Uneventful drive to Ardmore, Oklahoma today. Interesting how wireless internet has become prevalent in many of these roadside motels. A few years ago, I had a dialup prodigy account since they had dialups in many cities. Now much less need for that.  Tomorrow will get to Dallas area and then sort through what things to bring to Texas Hell Week and which to leave behind.

Posted by mev as preparations at 6:47 PM EST

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I’ve gotten the last of the packing done. It will tightly fit into four panniers though it all seems pretty heavy. I think particularly the pannier and a half of bike related tools and parts. I’ll definitely want to check again in Texas how much to really bring. One exercise I spent some time doing was getting scans of important documents such as my passport or airline tickets. I printed out several of these scans and then put them under a lamination paper. The photo at left shows one of those documents, namely the “explore” section from the local newspaper. Each week the newspaper prints people visiting exotic locations with their copy of the newspaper. My exotic location at left is my bathroom, so not the one to send in yet.

By 4pm, I had gotten all my last minute packing done and departed Fort Collins - hopefully until December 28th or so. I drove down and had dinner with my parents before driving a short way down the road. I was feeling a bit sleepy so didn’t get further than Limon. Tomorrow will be a longer day of driving most of the way to Dallas. Nice to finally have the cycling portions of this vacation get closer.

Posted by mev as preparations at 9:52 PM EST

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Closed up things at work including turning in my laptop and clearing everything out of my cubicle and gym locker. We had a nice send-off lunch, thanks guys! My plan is to return on December 31st, so today was my almost last day of work this year.

I’ve gotten most things packed. It goes into three groups: things I’m using in Texas, things I don’t need in Texas but will in Amsterdam and some spare items to leave at my parents. For example, my camping gear is in the second category. All three groups are a little bigger than I’d like. However, it is tough to look at some of it and wonder if I’ll really need it or not. Am I better off with an extra spare tire or will the weight hurt me more them help. My plan is to take another good look at everything in Dallas before my flight and figure out the final things to bring then.

I picked up an interesting alcohol stove. Only 1oz. Not quite sure where I can pick up methylated spirits in Russia, but if so that would be a very lightweight alternative to the stove I would otherwise bring. There seem to be enough other places to get food along the way, so not sure I want to carry too much weight to cook things.

Posted by mev as preparations at 10:04 PM EST

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A day for errands and preparations. Completed and filed my taxes. Picked up a rental minivan for errands and driving to Dallas. Moved over several websites so my home DSL line can go off. Stopped in the post office, AAA and several stores to pick up little things here and there. Also stopped in to work briefly to clean up my cubicle.

I’ve been accumulating the possible gear on a futon in my living room. Wow! Rather daunting to see all this stuff, and how it might all fit in just four panniers. Trying to make sure I don’t bring too much stuff to carry across Asia - without forgetting some crucial things. Fortunately, I’ve got my Texas ride to help sort a few things out. After Texas Hell Week, I’ll put everything out in a motel room and see what I might really need. I’ve also see from the AAA maps and looking online that there should be enough motels between Dallas and Fredericksburg that I can leave the camping stuff in Dallas initially.

Posted by mev as preparations at 9:41 PM EST

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My last day of work today. A fairly quiet and uneventful day as I’ve worked to get most things handed off already. Hopefully not too many loose ends come up later. Still hard to realize that the work assignments that have been a large part of my life in past five years will now change to vacation cycling plans and then a new set of work thereafter. That is the type of stuff that typically sinks in over first days of cycling. I’ve enjoyed working with folks and my mind is still trying to solve todays problems.

I still have a list of organizing tasks, stopping by banks, post offices, sending off my taxes, etc. Perhaps the largest task on the next few days is to pack up my specific gear into panniers and also pack and clean a bit more on my duplex. I have most of the cycling items on the list and many in a pile along the hallway, just need to pick the specific items and pack them.

One exercise I’ve been doing the past few weeks is trying to tame the amount of mail, both physical and email that gets sent to me each day. For each message take a look and ask “now why did this get sent to me” and perhaps how I might get it off the list. I’ve gotten the major ground bills changed over. Switching from prodigy to google for email filtering has helped and I’ve been getting off some random lists here and there. Once I’m on the road it will be nice to get an email or two but don’t want to wade through hundreds of junk messages to see them…

Tomorrow a day of errands and packing!

Posted by mev as preparations at 8:47 PM EST

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  Today a last ride with the PEDAL cycling club. During the year, I normally do many weekend rides with PEDAL. Since I was going to be gone for the regular cycling season (May to October), I suggested one last ride for PEDAL this weekend. It was cold and windy though fortunately the forecast of snow didn’t come to pass. Seven of us arrived including Ed and Joe and myself who set up for the ride. It was nice to see everyone and have a bit of a send-off from the cycling club. Thanks!

