It was a bit of a challenge, but we’re all packed up and ready to roll to DIA and get this party started. It was a bit of a learning curve breaking down the bikes and putting them into the travel cases. After about four different trips to Lowe’s for tools and exchanging of tools, then a trip to Sports Garage to find a tool to remove my rear derailleur, we’re set and ready to pray to the luggage gods to 1) not lose our bikes and one checked bag, and 2) that nothing is missing or broken by the lovely folks with TSA.
We have two bikes in cases. One is 28 pounds and the other is 32 pounds. Guess who’s is heavier? Then we have one large rolling duffel with mostly Kristin’s clothes, a few things of mine and then lots of Skratch and protein shake mix. Next we have a carry-on sized bag that is filled with mostly my clothes, some camera gear and our travel docs. Lastly there’s the laptop bag with P&S cams and various multimedia goodies. I’ve never went out on a trip with out an SLR before. So this is feeling a bit weird to go with only the little Canon S100. But luckily I can shoot full manual and RAW files, plus it’s about the same resolution as my Nikon D700 that I took to Peru. Now, all the camera geeks out there, I know the sensor is smaller and thus the resolution isn’t as good, but you can lug that 3 pound beast of an SLR up the Col de Tourmalet and let me know how it goes. I’ll be at the top having a pastry.
Trooper is a basket case with all the bags and shuffling about in the house. So hopefully he’ll settle in quick as Ryan & Melora take over his care for the next three weeks.
Other than a few last minute “Oh crap!” thoughts of “I meant to do _____….” we’re all ready to go. That is, if Kristin can walk in the morning. Her back and SI joints are slightly pissed off. She’s in bed with horse-strength muscle relaxers to try and get it to calm down before sitting in a metal tube for almost 10 hours tomorrow. Well, until we land in France, take it easy.
-JL
