We are just days away from heading to California. Three to be exact, WHOA! I have 3 more nights and 2 days at home... So I'm running around wild getting things done between packing and riding.
My bags are under weight! That was not quite as easy as I had hoped, but all is well. I'm at 28.5 pounds total. This allows for me to put my biking backpack into the bags and be right at weight allowance, if I decide to not ride with it a few days.
Things I had to remove due to weight:
extra long sleeve shirt
mini Theragun was switched out for a mini foam roller
took out the shaker bottle, kept the wire ball to use in my water bottle
spare tubes, sadly they're just too heavy
instead of 2 spare tires, I pushed my weight down to have one with me (took out one less shirt and pant)
puffy vest
pj pants
mini dish soap
Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about the packing! It will be fun to talk to people and hear what they chose to trade out for their "golden" item. For me it was that foam roller and the tire.
Trip Stickers!!
I designed stickers to give out to my fundraiser donors and to the fellow riders on trip. They were fun to make, I hope you all like them! If I have enough, I'll pass them out in the towns when I meet people.
The fundraiser is going awesome! Friends and family have been over the top supportive of the cause and of my cycling. Thank you all!! It's currenly over halfway to the goal! About $1,500 away.
Some very exciting news... my hometown newspaper, the Edwardsville Intelligencer, has graciously offered to run a story about cycling advocacy, safety, expansion of paths/trails and cycling across country!! Edwardsville has a large cycling community, with many rails to trails bike path options for easy accessibility for all. I never would have thought posting about this fundraiser on Facebook would lead to a published story, Thank you Matt!
Training Load: Tapering
I did my last "big" ride yesterday of 67 miles and 2k feet, this week is my taper week. Only 2 more shorter 40ish mile rides until Sunday's tour. It's starting to feel weird to take a day off the bike, I suppose that's a good place to be at such a big trip!
Gotta run, going to my last happy hour with friends before I'm gone for 2 months.
Till soon!
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