Thee Odds & Ends

Counting down the last days to work. We leave in 3 days!!! Tomorrow Mark and Ken travel to TriCities to rent Thee van, then back to Spokane and find a bike carrier that will attach to it. Monday we'll pack it all up. I'll finish all the plants, watering, instructions for the house/plant sitter, clean out the refrigerator (wouldn't that be a pleasant one to come back to having forgot to empty!!), one final massage treatment. I've never packed for a full month before, so this really is unique. I keep reminding myself "you can do laundry along the way; you don't have to take the kitchen sink....".

And now I am gearing into my "travel mode", which Mark just shakes his head at. I've never been a great sleeper to start with, but I minimally sleep whenever we travel. Not unusual for me to catch 2-3 hours and call it good. However, most trips are less than 2 weeks. We'll see how pretty I am at the 3-4 week stage, and how much the guys still like me, and howreallyreallyfast I cantalkand typebythe endof thetrip because sleep deprivation and the excitementand all.... Fortunately, hard and prolonged excercise day after day does fatigue me a bit more than just the routine of daily life.



We are narrowing down the number of boxes and items we'll be taking. One box for food stuff items. Yes, when you ride that far that many days, you do get a bit particular about what crosses your palate as you are hunched over those handle bars for many hours at a time. I prefer liquid Hammer Nutritional supplements as I get way too queasy to eat solid food when riding. (Yes Karen, I know, you just can't understand how anyone could like doing something so much that it meant you couldn't eat real food). Many BoraBora bars; a large container of oats with nuts, cinnamon and raisins; various spices for breakfast foods; teas and coffee (caffeine is my drug of choice); and this and that. Another box contains books, CME (continued medical education) CD's and journals, and CD's for the radio. This is Thee Entertainment Source for the month. Whoever is the driver of the van can access to prevent boredom. I said if the van has a DVD player, I'll rip it out and toss it aside. Ken immediately offered to ride in the back of the van if it does. Don't you smile just reading this??



One small suitcase for each. A duffel bag with all the bike gear we'll need for the month. Remember, items are easily showered/washed on a daily basis, so you really don't need "multiples" of anything. Box of water bottles and Gel flasks (think nutrition again). Cooler with my large reusable ice bag (there is heaven on earth!!) and for cooling all necessary other items. Another cooler just for liquids.



Pillows and sleeping bags. We mapped and calculated our presumed trip from Florence, OR to Rapid City, S. Dakota the other night. Really good chance, since city populations become a bit sparse through the Wyoming area, that we may end up spending one night camping in the van. Thus the need for that equipment. My thought, is if you have the stuff available, you will never need to use it.



Fold up cloth chair, one umbrella, flashlight and binoculars. Hm.m.m... I do believe that is about it. Few more lists of lists to check everything off and we'll be off!!



I attempted the Google map thing again today since some of the feedback I received said no maps were connecting. I drew (attempted) another of my favorite routes on the west plains. I've rode this course several times over the last few weeks. It's a nice blend of hills, fast down hills, flats that I love to crank on (if the wind is being kind). It takes me about 2 hours, so it's a short course. Struggled with the map creation, however. Found it worked better if I clicked on "walking" instead of "car". Well, that makes sense, however, most folks don't randomly go out for the evening stroll of 40-some miles. I least, I don't think so. However, that did allow me to map on "non-drivable routes", so more realistic for my use. On the down side, the map again automatically started to "do it's own thing" creating multiple around-the-same-blocks nonsense that it did a few weeks ago when I tried this.



Well, here it is and hopefully it'll all work. I called this route "Phil's course", however, Google automatically added into the name some rubbish between the words "Phil" and" 's course". I'll just be persistant and keep at this endeavor. Click on it and see what you get.



http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=W+Clarke+Ave&daddr=N+Government+Way+to:W+Trails+Rd+to:W+Trails+Rd+to:W+Deno+Rd+to:W+Craig+Rd+to:N+Rambo+Rd+to:N+Garfield+Rd+to:N+Riverside+State+Park+Dr+to:W+Davenport+to:Unknown+road+to:N+Riverside+State+Park+Dr&geocode=FR411wIdbgwA-Q%3BFUxq1wIdBnf_-A%3BFQyh1wIdkib_-A%3BFaZ61wId9Jv--A%3BFStq1wIdU4L9-A%3BFYaG1wIdQC79-A%3BFZI32AIdcyz9-A%3BFTV72AId1__9-A%3BFdlo2AId1tH--A%3BFX5M2AIdtuP--A%3BFZzP1wIdThT_-A%3BFfSp1wIdbhz_-A&hl=en&mra=ls&via=8,9&dirflg=w&sll=47.72899,-117.516546&sspn=0.054615,0.154495&ie=UTF8&z=12