And we’re off!

Day 0: 0 miles.  Minneapolis, USA

Our bags are packed, and we’re ready to go!  We are currently in Minneapolis, Glasgow-bound this evening. The past couple of days have been full of trip preparations, last-minute logistics, goodbye gatherings with friends, and a probably unhealthy amount of duct-tape.  Here’s the glorious result:

Packing a tandem, or any bike, to fly, train, or boat is a tricky business.  You have to assume it will, at some point, be tossed carelessly onto something hard and unyielding.  Back in the day, Ian would recommend stuffing all of your clothes in the bike box with your steed, but given weight restrictions these days, we went with the less environmentally friendly, but more grease-free-on-your-T option of foam and bubble wrap.

For a tandem, we spliced two cardboard boxes together.  A sweet travel case would be nice, but we aren’t leaving Europe from whence we came.  Bike boxes from shops are free and disposable, as long as we can locate a dumpster at Glasgow Airport (fingers crossed).  To avoid over-weight fees, our duffles are packed not just with our panniers and shoes, but also bike seats, posts, handlebars, pedals, racks, tires…  They are strangely shaped bags.  Should be good times in security.

So that’s that!  We’ve been carbo-loading for a month, just to really make sure our stomachs are prepared for the calorie shit-storm we happily anticipate.

A sincere thank-you to John and Lynnell for housing and feeding us, Charley the dog for loving us, and Sarah for driving us this week.

We’re several airplane meals (yay!  without sarcasm!) and 18 movies (Ian) away from the ancient and noble city of Glasgow!  You’ll hear from us when we’re in the Highlands!