The Scramble is On!

It does not seem to matter how many times we prepare for these kind of adventures the last minute scramble is always chaotic. Work has wrapped up for me. Sue, on the other hand, says she has an awful lot of stuff to get finished up before our Saturday departure. Once again the yard work has been 'semi' cleaned up while friends and family have been lined up to keep the place in order while we are away. Again the basement looks like a 'used' camping store or more appropriately a 'disaster zone'. Our gear is spread out all over the place just waiting for the final pack. A minor 'screw up on my part with the blog address has been rectified. (Do not ask!!!)

Our training rides are more or less over with about 1000 kilometres on the legs. I sure hope that it is enough! I guess we will find out.

5 days until departure, a little late to bail out now! We are as ready as we are going to be.

We Have a Departure Date

In both our 2010 blog and our 2014 blog I spent some time describing our route plan and our equipment list. I will spare you the 'mundane' details this time. We are leaving home on September 2 and hope to be on our bikes and starting the riding part of our adventure on September 5.

The route is quite simple...follow Highway 132 around the Gaspe Peninsula. Our Cross Canada ride in 2010 was 8500 kilometres. Our West Coast adventure in 2014 was 3200 kilometres. The Gaspe will be around 1000 kilometres. (Anyone see a trend here? The rides keep getting shorter as the years keep advancing.)

We again are feeling some trepidation as we get ourselves ready. After all our experience, how hard can 1000 kilometres be? Gleaning information from some blogs that we have followed and talking to people that have travelled the route by car, we suspect it will be a 'tough' ride. Again it is coastal, but coastal roads tend to go up, around, and over big rocks. After all, we will be 'playing' in the Appalachian Mountains. We have been reassured that the scenery is 'stunning' and will more than make up for the climbing. Let's hope so!

And I would be remiss if I did not mention that 'evil' thing called training. We have been on the bikes as much as we possibly can. We have had four 2 day fully loaded rides and feel that our conditioning is improving. However, 3 years since our last adventure on the bikes is a long time. And did I mention that we are 3 years older! We may be relying a little bit on the 'muscle memory' that we are told exists. I guess we will find out.