Thursday, August 18, 2016

Culmination of Gear

It's coming quick, the bike trip is only weeks away! Curtis and I have been slaving over our computers, ordering gear and back checking every little item that we think we may need, then ordering more. I budgeted myself $1000 for gear, and have reached that limit. The purchase list includes:

-Riding jeans that have sewn in Kevlar lining and inserted hip and knee armor
-Throttle lock so I'll have cruise control
-Down vest for cold weather
-Wheel security lock
-Saddle bags
-Cooling vest for that hot desert sun

Over the last few days we've booked our accommodation for a bunch of stops, which was pretty much a necessity in places like Moab and the Grand Canyon, which is still very busy during September. We got the second last available hotel room in Moab on Hotwire! I've been hard at work researching hiking trails we can do in the national parks, and a few notable ones I've found are the Zion Narrows in Zion N.P., the Devil's Garden Trail in Arches N.P., and the South Rim Trail in Grand Canyon N.P.

Next week I take my bike for it's 8000km service, which will give me peace of mind that the bike has been completely checked over and will be good to go for this trip. Also next week I will do a dry run on packing the bike with everything I'll need. Shit is getting real.

As for the rest of my summer, it's been a lot of working on my backyard, which has produced amazing results:


My Uncle Maurice and I have been hard at work grading the backyard, disposing of twelve tons of waste soil, dumping another twelve of good top soil back in, tamping a pad of road crush which I laid my stone patio on, building a fence to keep the riff raff next door out of sight and out of mind (except for her barking ass dogs), and laying 1200 square feet of sod. After all of that, it's looking great! 

And for the rest of the house, I had some plumbers bust up the concrete floor in the basement to lay drain and water lines for the new laundry room, which will replace the old location so I can turn it into a second bedroom. And I had that old beast of a furnace replaced with this new, shiny Cadillac of a furnace that also blows cool air from my basement upstairs and makes summer nights in my house quite pleasant!