of your visor and let it dry. Problem is - and I've tried this on several visor brands now - it leaves a squirrelly haze that interferes with your vision. I'm sure at that point, it probably does keep the visor from fogging up, but if you're looking through a distorted coke-bottle-glasses miasma, who cares? So, what you wind up doing is trying to wipe away the haze, eventually having to resort to using a wet rag. Then you notice that the Fogtech packet says "To remove, use water." Crap. Utter crap. Want to try some? I still have a few packets I'll gladly sell you.
PIAA 510 OFFROAD LIGHTS - Great while they lasted, the Haul Road claimed both bulbs in my PIAAs. Vibration would be my guess. This was incredibly frustrating because Danny had mounted cheap, $15 Walmart lights on his Strom ... AND THEY WORKED JUST FINE. I spent something like $180 on the PIAAs - top-of-the-line OFFroad equipment, made to endure that sort of vibration and abuse, right? - and they failed me. Does PIAA use cheap bulbs? You wouldn't know it from the replacement costs. A single PIAA replacement bulb costs more than Danny's entire lighting setup. WTF? To make matters worse, the last week of the trip, the headlight bulb in the GS went out as well. I was down to only my high beam until I stopped somewhere in Canada and bought a replacement bulb for the GS's headlight. I figured the PIAAs could wait until I got home (besides, I needed an offset screwdriver to open the lens and I hadn't brought one). While the PIAAs were working, I think they did a great job of making me visible to motorists, which is why I had installed them (It's not like we had any darkness to ride in up there).
BEAD POPPER - Funny how something I initially thought was so worthless would ultimately become an essential part of my tool kit. If you're doing tire changes by hand, you need one of these. It's sure a lot quicker than a lot of insane jumping up and down, running over the tire with a vehicle, or any other crazy bead-breaking techniques I've seen tried.
DEET - Really works. I had some Deep Woods Off wipes in little one-time-use packets. The mosquitoes thought that was pretty funny. "Hey, loan me one of those wipes, so I can freshen up a bit, eh?" Danny brought some Deet and just a little bit of that stuff had the skeeters hovering and buzzing angrily, terrified to land on your flesh. You know what else worked? Those mosquito coil thingies that you light. When we stayed at the Moose Creek Lodge in their cabin, the ladies were thoughtful enough to provide one. You could light it for 15 minutes or so and it would clear the room of skeeters like magic. We swiped what was left of the coil and took it with us, using it several more times on the trip.
GARMIN ZUMO GPS - What an awesome piece of technology. Don't leave home without a GPS. Never had a lick of trouble with mine ... well, except for the fact that for some strange reason the display switches into night mode within a certain range of the Arctic Circle. The first time it happened, I thought it was dust fooling the daylight sensor, but then when it happened again crossing the Arctic Circle, I realized it was some bizarre firmware bug. Didn't even help changing the settings to permanent daylight display mode; the GPS still went into night time mode around the Arctic Circle, clearing up on its own a certain distance away.
FREE WIRELESS INTERNET - More prevalent than you might think, even in the Great White North. The real problem on a trip like this is finding the time and energy to use it. I'd also brought along a book to read ... never opened it. Strange, my Wild Turkey American Honey got used up in the first week...
CREDIT CARDS - For some inexplicable reason, the Canadians will put all these bogus "pending" charges on your credit cards when you use them. If you're checking your account online, you'll see these appear in totally random amounts ranging from 80-90 bucks to a couple hundred. They'll be labeled as "pending." Check again a day or two later and the pending charge will have been replaced with the actual charge, say a ten dollar tank of gas or whatever. Don't know why they do this. I guess when you swipe the card, it authorizes up to a certain amount. It's probably an even, logical amount in Canadian dollars, but then gets converted to US currency, hence the random and bizarre figure. Later, the actual charge comes in from the merchant, replacing the authorized/pending amount. Anyway, my point (I do have one) is not to panic if you see this going on, think someone has stolen your card number and is running up charges on your credit card, and call to have the card canceled. Remember, you're on vacation. Don't worry; be happy.
CANADIAN CURRENCY - Don't try to slip the cashier at McDonald's a few Canadian coins when you pay for your Big Mac. He'll panic, call for the store manager, and damn near bring in Homeland Security to figure out what kinda commie bastard you are. How self-centered are we here in the States? Walk into the smallest business in Canada and hand them U.S. currency. They won't bat an eye. They'll take it, figure out the exchange rate, and count back your change in Canadian money. I've experienced the same thing in Mexico and other countries. But just try to pay for something in the States with foreign currency ... Can't be done.
MARVIN THE MOOSE - He really did know his way around up north. Danny kept making wrong turns, so maybe I should have put Marvin on his bike...?
Labels: Alaska, motorcycles
posted by Brian A. Hopkins at 4:41 PM
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