With less than two weeks to go, I have had to solve a few automobile issues here at home. Last Saturday, Cristy’s nice 2016 Malibu was totaled by a driver that pulled out from a side street directly into my path while I was trying to get to work . Unfortunately, I was not quite able to avoid the offending car and it turned out that he took out the entire right side of the Malibu. At least no one was hurt, though some pedestrians on the sidewalk were pretty frightened.

I was driving Cristy’s car because our other two cars had mechanical issues. My Mustang died on me the day beforehand. It turns out that the alternator had failed. I have since fixed that problem. Our Caravan, was somewhat drivable, but had a bad wheel bearing. My mechanic fixed that yesterday. Anyway all car issues have occurred while I was trying to focus on preparing for my bike trip.

Speaking of the bike trip, there are a couple of things left to be done including finding someone to mow the lawn. That appears to be more challenging that I expected. Many lawn services are not taking new work, and others want a season long contract.

I”m also contemplating what to bring. I know that as I travel, I will purchase stuff that I need, but didn’t bring and I may well send stuff home that I don’t really need.

I’ve been contemplating whether to grow a beard or attempt to shave daily. The problem with shaving is the weight of an electric shaver and charger. I’m not able shave with a regular blade without hacking up my tender face, so that Isn’t an option.

I found an old planning spreadsheet from my last big bike journey, a trip from Missoula, Montana to Jasper, Alberta. It lists everything I was considering bringing on that trip. I will use it as a starting point for finalizing this years list, though some things have changed. No camera on this trip, as modern phones make excellent cameras, but I will need to bring a charger and I’ll probably also bring an external battery. This trip doesn’t involve such northerly latitudes as that last trip, so I will omit the booties and maybe the warm gloves and possibly an extra layer of clothing.