This video contains the start of Day 7 departing Dupuis Campground – Canal Point, Florida and my ride east to the coast on Florida Highway A1A in Stuart, Florida. This morning’s ride starts rural, transitions to suburban metropolitan and then into coastal areas.
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Florida Loop 2026 is the not so clever name for my motorcycle touring trip, riding a loop of the state of Florida…. hence the name of the trip
Florida Loop 2026 Total Miles = 2,261
Day 2 miles traveled = 286 Miles riding Big Lagoon State Park in Pensacola, Florida east on US Highway 98 to Holiday Inn Express in Perry, Florida
The original end of day plan for today was to camp at the Ocen Pond Campground near Lake City, Florida. However, I had a very late start today rolling out of camp around 1:30PM waiting for the heavy rain to subside enough so that I wouldn’t have to tear down camp in the heavy rain. I hate packing away soaked gear (it was still wet but not soaked by the time I packed up camp).
The heavy rains started at about 5:30AM and persisted for most of the day up until about 11:30AM – Noon.
Camp setup and tear down took me a bit longer than normal as a lot of my gear was new to me on this trip and I was also a bit rusty having been nearly 3 years since I last moto camped during my USA Midwest 2023 motorcycle tour.
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April 13, 2026
In this video, I review my successfully completed 2,261 Mile tour of Florida. Florida Loop 2026 launched on April 4th, 2026 and completed on April 11th, 2026. I discuss the trip overall, the good, the bad, and the ugly of this tour. I also discuss some change concerning future tours and other things to think about.
Not everything during this trip went smoothly, namely weather, traffric, and errors in route planning on my part. That being said, for the most part, the Florida Loop Tour went as planned and was a successful maiden tour of Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special motorcyle and most of my equipment, camping gear, and riding gear. The only carryover piece of equipment from my previous motorcycle tours was my tent. This tour was not just to travel Florida and check off another state on my quest to ride all 50 states before my expiration, but also a test run of my ’25 Pan America, its configuration, and all of the new gear and equipment.
I will be making additional posts and videos detailing each travel day in more detail to also include riding videos. I also plan to review some of my new camping equipmet and how it faired during this trip. I meant do some of this content and a daily video diary during the trip, but that instantly proved to not be viable due to some extensive travel delays.
Florida Loop 2026 was successfully completed at around 9PM EDT – April 11th, 2026. Total miles = 2,261, so less than the estimated 2,495 miles…..I have failed LOL Just kidding.
I am stil in a bit of travel haze right now. Once that clears, I wil start making blog entries and videos about the trip, Bruce, and my gear.
This trip felt much more like a rat race compared to some of my previous trips. I often found myself pressed for time, exhausted and sometimes pretty frusturated. There are many factors at play but weather, traffic density, and speed limits were the driving factors thowing off planned parts of the trip. Certainly some some things to consider in regards to future trips.
All of that being said, I consider Florida Loop 2026 a success even with some dinge on it LOL.
My Full Touring / Alaska 2028 Loadout is my touring packing load for extended long distance motorcycle touring / camping trips. For example, I am looking at my Alaska 2028 trip to be 43 days in total with 7 days in Anchorage with my son and wife for a family vacation. This setup is for spending weeks traveling on the motorcycle with significant camping involved.
To be clear, this is way overkill for my Florida Loop 2026 trip. But I am using that trip as my test flight per say for my motorcyle configuation and full touring loadout. Less extensive trips will have reduced loadout accordingly, especially trips that does not involve camping. I would say more than half of the items packed are related to camping.
Total Weight with empty Giant Loop Armadillo Bag = 200.75 Pounds
Total Weight with full Giant Loop Armadillo Bag = 219.35 Pounds
Total gear weight is about the weight of an adult.
Florida Loop 2026 is the not so clever name for my upcoming motorcycle touring trip, riding a loop of the state of Florida…. hence the name of the trip .
The trip as planned will be 8 days starting from Douglasville, Georgia to Pensacola, Florida and follow along the gulf and Florida’s west coast to the Everglades and Key West, Florida. Then turn around and roll north following Florida’s east coast (more or less) and some interior back to Douglasville, Georgia.
Planned Miles = 2,495
Camping Nights = 5
Hotel stays = 2
Kickstand up: April 04, 2026
This will be my first touring trip with Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special.
For all of the planned details of this touring trip, Click Here for my original Florida Loop 2026 post.
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Alaska 2028 Overview
As I have mentioned in other posts and videos, Alaska 2028 will be my motorcycle touring trip planned to start on June 23, 2028 and end on August 01, 2028 consisting of 11,781 planned miles.
