Awww Hell Yeah

A week ago, big news came down from the glowing, disembodied head surrounded by fire that is my office manager: My request for a 2 month leave of absence was approved from August 20th - October 15th. What do I intend to do with this time? No, not learn how to brew crystal meth out of my car's trunk. I'm going to hop on my bike and travel from San Diego to Boston.

That's a bicycle, not a motorcycle (which would probably make more sense). And yes, that's me doing this, not a person of even marginally impressive physical fitness (that would also make quite a bit more sense)

I requested the time off basically as a lark, I didn't expect for a second they'd actually approve it. My company is pretty cool, but I didn't think they were THAT cool. Usually leaves of absence are reserved for getting married or having a nervous breakdown or something.

So now I've got 7 months to plan this, get into shape, save up a lot of money and vacation time, and settle all of my affairs in case a bear eats me on the way. It's quite the list of stuff to do. I decided to make this my hybrid training/planning journal and journal kept on the way itself. It's not going to be the most updated journal of all time, as there will be months during training where I'd write nothing but "I biked 15 miles today as a test and my left kidney ruptured oh God I'm so doomed" and various points on my trip where even the unlimited, omniscient reach of THE INTERNETS cannot find me. So basically it'll be like that ...other... blog I used to write in, except now when it doesn't get updated for 11 months at a time people can and should assume I died.

I've kind of formed a rough plan of what I need to do beforehand, and in what order:

By the end of January:
- Buy a bike
- Pick an NPO to start talking with about sponsorship
- Plan a rough budget for the next 10 months
- Decide how I'm going to pick a route (Whether I use ACA maps, Google Maps, releasing from San Diego a pigeon captured in Boston and following it, etc...)
- Sell car

By the end of March:
- Decide on how to outfit the bike (Components, panniers vs a trailer, blah blah)
- Have relationship with whatever NPO established so I can start collecting
- Performed at least 1 60 mile day trip

By the end of June
- Have final draft of route planned
- Perform at least 1 80 mile day trip
- Convert bike from commuting to touring componentry
- Start loading bike fully during commuting for practice

By August 15th
- Perform a 100 mile day trip
- Have packing list completed and all supplies purchased/stowed
- Find Cat-sitter
- Invent new breakfast cereal

I'll start by addressing the first "Huh?" response this list likely elicited. Yes, I'm selling my car and going bike-only. There's a multitude of reasons I shouldn't be driving at this point, but I'll focus on two here.

#1. I am supremely, utterly lazy. I can realistically see myself driving to work every day and not even touching the damn bike until August, and then desperately trying to will myself into shape for this. I'm planning on doing 70-80 miles a day, including going straight through the horrible, accursed Rocky Mountains, and I need to get in every single bit of training I can, starting now. With the car still in the picture, that's not gonna happen.

#2. Tucson is rated like #3 or #4 in terms of "bike friendly" cities in the entire country. Getting to work, the store, the local S&M leather hangout, is all very easy. There's no excuse to not ditch the car. I'm going to be biking through downpours, 110 degree heat, and 40 degree cold at various points on this trip, so if I can't hack it for a 9.1 mile commute to work, I'm certainly not going to be able to do it over the course of several thousand miles. Therefore, no car.