Pre-Trip Countdown

The day before a big trip is always the worst. Gathering the little bits and pieces of gear, deciding what goes and what doesn't, gets more difficult for me as the years pass. It makes my head hurt.

Tomorrow, I travel to Santa Fe, NM, to participate in the 19th annual Santa Fe Trail Bicycle Trek. Unlike the now infamous trip 2007 through Finland (see BicyclinginFinland2007 ) to the Arctic Ocean, I will not have to worry about hauling gear on my bike. This is an organized ride. My camping and day-to-day stuff will go by truck. The communities along the 1,100 mile route will feed and host us in a variety of settings, such as schools, churches, parks where we can make camp. We will pass through a part of the U.S. rich in history, which makes this ride particularly interesting to me. The trip ends in New Franklin, Missouri, on Sept. 28th. I am told there will be about 30 riders from all over the U.S. I will find out Saturday when we gather in Santa Fe for our pre-trip briefing.

Joining me from the Puget Sound area will be Steve Rice, a highly regarded architect from Bremerton (Rice, Fergus, Miller of Bremerton) and Russell Hartman, a retired Superior Court judge. (A second Russ, Russ Hallsted, had to drop out of the trip.) In fact, I can blame Steve for luring me into this newest expedition. Steve's firm is designing the interior of the proposed new Kitsap County Regional Branch Library in Kingston (I am the Chief Financial Officer of the that system). I was minding my own business one day last spring when Library Director Jill Jean called me into her office where she was meeting with Steve. Steve had a big grin on us face. He told me about the plans for him and his friends to ride the Santa Fe trail. Could I come?

Bike Friday, my marvelous folding bike that survived the trek in Finland/Lapland/Arctic Norway is staying home. I've spent most of the summer tuning up the 24 year-old Bianchi Volpe. She's ready to go. In fact, she's already left on the rear carrier of Russ's car, which should be closing in on New Mexico as I peck away at this blog in rainy Seattle. Russ and his wife, Sheri, are driving to Santa Fe. He generously offered to transport our bikes. So I decided to take advantage of the free transportation and give Bianchi a chance at a big ride. She'll do fine.

This trip will have competing blogs. Steve's can be viewed at Steve's Santa Fe Trail Blog  Between the two of us you might be able to discern the truth of this expedition. I have to admit that after looking at Steve's blog, he definitely has a leg up on photos and maps, but I hope to make for my loss of technical skill with my vivid insights.