Crunch Time

And so here it is, January 6th, less than eleven days before lift off on our new adventure.  Since Jake began the blog in November, promising to blog "every day" ... well, you can see how that panned out.  While we would love to be good, diligent daily bloggers, my procrastinating nature only allows me to promise (maybe) one update a week.  And if we end up sharing a bit more often, Hurray!

our proposed route, rough outline. click to enlarge!

So, what's new?  What's been happening since November?  What have we been up to besides work and holiday get-togethers?

Lots.

While in our dreams we could potentially cheap-hippie backpack and ride the way Jay is capable of doing, we have succumbed to the online shopping temptation to outfit ourselves and purchased all sorts of "necessary touring items" online throughout the month of December, everything from cheap ebay chinese panniers to a beautiful Primus omni-fuel camp stove, dry-wicking socks to extra SD cards for the camera.  Jake got the Pinnacle dualist camp cookset for Christmas so we'll have something to cook with and eat out of, and I received Lush solid shampoo and conditioner so we'll have no excuse for dirty hair on the road.

Speaking of hair, the big change around here is that, for the first time in our almost ten-year relationship, my hair is shorter than Jake's hair!  And yes, knowing the love Jake has for his long, flowing locks, you might think this doesn't signify a big change, but since Jake had to cut his hair (thereby decreasing his power levels by half, womp-womp) for work this summer, this means my hair is the shortest it has ever been.  Having admired cute pixie-cuts for many years, it was finally the right time to try it out: easy wear, easy care for the upcoming trip!!

And in recent developments, Jake took his diabolically beautiful Scattante bike in to the shop for a tune up before we head out and, after chatting the knowledgeable employees up, was informed that the beauty was too high-end for such a rough and remote tour!  Had a spoke broken or something on the drive-train gotten knocked out of whack, it would have been exorbitantly expensive or nigh impossible for him to get parts down in South America!  After an anguished night of posting la Diabla for sale online and browsing the Buenos Aires classifieds for a substitute bike to be purchased upon our arrival there, all was remedied the next day when we arrived to pick up the tuned Scattante from the shop: the mechanic showed Jake a Fuji touring bicycle and proposed a TRADE!  His bike was in such good condition having only been ridden in the Pittsburgh Triathlon and maybe 10 other times, They switched it for an equipped steel Fuji with touring tires and a rack, thereby eliminating other items from our essential checklist!

Many, many thanks to the guys at Performance Bikes for their tips and advice and awesome service!  It is more appreciated than you can know!  Expect a postcard!

So that's about where we are at this point!  Packing and sorting and trying to get out of Pittsburgh by the 10th, MD the 11th-13th and heading up to NJ (visiting Jake's grandmother) and NYC on the 14th in preparation for our flight out (very) early on the 17th!