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Motorcycle Safety and Awareness
Welcome to Think Bike, the podcast about all things motorcycle and the voice of motorcycle safety and awareness in Alberta. Your host is Liane Langlois.
Liane:Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Think Bike. I am super excited for this week's episode because I just kinda stumbled across these guys on social media, and they are the Morrisons en route. And I would like to welcome Tanya and Bret Morrison to the show. Hi, guys.
Bret:Thanks for having us.
Liane:Yeah. Well, you guys are on quite the adventure. But before we get into that, I just kinda wanna know who you guys are and what got you into riding? Brett, we'll start with you.
Bret:What got me into riding? Who I am. I am from I have a small town Alberta guy that I grew up with, like, ATVs and around dirt bikes and quads my whole life and never bought a motorbike because I always kind of figured that I would just hurt myself on them. And then same when we got married, it was never I should buy one because, again, I was young and reckless and didn't want to get hurt. So they were always kind of there, wanted them, just never really got into it until this trip.
Liane:And so when did you get a license?
Bret:A month before we took off on this trip. So a year ago a year ago July.
Liane:So is that the same for you then, Tanya?
Tanya:Yep. The only thing is I didn't have as much on ATVs and things. I'd been on quads and snowmobiles and stuff, but not as much as he did. But I was always that athletic, and I had never even thought about owning a motorbike or anything. I didn't even know how to use a clutch until last year.
Tanya:So he got his life he got his license, and then he was able to take me to do stop signs and go to town. But it was a month after he got his, I got mine, and we left for a trip three weeks later.
Liane:Oh my god. That's yeah. I you know, there's you hear of these things, and then they actually happen. And we're we're still not gonna get into this trip because, in the little tiny bit of research I did on you guys, I understand you did a whole, like, worldwide backpack trip.
Tanya:Yes.
Liane:What were some of your highlights on that?
Tanya:There's so in total, we've done 70 countries. So to try and pick just one or two highlights is very hard.
Liane:Okay. Give me give me a few then.
Tanya:So in in India, we ended up crashing two weddings. So by crash, I mean, we got invited, but they let us crash the wedding. So it was it was very cool. We got to go to a for love marriage and an arranged marriage, so we got to see the differences. But it was very cool to be a part of someone else's culture and just to see it and just be able to appreciate the stuff that they do.
Bret:Yeah. And then the other really good one or cool adventure we had, we went to Thailand and went to an island called Koh Tao. Just gonna go there for a couple weeks and enjoy some scuba diving. And about nine months later, we finally left the island after becoming dive masters and working on the island in a big school there for nine months. So we lived, worked there, and we've been back to that island three times to work there.
Bret:Yeah. So
Tanya:That's crazy. Started scuba diving. I also didn't wanna do because I was scared of water or scared of being under the water. I was scared of fish. And so Brett's like, hey.
Tanya:You wanna go scuba diving? And I'm like, no. I don't. Those being underwater with fish, not for me. And then by the time we left the island, we had about 1,500 dives.
Liane:Oh, Jesus. I mean, for me, like, I'm a water person. I love the water. But scuba diving scares me because of claustrophobia feelings. Yeah.
Liane:That's Like, this this fisher point.
Bret:Yeah. Tanya was very claustrophobic with it, and it took a really good instructor to teach her in the pool, like, how to be calm with your mask being taken off and relaxing until until he taught her, she did not like it. And then once he dealt with her and went through that very slow, it's like she just went underwater one day and went, oh, this is amazing.
Tanya:Yeah. Because I was scared of someone kicking my mask off and then feeling like I couldn't breathe. And I still had the regulator in my mouth, so I was still able to breathe. But my thoughts were if my mask came off, my nose was in the water, so I couldn't breathe. It didn't make any sense, but but now I'm okay.
Liane:So then when did you guys get home from this worldwide trip?
Tanya:So we started traveling in 2010, and we would travel until we ran out of money. And then we would go back and work for a couple months or however long, and then leave again and travel until we ran out of money. And we've done that pretty much the last fifteen years. Mean lesson. Yeah.
