A Simple Mission: Our life by bike: 51 days till sunshine!

WARNING: approach with caution!! The following post contains rants and ramblings from Brian the "gearhead"!! --signed, the anti-gearhead of this relationship(maybe Brian will think before he lets me edit agan!)

So today we are 51 days from the warm sunshine of Mexico! It can't come soon enough since the last week here in Jackson has been nothing but cold, rain, and snow. I don't really mind this weather but Hannah is struggling with the idea of winter arriving this early. She walks around with a hoodie and coat on almost all day long...even in our apartment! My only concern is the fact that the bikes may have to be put away already besides short errands and any time spent on the stationary trainer.

Throughout the last few weeks we have continued our preparations for the trip which means spending more money, ugh. We decided to get a new computer - another small asus netbook, and we finally got our Schwalbe Marathon Mondials tires. I can't imagine riding without them, they last forever and never flat. We also ordered Ortlieb mirrors and a folding Ortlieb bowl to do laundry in and maybe even use for impromptu showers on those long stretches without comforts. I'm sure we will find plenty of uses for it. Our bikes will also appreciate the Clickstands on the way, basically a tent pole that is used for a kickstand. I haven't used them but haven't heard anything bad about them and I'm pretty excited for these to arrive. They are actually custom made to your bike, but still reasonably priced: http://www.click-stand.com/.

After the shopping spree, I think we are ready to go besides a few odds and ends such as spare spokes and brake pads. Other prep work has included piecing together a route on our Garmin edge 800 to follow for the first week or so so we can get in the routine of riding again without worrying about finding our way around.

Here are some pictures to get us through the week, and the next 51 days!! This weekend's muddy ride was up Curtis Canyon. It was a perfect ride to get prepared for some of the rough roads we may encounter on our trip, but Hannah didn't come because it was too cold for her(shocker)!! Luckily we won't have to hear her complain about being too cold all the time in Mexico.

I am still trying to figure out our GPS, so I am going to put the route up and make sure everything works how I want it to. Hopefully while we are on our trip we will post our route regularly.

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