Counting down

The six weeks since I last posted have felt more like six months.  We closed on our new place, packed our stuff, moved in two phases over the course of a couple of weeks, and now we're getting settled in.  Compacted into one, short sentence it doesn't really sound like much but it's been a bitch.  And I learned something important along the way: DO NOT buy a house and move just weeks before you're supposed to leave on an epic, 3,000-mile scooter trip.

In less than two weeks I'm going to hit the road for Savannah and on the 22nd we set out from there for San Diego.  I've been following the preparations of my fellow riders online with some interest and more than a little dread.  As they've all been doing maintenance and modifications to their scooters, I've been dealing with things that have kept me from even thinking about my scooter, let alone tinkering with it.  I feel like I'm running a bit behind and that's not where I was hoping to be at this point on the calendar.

Thank goodness I started my Cannonball obsession months ago.  What seemed premature back in the fall now seems prescient and wise.  I started writing lists of gear and parts and things to do back when I had the time and luxury of thinking things through.  I ordered parts and marked up maps and entered routes into my GPS long enough ago that it seemed foolish to be giving it so much thought then.  But if I hadn't done all of that I believe I'd be in such a state of panic now that I'd consider scrapping the whole thing and waiting for 2014 to ride.  This morning I was able to finally begin to use those lists to bring some order to my scooter chaos.

I began by clearing a large spot in the middle of the garage floor and laying out a tarp.  I've been unpacking the boxes that I'd been careful to mark and set aside during the move, placing things in several different piles.  There are the things that I need to carry with me on my scooter and those that I will put on a support vehicle.  I'm only part way into it and already the mounds are growing large enough that I'm a little concerned.  By the time I've got it all spread out it's going to look like enough stuff for a small army.  How and what I winnow out will be an interesting exercise.

Time to stop blabbering and get back to it.  I'll try to get some photos as I go to begin documenting the madness.