Kurt and I were riding Kawasaki KLR650 dual-sport motorcycles, rigged with aluminum panniers to carry our gear and aftermarket exo¿¿skele¿¿tons to protect the engines if we dumped in nasty terrain (see sidebar on p. 105). Tim and Nick chased us with the camera in our friend Bill Decker's white Chevy Suburban, which was set up for offroad touring.

The KLR has a nickname that I like; in adventure cycling circles it's known as "The Mule.-¿ I thought this was appropriate, since just 30 years before our trip, the only way to access most of the places we were going was by riding a real one.