We cycled five miles round trip to the “triangle” statue in Loveland. This statue has gotten notoriety because some in Loveland raised a fuss since the statue had nude figures. Heaven forbid!, I hope these Loveland folks don’t travel to Europe.

I’ve been slowly getting everything wrapped up at work as well as getting my equipment lists finalized. I’ve also been getting airline tickets for some segments and discovering the joy of having limits on my debit cards.

Posted by mev as preparations at 10:06 PM EST

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I’ve heard my Chinese visa was approved and passport mailed back to my parents. That was nice and fast as I was concerned about having things held up during closures with the Chinese New Year. In addition to the visa going to my parents, I’ve also been changing addresses on my other bills as well. I’ll get other mail sent along but where I can I’m also changing addresses on accounts.

This morning started with another trip to Larimer County Health department, this time to get a second round of Hepatitis B vaccine.

The other effort has been working through my packing lists. Nothing is packed yet, but I’m taking careful looks at everything I might bring and trying to decide if I want to carry it on the bicycle. Some things are pretty obvious like panniers themselves or the sleeping bag I’ll take. I’ve had more of dilemma with tents. My old tent was fine, except was getting small holes in the floor. For getting a new tent, I was looking for something that could fit two tightly and one spaciously. I got a nice “Hubba Hubba” model at REI. I also recently noticed that SAMs club had a very inexpensive “hiker tent” from Swiss Gear. Actually looked pretty good from dimensions, so bought one and now I’ll have to see which tent I bring. There is quite a bit of gear to pack and I’m starting to see how much it might all weigh. Out comes the postage scale. I’m not yet to the point of weighing individual socks to see which ones to take, but getting close.

I updated this web site to latest version of Wordpress this pass weekend. Looking good so far and I enjoy Wordpress as a publishing platform. One change they provided was having a different main page from blog page. I am trying that and seeing how it works.

Posted by mev as preparations at 9:59 PM EST

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Hooray, today my Russian visa arrived! Now I’ll turn around and submit my passport for a Chinese visa. The Chinese visa looks easier to apply for than the Russian one, particularly via the visa expediter. The consulate is closed for a few days with the Chinese New Year, so hopefully all arrives before I depart.

Posted by mev as preparations, China at 8:03 PM EST

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My Russian visa application was sent by mail this morning. The last pieces came together as I got the invitation last Thursday and the HIV certificate from Larimer County this morning. In my cover letter, I wrote of my intent to cycle across Russia and that I didn’t expect to stay in any city other than St. Petersburg for long. Hopefully this all goes in and gets approved.

I did some more looking at my medical insurance online to understand coverage procedures overseas. I didn’t find much and the only contact number as a 1-877 number. So, I called the provider to at least learn what number to use with international access. Six voicemail prompts and two entries of my account later, I finally got to a live person who put me on hold to let me know ten minutes later of a 1-866 number to dial from overseas. Perhaps that might work, though I am skeptical of being able to properly register a claim from wilds of Russia let alone on a 1-800 number. I’ve since browsed online and found some companies offering travel insurance policies including medical overseas and will likely to get such a policy just in case - and because it covers some things like trip interruption or medical evacuation as well. I was interested to find that their extreme sport exclusion adds things like hang gliding and motorcycle racing but doesn’t have bicycling across Russia as an extreme sport.

It is going to be nice to get some of this stuff behind me and finally be on the road. My three largest worries at this point are (1) visa and registration (2) mechanical issues in wilds of Siberia and (3) getting by with enough language. It will be nice to just get some riding behind me and work with these sorts of things as they come up.

Last Friday word went out to my groups at work on my pending leave. So now trying to see what I can do to get everything transitioned as best as possible.

Posted by mev as preparations at 6:57 PM EST

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My visa invitation arrived today. Now time to get other paperwork together and submit the visa application.

One area of potential confusion is that Russia adopted a new set of new Visa Registration Rules that took effect on January 15th. In principle, some parts become easier because registration itself is paperwork that is submitted by the organization you are visiting, rather than a stamp in your passport/migration card. Where the confusion seems to come in, is exactly which company does what and what are their new obligations. For example:

• In St. Petersburg, I am signed up for three weeks of language classes. Do I get my visa registered with the language school or at the company that issued the visa?
• While bicycling across Russia, when and where should I register the visa? I will not likely have a continuous registration because I’ll be traveling by bicycle.

Something tells me this paperwork is going to get fun to make sure I stay legal through my trip.

Posted by mev as preparations at 6:45 AM EST

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