I’ve been a shutterbug since I was a kid, and bought my own 35mm camera gear even before I started shaving. I spent a large portion of high school and college with my fingertips smelling of Dektol, stop bath, and fixer. So you can be sure that photography is going to be a substantial focus of this journey. The question is what gear to bring.

I have a long history with 35mm film, and I’ve assembled a nice kit of photo gear built around my beloved 1980s-vintage Pentax ME super, with a lean but functional set of optics: 24/2.8, 50/1.7, 70-150/4, 500/8 mirror. It has just enough automation to be helpful, and like any classic SLR responds quickly and effortlessly. But there’s no question that the future is digital. Several years ago I picked up the small Olympus D-460, with a 3x optical zoom and 1.3 megapixel sensor when the price of those got down to around $300. It’s no substitute for a 35mm. I can’t really afford a digital SLR, but a few years ago I found the Olympus SP-500UZ, with a permanent 10x optical zoom. It’s still an autofocus, and the only way to zoom is by pushing buttons, which makes it sluggish to use, but it has enough manual override (e.g. manual focus and aperture/shutter selection… again, by pushing buttons) to give me the control that a standard 35mm SLR always has.

On my first trip to Isle Royale in 2002 (my first real expedition in a while), I brought the 35mm kit simply because that was the only camera up to my standards. I brought the D-460 along as a way of getting some photos in digital format without having to scan them, and as an emergency backup. But the 35mm gear (including film) was a lot to carry, and on my most recent Isle Royale adventure in 2006, I went all digital: the new SP-500UZ, with the D-460 as backup and to take places I didn’t want to risk the new one (e.g. canoeing).

So the question is now what to bring on this trip. Weight isn’t so much of an issue, so I could carry the 35mm gear without any discomfort. That equipment includes a real wide angle (not the 38mm-equivalent of the SP-500UZ), it has the speed and flexibility of manual focus and zoom, and (something I’ve always loved about the ME super) it’ll even work if the battery dies. But space is still a consideration, and there’s no denying the convenience of the self-contained SP-500UZ.

No matter what, I’ll also have something new to me on this trip: the camera in my iPhone. It’s nothing I’d rely on for taking serious images (it’s only 2Mpixels, and the less said about the fixed-focus optics the better), but it’ll be with me at all times, and has the added benefit of letting me instantly add photos to this blog using the WordPress app… like this:

One disadvantage is that it’s actually less convenient to use than a “real” camera: push a button, swipe a finger across the screen, type my security code, get to the right screen of apps, and tap Camera. Then I can point and shoot. It might be worth bringing along the D-460 (open, wait a second, point, shoot) as a (relatively) quick-draw cam.

Taking pictures on a scooter trip is going to be both less and more convenient than taking pictures while backpacking. Forty pounds of gear on your back kinda limits your mobility in getting the right angle, so it’ll be nice that I won’t have to lumber around or shed the pack. But you can snap pictures in an instant when you’re walking, while it’s really not safe to do that while scooting. (It’d be nice to get some “action shots” – maybe even video – but I don’t have the gear to do that. Maybe I could rent or borrow that.) The helmet and gloves can get in the way too. But compared to driving, I’ll have much more opportunity stop and photograph things I come across.

I did a little experiment this afternoon, to determine how reasonable my packing plans are. I recently saw a blog by a guy who’s scooting from Miami to LA, and to be honest, he did a lousy job of packing for the trip, which seems to be spoiling it for him. He’s wearing a hiking backpack (bigger than the one I used to carry all my food and gear for 10 days in the wilderness) and those things just aren’t designed to be worn sitting down. So I wanted to confirm that the list of things I’ve been planning to bring along was reasonable.

One nice thing about traveling through civilised parts is that I don’t need to pack food. For the first time in ages, I’m vacationing somewhere that when you want food… you just stop some place and buy something to eat! That should make it much easier to find room for everything else.

So this afternoon I got out a few shirts, briefs, socks, my tent, my sleeping bag, a toiletries bag stuffed with items to simulate the space that it’ll probably take when I put everything together, etc. I strapped the tent/pad/bag combo to the “back seat” (the section of the Buddy’s ample seat where a passenger could sit and get very friendly with the driver), stuffed the clothes into the pet carrier*, and laid out the rest of the items so I could visualize the space they’d take.

Well, it won’t all fit with the scoot equipped like it is, but that’s what I expected. The pet carrier isn’t that big, and I’m not that efficient at packing. I ordered the Buddy with a rear rack installed, but there’s nothing mounted on it yet, and that’s where the rest of the stuff will go. I haven’t picked out a trunk yet, but from what I’ve seen today, I don’t need to get an especially large one to fit the rest of my gear.

The camping stuff on the back seat fits nicely, even when I’m sitting on the seat. I’ll need to figure out a good way to strap that stuff into place, but one that’ll allow it to be unlashed easily for access to the gas tank, which is underneath the seat. I may yet have to cut an item or two from the list I’ve made so far, or I may have to add a small daypack to stuff a few items into, but at least I know I’m in the ballpark.

*This is a tongue-in-cheek term among scooterists for the under-seat storage found on most scoots. Apparently a scooter manufacturer’s legal department put a little sticker under the seat showing a cat with the universal “NO” symbol over it, and ever since, it’s been a running joke to call that the “pet carrier”.