The entire trip is planned to last 40 days including 7 days in Anchorage, AK family vacation where my wife (DeAndra) and son (Tristan) will fly up from Atlanta, GA and meet me in Anchorage.
I will camp for 13 nights, stay in hotels 18 nights, and 7 nights in an Airbnb in Anchorage, AK as part of the family vacation. There will be 4 two night stays during the trip.
– 2 nights in Coon Rapids, Minnesota – Short visit with my daughters and grandkids.
– 2 nights in Essex, Montana – Ride Glacier National Park / Train Nerd stuff & Laundry
– 2 nights in Fairbanks, Alaska – Motorcycle servicing and tires
– 2 nights in Kamloops, BC Canada – Motorcycle servicing and tires.
Full Loadout for Alaska (and other long distance tours)
I have been testing my Alaska loadout on Bruce (my ’25 Pan America 1250 Special) and have it complete. The bike is significantly heavier (about 120 pounds of stuff) but is the complete loadout to include clothing, tools, electronics, 6 Mountain house meals, riding gear, and camping gear). When hauling 2 gallons of water and emergency gasoline, this will add an additional 28.7 pounds to the load. I will create an updated packing list and video covering the “final” Alaska Loadout. I will be testing this configuration further during my Florida Loop 2026 – Motorcycle Touring Trip this coming April (4/04/2026 – 4/11/2026).
While this is still a heavy (Bike + packed gear) = about 787 pounds less water and extra gasoline, this is still 61 pounds less than Dexter (’05 HD Ultra Classic) wet not including the huge load I would pack onto Dexter (at least 1100 pounds). So, my total packed weight now is at least 300 pounds less than when I toured with Dexter (likely even more).
Test rides on Bruce with the full load were great with no issue in handling or ride, with the exception of stalling the bike when the engine was cold, resulting in a slow motion drop to the left side as I was engaged in a left turn. I have learned that this engine really needs to be warmed up properly before heading out. I have stalled it other times as well (no load) on a cold engine.
And of course, when testing mounting and dismounting techniques I dropped the bike on the right side while dismounting from the right side and my boot caught the seat. The good news is I was able to pick up the bike without too much effort with the full load on the bike. Of course, I would prefer not to drop the bike at all LOL. Also, I now mount and dismount from the left again doing a bunny hop to get my right leg through the seat (required when the bike has the full load).
Full Alaska Load Packed onto Bruce
Florida Loop 2026 Motorcycle Tour Overview
Florida Loop 2026 is the not so clever name for my upcoming motorcycle touring trip, riding a loop of the state of Florida…. hence the name of the trip 😊
The trip as planned will be 8 days starting from Douglasville, Georgia to Pensacola, Florida and follow along the gulf and Florida’s west coast to the Everglades and Key West, Florida. Then turn around and roll north following Florida’s east coast (more or less) and some interior back to Douglasville, Georgia.
Planned Miles = 2,495
Camping Nights = 5
Hotel stays = 2
Kickstand up: April 04, 2026
This will be my first touring trip with Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special.
I will be camping on the Gulf coast in Pensacola, Lake City, and later in the Everglades National Park (Gator bait lol), then near Lake Okeechobee, and again in Lake City on the way back to Georgia. Key West and Chokoloskee will be hotel stays.
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A somewhat, sort of, not really brief overview of my motorcycle luggage and some of the new camp gear. At present, the only two camp items that are carrying over from my previous motorcycle camping trips is my ALPS Mountaineering Tasmanian 2-Person Tent and camp skillet with a folding handle. Everything else has been replaced with new gear.
The main driver for the new gear is the quest to pack smaller and lighter. So far, my loadout for Bruce is substantially less than what I would pack for Dexter. There are still some luxury items and things I could do without, but I’m getting old and comfort is more important.
There are always those who scream you overpack. While I have overpacked on previous trips, this is much less. I am convinced that I could only pack a string bikini and someone would scream I am over packing….to which I reply cool, you do you boo! 😊
I will discuss more about the electronics I am hauling including the HoverAir X1 PROMAX drone later.
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Day 12 starts with my departure from Diamond Lake Count Park near Kandiyohi Minnesota. I rolled south to US Highway 12 and headed east rolling through Atwater, Grove City, Litchfield, Dassel, Cokato, Howard Lake, Waverly and Montrose. From Montrose I roll north through Buffalo and then St Michael, Rogers, Dayton, and finally Champlin.
This portion total Miles was about 92 miles.
Wanderlust Lyfe 