Bret:It's kinda been on and off. Like, would do one trip would last six months because it was more expensive. The next one would be two years would be on the road, and then we'd be back home again. And then we get back home and it was, okay. Let's go and search for a job and see what we can find out there that's gonna pay really good and do it all over again.
Liane:So where do you stay when you do that? Like, you're backpacking. So are you camping, or do you, like, find hostels? Or
Bret:When we're back home?
Liane:Well, when you're out traveling.
Bret:Oh, yeah. So anywhere, like, we do lots of camping. When we were backpacking, we did mainly hostels when we were younger because everybody does that. And then we got into just guesthouses, motels, basically search for the cheapest option in that area and go stay there and see what it's like.
Tanya:Yeah. So we don't really plan too far ahead in most things. The last trip that we went on, we started in Europe or we started in The UK, and then we plans didn't go the way they were supposed to, which I'm sure we'll get into after. But we ended up bouncing from one country to the other because we didn't know what to do. So we just we look for the cheapest option and then go from there because we both have the same kind of mindset where we don't really like to plan ahead because if we really like somewhere, we wanna be able stay.
Tanya:And if we don't like it, we wanna be able to go.
Liane:Yeah. Have that flexibility.
Bret:Yeah. Yeah. And the accommodations can be anything from a well, we stayed in a dollar a night hostel in Cambodia. That was horrid. And we've also rented camper vans and driven around like Australia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia.
Bret:So it all depends on how we feel and what's cheap.
Liane:I mean, that it just sounds like a life that not a lot of people could do. And like, kudos to you guys for being married and, you know, having both the same adventurous souls, which then brings us to you last year deciding to get a motorcycle license and go on a trip. Like, how does that how does that become a thing? How how do you all of a sudden go, I know what's next. Let's get on motorcycles and go.
Tanya:So that when we were in The UK, what we were doing there was we were actually we had been planning for the previous two years to buy a sailboat. So we went to The UK to do the course that you have to do in order to be on a boat. And then we were gonna go and work on a boat to kinda learn the ropes and all of that kind of stuff. And we did the course, passed the course, loved the course. It was amazing.
Tanya:Heard that you could apply to jobs in Spain. So it was it was easy to get jobs or it was resumes you could hand out, like just walk to the boats. So we we were flew to Italy and then took a ferry across to Spain. So the ferry is twenty eight hours. For twenty seven and a half hours, I was sick.
Tanya:So I took Brett's dreams, and I went like this and crushed them like this and threw them away.
Bret:Yeah. So then we found out she gets major seasickness. We just flopped around Europe for six months. But then we got back home, and we knew we wanted to go to South America and Central America because we had never been there. And we were just trying to figure out a way to get through.
Bret:Because after Europe, we had done, like, 19 countries through buses. And
Tanya:Well, and we did all of the Balkans and the Baltics all the way up in on buses. So it was like six months of straight buff. Yeah.
Bret:And we got home, and I was like, I can't do buses anymore. I'm like, I'm I'm done with buses. So we started looking into other ways. And I like, well, we could buy an Overland vehicle. And because everybody wants to live down by the river in a Mercedes Sprinter van, the price of them, they're outrageous to I looked at one the other day again.
Bret:To build out a Sprinter van, just the interior build was 250,000 US, not including the van. So I was like, I can't we can't do that. I'm not gonna justify buying a van or something that costs that much money and drive it into Central And South America with no insurance on it.
Tanya:We were staying in dollar hostels.
Bret:So then I had mentioned years ago, we could do motorbike trip, and it just never took off. It never went anywhere. And then we were sitting at home. I was like, why don't we do it on motorbikes? And it's like she just went, that's a really good idea.
Bret:And as soon as she said, I'm in, I dove into, okay, now I gotta search up motorbikes, figure out what's a good bike. What do we do? What's the logistics? Is this actually possible? That was I think that was a year before we actually left is when we started looking into it.
Liane:Yeah. And then what did you end up buying for bikes?
Bret:So I searched for and I went through every bike they've ever made for an adventure bike. Because I knew we wanted to do when I said we were gonna do this trip, I was like, we're doing off road. That's all there is to it. I wanna be able to go off road. So I started looking for adventure bikes.
