I woke up at 3 AM this mornign to get used to it, I felt pretty good. I went out to the dealership today to get some oil to top myself off for the trip and I’m ready. Side note- the dealership has a barbecue every saturday and Robyn and I have gone for the last 2 weeks. Pretty cool. It’s a nice outing and a good chance to get a few miles with my wife. we have fun.
So I’m ready.
- No coffee (don’t need a full bladder), so I’ll slam a red bull in the morning.
- Got my gas stations all mapped out, nothing further than 150 miles. I should be good there.
- Got my paperwork and my clipboard, ready to save my reciepts to verify my ride to get the certificate. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, http://www.ironbutt.com should give you details.
- Tour pak has my helmet, my .38 (don’t leave home without it), 6 bottles of water, sunscreen, rain gear (chance of rain in the afternoons, but I bet I miss it all), and some snack food like beef jerky and granola bars to keep me on the road, and not in the burger king drive through.
- 3 different credit cards, Just in case the CC company puts a hold on one because they see 1000 miles worth of charges and put a hold on my card. Have cash backup.
- Maps and summaries go in my pocket. I have the route memorized, but just in case I miss something I’ll have a cheat sheet so I don’t have to pull over and spend time figuring it all out.
- Music – Ipod is updated, and even burned a couple of CD’s with the music that’s been sounding good to me the last few weeks.
- Bike is all checked out. I think I’ve got it all planned.
Question is, this is 400 miles more than my furthest ride ever. Can I do this? I’m positive I can. I know some people get uncomfortable, their back hurts, their attention wanes and they get bored with long rides. I love every second of it. There’s honestly no other activity in life that I was born to do like Touring. Even if it takes me 24.9 hours, I’ll do this, weather and traffic permitting of course. I’m slightly concerned about memorial day weekend traffic, but I’ll figure it out as I go. It’s not like i’m going to New York city. I’ll be riding through freaking tonopah and Bishop California. This should be fun.
I cannot friggin’ wait. If this goes off without a hitch and my monday morning is normal, then the western US is all of a sudden a much smaller place. the map on my garage wall will have alot more highlited roads of places I’ve been.
Wish me luck.