I leave from Portland June 14th. I arrive in Seattle June 16th, I stay there for a day or so collecting more riders and then head up to Vancouver. I haven't figured out the route but it's at least 350 miles which I plan on doing over about 5 days. If this feels like too many miles, we'll leave on the 13th and bump everything forward. I leave from alaska on the 1st of july, up through Fairbanks, and then down to TOK and then through canada. I plan on being in Portland late August or early september, and then I bike down to LA as fast as I can, cause i'll be leaving to go back to Australia at the end of September/early October.

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And the date is in, June 21st to the 24th is this years BikeBike!! in Vancouver B.C. This is of course not great for my bike tour, I don't think it's physically possible for me to ride the 2190 miles in three weeks. And leaving before June seems cold and wet. I'm left with the option of leaving from alaska after bikebike, (most likely) or not going to bike bike and keeping the date still June 1st. yup, i think i'll leave Alaska July 1st... Hard date, anyone want to come with? Anyone want to ride up to Vancouver from Portland June 15th?

this is all becoming more real, and a bit sad.  I'm not sure how this is all going to work out.

let me vent and be real for a moment.

i'm sitting here in australia.  i'm meeting with people, talking about the future of this company.  i have no idea what the future holds.  I know i can still take two months and ride from alaska, but after that...  i think i'm supposed to go back and work for SCD (Secure cellar door) and part of me wants to.  but part of me is really fucking sad about my bike tour.  it's not going to be like i thought it would be.  But my thoughts were developed three years ago, before i ever met ben, or came to australia.  It's not much wonder that life is changing, but i don't really want it to.

i want to do both.  but i don't feel like it's possible.  Even if i don't have to be in AU all the time, I will have to work and be by a computer.  Can i really bike the pan american highway and maintain an internet job?  I suppose if i can do this it will be inspiring.  if i can make this work...

so how is the plan looking now?

i leave July 1st from Anchorage AL.  I basically take a month of work off because there is little possibility of having internet access while biking through the Yukon.  But hopefully I will still be able to check in at least once a week and answer emails from wineries.  then i will get into more populated areas and I will dedicate two days a week to finding internet and answer emails.  Once I get to Vancouver I will have to stay put for a while and get some needed work done.  Maybe some meetings, you know, that kinda shit.  and then I will bike down to portland, and by this time I will be able to do that in 3-4 days.  and then i'll have to stay there for a bit.  and then I will just bike 3-4 days down to a stable place with internet, work, and then continue on down.  weird.  is that possible?

i kinda think so.  I was working alright while i was traveling the US before, but I was on trains and not in camp sites.  but i could find cheap motels, or just work in the libraries...

gosh, it would be cool if it works.

Well, i guess we'll see.  i'm not sure what the consequence of trying it.  It's not the first time i've tried to have mobile work, not the first time i failed either.  heh.

ok, i just wanted to write.

Flyer! I will probably still change stuff on it

Edmonton bike thief steals dream trip - Edmonton - CBC News

Edmonton bike thief steals dream trip - Edmonton - CBC News

the idea of this happening to me mid trip is one of the scariest thoughts... It's eerily spooky to see the black surly, even tho mine is a cross check, not a long haul...)

if he fund raises, i will definitely throw down...

i've thought about purchasing a crazy hub, (rohloff speedhub) but they cost like a 1000 dollars.  I thought about asking for one as a gear grant, but i just can't imagine having something so expensive on my bike.

I'm pulled between being a total gear geek, and having the cheapest, most replaceable bike.  I've had my touring bike stollen, it sucks, i cried.  Luckily i had not tricked out the components, I bought another surely cross check and once it was assembled out the box, i didn't feel like i was riding a different bike.

Same thoughts float through my mind when it comes to camping gear.  Already my set up has cost me:

200 tent
 80 sleeping pad
120 sleeping bag
 60 stove
 50 mess kit
200 panniers (tho i made them, retail i would have paid)
100 bike tools 
810 (spent over 3 years and 3 major bike tours)

So far i've gotten all my clothing used or repurposed...  but i contemplate wool leggings from icebreaker, oooo, but $85.  If the inevitable happens, and someone steels even one bag, while they might not be able to sell these things, i will be out 100's of dollars.

