Updates

So apparently neither Lindsey nor I are any good at updating our blog...  hopefully we'll be better about it once we're closer to/on the trip.  We'll see.  

Lindsey finally got a bike off e-bay.  Its a pretty cool Surly Pacer, 50cm.  It's Surly's lesser known racing bike, apparently people aren't too big on steel bikes for racing.  It seems sweet enough to tour down the West Coast.  She had it checked out at Freewheel and it passed for the most part.  They built her a new rear wheel with more spokes, you know, load bearing stuff.  The guy also helped her fit the bike and shorten the stem.  The only bad part is that I have to get a cooler bike now to match the coolness of her bike.  

We also ordered our stove online today.  It took the two of us a large chunk of the day to figure out how to order the stove,  but we finally made it past our internet illiteracy and managed to get the Trangea Stove headed in our direction.  I'm excited.  We chose a cheap stove with a good reputation, Swedish made.  We will take some time to test it out and if it does not fill our needs we'll just get MSRs Dragonfly, but until then... Anyone who is looking for a cheap backpacking stove, check out Trangea.  We'll post more once we test it out with some of Lindsey's great cooking.  

We got our maps, they are maps.  

Lindsey bought her sleeping bag, it's warm.   We also had the obligatory trip to REI where we spent enough money to make up for the cost of getting the membership.  You should see the sporks we got, they're pretty sweet, and then there are the quick dry towels, headlamps, little bottle things that we'll put little liquids in, and of course the membership to REI.  

All around we're in pretty good shape for equipment.  We've been trying to knock a few things off our list each month so the financial blow isn't as bad.  Now I think we'll wait until the big spring REI sale to finish off our lists.