Bret:And for Tanya being
Tanya:I'm five one with a 29 inch inseam.
Liane:Oh, I but I'm just I'm just gonna tell you, the struggle is real for vertically challenged both of my bikes. I'm on my tiptoes. Like, hear you. I feel it.
Tanya:I'm not even on my tiptoes. I'm on one tiptoe and the other one's on the pin. So I I know the struggles that you have.
Bret:There's not many adventure bikes that are good for shorter for shorter people, really. It's not just women. It's shorter people. So I looked through them, and I found out that the Honda 300 Rally could be lowered. I was like, well, perfect.
Bret:We can get that and lower it. And then I had fallen in love with the Ducati I don't even remember what it's called. The Ducati Rally X or something or the Desert X and the Tenere 700 from Yamaha.
Tanya:Yes.
Bret:And when we started looking at the two different ones, I was like, well, the Yamaha is way cheaper, and it's way more reliable for for what I was looking at, the service intervals and everything. So we put in an order for a Honda Rally and a Yamaha Tenere without ever seeing a bike. I'd never actually seen the bikes in person.
Tanya:I had never even sat on a bike.
Liane:Well, you you chose well for you know? I mean, I think if you're planning a trip to Central And South America, you kinda have to plan for off road because the roads are probably not gonna be the greatest that you're gonna come up on. But yeah. No. Both both solid bikes.
Liane:And you're right. There's a joke about Tocates. They're like, they're like a model with a heroin addiction. They're pretty to look at, but super expensive to maintain. So, good choice on on the Yamaha.
Liane:We we like Yamaha at AMSS. So where where did you start, and where have you been so far?
Tanya:We started in Alberta, and we went all the way up to Alaska. And we went all the way down through there and over into Central America, and we've hit quite a few quite a few countries in Central America. But most of it's been off road. We have maybe touched the actual Pan American twice.
Bret:Yeah. A few times now.
Tanya:Couple times? Yeah. But mostly mostly all off road.
Liane:That's that's crazy. That Yeah.
Tanya:We're at thirty four thirty four thousand kilometers.
Bret:Just
Liane:for fun and off roading. Why not? When you came back down through Canada, was it all through BC then and through trunk roads and trail roads there? Or
Bret:Yeah. So we took the Cassier Highway when we came back down. And then did the Cassier, and then we did some random little split offs. We went to, like, Telegraph Creek and into Hyder, Alaska. And then we did a bunch of overpass like, we did Gray Creek Pass and a bunch of
Liane:these different
Bret:logging routes. We're like, oh, there's a logging route. Let's attempt it and see where it goes.
Tanya:Harrison Lake as well. We did that. But Telegraph Creek Telegraph Creek, the inclines and the the exposure, I was at I think I had 5,000 kilometers, like, under my belt total in my life. And that road, it is not for the faint of heart, let me tell you. The the grade was 21%, I think, and it was just, like, huge drop.
Tanya:And it was just all dirt. An ambulance passed us going by, and we had to hug the edge for one vehicle to go by. Like, it was but but I would like to go back and do it now that we've got a little bit of experience. So I think it would be different, but Canada's beautiful.
Liane:Gray Creek Pass. So I I hold an event in BC every year, and my off road guys take that pass to get over into Nelson. What did you think of it?
Bret:I liked it. It was by the time we had gotten there, because we had done quite a few back roads and trails, it was it's a narrow road, but it was really like, it's beautiful. But it was mainly just a gravel road. By the time we got there, was like, oh, it's it's just a gravel road. There's not anything extremely technical.
Bret:There's no major drop offs. Or the biggest thing you have to worry about is the switchbacks and pickups coming up that take up the whole road.
Tanya:The switchbacks were pretty pretty intense.
Bret:But It's a beautiful drive, and there's so many camping spots up there. So we made it halfway up the hill, and we camped on the side of the road there, and it was beautiful.
Liane:I I think another thing on that one from what I remember with the guys is if there's like a bridge washed out, then you're kinda screwed to get across that road.
