May, 2017 serious planning for Alaska begins!

I have been collecting Alaska trip planners, magazines and youtube videos on routes, lodging and attractions in Ak for six months.  I had my ideas of how I wanted to go but this was the first time that I sat down with Basecamp to plan it out.  I also had the added plan to have Pattie fly into Calgary and we would spend a week on the bike exploring the Canadian Rockies.  So a lot of work to do here.  Since I would be gone for 6-7 weeks I decided to take my car to my daughter in Reston, VA so she could use it for the summer, I had no need for it.  I left on May 30 to Reston and as I was passing through Manassas, Va at a stop light something happened.  I didn't know where I was or why I was in the car and the car behind me was honking and the light was green.  I had enough sense to pull off the road into what turned out to be a Burger King and sat for maybe 20 minutes before it started to come back to me that I was going to my daughters.  I parked the car diagonally across 2 spaces and went into the BK for a soda.  Another 20 minutes and I was feeling shaky but it was only 15 minutes to her house via GPS.  I slowly drove to her house.  Pattie was ticked off that I didn't call 911 and go to the hospital but at the time I really didn't know what I was dealing with and my goal was to get to Megan's and have lunch then catch the Metro to the Amtrak station to take the train home.

I had lunch and took Lyft to the train station but was very shaky in the Metro and I don't remember much of the trip.  I saw the Dr the next day and then I was banned from riding the motorcycle or driving the car for 30 days.  While the tests at Duke didn't find anything the Dr was pretty sure I had a small stroke or TIA.  Wow this sure screws up a trip!! For 3 or the 4 weeks I was unsteady on my feet and the worst part was my ability to respond to questions with quick wit was gone.  It felt like when someone talked to me that everything was in slow motion and I couldn't respond without pausing for a moment to digest it all.

So, the Alaska trip is gone because it doesn't seem reasonable to be in the back country for a period of weeks if my head may not be in the game.  It took into July before I felt close to normal and the first thing I wanted to do was go for a short camping trip to see how I handle the bike and being alone, my preferred manner of travel.  So a new plan was developed.