...And away we go!

Its about 9:30pm on Thursday night. I'm packed, and everything is loaded into the cruiser. I fly out at 6am from the Thief River Airport. I've got a couple-hour layover in Minneapolis, and then TEN HOURS at LAX before I fly out after 11pm! Its a 14-hour flight to Melbourne, so I'm looking at about 33 hours in transit. Skippy (Jason Scheepers) has already informed me that he will NOT be letting me sleep until dark the day I arrive (allegedly to help me beat jet lag, but I have my doubts!), so I'm in for a study in sleep deprivation!

I took my boxed bike to the airport today and weighed in on their scale, then went home and loaded it to capacity with stuff. The rest is going into one duffel and a small carry-on. I was informed that we are now allowed only one bag on the flight, and that I will have the privelage of paying extra for both the bike and its extra weight... If I could get to Australia in a timely manner any other way I would NEVER fly again.

I had a good scare last night when I was switching out my old Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires for the new ones I've been sitting on for months... Schwalbe had sent me the wrong size! The box said 35C the tires were 32C or smaller. Fortunately, I happen to still have a Christmas gift from my folks from two years back in the form of two Schwalbe Marathon XR HS s in the right size! So I'll be rolling a bit slower, but the toughness is there.

"Get to bed Nels"