When I woke up it seemed like every other day, there were chores to do and kids to take care of. I told Rose I would help get the house in order before I left and with Oskar having spent the night at my mom’s house I could do all those things and pack since that was important too. I spent the morning picking up and cleaning up the house and helping with Milo. We were supposed to be over at the Gilbert’s house for dinner at 6:00 but I didn’t get to packing until sometime in the afternoon when Milo took his long nap. It felt kind of last minute but I found out later that Gerry hadn’t even packed at all when I finally got over there around 7:00.

Packing meant getting my bike and riding equipment ready as well as things to have for the overnight stay in Centralia. I had two bags worth to bring that a truck would take down for the night and as I had to bring a sleeping bag that meant only one bag for overnight, which is always plenty on all of my trips so I wasn’t worried. However, I didn’t think I would have enough room on myself and my bike. I have a great hydration backpack that Rose got for me that I usually ride with but hadn’t for the last few rides because they were 30 miles or so and I can do that in around two hours so I didn’t need the extra room or water for an extended ride. Since I knew that there would be plenty of stops for refilling and getting more ride food the only reason I would bring the backpack was if I needed extra room for bike gear and repairing. Gerry got me a repair kit that came with a seat bag as an “early Christmas present” so I had room in that although it is kind of small, I saw larger ones on sale at REI. I brought everything out and using packing techniques learned from Rose I got everything to fit in that or in my jersey so I was good to go.

Here’s what I carried with me in my jersey (there are three pockets in the back):

Cash, debit card, license, and health insurance card all bundled together
Cell phone
2 packets of pre-measured Gatorade powder
Cliff Bar
2 Cliff Shots
In my seat bag on my bike:

1 CO2 cartridge
CO2 cartridge part that connects to tube
1 extra tire tube
Mini bike tool
In my overnight bag:

Couple changes of clothes
Flip flops
Extra Gatorade for Day 2
Extra Cliff Shots for Day 2
Sunblock
Extra pair of socks for Day 2
Extra CO2 cartridge for Day 2, if necessary
Cliff Builder bars, one for end of each day
Cliff Recovery drink mix, one for end of each day
Now that I was all packed and ready to go we went over to the Gilberts for a great spaghetti dinner. After dinner I double checked my bike, cleaned my chain, attached my bike number and put on my baggage tags so my luggage wouldn’t get lost. I was spending the night there so we could leave from there in the morning so Rose left with the boys and I went to go get my tires topped off. At this point it was probably 9:00 and getting late since we were planning on getting up at 3:30. As we were checking my front tire we realized it wouldn’t keep air in the tube so we took out the tube and replaced it with a spare that Gerry had. Being new to all this it took about the next hour to make sure everything was good to go and wouldn’t blow up on me the next day.

By then it was really late and it took me a little while to fall asleep as I was quite nervous and looking forward to the next day. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I couldn’t do it but that I didn’t really know what to expect for this large of a ride, both in terms of length but in number of riders, the 2007 STP sold out with 9,000 riders, 6,700 of which would be doing the two day ride along with me. It was a good thing that my morning was all planned out for me and that it was smooth sailing on the way up to Seattle.