Zombie Apocalypse Averted by Prepared Biker

Yeah, I'm awesome. Please line up to the right for high fives.

OK, so here in the real world, I think the Zombie Apocalypse is pretty unlikely. I mean, it's good to be prepared, but I kind of expect the walking dead to just congregate around shopping malls and Ikea and leave me the hell alone.

All the same, preparing for the worst case scenario is a good exercise in order to be ready for mundane annoyances. Irritation, after all, is far more likely than cataclysm.

Not that I'll admit to that in public, you understand. This is between us, OK?

Lady Luck and I went up to Flagstaff, AZ for the weekend. We stayed at the Little America Hotel. Generally speaking, we've had good experiences at that hotel. This weekend, however, was an exception.

Zombies, you know?

Well, OK, the dead have not (yet) risen and taken over scenic Flagstaff. However, the power in the hotel went out for a solid 10 hours. This was, of course, in the evening. After a day of causing trouble, we got back to a very dark, and very spooky Little America Hotel. It seems silly now, but being in a dark, silent hotel is quite unnerving. I blame Stephen King.

Anyway, because I am one prepared fellow, I had a flashlight with me. The front desk loaned us oil lamps, but the wicks were too short to give off any significant light. The wicks were also too short to grab bare-fingered. Being a good Moto-Scout, I had on my belt a Leatherman PST, which just so happens to have needle-nose pliers built in. I had the wicks adjusted in seconds, and we had enough light to avoid stubbing our toes on random furniture lurking in the dark.

...Too bad I didn't have a source of fire. This was quickly remedied (before getting back to the room, actually), as the gas station across the street still had plenty of electricity. I've now added a Bic lighter to my list of Every Day Carry items. I plan to wrap a few feet of duct tape around it as well. You never know when you might need to stick something to another thing and then light them both on fire.

So, I guess this really wasn't a gripping tale of survival against overwhelming odds equipped with nothing but a paperclip and a Swiss Army Knife, but having a few basic items with me saved us from a miserable evening in a dark, silent, hotel room. Prepare for the worst, so you can easily deal with the annoying.

This, of course, applies to motorcycles and most any other situation. The best time to have a tire repair kit is before you need it. Same with band-aids, water and chewing gum.

Overlooking Those Technical Details...

I have a great post all written up. Three of them, actually. I wrote them all yesterday when I went to a coffee shop with Lady Luck. She needed to study, and I needed to look cool in a coffee shop tapping away on a laptop. It all worked out pretty well.

The trick, of course, is that the laptop is a Mac. And the computer I use during the day, the one I write most of my posts on, is a PC. And I forgot to export all my brilliant writing in a compatible format.

Which is to say, my great writing is trapped in its storage medium until I can free it this evening. Whoops.

So I guess I'll have to talk about something else today. Here goes.

I went to an Army surplus store the other day to pick up various items in case of Zombie Apocalypse. I'm also planning on doing some motorcycle camping and perhaps a backpacking trip or two this year, so I wanted to see what there was in the way of gently used military gear. I was kind of disappointed to discover that a lot of the gear, such as ALICE packs, cost as much as equivalent gear at REI or Bass Pro Shops. What's up with that? I mean, I like the surplus aesthetic*, but why buy an ALICE pack if I can get an equivalent backpack that's actually comfortable for the same price?

Apart from the luggage problem, I'm also trying to figure out what to do about cooking. Almost every time I've been camping recently, there's been a "no campfire" rule in effect, which makes it hard to whip up pancakes and coffee in the morning. So I'm thinking of getting a camping stove. Right now I'm leaning towards a Coleman dual fuel backpacking stove, because white gas is cheap and easy to find relative to special isobutane canisters. Can anyone impart some wisdom?



*There is, after all, no such thing as "Too Mad Max"

Deja Vu on my Commute

This morning I got stuck riding behind a black S.U.V. on the freeway. Of course, the driver was a slowbie, and wouldn't move to the right to let me pass. I slowed down to maintain a safe following distance, and cruised along to my exit.

The S.U.V. took my exit. Nothing weird there. Then they turned the same way I do. Again, not that weird.

Then, after the next stoplight, they were off to the races. That was weird. They did weird things like changing lanes back and forth for no reason and passing another car which was travelling plenty quick.

I coincidentally followed this truck all the way to my parking garage, where the driver did an abrupt U-turn I'd seen performed by a black S.U.V. another time...

It made me think of a detail in Wiseguy, how the gangsters would drive erratically to see if they were being followed. Apparently someone was a little paranoid this morning.

Dear S.U.V. pilot - I'm still not stalking you. I'm still not trying to kill you. We just happen to take the same route to work in the same place. Have a nice day.