Category: Blog

I know there’s a surprise factor out there for some (particularly some of my former players and coworkers) who have never once seen a symptom… but it’s for good reason.

I got lucky… I gave up the pills when I was 14, and after figuring out how to control them… or at least delay them.. they started to go away on their own. Sure, I still get em when I’m really, really tired.. or really, really stressed… or both 🙂 If it was anything that helped get it under control for me, it’s breathing and focus.

time to go get some sleep.

Some very special Gypsy got this old wolf one of his own prints for his birthday. Not only did she get the print, she got it on the canvas instead of photo paper, something I’ve been meaning to do for some time. I haven’t priced it out yet, because I hadn’t seen a sample. Of course, now I have no further excuses… but it sure does look neat. Here’s the picture in question :=)

The interesting juxtaposition of the death of Luciano Pavoratti and the spectacular eruption of Mt. Aetna both of which were coverred on CNN late last night…

And I’m currently watching news reports a little more closely… a LOT more closely… Glad I elected not to go through Kansas for starters. Mile-wide tornados? Odessa just got pummeled on Wednesday with upwards of 4 feet of flooding… according to Krys, in about 45 minutes., and softball sized hail being reported in parts. Here’s for hoping I don’t have to ride through anything like THAT. I don’t think my headlight protector would stand up to hitting ice-softballs at 80mph.

So pre-trip jitters are starting… “What am I riding into?” Well, it’s going to be an adventure no matter which way it goes 🙂

I think I’ll figure in mornings for music, afternoons for weather radio reports. At least till I get through the plains. Mountain weather is unpredictable, sure… but it doesn’t have time to get REALLY horrible! It may be boring and repetitive, but it could very well save my life, my bike, or my wallet. Thankfully, I had the foresight to purchase a little am/fm/wr from radio shack…

Well as of tonight, I’ll be absolutely 100% ready. The highway pegs work exactly how I wanted them to, I’ve got all my toiletries and foodstuffs received, purchased, and ready to be packed. The bike has been serviced, has new tires, is running at 110% of BMW perfection, and is chomping at the bit to get going. She knows. I can tell.

The only thing that remains… a few color-coded keychains to identify one bag from another for convenience, and about 10 more caribiners to make the packing job easier. I was thinking about picking up 4 of the dual caribiner strap thingies from REI, but they are 10-12$ each and climbing grade… I can snap 3-4 caribiners together at $1/ea for what I need and save myself 30$…

Truly, whoever invented the caribiner deserves every dollar they ever made for the invention.

4 days, 12 hours… getting closer. A LOT closer.

Here’s a nice little play picture of the bike taken up at Kirsten’s:

Too bad there’s no real solid way to attach it! Ah, well…. maybe I’ll find a more solid one on the road somewhere.

Cheers!

Belg

Well, in addition to all of my flight arrangements, emails, phone calls and 12 hour days at work, I managed to get 4-5 more prints up on TerraWolf and get a pretty good stab at a major site makeover. Feel free to peruse the new look of the site at http://www.terrawolf.com

There’s still quite a bit to do there, and quite a bit of html to write into it, but the hard part, basically, is done. Now it’s just the -tedious- part… writing help&information documents. Somewhere in the middle of this, I’ll of course be doing the fun part.. preparing and posting awesome photos of… well, everything.

Regards,

Belg

Soooo last night, after some gyrations between myself, Garmin, and my desktop, I told Misty about the trip. All my routes, waypoints, and maps have been finalized, downloaded to the unit and posted up online on the routes page. Huzzah!

Everything I needed except the highway pegs have been recieved. Huzzah!

Tire decision has been made, and I’ll have a set of Annakee’s put on Wednesday. Huzzah!

Had an interesting reflection on the way to work that was partially related to a conversation I had with someone earlier… but this trip was planned, conceived, and thrown together as a single man, and it feels strange doing it as a not-quite-single-man-anymore man. Born of an idea to just -ride- it remains just that… but.. well. Just finding myself wishing I had more room on the back, and someone else had time. Probably for the best though, there’s going to be some LONG days on the back. On the plus side, I think the Gypsy will be as addicted to riding as I am, all the signs are there… so it looks promising for future two-bike trips 🙂 She’s just gotta learn how to ride….

All that said, I’m beyond ready to go… nervousness has been replaced by excitement… and the rush of realising that a few months worth of prep is about to be synthesized into a wonderfully fun summer. Assuming my tusch holds up, of course, but looks like it won’t be a problem, if it is, it will go away after I get to Bill Mayer Saddles in Ojai.

Best regards….

Belg