Equipment: Upgrades and More Upgrades

March 4, 2009

In my past journals I have been complaining about sleeping poorly in our little MSR tent (can't remember its name but it is no longer manufactured). I am hoping the solution will be a larger tent. We invested in the MSR Mutha Hubba and are eager to try it out. The tent has a lot of positive features and if I don't sleep well now it won't be the fault of the tent. More on the tent, hopefully not on sleeping problems, after we've tried it out.

MSR's Mutha Hubba - Enough room so that we both don't have to roll over at the same time

Another chronic complaint has been that we usually end up spending more money than intended. To make our money go a little further and thus allow us to stay on the road longer, we have decided to make a go at cooking while touring. We now have the Trangia burner-and-pots set and Orikaso folding cups and plates. Spending money to save money: I wonder how many tentside meals we must consume to make the investments pay off.

Carrying a stove means a little more weight - but then, cooking in those little pots we might end up losing weight

It would be nice if the folding plates would fill automatically, like in the picture

I might still prefer to go for a cappuccino in the morning, but I'm game for a nice one pot meal at the end of the day. Shopping in Italian markets and looking at their enticing products will be fun and I expect the wine will taste just as good on our campsite as it does in the "ristorante". I'll let you know in the course of the journal how the cooking works out.

Now comes the confession. I'm just a little embarrassed to admit to our extravagance but there is no way I can keep it a secret if we are to publish pictures from our trip. I shouldn't be making a point of it in case you don't know or forgot, but we did buy new bicycles last year, very nice ones, and I still love that bike and ride it all the time.

I won't hem and haw any longer - we decided we needed folding bikes for future travels, yes, we have ordered Bike Fridays. It isn't that long ago that I thought folding bikes were, well, not real bikes and I wouldn't have wanted to be caught dead riding one. I now know better. They are very fine, high-quality machines and in all the journals on traveling with a Bike Friday I have read, I have yet to read of a negative experience. Actually, they are all brimming with enthusiasm. I will report duly after our tour in Tuscany with more details on models and components, and of course there will be pictures.

Once we have our Bike Fridays it will be possible to take trips by bus, train or plane and have our bikes with us. As for getting around town, we can use our bikes or the excellent public transportation in Munich. So why do we need a car? We don't, we have just sold it.

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Charmaine RuppoltWow, neat that you sold your car! Great that you use your Bike Fridays and use public transportation to get around Munich. :) It can be done! :)
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