All checked in

We went to the train station this evening and got the bike box. She said we could go ahead and box up my bicycle and check it and my suitcase in tonight. You can see in the first picture that we've taken the pedals off and loosened and turned the handlebars. That's the front rack looking right at you! Then all we had to do was slide it in the box and tape the box shut. My suitcase was 2 lbs overweight so I took out the tent and I'll carry it on. It's a small backpacking tent, so it'll be easy to carry it on the train.

Some of you are having trouble with the pictures. The website was having problems earlier but it seems to be straightened out now. If anyone else is having trouble getting the pictures to come up, drop me an email and I'll help you figure out why.

Suitcase

All my bags are packed and ready to go... (sounds like words to a song?) There you see how I plan to get all those bike bags from here to Louisiana. After I unpack my bags from it in Hammond, Louisiana I'll donate the suitcase. In this day and age you can't just abandon a bag, especially at a train station, so I'll have to discuss it with the train agents and see where to leave/donate it.

The panniers (saddlebags) are on each side toward the back (bottom) of the suitcase. Between them is the black bag with my rain gear and cold weather gear. The blue & black bag is my sleeping bag. The tent is in the white plastic trash bag. The tan bag holds my ground cloth and air mattress. In the front right corner, that black rectangular bag is the handlebar bag. And of course the pringles can with my saltine crackers in it! The only reason they get such special treatment is their crushability!

So, everything I need to survive 4 weeks on the trail, including my "housing" (tent), is packed in that one suitcase! Humbling thought.

Map

This is a map of my route. As it says, the blue line is the train route, the red line is the bicycle route. There'll be a little back-tracking since I'm taking the train to my brother's house in South Bend, then back to Chicago and south with my bicycling companion. You can click on the map to enlarge it.

Loaded Bike

I packed my panniers (bicycle saddle bags) today and got the rest of my gear packed up, then put it all on the bike to see how it fit. Not bad! Right now the total load (weight of all the bags) is 46 lbs. The blue bag on back, on top of the panniers, has my tent, ground cloth, sleeping bag, and air mattress in it. The round black bag on the front rack contains my rain gear (rain jacket and rain/wind pants) and cold weather stuff (down vest, fleece jacket, gloves, fleece hat). Above it is my handlebar bag, which has snacks, sunglasses, camera, cell phone, etc., in it. The Pringles can has saltine crackers in it. Keeps them from getting crushed. Inside the panniers is the rest of my clothes, shower stuff (shampoo, soap, etc.), food, backpacking campstove, mess kit, and odds and ends of tools, playing cards, Sudoku book, writing paper. I couldn't fit the kitchen sink in... (ha ha!)

Shrink wrap?

Too much bike for the box. The bike shop assured me that even their biggest bike would fit in it! Yeah...if you disassemble the whole thing! Amtrak has bigger boxes, so I guess we'll check into that.

Training buddy

This is training buddy, my wonderful, supportive husband Steven. Sometimes he goes along with me on my rides. This day we went nearly 30 miles, the last half into a headwind.

Food, glorious food!

I've been dehydrating food to take along on the bike trip. I shredded potatoes (homegrown, from our root cellar!), parboiled them, and ran them through our dehydrator. They came out great! I also cooked up some black beans and ran them through the dehydrator. I chopped up apples and dried them, plus I dehydrated bags of frozen mixed vegetables, corn, and a peas & carrot mix. I have tomatoes, strawberries, huckleberries, onion, and both sweet and hot peppers that I dried last Fall. Then I bagged up some oatmeal (premixed with cinnamon, a little sugar, and powdered milk), freeze-dried beef stew, dry butter and dry cheese. Probably a couple other things in there too that I forgot to mention. Oh yeah! The eggs! I made dehydrated eggs! I whipped them as though I was going to make omelettes, spread it out on fruit-leather trays that came with the dehydrator and dried them. They're like cornflakes when they break apart. I ran it through the blender and "ta da!", I have powdered egg! Should be some good eating on the bike trip!

The Bike and the Plan

This is the bike I'll be using for my Louisiana to Michigan ride. I'll be taking the train from NW Montana and will meet my biking buddy in South Bend, Indiana, where we'll board a train and head south to Hammond, Louisiana, which is about 30 miles or so north of New Orleans. Hopefully it'll be warm and sunny, and maybe there'll even be palm trees! Palm trees = warm weather!