Pacific Coast maps have arrived!!!!

Hello,

Starting to get very excited now my Pacific Coast maps have arrived from www.adventurecycling.org. 

The route is spilt into five maps of about 400-500 miles each.  I am just imagining the excitement of riding up into and through a forest of big Redwood trees and then in another scene cruising up to Golden Gate Bridge.  Also wondering what the theme song to the video will be on that day.  I will give a full review of the maps on Friday.  

I have also been into PedalSport at King Cross, Halifax, my friendly and very helpful bike shop to check on Lucile 2.0 progress, things are coming along nicely.  I have been doing a lot of reading about how to pack your bike up for plane travel and there are a lot of conflicting ideas.  Some reputable sites such as the CTC recommend just putting the bike in a big plastic bag (see image below).  

The idea behind this is that people will respect your belongings if they know what they are lifting.  There are a lot of  experiences out there that seem to back up that theory.  I don't think I can be that trusting so I had originally planned to use a proper hard case that racers use to carry their pride and joys around (examples below).  BUT

This had a few logistical obstacles the main one being as I am going in and out of different airports, how would I get the box waiting for me at the airport in San Diego.  To get around this problem I researched FedEx and UPS and they have depots walking distances from each airport so I could just get those guys to send and store until I got there.   But after having a word with my guys at PedalSport we think a big cardboard box how bikes arrive in shops will be perfect, providing it is packed properly. Then at the end of my trip pop into another bike shop in San Diego for another cardboard box to come home.  As was pointed out to me by Mark at Pedal Sport brand new bikes are shipped all around the world in these boxes so it should be ok.  I am well aware that when the are new they will be on nice pallets neatly packed together in bulk and not getting slung around cargo, but I am going to have some faith.

So even though this trip seems quite a way off just yet (four month) I am getting some good research done.  I do need to think about a list of things I need buy because this is slightly different to my tour around France.  In France I could use my CampinGaz stove, nearly every shop over there would sell the fuel.  

But they will not have that brand in the states so I need a different cooking unit.  So I think I am going to get one that can work of petrol and diesel, As this will be easy to come by.  There are a few options, Coleman and MSR are probably a route I will go down.

I also want to purchase a cool camera to get action bike footage as well.  My options are the GoPro HERO 3 Black or the new Garmin VIRB.  If anybody has experience or advice, please feel free to comment.

On Saturday we set of to do our Grand Depart thing.  400 miles in three days.  Last night I thought I best plot the official route with directions.  It does look quite hilly, but nothing us boys can't shake off for more of the same the next day and the day after that etc :)

Just to finish off this blog can now be accessed through two new domain names.  www.icycleiadventure.com and www.icycleiadventure.co.uk.  Please band them around to interested parties.