Pedalling Pittsburgh

Well, things are rolling along (no pun intended!) with plans on all sides. We are making strides getting ready for the trip. Going to REI twice this weekend hurt the wallet, but we are pretty much "geared up" now. I bought a bear deterrent spray and a non-stick frying pan and Bob got a rain hat. Bob stopped today at Big Bang Bikes to ask about packing and shipping. We now have dimensions for the box to pass on to Garry who will help us on the shipping end. We are going to try using a freight company instead of FedEx as we did last time. We'll be moving Mom back to her house on a limited basis at the end of the week. We're getting things set up so that she can stay on the first floor while we're gone. The porch furniture is out and her bed is set up. Once we get the porta-potty "up and running," she'll be set. I think that she is finally beginning to realize the advantages to staying with us on a permanent basis, so it's possible that by the end of the summer we may be making those arrangements. I don't want her to make such a major decision until she's feeling better, though. I'm getting pretty good at biding my time instead of trying to get things settled at the expense of thinking them through thoroughly. We ran into our friends Burt and Kim at the Venture Outdoors festival over the weekend. Kim has an aunt who lives in Lolo, MT and wants us to stop by. We're trying to figure out if we'll be able to just go straight there the first day and maybe camp in her yard. That way we won't lose a whole traveling day right off the bat. We're studied the first map and have looked at the distances. There is one stretch of about 70 miles that has no services, so we'll have to arrange to do that in one day. We need to check on the other maps to see if there are any other restrictions like that one which would dictate our timing. The closer it gets, the more excited we are. We rode Pedal Pittsburgh for the first time ever on Sunday. The 45-degree rain kept most of the amateurs at home, but there was a decent crowd. We attracted lots of questions with our 50-pound bag of salt strapped in the trailer. We rode the 35-mile route, but also rode there and back so we got in 53 miles. It felt pretty good. There was some climbing, especially in Highland Park. It was interesting to see parts of the city from a slightly different perspective, since we covered some of the routes we normally ride but varied others. We hope to get in some more miles this weekend, since the weather promises to be better than it's been lately.