I really should have started writing this journal before I left on my tour. It's overwhelmingly intimidating to try to sum up what was basically 18 months of thought and intention into a coherent introduction page.

The Who - Me!

Relation | Bookmark | Edit | | Report | Link Rating: (0) Training ride - 42 muggy miles up the Nooksack valley from Bellingham to Glacier

I'm 29, a chronically single, experienced traveler, bike commuter, and university employee with 3.5 months of free time during the summer.

The What - As in, "What? You're biking all by yourself? What will you eat? What about crazy serial killers? What about the weather? What about your job? What about the apartment you just moved into?" etc, etc, ad absurdum.

The Where - To Northern California, from Bellingham-Tillamook by train and bus, and on from cheesetown with the power of my own legs and tires.

The When - My close friend and traveling diva had just returned from 6 months abroad in Brazil, and called to say she'd be in Arcata in 3 weeks time, around the 15th of July. I wanted to go visit, and the bike commuter in my brain said, as it has tended to say more often than not lately, "HEY YOU SHOULD BIKE THERE!"

Relation | Bookmark | Edit | | Report | Link Rating: (0) Goal of the trip - Give this girl a hug 10 months in the making!

The Why - I'm very competitive, so when a friend of mine told me about his border to border coastal bike tour, the idea wormed its way into my brain and never went away. I had initially planned on doing the tour with my boyfriend last year, but life and our eventual breakup got in the way. The idea didn't go away though, and neither did my bike. So, when I finished up my first school year and the 3+ months of unemployment loomed large, I started thinking about it again. Hard.

I was confident in my conditioning, as I live at the top of a hill in a very hilly town, and commute by bike 90% of the time. However, I didn't know much about how bikes work. I literally didn't know that bikes needed chain lube until last year, and I didn't know anything else needed lube until I took the 3 hour REI level 2 bike class. I still didn't know how to change a tire, but I'd never had a flat on my bike (more on that later.) I didn't know how to adjust gears, I didn't know how to change a cable, I didn't know... everything. I especially didn't know how humbling it is to go down the community bike shop (The Hub here in Bellingham - an amazing resource) and realize just how much I don't know.

Luckily the shop kids at the Hub are amazingly patient and helpful, and I spent long days in there pulling my bike apart and putting it back together, lubing, cleaning, adjusting, wrapping, tightening, and asking questions. Helpful hint - don't wear open toed shoes, pants you want to wear again, or a low cut shirt to a bike shop.

After many hours in the shop, much online research (much of it here on crazyguy!) I felt like I had a handle on what I needed to know and what I needed to have for the trip. I sniped the REI sale and snagged dual pairs of Ortleibs and got to assembling...

The BIKE!