Bret:Yeah. And I could see that because a lot of the bridges, like the the river or the creeks are quite a ways down. So if anything's washed out, you basically are turning around or you're pushing whatever you have down and pushing it back up the other side.
Tanya:Just throw your bike on your shoulder. It's a bike jacket.
Liane:I mean, why not? Yeah. So then you head into The States. What was your route through The States?
Tanya:So we went down through Idaho Mhmm. And did the BDR, which is still to this day one of our favorites. It was just the the camping was beautiful. The roads were beautiful. The weather was good.
Tanya:The people were amazing. It was just the perfect riding temperature, and the road the roads were just beautiful.
Bret:So the BDR, I don't know if you've ever looked into them. They're back road discovery routes, and there's just a big group in The United States that builds them. They go out and they tour forestry roads and back roads and small little towns, and you can basically drive from the Canadian border to, like, the Mexico border all back road on multiple different trails. They connect down back roads so you can go to different states through them. They are amazing.
Bret:They bring you to some of the most amazing places, some little towns that you'd never hear about. We went to a little town that has a harmonica festival every year with 4,000 people showing up to play harmonica.
Tanya:Well, and that that town also I think it was Yellow Pine, it was called. I think. You had to call the number that was on the gas tank, and one of three people in the town will come and meet you at one of the three gas tanks, whichever one is full, and then they will give you fuel. It was the most expensive fuel. And we went to Prudhoe Bay, but it was $9
Bret:A gallon.
Tanya:A gallon. Holy. $9 a gallon. And we paid, I think, $7 in in Prudhoe Bay, like in Alaska.
Liane:That's insane. So but going through Canada and The US, you still kinda have that, like, safety net of, you know, appropriate health care, like emergency services and stuff like that. Crossing into Mexico, what was what was that like? Because I I may have seen a video of the start of Mexico.
Bret:So Mexico was definitely like, we've been to Mexico lots. It was it was our first real international border because I didn't I don't really recommend The United States an international border that I'm worried about.
Tanya:Well, because we also didn't have to do all the same paperwork when we went into The States. Because in Mexico, you have to have the temporary import paper. So you have to pretty much have a passport for your bike as well.
Bret:Yeah. So it was it was nerve racking. And you get lots of online keyboard warriors or people that are they're constantly telling you that if you go across the border, you're not gonna come home. Say goodbye to your loved ones. You might as well pack a coffin with you.
Bret:And, like, it just goes on and on and on. So it's always in the back of your mind. And when we crossed the border, of course, we crossed into because we always do, like, a short day. We crossed the border, we stay at the border town. So we stayed in Mexicali, which Mhmm.
Bret:Everybody's like, oh, it's not a safe town. So we got there, I'm like, oh my god. We're gonna stay here. We're right by the border, and it's gonna be so dangerous. And it was nerve racking for the first probably couple days there.
Bret:You're you're constantly thinking, like, what's gonna happen? Like, we drove into Tijuana, and you all everybody's heard bad stories about Tijuana. And we got there, I like, oh my god. This is gonna be so dangerous. And it was such a lovely town.
Tanya:The people are so lovely.
Bret:Yeah. The people were amazing. We parked our bikes on the side of the street, and people were dragging us over to take pictures at the this is the start of Mexico sign and telling us that that's where Caesar salad was invented. And so once you get into a country, it takes you a couple of days, and then things start wearing off. And you're like, oh, it's not that dangerous.
Bret:You you can park your bike somewhere secure. They'll watch it. You can start meeting people, and then you start realizing use common sense, and the countries aren't that dangerous. You're just a lot of stuff online says that you shouldn't go and shouldn't do it. So Yeah.
Bret:A couple days in, and you just go, oh, this isn't so bad. It's just like riding at home. We'll just continue on.
Tanya:Yeah. And you you need to pay attention to what's going on in places. There are some places that maybe you should avoid. Or if there's something going on, just be aware. Like, have a head on your shoulders, but don't not go somewhere just because someone online has said one thing to you.
