It’s been raining pretty much nonstop in Shreveport, which means I haven’t been on a bike in about a week and a half. I’ve been doing some running (jogs, really) and taking my dog Charlie for frequent walks, but I’m starting to get more than a little nervous about my level of preparation.

I’m not worried about Mollie. In fact, when she called me this morning (at 7:45 am), she was coming out of a spin class. In spite of her injuries, Mollie has managed to get in some form of exercise—whether it’s a midday yoga class or an 82-mile ride—basically every day.

So, let me revise a comment I made in a previous post: I am getting soft. And as I reach out to local cycling groups like the Frederick Pedalers and receive emails like, “As you are doing DC to Frederick in one day, I take you to be strong cyclists,” I feel, well, terrified, really.

Still, everyday we are making progress—we are mapping out routes, booking hotels, and making our final checklist. This is really happening.

Here, our planned route from Frederick Maryland to Berryville Virginia, courtesy of the Frederick Pedalers:

We’re T-minus five days from our departure date and Geraldine has made me a nifty color-coded to do list with items like “Make cue sheets” and “Figure out Charlottesville wineries and distilleries to visit.” I’m taking care of that stuff, I promise, but I’m also brainstorming how I am going to keep us from getting sunburned and windburned on our trip. I seem to go through an entire tube of chapstick everytime I go on a long ride and I hate to think of the helmet tan I could develop on a two-week trip. I asked my favorite style guru, Jenn Falik, for her favorite heavy-duty moisturizers, sunscreens, and lip balms. Stay tuned for what she has to say!

Adventure Cycling publishes a series of biking maps designed just for cyclists. The maps include information on bike shops (crucial in the event of a breakdown or malfunction), nearby food and water supplies, and cheap accommodation options. Naturally, we’re going to want some of those.

Today is a big day at Bikes and Biscuits. Stephen Bilenky and his wonderful crew at Bilenky Cycle Works have graciously offered to lend us custom-built touring bikes for our trip and they’re nearly ready (see Geraldine’s sweet retro ride above).

Even though the Tour du Sud is looking a bit shorter these days – two weeks instead of two months – we’ll still need enough microfiber and spandex to get us through approximately 40 miles a day, plus cute outfits to wear at night.

We’ve laid out three routes, which we think represent the most interesting parts of our original tour. And we’re soliciting your thoughts. While we can’t promise we’ll pick the route that gets the most votes, we will take it into consideration. Check out our poll (People’s Choice) at the bottom of the site. So far, I am the only one who has voted. So get a move on people.

Oh, the teenage years

You may have noticed that our site is looking a little bit ugly.  (Okay, it’s hideous). We’re experiencing a growth spurt and we all know the teenage years are not pretty.  Basically, you can ignore this post but for website fiddling purposes, I needed my most recent post to have a photo.  Voila!  Julia Roberts as an awkward teen.

We’re in the middle of upgrading and some design aspects have been lost and/or changed.  Patience!

My first attempts at videography did not go very well (I ended up muting myself because of the number of “ers” and “ums” and “that’s all for now!”), but I patched together some clips from the day I biked to Grouse Mountain, hiked Grouse Grind, zip-lined for two hours, and then biked back to Spokes.  My friend Nick was a reluctant camera subject, but he did okay in his Bikes and Biscuits debut.