Packing & Decsions

The bike is loaded on the car. Ev is packing. We, again, are questioning many things to take in a constant battle of weight vs. necessity. Ev got a Nook today! Even better than my Kindle. We have decided not to take our netbook or my Blackberry. Pause while you catch your breath. We will attempt to do it all on Ev's iPhone. We plan to be at Union Station at 8:00AM. We will pack up the bike and leave on a 10:30 train. Pre-trip jitters but still really excited.

Typing is a lot slower...

Back From The Shake Down Ride

We just arrived back from our ride (and shopping). We left Fillmore around 4:30PM on Friday night. Wind in our face and lots of traffic.The three of us (Ev and I on tandem, Doug on single recumbent) made our way to the coast. We tried to simulate a day on the big tour, so we stopped at a grocery store and bought food before our destination of McGrath State Park in Ventura. Just before arriving we rode over a bridge spanning the harbor. Ev snapped a quick picture, but the ride is scary. Separate metal walkway and bike path to keep us away from cars but it's narrow and hard to keep a straight line.

Ten Dollars, per person, for a hiker/biker site! California is broke! We set up camp and made a dinner of pasta, salad and wine. Finished at dark, dishes, then bed. Oh, we did camp next to a large church group. They had a little revival going, and we heard part of the service.

Oatmeal for breakfast (what else?) and out of camp by 8:30AM. We took a different, and much better route back. We followed Foothill Blvd. over rolling terrain, not many cars and many bikes. Doug's wife, Jan, called and reported that their condo in San Diego was flooding. We were planning to rush back and meet Jan so they could head to San Diego. Turns out (after some worrying) that there was no flood. Tenant called and  had found no water.

Lunch in Filmore at a bar watching USA in the World Cup. Saw us tie the match, but later learned we lost. Off to REI. We can sure spend a lot on stuff! But we also saved so much by not buying a new GPS or shoes. We did buy new pillows. Last trip we stuffed our clothes in the sleeping bag stuff sacks for pillows. One issue was that we do not take that many clothes! Another is now we bought water proof sacks (expecting rain) and they are not the greatest feeling for pillows. Found some "cute" blow up ones that feel nice and are very small.

Then to Bent Up Cycles. Doug needed a tune-up and some new tires. Bought a flag for his new (to him) tandem trike. Jan, I know you have to work this trip, but we expect you to be there on the next one!

Ev set waypoints on trackmytour.com as a test for the big trip. I think it worked well. We have a different link for the big trip on the blog main page.

Back home. I am sure next week will be a blur. Kendal comes home Monday to see us and take us to the train on Thursday. Have to sign up enough work to keep everybody busy, service the bike, get ready for the train, pack again, and second guess everything we do. Can't wait!

Packing & Bike Changes

We are packing! Not for the big trip, but for a "shake down" ride with Doug this weekend. Last year we did an overnight trip to test out everything (see one of our first posts). Doug will join us midway through our trip. He now has a recumbent and trailer and needs to see how it all works for touring. Filmore to Ventura again. I sense a trip to REI is coming.

We leave July 1st from LA Union Station and take Amtrack to Vancouver.  We are both very excited, but the reality has just hit us that we leave in a week. Training? Some. Ready to leave my company for three weeks? No. Have everything? Maybe. If we can find last trip's list it would help. Healthy? We'll see how the back holds out. (We did not complete the century ride in our last post. My back went out one week before. Twelve-weeks-of-physical-therapy later it is much better. It is not 100% and I fear that it never will be again. Getting old sucks.)

We are expecting more inclement weather this trip so in preparation we have changed out our carbon forks to steel so we could install fenders. The front were relatively easy to install. The rear was a little harder working around the disk brake. Seriously considered changing out the rear braking system and going with a drum brake and V brake but never got around to it. Guess the down hills will again be an E-ticket ride!