ohmygoodnesstheressomuchtodobeforewego

So the ride is going to be THIS Sunday (26th) until Sunday the following week. 8 days of biking. Um, wow - I have never had to plan this far in advance for anything in my life! 8 days without a car. 8 days biking into... um, "almost" desolate terrain in Northern Idaho. Where do we buy food? How many days worth of food do we need to pack at a time? How often can we do laundry? And more importantly, um... how do I pack it all on my bike? Oi.

It feels like there's about a billion things to go over before we leave, but I thought I'd update everyone on the actual gear. Yup, I geared up my bike with a mock-run, 'cuz I wanted to figure out exactly what I needed to carry. Here's my bike so far: Two kitty litter buckets with a new lease on life as "bike buckets." They are waterproof, huge, and can double as a stool when on the trail.

Kim was kind enough to find the "53 mpb" sticker for me - and for those of you that don't know, that's "miles per burrito." Very fitting. I guess I've gotta ride with it.

One bike bucket is for my clothes. The other is for tools, gatorade, protein bars, and various sundry trail foods. Strapped on top is a (mostly) empty cycling backpack with a 3 liter hydration bladder.

So... exactly how much water does one need when they're riding 60 miles across the high desert in 80, no... 95, no... 102 WILL SOMEONE PLEASE FIGURE OUT HOW HOT IT'S GOING TO BE???

Even with all this planning, I have this ominous fear that we will break a bike... or maybe we break Eric... or we will run out of food and water, and be forced to eat Eric... Oh, so many worries. I hope Eric makes it ;)