2 Weeks to Go

It's July 1-- which means Annie and I will leave Chicago on our bicycles in exactly 15 days.  Today marks the beginning of the "Annie and Jessi bicycle across the country" blog posts.  We will strive to update daily, at least with pictures.

There's still so much to do!  I still have two more weeks of work to wrap up.  Annie and I still have several more items of gear to obtain.  Plus there's general life happenings to document.  So, for the next two weeks you'll get to read about all the prep work that goes into a month-long bike tour.

I bought our maps today.  We still have to figure out what route we'll take to Minneapolis, but we'll be covered for the route after that.  We're heading towards Seattle, so after Minneapolis we'll cross Minnesota into Fargo, then across North Dakota and Montana into Glacier National Park.  From there we might cross into Canada for a bit to check out some of Alberta, then head west again across Idaho and Washington.  Depending on how we're doing on time, we'll spend a few days in the North Cascades National Park before heading down Puget Sound into Seattle.  From there it'd be great to spend some time exploring Mt. Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park.  And who knows?  We might consider extending our trip a bit longer to make it down to Portland, Oregon.

I write that now to compare our planned route to our actual route.  This is our first bike tour, so we're not quite sure what to expect.  We value the journey more than the destination, so we've already embraced the possibility that we won't make it to Seattle within our time frame.  That would be just fine as long as we give it a go and have a glorious time while trying.

Now, onto our packing list.  We're aiming to pack LIGHT.  Neither of us is interested in hauling unnecessary items up mountains.  So, here's our bare-minimum packing list for the two of us:

• 1 two-person tent
• 2 sleeping bags
• 2 bikes
• racks and rear panniers for each bike
• 2 gallons of water-carrying capacity
• maps
• 2 helmets, lights, and other safety items
• a day's worth of food for two people
• change of clothes
• rain gear
• spare tubes and spokes
• bike repair tools
• toiletries 

It will probably expand, but that's where it's at for now.