We made a couple of trips up to Wisconsin to Backyard Bikes. On the first trip we picked up Willy’s new Gary Fisher HiFi Pro. It is a really sweet bike and should be perfect for the ride. On the same trip we placed a massive order for almost everything else we needed or wanted to upgrade: helmets, shoes, tires, sunglasses and a lot more.

While we waited for the order to arrive we focused on taking care of lots of miscellaneous odds and ends. For Willy this meant working with his fiancee Paula to plan their wedding in Jamaica next April. For me this meant unpacking from South America, spending time with family and friends and building a fence at Anne’s house (with Willy’s help). I think the fence turned out extremely well for being a rush job. Now Anne has the rest of the summer to plant tomatoes, strawberries and work on making the backyard into the garden she has been wanting. I’m looking forward to some fresh picks when I get back to Chicago.  I also was able to learn a little about Flash with my brother when we converted an iPhoto slide show my parents had created for toshadog.com.

Even with everything else going on preparing for the trip was part of the daily routine. With REI’s anniversary sale we found ourselves at the store no less than five times, Moosejaw was a frequent stop and it seemed UPS made a delivery almost every day. Other than biking gear the biggest decision was choosing a tent. We agonized over this decision starting with long email discussions while I was in Patagonia and we special ordered tents to see them in person. In the end we settled on the Emerald Mountain SL3 from Big Agnes. The major attraction was the optional vestibule addition we hoped might function like a garage for the bikes and BOB trailers we’d be hauling. The only problem was the tent wasn’t scheduled to be in stores until after we left. But we talked with the fantastic people at Big Agnes and they were able to ship one to us early.

Disaster Averted
The scariest moment was when I received a phone call from Willy asking if I could come and pick him up. He was riding his BMW RT1100 motorcycle to a Sunday morning soccer game (Go Meanies!) when a driver of a minivan didn’t see him approaching the intersection and made a left hand turn. Willy only had enough time to brace for the impact as there was no way to avoid a collision. When I arrived at the intersection I saw Willy’s motorcycle and it looked to be in pretty bad shape. Willy was on the phone talking to the insurance company after having been checked out in an ambulance. What I didn’t see was the minivan. Astonishingly the driver sped off. All of our preparations could have been for naught after that morning but luckily Willy was wearing a helmet. He had flown over the minivan and landed flat on the pavement. Amazingly he escaped with only a few scrapes and bruises.

Preparations Continue
Even as it looked like everything was coming together we came across new things each day we realized we’d forgotten. It was then we met Eric and Dan, two fantastic guys at Smart Bike Parts near Logan Square. Eric went out of his way to help us track down a few parts and get us the information we needed and he was extremely generous in his discounts.

With just four days until departure we headed up to Kettle Moraine one last time to pick up our special order from Mike at Backyard Bikes. We spent an entire day sitting on the back patio working on the bikes. Doug, one of the “wrenches” (bike mechanics) at the store helped us mount our new tires on tubeless rims and prepare them with Stan’s NoTubes. Both Doug and Mike spent the better part of a day helping us out and if you are ever riding at Kettle Moraine and have any bike needs stop by and they’ll help you out.

We had tickets to leave Chicago on Tuesday the 22nd so we had planned to spend the morning and afternoon of Monday the 21st packing. We started packing at 10:00am and before we knew it the watch said 7:00pm and we still weren’t done. The bikes and BOBs were in boxes but we still had clothes, the tent and loads of other gear still to be packed.

Departing Chicago
It became obvious we hadn’t done a dry run of packing. We were only able to fit all the gear and two people in to my Xterra. So Willy took a cab and Anne drove me and the gear to O’Hare. We had to pay to bring the bikes on the plane but somehow we stayed within our baggage limitations. For the first time in my life I arrived at the airport two hours in advance and of course the check-in went smoothly so we had two hours to sit while the anticipation continued to build. Unfortunately, this was when I realized I had left the spare battery and charger for my camera plugged in the outlet in the kitchen. Anne would FedEx it to us but we’d have to grab a disposable camera. For this reason the first few posts are going to be light on pictures until the pictures get scanned.

And then, finally, we were off to Albuquerque…

Yet I’ve promised everyone I will start a blog and post frequent updates so here I sit at my PowerBook tweaking a WordPress install. I wish I could blame the sorry state of this site on the fact I have been in management too long and my tech skills are rusty. But alas, I’m a back-end developer. I can get in to the details and get the software running and add plugins without trouble (maybe that isn’t because of any real skills but speaks to the simplicity of WordPress). No, the other slightly harsher reality setting in right now as I muddle through CSS and PHP code is my graphical design prowess is non-existent. Hopefully the photos and stories posted as I climb Mt. Aconcagua, trek through South America and ride my mountain bike almost 3,000 miles along the Great Divide Trail can make up for this shortcoming.

I have about two and a half weeks from my last day at work to boarding a plane for Santiago, Chile. In that time I hope to flush out the content on the nav tabs answering many of the questions people have about this incredible (some have said crazy) adventure. Please throw a bookmark in your favorite newsreader or browser and check back as I get under way January 30th and will post updates from my travels when I come across connectivity.