Having toured the whole country now, I found myself getting rid of a handful of things I thought I’d need, but never really used. Things like a telescoping fishing pole (Fishing license laws and a healthy fear of doing things that might attract bears or wildlife made this way less of an option than I had originally imagined), a solar panel to charge my equipment that did virtually nothing in practice, A full service manual for the bike (If the work is complicated enough to use a manual, it’s probably too complicated to do on the road), and my purse (going places without my handbag was a really tough mental step for me, especially with how small and useless women’s jean pockets can be, haha). Some of these things that made the cut, particularly in the way of clothing items, perhaps fall more into vanity than actually being legitimately useful. Jeans are a bit bulky, but spending every single day of my life wearing base layers as normal clothes sometimes gets old. You’d be amazed some of the tiny, silly things that become mini morale boosters- things like actually smelling good or looking kind of, sort of, almost like a presentable human being. I’ve given up a lot since I started on these road trips, but getting to stand on a warm, sunny beach in a flowery sundress is not one of them, dammit!