Tanya:Because if traveling in general has taught us anything, motorbikes, being on motorbikes, people it's given us back the faith in humanity, I guess you could say. Because when we were backpacking, people didn't really approach you as much as when you have a bike because everyone's like, oh, especially in the countries that we're in now where it's a big bike to them. So they just they wanna speak to you and they wanna talk to you. So it is definitely giving me back faith in humanity compared to what you hear elsewhere.
Liane:Yeah. And I like what you're saying about, like, not judging what people say online because, you know, just however long ago it was, I think February, March, whatever, when the whole cartel thing blew up in PV. And my producer was in Cancun at the same time, and I just texted him. I'm like, you good, dude? He goes, oh, that's so far away.
Liane:We're having a party over here. It's all fine. You know? Like, you can't judge an entire country because something blew up in one area. You just kinda maybe don't ride into that and still enjoy your trip.
Liane:Like like you said, use your common sense.
Bret:Yeah. And so many people did blow that up. We were in Mexico when we had actually probably just left Puerto Vallarta not long before that happened. And that's reading about it, people coming down there. And there's people canceling their trip to come into Mexico entirely, like not coming over to Cancun, not going to Tulum, anywhere on that side because this happened in Puerto Vallarta.
Bret:And it was never a threat against tourists. It was against the government and cartel and police. No tourists were ever really in danger with that as long as you were using common sense.
Tanya:Yeah. Like in Mexico, we don't ride like, the hours you ride from eight to five. We don't ride outside of that. We don't chance being in the dark because if if stuff's gonna happen, then that's generally when it happens. So we like to stay daylight hours, plan ahead of time to get where we wanna go.
Tanya:Obviously, things happen along the way sometimes, but luckily, we've never been stuck in the dark.
Liane:Well, for for a couple of people who literally just learned how to ride like a a year ago in like last July. In following you around, there's you've definitely picked up some terminology. So aside from your bikes taking naps here and there, what else have you what else have you learned on this trip?
Tanya:I think we've definitely learned that you need a strong relationship to do this kind of trip. It tests your patience sometimes and tests your relationship because backpacking is one thing because we've traveled lots. So you get into situations and you have to deal with it where on a bike, we are our own transportation. We are planning our hotels and how we're getting somewhere. We are putting ourselves in situations and on roads and in remote areas where something could go wrong.
Tanya:So we need to plan for that and be prepared for that. There's heated situations where someone's bike might take a nap and someone might be tired of picking it up.
Liane:Tammi, I'm sure you're absolutely so exhausted for picking up Brett's bike all the time.
Tanya:I am. It is so heavy. I wish he would help me sometime.
Liane:What are you drop
Bret:my bike.
Liane:What are you packing on your bike to, like, do this trip? Like, what are what are some of the safety measures that you're taking with you to be able to maintain or fix? Or, like
Tanya:So for the remote roads for, like, safety wise, we have a Zolio. So when we're on the back roads, we can get help. If if something goes massively wrong and we can't get from where we are, then we have that. We also have a first aid kit.
Bret:And we have a very we have a very extensive first aid kit. I was a firefighter for three years, did a lot of into medical, went really deep into medical. So when we were planning this, I went on to a site called Canadian Safety Supplies. Mhmm. And I ordered first aid kit that's made for hunting accidents.
Bret:So, basically, if you get a hole in you somehow, you can patch it up. You can blood clot. It's got tourniquet. So it's pretty big. So that was a major thing when we went.
Bret:I was like, I want a big first aid kit that I can basically save us out there while we wait for a helicopter. And then I randomly refresh my first aid so that I'm up to date with it and know what to do in emergencies. And then the biggest thing is being smart. Yeah. We do go off road and we go lots of places where there isn't anybody, but we're not riding crazy back there.
Bret:I'm not like, we're not trying to jump our bikes or catwalk them or do like, we're not in a rush racing anywhere because we know if something happens, if we go down and we hurt ourselves, that is either the end of the trip or the end of traveling, it could be for us. And then we never get on our bikes without our gear on. So we might, the occasional time, like ride on pavement with just our armor on because we just came off asphalt or off dirt, it's 10 kilometers to the hotel. But normally, we will always put on our jackets, everything for asphalt, and we always wear our body armor underneath of it at all times on bikes.
