Amen to the new tires part.
I went a couple of years ago. Left NC with really good rubber front and rear. Well, between the ride out, and about a day and a half in the Hill country, I looked at my rear at lunch Friday, and there was almost nothing left. The Kawasaki dealer in Kerrville didn't have anything to fit, so Friday afternoon I ended up slabbing it to San Antonio to get one at the BMW dealer there. I arrived about 5:15, but they were nice enough to accomodate me and get it mounted that evening (no mechanics there on Sat mornings).
Everything was fine the rest of the trip; I made it back on Sunday in one fell swoop. But a couple of weeks later I was riding with LOUIS. We parked our bikes side by side, and happened to look at the rear tires. We were both running ME Z4's, but the treads looked different. Turns out mine was mounted backwards. I hadn't noticed anything odd about the grip to that point. But turned it around later just to be sure. Got twice as much mileage out of that tire!