All Ready to Go, Almost...

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Will's first major adventure for his "gap year" is a bike-across-U.S.  He is taking the Southern Tier, starting from St. Augustine Beach, FL, and (hopefully) biking all the way to San Diego, CA.  Now it's only days before Will's big date of departure, and plans are coming together--sort of...

I'll leave Will to write a post about all the nitty-gritty details of planning this massive undertaking.  All I can say regarding the planning is that it's a good thing he's on his gap year!  Every day, some package  was arriving from Amazon, some mailing from Adventure Cycling, some email on a forum discussion about this.  In fact, we have visited REI more in the last two weeks than we had the last two years!


What I can report on is the number of crazy piles of stuff Will has been organizing.  You can see (right above)--and this is a very partial view--the amount of stuff he needs to carry on his bike for over 3000 miles.  I seriously suspect that his final packing will NOT include those packets of Tasty Bite or Seeds of Change, etc.  Maybe the premium steak beef jerky will stay, if there is enough room...

The picture at the top of this post is supposed to somewhat approximate what his final load should look like--bulging panniers along the back tire, slightly smaller panniers by the front tire, solar panel draped on the back, map holder on the handlebar, etc.  Will says though that the bike will be more bulky ultimately since he didn't actually pack for his test ride all the stuff he's bringing.  More bulky than this?  Good grief!


Then, of course, Will had to take everything apart.  The picture right above shows the deconstructed bike-in-a-box, before it left for a Florida bike shop.  FedEx has done its job well, and the bike has already arrived (yay!) and it's being put together as I write.

Soon, Will should be reunited with his beloved bike for their adventure across the country!

(post by Julie)

Comments

  1. MRW_BikeFebruary 13, 2017 at 5:07 AM

    Do you have a travel itinerary? This sounds like a lot of work but even more fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our Sabbatical LifeFebruary 13, 2017 at 10:02 AM

    No set itinerary as of yet. I'm targeting 75 miles a day. So depending on what campsites/hotels are available at that distance each day is where I'll stop. The route is shown here: https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/interactive-network-map/. I'm doing the Southern Tier (the orange line) from Florida to San Diego.

    ReplyDelete

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