They Call Her Agent Orange

After flip flopping back and forth, I decided finally, after supposedly deciding officially months ago to go with the Surly Long Haul Trucker, to get the Surly Troll as my beast of burden for the trip.  The reason for my big switch was the fact that even though the LHT is the gold standard for affordable touring rigs, my gut was pulling me to the Troll.  I'm not sure if its because I've always toured on mountain bikes, or because I like the idea that this bike can handle all roads, mountain biking singletrack where I can find it (Bolivia!), and the flexibility to swap out the front fork for a suspension fork if and when I get back to the United States to do the Great Divide route from Mexico to Banff or wherever.  All I knew is that it was still calling to me after talking to dozens of people, bike mechanics, and the like.

And so, after a couple weeks of swapping out handlebars, grips, seatpost, trimming cable housing, changing the shifters, pedals, and everything in between, it is done.  Today, I decided to hide out from the rain and adjust all my panniers, make sure my racks were mounted correctly, and get the setup as finalized as my weary brain would allow.  One month until I can take this baby up to Baltimore to get a frame builder to drill in extra brazeons for a bottom side downtube bottle holder for my fuel bottle.  Two months until my 10 day test tour from DC to Pittsburgh and back again.  About seven months until I can give notice to my job.  About eight months until my last effective day.  About nine months until my last official day.  Time is flying... it seems like just yesterday I was lamenting that it would be over a year until I could leave.

Much like my flip flopping on the bike, I have also struggled with where I want to start.  At first, I thought it would be amazing to start in Colombia and work my way south.  Colombia is familiar territory for me, my favorite country, and seemed like a comfortable place to start.  But much like the Troll, my gut kept telling me that it would be amazing to start at the end of the world and start biking home, and maybe I'd get there, wherever "home" is, be that my folks place in Washington State, or a bike shop in Bolivia, I liked the idea of not needing a return ticket.  Although this changed my timing a bit in order to avoid a harsh winter in Patagonia, I realized that with the amount of vacation I had accumulated, I could bump up my last effective day working while still getting paid and being officially on the books for the purposes of preserving the potential to practice law in other jurisdictions should I some day change my mind and want to practice law again if and when I decide to return to the United States. 

The Agonizing Search For The Perfect Bike

After researching nearly every single touring bike manufacturer that the Adventure Cycling Association's 2011 Touring Bike Buying Guide listed, which mind you, is easily 40+ companies, I figured out that only two companies made bikes in my midget-y size of 46cm, in my price range, and with all the features I wanted (steel, disc brakes, 3 connections for water bottle holders, spoke holder, and runs 26" wheels), and only one of those offered a complete bike, which is always cheaper than going custom.  In some ways, this is better.  I love bikes.  Having to put together and build the bike I will be riding for a year or longer is an agonizing decision.  Having fewer choices makes it easier in many ways.

So basically, I had to make a choice between the oh-so-classic Surly Long Haul Trucker (with disc versus cantilever brakes) or the Surly Troll (which could run either or both, but which didn't offer some of the other features).  So I wandered into my local bike shop to chat up some of the mechanics, who love building dream bikes and about 2 hours later, a half dozen jokes about throwing in the $1000 Rohloff hub or a dynohub, had figured out that I should get the Surly Long Haul Trucker with a few upgrades of the stock components to make it bombproof. 

The value of bike geeks excited about helping you build a bike cannot be underestimated.  I learned which things I should upgrade, like the headset, front deraullier, seatpost, and saddle (which I already own), which things can wait, like holding off on replacing the handlebars to see how I like the stock ones, and why its better to go with the Tubus racks instead of the ones Surly designed for the Trucker.  I also learned why its okay to go with mechanical disc brakes instead of cantilever brakes after having offsetting concerns about braking power versus fixability on the road.  Carrying an extra disc and extra disc brake pads weighs very little and I'll appreciate all the braking power I can get in the rain or screaming down the Andes.

Approximate delivery time, mid-March... need to do the following before bike comes:

• Go back to bike shop and wax philosophic about fenders and which Tubus racks to order
• Pull SPDs off full suspension mountain bike and replace with older SPDs, use nice ones for touring bike or consider Ergon pedals

Planning: The Big Picture

Hands down, one of the best resources for bike touring is the website for Travelling Two.  Their survival guides are fantastic and they also provide a wonderful "big picture" planning guide so you don't get overwhelmed all at once trying to make this type of once-in-a-lifetime trip happen.  The good news is that I'm not so off track, that the way I'm doing it, surprise, surprise, is pretty much along the lines of what they had recommended. 

Three Or Four Years Before

• Start saving money (have a goal and a budget): check, well, I already had a pretty hefty savings but I do have a budget to be debt free before I leave.
• Read inspiring books about the journey you want to take: check, this has always been my leisure reading.
• Set a rough departure date: check, well, I had already planned on quitting my job since the moment I got this job... told myself my maximum time would be 5 years to pay off my student loans and then I would be free to do something different, whether it was moving or finding a new job or just walking the earth.

