Mental Preparation

Since I left Ithaca, NY this May I have been in Providence, RI, camping out in the sunroom of my gracious hosts, Adam, Corinne and Josh. I've been getting used to sleeping on the floor in my new sleeping bag and waking with the sun to the horrible sounds of pigeons on the roof. My preparations for camping have been more adequate than my physical conditioning for cycling- I hurt my knee riding on the Bristol bike path two weeks ago and had to stay off the bike for most of the time since then. Lately, I haven't made it any further on my bike than North Providence. Now the bike is in a cardboard box, ready to be loaded into the belly of a trans-Atlantic Airbus. Aer Lingus, if you are reading this, please take good care of it. Also, the non-Irish think your airline's name borders on innuendo.

It seems appropriate that, as I sit in Coffee Exchange, Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" just began playing on my iTunes, a random shuffle of 5,681 songs. You don't have to believe me, but I save up my white lies for less trivial and more hyperbolic stories. It's merely a cosmic omen, you see. Maybe you can point the real tall tales later along Tour de Awesome, when I sight a snow leopard in the Pyrenees.

Since readers from around the world have asked, I will now describe the gear that I am taking. I will be riding a Bianchi Volpe touring bike with clipless pedals, a Brooks leather saddle, front and rear racks, four waterproof pannier bags, and a handlebar bag. I'm trying to keep it as light as possible to slightly counteract my unpreparedness for a 2,000 mile journey. Otherwise, I am just bringing camping gear, a few pairs of biking and street clothes, tools, maps, and a little Lumix DSC-LX2 digital camera. I'll post a picture of the bike when I get to Spain. I also got a cool techie gadget- a solar charger for my iPod and mobile phone- it connects via USB port with multiple attachments and I can just stick it on my rack while I am riding.

I leave from Boston on Monday afternoon to spend a week in Manchester, England, the world's first industrialized city, where I will stay until the 23rd. I'll post again when I am there.

Also, my pal and riding partner Krisztian has a blog about the trip here. I also added it as an RSS feed in the top right of the site.