Also, seeing how i want to believe that everyone should bike tour, but i will not be leading any kind of example if i spend thousands of dollars on my set up.  Again, a gear library, i know it's going to happen.  

sell all my worldly belongings before leaving on epic bike tour?

today i made a list of my belongings that i could possibly sell.

there's my computer, my books, records, cloths, and sewing supplies.

when i think about being away from my things for two years (as i have envisioned this tour to take two years of my life) i think, yeah, why the fuck would i want to keep on these silly things.

also, it brings up a lot fo thoughts about what happens after I get back.  do i just enter into regular momoko life? living in my alberta house, volunteering at bike farm and having a pleasant garden?  or will i continue to travel and check in with collectives i visited while on tour, and see what else i can do to help?  certainly my life will have changed.  planning for what happens after feels odd and pointless, which is weird for me, i've always got my life planned 3 years in advance...

but back to the items to sell, 

clothing, seems like a obvious sale.  the stuff might not even fit me the same way anymore.  styles, if i paid attention to that stuff, would have changed.  but is the $100 that i might get for my whole closet worth the possibility of letting go of something meaningful.  But maybe it's not the $100 i'm looking for, maybe it's the liberation.

when i left for australia, i gave away 50% of my clothing.  for the past 9 months i've easily survived off a suitcase of cloths, and for the past 2 months (while traveling the US) i have had just 3 outfits.  i'm practicing for tour.  it's fun.  i just bought super cool underwear (exofficio) that supposably you don't really have to wash, and when you do, (every few days) it drys in less than an hour.  what if that was just the underwear i own.  i guess the draw back is costume.  I love costume and you can't really do that with 3 outfits.

weather of course also gets in the way.  though i have found that with a good pair of wool tights, i can be warm thro a lot.

man, i'm no writer.  and i do think i ought to be more discerning than what i would normally write on livejournal.

but enough self doubt.  i want a place to write this.  to go on and on about what socks to bring on tour. oh how to live life more simply, to get rid of distraction, and focus on the important.

yet it doesn't stop me from owning oh... 7 black jackets?  yeah, 

maybe i should just sell it all, 

not for the money, if i had to trade money for something i cared about, that would not be worth it.  what i have to do is stop caring about this stuff.

grants... the beginnings

I've found myself at the portland library.  I'm doing grant research for the first time.

But all i want to do is read blogs about bike culture.  I want a lot of things but what i probably should be doing, is looking for grants.  Even though the library is a great resource for grant writing, and it allows you to search through all the grantors in the USA, it's still a mess.

Either my search is to narrow, and I find nothing, or my search is broad and I wonder, should I really ask re-max realty for money?

I worked for a company once that donated to causes...

My company got it's tax deduction from Non-profits who the owners knew personally or had a history with.  The owners used the 10k donation, or what ever it was, that was given yearly to boost their egos and help out their friends.

Why would any of these organizations be any different.

And honestly, why should they give bike farm money.

I think i like kick starter better, i like kiva too.  There is something really wrong with our grant system.  Or at least, it's not for the little guys.

Or, i don't know,

Maybe there's something wrong with bike farm.  Even if I could get a grant, which for some reason I think I can, if it were for something like build bikes, who would manage it?  who would make sure it actually happened, the money went somewhere, people got on bikes?

Frank?  while he runs the rest of the shop?  no, we are just a community bike shop.  It's hard enough just to keep our doors open.  And while, grantors love to see programs and measurable effect, reality is that we do the best good by just being consistently open.  Maybe I should be writing grant to make Bike Farm free (though i have some philosophical questions about the benefit of "free")

What do we really need? volunteers,
We just need the people to see us and care about us.  Maybe we do need advertising...

Maybe we should do a kick start.

Not for the money, but for the publicity...

yes,,,

this is what we need.
I've realized this before, now it becomes apparent, we not only do not need a document library as much as we need volunteers, but we also don't need money, as much as we need volunteers.