1 x 520

Ladies and Gentlemen,
It finally happened. After what I think has been 2 months of trawling ad after ad, I can now say that I have my very own touring bike. Welcome to your new life, unnamed-Trek 520! I hope you're ready to do more than what you've apparently been doing. With me, sitting in a garage for 2 years isn't going to cut it. For one, I don't have a garage. That in itself means I now have to find more space in either my room (currently has two bikes in), or outside (which has about 6). How did it get this bad?

The bike itself is a 2008 model in very good condition, which according to the ebay seller has rarely been used. A new 520 costs $1400 if you buy it direct from the Trek website. I managed to get this bike for $785 (£470) . I'm pretty happy with that deal. I could go into the gear sizes and chainstay length (and don't think I won't if Santa grades you below 'fair' this Christmas), but for now I'll just currently answer the most asked question about this bike.

It's black.

Unnamed Trek 520. The bike that will hopefully get me over the Rockies.

So as of right now I'm waiting for the bike to be delivered to Tucson from god-knows-where, Indiana. The seller has indicated that it should arrive before Phil and I head off to Buffalo, NY for a guaranteed white Christmas. I'm not expecting any issues with the bike as the seller was careful to list all frame measurements. It should be a perfect fit!

This is obviously the biggest step forward to date in terms of getting ready for May. Next on the list is to pimp it out with panniers, new clipless pedals and perhaps even a front rack. Then comes getting all the camping equipment I need bought, before finally taking it on a couple of practice tours. I was thinking the week of Spring Break would be a good time to see a lot of southern Arizona, whilst still being close enough to home that if the worst did happen, I'm within a reachable distance for someone to collect a broken Russ. I'll say this now: An In-n-Out burger would be bought if anyone did do that.

I'm sure I'll have more to say when the bike actually arrives. My wallet can also breathe easy again for there won't be any more bike purchases for a while. OK, I'll take that back. No more bike purchases in 2011. That's 19 days. I think I can handle that. Finally, in writing about this bike, it gets the ever-demanding Kate off my back, who prior to this post was questioning why I don't blog about the tour on my touring website. I think I've just bought myself another month to talk about whatever I want.

Happy Days!

How I Spent Thanksgiving

Last week I took a trip to Florida. It was a long flight only made bearable by a smartphone with a minesweeper app. But it was eventually worth the effort. Readers, did you have a better thanksgiving? Probably not.

San Blas, FL

Life keeps dealing these cruel blows.