Tanya:I refuse to get on my bike. I've we've seen too many incidents or the the crayon I don't know. The crayon video. Don't know what the name is.
Bret:The human crayon?
Tanya:Human crayon. We've watched that, and it's stuck in my head that I would rather be hot and uncomfortable and have to stop and drink water and cool down if I'm too hot than take any gear off and risk because risk losing skin because that is going to be way more uncomfortable and could be even worse than wearing gear.
Liane:And even with that, like, the the big misconception is if you're wearing less when it's hot out, you're you're staying cooler. You're dehydrating yourself even faster from exposing your skin to all of that. So if you're not sweating, your body isn't working properly. If you're not peeing, your body isn't working properly. So I appreciate you guys for for that.
Liane:Going through all of these countries and all the backpacking trips, like, have you guys learned a lot of different languages to be able to speak with, like, locals everywhere you go?
Tanya:No. We've been trying to learn Spanish for seven years. And we we we kind of understand it a little bit, but as soon as some like, can read majority of Spanish and listening to the podcast that I've listened to 700 times, I understand that. But as soon as someone speaks to me, I will go,
Bret:We learn enough of every language where we go. Like in Thailand, you learn enough to say thank you. But we have found that hand signals and a little bit of laughter and a smile, and people understand you in any language barrier in this world. They people will figure it out. You can stay with a family that speaks no English, and you'll be able to have a conversation of some kind with them.
Bret:And it'll be fun.
Liane:Mhmm. I love it. What is the end goal of this trip? Where where do you wanna land?
Bret:Well, we think about that all the time.
Tanya:This I think this once we get to Ushuaia, we'll be planning to go somewhere else, but we'll probably look for the cheapest way to place to ship the bikes.
Bret:Yeah. So But we The trip we're on right now, the end destination is Ushuaia, Argentina. That will be our South America destination. And then from there, like she said, it is is a boat to South Africa cheaper, or is it cheaper to send the bikes to Asia? And then depending on where they go.
Bret:If we go to Asia, we work our way up into Europe and down to Africa. And if it's cheaper to go to Africa, we'd go to Africa and work our way up into Europe and then over to Asia.
Liane:Did you guys watch any of the long way round or long way down or, like, all the you and McGregor so you're basically, you're like a not as high budget long way round type of bike, which I love because, you know and you're doing it mostly off road, which is really cool.
Bret:Yeah. We don't have the production team that they do, but a lot a lot of people put a lot of hate on them for doing that and having this big production team. But they they did get a lot of people interested in doing these trips. Mhmm. Yeah.
Bret:And if I could afford to have a truck follow behind me and pack all the gear so that we just had empty bikes and we could do whatever, I would have a truck following behind filming and editing because why not? You you can do it.
Tanya:And I don't I don't think I would.
Bret:But but that's what they wanted to do. It was a it was a trip for them the way they could do it and wanted to do it. And it worked out good. It was a big production. They got their names out there.
Bret:For us, it is more about just going out and experiencing, filming it all for mainly when we left, we're like, we're gonna film this for family back home.
Liane:So just a couple more questions left here. But we had a we had a friend of mine that that I raced with at the Bonne Salt Flats together, and he did a whole trip from kind of a similar thing that you guys are doing, but stayed on the road. But they attempted to ride through the Darien Gap in in that area, and that was not pleasant to watch on a documentary. How do you guys plan to attack the Darien Gap?
Tanya:I think we actually watched that documentary.
Bret:Sounds terrible. I thought terrible. We actually get asked that question lots. There's really only two ways to do it nowadays. You can ship your bikes or you can fly your bikes.
Bret:There's two companies that do it, Overland Embassy, and I can't remember the other name. They they both work together. We are gonna fly our bikes. It is the cheapest, fastest way to do it. Well, it's not the cheapest.
Bret:It's the fastest, most secure. Shipping them on a cargo ship is the cheapest way to do it, but they've been known to have thefts on boats. You used to be able to send your bike on a sailboat, but Colombia will no longer accept you into the country if you come on a sailboat.
Liane:Oh, interesting.
