T Minus 2 Days and Counting

Well Cathy and I flew to Eugene Thursday and now we're here, a bit tired but excited about the ride.  We've met up with our friends and co-riders now, Left to Right in the photo are Cathy, Me, Ed from Stafford, VA(my old colleague from my Washington/Forest Service days, and Stephanie and Tom from Martinez, CA.  This is Ed's first bike tour and he's really looking forward to it.  Steph and Tom were born on bikes and are avid bike riders.

We filled out our supplies at REI here.  It always seems like you there's just one more thing you need to make your gear complete.

Then Cathy and I came back to our friends Bill and Susie's place where I then I had to figure out how to repack my gear according to what I needed where and when.  Since Cathy will be driving the van all the way to Missoula I don't need everything on my bike until after that. So it's a matter of deciding what is essential during the ride (rain gear, energy gels and bars, bike tools, etc.) and what we need each night (sleeping bag, tent, mat, toiletries, etc.) and what I won't need until after Missoula, Montana when I'll be riding solo and the van will be gone (mini-camp stove, cooking pots, my 2 man tent, etc.)  Here's my stuff:

This was before putting them in large and medium ziplock bags to make them more accessible and grouping them by category and pannier bag or handlebar bag.  

So tomorrow (Saturday) we'll get a ride from Bill to Florence, Oregon which is on the Pacific coast.  In order to make it an official coast to coast ride the protocol is to dip your tires in the Pacific Ocean when you start and in the Atlantic when you finish. I'll probably dip my tires Saturday so Sunday morning when we start I don't have to ride back from the Motel to the beach before we try to take off early Sunday morning.   

Our first day's ride will be one of the longest of the trip:  78 miles.  Back here to Eugene.
And as you can see from the photo below, I've already started carbo-loading. More to come.