A Journey into the Unknown

Only 6 more sleeps until we start riding and with this knowledge comes a lot of nervous excitement and a little bit of self doubt. Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Will we make it to our end goal of Cedar City, Utah some 2,800 miles (4,500km) down the track? Now that we have told our friends and family about this blog, the pressure is on to accomplish what we have set out to do. Maybe it would have been smarter for us to make this journey incognito, suffer in silence and if it happens to be, we fail anonymously. Sleep is becoming harder to find as we get closer to our start date of August 3, my mind wondering what will be in store for us over the coming 2 months.
These are the things I do know about our upcoming adventure.

1. Our touring bikes are waiting for us already at the REI Portland store in Oregon - unpacked, reassembled and tuned up, ready for us to collect on Friday after we land and more ready than we are to start putting the pedal to the metal.
2. We must cover on average, about 60 miles per riding day to reach our end destination (that's almost 100km per riding day) regardless of weather, illness or injuries, or we just plain blow a head gasket! (This sounds so much more do-able when you use American distances - it's deceptive bro).
3. We have allowed ourselves 7 whole rest days for the entire trip.
4. Our bike set-up is frickin' heavy - steel frame touring bikes, super heavy duty touring tires (Continental Tour Plus tires on the front and Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on the rear - these Schwalbe tires weigh about 1kg on their own!), rear rack, plus after final weigh-in it seems our touring load has ended up evenly distributed between the two of us at 18kg per person. Then we still need to add food and water ....
5. We have a couple of "D Days" .... a) we need to be in Granby, Colorado around 4-5 Sept if we want to take on the Great Parks South route thru the Rockies ... b) we need to be leaving Granby by 8 Sept if we want to have any chance in hell of making it to Utah but taking the easier, shorter route ... c) we need to be ready to roll out of Telluride, Colorado on 16-17 Sept if we are definitely going to ride thru Utah otherwise we will change our plans and end the ride in Durango, Colorado ... d) in the back of my mind, and as an extreme fantasy where we are totally smoking this ride, it would be fun to make it to Telluride for the Blues and Brews Festival 12-14 Sept.
6. We are starting the ride in Astoria on the Oregon Coast.
7. We most likely have not adequately prepared for this ride.

Things I am uncertain of about this trip.

1. Where we are going to eat and sleep every day / night.
2. Whether we can actually do this. Sure we can ride 60 miles in one day, maybe 60 miles a day 2 days in a row, but will our bodies let us ride 60 miles a day for 2 months without breaking down? We have only cycle toured once before back in 2001 around the wee island of Tasmania covering 1,000km over 1 month with plenty of rest days. This sounds like a small feat in comparison to this trip but, hey, it was our honeymoon after all!
3. Whether we will lose any weight from cycling so many hours everyday, or whether we will somehow manage to consume all the calories we have left on the road each day. I would put my money on Steve to lose the most weight (seeing as he has the most to lose) so start placing your bets people.
4. How long and feral Steve's beard will be by the end of this thing, and what may be living inside all that facial hair.
5. Whether Steve will survive the whole trip with only 1 pair of underwear.

And this is what keeps me awake at night!

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