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.
Full Touring / Alaska 2028 Loadout – What Does This Mean?
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.
Let’s look at luggage weight
Right Panier (including weight of panier itself) = 50 Pounds
Left Panier (including weight of panier itself) = 50 Pounds
Top Case (including weight of top case itself) = 28 Pounds
Medic Bag / First Aid Kit (strapped on top of top case) = 9 Pounds
Reax Poseidon Dy Bag (including dry bag weight itself) = 36 Pounds
The planned ride into Alabama with Tristan as Pillon was to ride into Alabama from Douglasville, Georga on Georgia Highway 5 / Alabama Highway 48, grab a quick lunch in Lineville, Alabama and then ride north on Alabama Highway 281 through the Talladega National Forest and then back to Douglasville, GA via non-interstate for a planned total of 178 miles roundtrip.
This section of Alabama Highway 281 has some nice twisties and some pretty hill country and rolls by Cheaha Mountain, at an elevation of 2,413 feet, is Alabama’s highest natural point.
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.
Dexter’s Last Tour – Deals Gap to Robbinsville North Carolina on US Highway 129.
The weekend touring trip of the North Carolina / Tennessee mountains was the last touring trip with Dexter, my 2005 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic. On October 4th, 2025, I put down the deposit to purchase Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davison Pan America 1250 Special.
The final ride (excluding ride to Atlanta Harley-Davidson for trade in) was on October 10th, 2025 when DeAndra and I rode from Douglasville, GA to Newnan, GA to have lunch at Culver’s (about 67 miles round trip).
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).
So, I have only owned my ’25 Pan America 1250 Special (named Bruce, my wife has the honor of naming all my motorcycles) since mid-October 2025. As of today, I only have just under 500 miles on the bike. Yet, I have managed to drop it 3 times thus far (twice today). All are knuckle head moments from myself and getting used to this bike (which I love but dang, 3 drops already). For comparison, I used to own a 2005 HD Ultra Classic (Dexter) which I have also dropped 3 times, but in a span of 8 years, not just over 3 months lol).
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.
The weekend of 9/12/2025 – 9/14/2025 I rode a fantastic weekend trip up in the North Carolina / Tennessee mountains and rode the Tail of the Dragon (and several other roads).
It was a bit sketchy and rusty in the mountains as this was my first real ride of any kind in two years! Since the conclusion of my USA Midwest 2023 trip on September 16, 2023, I had only ridden about 200 miles, 200 miles in two years!
Shortly after the USA Midwest 2023 trip I had began working two jobs and simply had no time for, well pretty much anything. I quit my second job in late June 2025.
So, naturally after only riding for about 200 miles in two years, I logically concluded the first road trip would be Tail of the Dragon, a highly technical road in the North Carolia / Tennessee mountains. I must admit that indeed, I felt rusty and took the pace even slower than I normally ride. However, it was still fun, and the scenery was amazing (though admittedly I really was not paying attention to the scenery while riding).
As the day progressed I rode several other mountain roads, and became more comfortable in the saddle.
Wanderlust Lyfe 