Monday, March 14 — Pi day, three days before we leave on our long, meandering way to Florida: our first night will be at our son’s house in Olympia, by walking and bus, then to the airport the next morning. We are leaving our car at home, and the bicycle ships on Tuesday, along with our cycling clothing and camping gear. Our first week, we will travel with only our electronics and off-bike clothing, plus a few items that wouldn’t fit in the bicycle cases or gear bag, flying to Albuquerque, then rental car to Santa Fe, Las Cruces, and El Paso, and thence by air to Orlando, where we should find our bicycle and gear waiting for us, to be assembled and tested during our visit with our niece and family.
The past few weeks have been spent getting our gear together; packing the trailer to make sure we have room inside for everything; testing our new sleeping bag–we ended up ordering inflatable pillows. But, we relented and packed Judy’s regular camp pillow after testing the new pillows–they help, but aren’t quite “just right.” In compensation, we reduced some redundancy in bicycle clothing. Judy got a new, larger handlebar bag for her birthday, a gift from the children, which will hold her electronics and map book.
Our trip planning has gotten detailed, picking potential hosts to contact along the way, alternate lodging choices, and re-routing to avoid dangerous roads, long bridges, and back-to-back long rides. Still, there are still some 90+ km stretches, some in hilly country, and a lot of no-shoulder busy roads, particularly in the southern states. We probably haven’t scheduled enough rest days, trying to stage them in cities with attractions, with exception of one half-way up the one mountain pass on the route.
The last item on our gear list was to test our new Primus mini-stove. It looks like 30 grams of fuel to bring one liter of water to a boil, or about 20 minutes cooking time per 100 grams of fuel. We will need to buy fuel when we arrive and estimate how much we need to carry to get to the next outdoor store, as we go. In a pinch, we can always make a beer-can stove, using gas-line anti-freeze as fuel, available at gas stations, at least everywhere here in the Northwest. So far, we have only a half-dozen campground nights scheduled, but will need to use the tent in back yards at some of the Warm Showers stays.
Meanwhile, at home, we are making arrangements for lawn care, house-sitter, and getting repairs done. Our new custom upstairs hall windows are due to be installed Tuesday, if the weather clears, and try once more to tighten up joints to stop a persistent drip from the laundry room sink drain. We hope to get at least one more stationary bike workout before we head out for a week of visiting family in the Southwest.