Bret:Yeah. The court won't accept you and give you the paperwork.
Liane:So you're not gonna hire a tribe to help you pull your bike No.
Bret:No. I watched that and after watching them burn through seven Flutches.
Liane:And have
Bret:a team pulling them up hills as a guy, it's not an option. We're not doing that. No.
Tanya:There was there was more there wasn't very much riding. It was more pulling and pushing and like it it is I can barely pick my bike up. I think I've picked it up three times in the whole trip by myself. So I can't even imagine trying to push it through all of that stuff. Like, they're superheroes for
Liane:Well, I I think one ended up dead in the forest and or in
Bret:the Yeah.
Liane:They just got that. Yeah. Just let it go, the the dude went home. And then so if the endpoint is Argentina, do you have kind of an idea of what route you're gonna take down through South America?
Tanya:So we're probably gonna stick on the coast. We don't so originally, we had planned to be in Ushuaia in December. That is no longer happening because we continue to add things, different countries to the list. So the plan that we had at the beginning is no longer the plan, and it's changed. So we've added a bunch of countries, and we'll go down probably the coast still and come back up, but we might do it the opposite way.
Bret:Weird. So we've been adding in Venezuela, because we never even thought about Venezuela, any of the countries up there, or Brazil. It was never a thought. And then I was looking at the map one day, I was like, why did we not think about this? We can go to these countries.
Bret:They're right here. Why wouldn't we? So we are currently in the process of actually trying to plan it because there's a big like, you can go Venezuela, French Guiana area. Like, you can do all that and into Brazil, or you can just go straight down and avoid all that depending on weather and where we go, which was the original plan. So we haven't figured out the exact plan yet, and there's a good chance that we could just basically go Colombia, straight down into Ecuador, down to Peru, and keep going straight down the coast that way, which is what 99% of people do that do this trip.
Liane:Well, you don't sound like 99% of the people with your flexibility moving around. But if so I know you guys are filming this, and it was supposed to be for family. I'm sure some of our listeners would love to follow you guys and where you're going. Where can they keep tabs on where you're at?
Tanya:So everything all of our socials are under Morrison's en route. We put out videos twice a week on on YouTube. We do updates on Facebook, but we try to kinda stick to where the videos are at. We are six months behind ish in the videos, but that way people it doesn't wreck it for people that are watching because some people watch it as a series. So yeah.
Tanya:Yeah. Yeah.
Bret:Well, that's I don't know if you watch a lot of YouTube videos where people are filming and they do two a week, then all of a sudden they're like, oh, sorry. Technical problems in life. We're not gonna have a video out for the next two weeks. And it always drove me crazy. And we end up getting to places where we don't have service for a month.
Bret:So we can't put videos out. So we have them scheduled, ready to go, and it seems to work.
Liane:That's very smart because it keeps people engaged in your channel and what you guys are doing and allows you that time to be flexible in where you're going. Well, Brett, Tanya Morrison's en route. I wish you guys nothing but success in your journeys. I can't wait to see where you're going next and what you're doing, what route you actually take to Argentina, and then where you go after that. I appreciate you both taking the time.
Liane:I know we talked about connections and what we're doing, but, you know, we're here. So thank you very much.
Bret:Well, thank you for having us. It was a blast.
Liane:Yes. Alright. For everybody else, let's hang tight for the mixed bag.
Leeroy:The three sixty check. This is a pre ride habit. Get into the habit of doing a 360 degree check for safety. Before every ride, you do a full circle walk around of your bike. Look for fluid leaks, check your tire condition, and ensure your lights are crispy.
Leeroy:This kind of familiarity helps you spot and fix small issues before they compound into big problems on the highway. A one minute check can save your afternoon or your life. Start every ride with a full circle inspection. This is Leeroy with Moto Instincts.
Liane:And that's it for another episode of Think Bike hosted by me, Leanne Langlois, produced by Bryn Griffiths at Mighty Mouth Communications. If you have an idea or a question for the show, reach out to info@ab-amss.org or find us on all the socials. Always remember to ride smart, ride safe, and think bike. We'll see you out on the road.