On the road

I'm en route to the starting line, where we dip our rear tires in the westsiiide ocean. It feels so good to finally be underway. To be done with work, done with packing and planning. I spent so many days planning and training and worrying about equipment and logistics and whether or not I had lost my mind, and a bunch of other things, that it's good to be in motion. You'd be amazed at how many things you need to think about for something like this. You need a sleeping bag, only you need a sleeping bag that weighs 2 pounds instead of 4, that is able to be compressed into a small compact ball, that will keep you warm on chilly 27 degree nights in the higher elevations, as well as 74 degree muggy August nights in NY. You need flashlights, headlamps, waterproof rain gear, waterproof panniers. You need cooking utensils, cooking fuel, plastic forks, plastic bowls. You need bike stuff! Spare tires, spare brake cables, spare everything. Patch kits, pumps, polar ice Extra gum - the best kind! You need biking shorts, you need shorts for after you're done riding, unless it's cold, then you need pants. So I got pants that zip off into shorts, makes sense. You need hot, you need cold. You need up, you need down. You need left and right, short and long, top and bottom. You need it all and you need it small. We want the world and we want it now!


I left yesterday morning, in a rental car. The whole 'end up in Anacortes, Washington with four bags, one bike, yourself and nothing else not even a spare pair of socks or boxers' is more challenging than you may think.

For example, I was marching around without shoes yesterday. I had already packed all my shoes in boxes being sent back home, so I had to borrow some slippers from the people I'm staying with until I was able to buy some Crocs for the trip. The Crocs will be good, comfortable after riding shoes, (my brother guarantees their comfortability, and after all, that's what I'm looking for, right?! Comfortability, what a goal) good for the showers too, because there will be a fungusamongus and lord knows what else in some of these showers. If they even have showers.

It was hard leaving Los Altos. I was staying with some family friends, the Lanes, and they are very special people. If only the world had more Lanes... We had a great two months together and I will miss them. They were beyond gracious hosts, it felt like home, and they became very good friends. As Lloyd Christmas says - I hate goodbyes!


I shipped all my worldly possessions - which I'm narrowing down pretty nicely except for my four bags, one bike and myself - back home to my moms. Thank you to mom for housing my life's possessions as I wander about the country. Without a plane. I misunderstood Southwest's slogan.


I drove 6 hours through 102 degree heat in the Sacramento delta, or whatever it's called, into southern Oregon. I'm staying with good friends in Medford Oregon. I spent the day by the pool, in the sun, relaxing and feeling grateful. For music and ipods, blue skies and wind that gently rustles the leaves on the trees. If these leaves could talk...
And water! Isn't water cool? H2O. It suspends you, refreshes you, cleans you, you can drink it. Hell, since we're made of 60% water, we'd better like it! Now why can't someone just invent water... get out your chemistry sets from when you were 7, grab one H and 2 O's and abracadabra please and thank you open sesame, rumplestiltskin, ikindawannalaya, whammo! Combine them, and let's move forward. Enough about this lack of water nonsense. Water your lawns whenever you'd like. Feel free! Even though if you water your lawn between 8am and 5pm then you're just confused because it evaporates before your very eyes (disclaimer: if you water your lawn between 8 and 5, I am sorry. Please water on, forget I mentioned it. I don't know anything.)

I'm excited about the trip, it's officially begun.

It feels like a spa getaway up here... in fact, we got massages for good measure, just to make it official. I justified that by figuring that my back and shoulders and arms will be going through enough punishment in the next two months hunched over a bike for six hours then sleeping on the ground for eight hours, that they deserved some advanced reward. It's like Pavlov's dogs, only we salivate before we hear the bell. Pretty standard really.


Tomorrow I will drive halfway, to Mount Saint Helens, and camp there. Hopefully it does not explode while I am sleeping. Ummm, sir, we have some bad news for you. While you were sleeping... the volcano erupted! So now you're dead. HOpe you don't mind.

Then Friday morning I'll drive the last couple hours to Anacortes. I'll drop my four bags off at the motel, then I'll drive 20 miles east and drop the rental car off at Burlington (since they didn't have any rental agencies in Anacortes.) Then I'll ride my bike with myself on it 20 miles west to Anacortes. And Saturday morning we will dip our rear tires in the Pacific Ocean and the journey begins.

And while we're at it - how come some caterpillars become annoying moths while others become beautiful butterflies??? Pretty bird, pretty bird. Life ain't fair. We got no food, we got no jobs, OUR PETS HEADS ARE FALLIN OFF!

And when are we going to decide on a universal spelling for cappuccino? People just start throwing a few of each letter in there and shrug their shoulders. Ahhh, here's a few P's, few C's, few more C's, maybe an N or two - looks good! Can someone finalize the spelling and give people the memo? All across the country people are missing letters, including too many letters. It's a mess.
As are the leaky coffee cups! Can't we create seamless paper coffee cups that don't drip out the back? It's 2007, I think it's time.