Dinosaurs on Wheels

Well, Day 1 is in the books.  Lots more to come... leaving the hotel, starting our journey Any path of a thousand miles begins with a first step.  Well, this journey of over 4,000 miles started with our first day on the bikes.  We started at the Hampton Inn (thanks Abby) where we dragged in our big bike boxes, ordered pizza, and put these things back together again.  Ending up with only a few extra parts, the bikes went together pretty well.  Bike boxes were deposited in the hotel dumpster, and we were ready to go.  We started out by calling and trying to confirm the status of the road openings of the Nestucca River road going from Portland to the coast.   This road avoids route 6, a major route with major amounts of traffic and little road shoulders.  After multiple tries, messages left, websites visited, and even some messages returned, we came to the conclusion - we still don't know.  Based on this (lack of) information we made the choice to simply take the bus to the starting p

It's hard to believe, but the time has come to get on the plane and head out to Portland.  I've already checked-in for my flight, so it is feeling very real at this time.  Months (years?) of preparing for doing this trip and it begins tomorrow - yes, very hard to believe.  I head from Cleveland airport, through Midway, to Portland.  Don't forget the mask.   The bike in a box So how does one get a fully loaded bicycle on board an aircraft?   Very carefully...  Actually, you have to de-construct the bike, pack it back in the carton in which it came from the factory - or at least one that SOME bike came from some factory.  Racks off, fenders off, wheels off, even derailleur is detached, in order to fit into that box.   The box is then checked as luggage with the airline, an extra fee is paid (did you think we could avoid extra fees? Never!) and I carry on a few of the bags I couldn't fit into the box.   Thank you to Mike and Ryan at my local bike store, Beat Cycles, for wo

What do you take when you're going on a 2 and a half month trip?  That is a really good question.    On top of that, since there might not be hotels open, add camping equipment to the mix, and the question becomes even harder.  If I was to take a normal weekend trip's luggage, multiply it by 10, I think I would be in trouble.  And the last time we went camping I think I filled the back end of our SUV with stuff.  Uh oh. Thank goodness for the Inter-web to pose the question to people who've done similar trips.  Even though there are a lot of opinions (no, people disagree online?) there were a lot of good suggestions as to what to bring, and what to leave home.  The overwhelming consensus was that you should think twice before bringing anything along that won't be used often. Otherwise you will be cursing this extra weight as you haul it over the mountains with leg power.  That sounds like really good advice.  I did have to evaluate some of my existing equipment, and wh