I’ve passed an important milestone in the preparation for my trip: I now have an actual scooter to ride. Picked out, picked up, and paid for.

It’s a Buddy 50, made by (or for, I should say) Genuine Scooter Company of Chicago. The manufacturer is PGO of Taiwan, who make some of the better scooters coming out of capitalist China. I supposed you might label Genuine as just the “importer” of these scooters, since essentially the same scooter is sold by PGO themselves overseas, but Genuine has input into the design, they’re modified for Genuine (e.g. MPH speedos, DOT-compliant turn signals) for the US market, and Genuine distributes, services, and warranties them, so it isn’t that different from buying a Ford made in Korea by Kia, like I did years ago. Much like buying a fuel-efficient auto in the 1990s, this was the closest I could come to buying “domestic”.

The Buddy comes in both 50cc and 125cc models. The 50cc model exists in part to meet the legal limits in most states to be considered a “moped” rather than a “motorcycle”. This means that you don’t need special training and licencing to drive one, registration costs are lower, mandatory vehicle insurance requirements are waived, and you aren’t required to wear a helmet. Well, I’m not an idiot, so I’m still going to wear a helmet, but the rest of those legal loopholes are welcome. So is the better gas mileage (over 100mpg rather than 90mpg). And besides, I don’t want a scooter with an engine big enough to go 60-70mph and ride on the expressway. If I need to go that fast, I want a cage (i.e. a car) with seatbelts and air bags around me, please.

The 50cc model comes off the boat with an artificial speed restriction to limit it to 30mph; that’s what most states require for the “moped” designation. That restriction is pretty easily removed, which lets them go their natural speed of 40mph or so, which is the max speed I’d actually want.

I’m the kind of buyer who does all his “shopping” before he sets foot in a store, so I didn’t rely much on the guidance of a dealer. But I want to give credit where due to “Stew” and Holland Vespa. This dealership is about 40 miles from where I live, and Stew saved me from having to get there to pick up my scoot – which also would’ve make my very first ride an hour-long intercity journey – by delivering it to their just-opened store in Grand Rapids.

Even so, riding the scoot home from the dealer was a bit of a white-knuckle adventure. For one thing, the best way home from there included a road that drivers like to run at near-highway speeds. I don’t have a proper motorcycle helmet yet, just my bicycle helmet. I figured that, if the helmet isn’t even legally required, the bike helmet would be OK until I saved up another paycheck and picked out a scooter helmet. The thing is, bike helmets are designed to catch lots of wind to cool you off… not a big deal at 15mph, but a pretty noticeable drag at 30mph. Plus, I’ll admit it: I just don’t have much experience on two wheels with a motor. It’s going to take some time for me to get a feel for how fast and wide to take corners, for example.

But I have thousands of miles on a bicycle behind me, much of that in traffic, and that gives me some pretty good skills. A lot of new scooterists haven’t ridden a bicycle in years, and riding a scooter is very different from their experience driving a car. For one thing, most of your steering isn’t done with the steering column, but by leaning, using a trick of physics know as “countersteering”. Most cyclists know how this works, even if not consciously. And tricks like how to safely and easily swerve around a pothole are practically reflexes to a cyclist.

Fortunately I have that, plus a few months of commuting ahead of me, which should prepare me for my road trip. Heck, I’ll probably be safer scooting the back roads of the north country than I will be fighting traffic on the streets of Grand Rapids.

With the Michigan economy being in such dire straits, one of the things in the back of my mind lately has been spending my money locally. I couldn’t buy a US-made scooter; there is no such thing. But I bought one made for a US company (Genuine Scooters of Chicago), and I bought it from a West Michigan dealer. Although there are places I want to see in other states and other countries, right now I want to spend my vacation and my vacation dollars in Michigan. I don’t have a lot to spend during this trip, but I’ll be spending it in places where any economic activity is badly needed.

I’ve pretty much settled on an itinerary, as follows:

Day 1: Grand Rapids to Ludington. Pretty familiar territory, but I’ll hug the lakeshore to make the most of it.

Day 2: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the Leelanau Peninsula. I’ve been to Sleeping Bear a couple times in recent years, so rather than stop and camp there; I’ll go on to Leelanau State Park.

Day 3: Grand Traverse Bay to Charlevoix, sleeping at Fisherman’s Island State Park. It’s only about 15 miles as the crow flies, but taking in the entire Grand Traverse Bay shoreline will be a day well spent.

Day 4: Mackinac City, Bridge, and Island. It’s a fairly short ride the rest of the way to Mackinac, which will give me time to make camp at Straits State Park in St Ignace, then spend the afternoon on the Island.

Day 5: West across the UP to Manistique, where I’ll stay at Indian Lake State Park.

Day 6: A detour away from Lake Michigan, up to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which I’ve neglected to see in any of my previous drives through the UP. I’ll be camping on federal land rather than state land here.

Day 7: Through Munising then south through Escanaba, and along Green Bay (the body of water, not the city), staying at J. W. Wells State Park on the bay.

Day 8: Through Green Bay (the city) and on to Manitowoc, where I’ll catch the midnight ferry to Ludington, hopefully getting a few hours of sleep.

Day 9: Ludington to Grand Rapids via the less scenic route, then a nap.