One Year Before (aka, right about now)

• Set a firm departure date:  Check, my lease will end February 24, 2013, and so I will leave Washington D.C. at the latest on February 24, likely in a one-way rented van and drive cross-country to drop off my remaining possessions at my parents house, spend some time with them, and connect with my brother in Seattle who is going to start my trip with me to do some cool jungle-beach camping in Colombia.  I am taking applications for cross-country travel partners who want to drive with me (I'll pay for the van and gas, you pay for your plane ticket back!).  Will consider taking time to really get to see some of small town America along the way.
• Tell friends and family about your plans:  Check, I'm telling everyone except my boss right now.  Ha.
• Research and pick out a bike:  Check, once I get my refund check from the tax man and after I move to my new cheaper rent digs, I'm off to bike shop.  Currently researching different set-ups.
• Start clearing out your stuff:  Check, started last year by selling or giving away over half my worldly possessions.  Now selling anything of worth or that I don't really absolutely need.  Sniffle, goodbye fancy bikes.  Goodbye furniture and kicking bag.

Six to Nine Months Before

• Create a website (if you want one): Check, gotta keep myself accountable even in the planning stages.
• Select the rest of your gear:  Check, created gear list and slowly acquiring looking for used, barter, or good deals.
• Set aside weekends for test runs of your bike and gear
• Research visas you may need en route:  Check, only need a visa for Brazil if I decide to go there.  Will get on trip depending on itinerary.

Three Months Before

• Apply for visas you’ll need early on in your trip
• Visit a doctor and get your vaccinations
• Book flights and renew your passport
• Tell your boss that you’re quitting
• Set up internet banking
• Scan important documents and store them digitally

One Month Before

• Get your bike serviced and pick up any spare parts
• Buy any remaining supplies
• Sell or store any stuff you have left

Just One Week!

• Have a goodbye party
• Pack your bike for the flight
• Try to get some sleep

Why My Family And Friends Are Amazing

I think one of the hardest things about making this type of decision is to convince people this is simply not a pipe dream, that in a few weeks, the excitement of the prospect of this trip will NOT die down and I will not be still sitting here at my desk in three years wondering where the time went.  I've read enough trip blogs to know that the initial barrier of support from family and friends can be in surmountable and frustrating.  And this is why my family and friends are amazing.

I decided to make announce my decision on Facebook.  Oh the irony.  But it seemed like the easiest way to go, rather than having to take the time to tell the same story over and over again and rationalize why I made this decision.  And the response was overwhelmingly... supportive.  Most of my friends weren't surprised.  This was clearly the next step in the craziness that my life has ended up being.  Crazy good, that is.  My best friend's immediate reaction was "do it!"  Others have already told me they will come support me and take part in at least some part of this trip.  One good friend, who came to Cozumel to support me at the Ironman and has always been there to give me words of encouragement as I crashed my mountain bike or worked 90 hours a week, immediately started scheming a way to join me to climb Aconagua.  Another good friend decided to break his lease early so we could move together to a cheaper apartment so I can save money for this trip and has promised to join me at some point in South America, and even possibly by byk.  Others have been sending me links to blogs, gear lists, and "must see" places, trying to connect me with their host families from when they lived in South America.  I'm overwhelmed by the support.

The 3rd Annual Byk Ride Crew aka How LeeAnn Fell In Love With Byk Touring

And my family, who have, despite not quite understanding why I tick the way I do, supported me in all my crazy adventures, were probably the most supportive of all.  My big brother is considering coming down earlier in the trip to do some camping in Colombia with me.  My parents, without batting an eye, also gave me their support.  Not in a "good for you  honey" kind-of-way, but in the "is there anything I can do" and "can we visit you during the trip" kind-of-way.  That, my friends, is unconditional love because I know they have spent the last 10 years of their lives holding their breath while I throw myself out of airplanes, raft down the Peruvian Amazon on a rickety balsa log I made myself, whitewater raft over waterfalls, and everything in between.  They have supported me from the moment I walked away from having a free college education in Michigan to move to Washington, DC for a much more expensive school, to the moment I decided to go to law school, to the moment I decided to attempt an Ironman triathlon injured, and now to this.

A Trip Is Born

The Beginning

After spending the last year trying to use triathlons and races to distract me from my inevitable wanderlust, I realized that I needed to get things going on my "grand plan" that anyone who has known me even for a minute knows is always brewing in my head.  I know I've always told people that I wouldn't be a big firm lawyer forever.  I thought at the most, I'd stay at my firm for 2-3 years before flipping into doing public interest or international development work.  With the job market drying up, and having the blessing of a job that pays well, that only once or twice has become inhumanly busy for extended periods of time, I've managed to find my joy in life in bits in pieces.  And for the last 2 months, I've been floundering, trying to remember the law student who traveled to 20+ countries out of a backpack on $15 a day during law school, struggling with a job that I know has no future for me, job searching in a job market that seems to want to put me into exactly the same position, only somewhere else.  I've been in a mental rut, trying to find the motivation to get out of bed every morning. 

The Decision

Today I officially made the decision that on March 1, 2013, I will quit my job and begin a tour of South America that will have no planned end date, but with the intention of being gone for at least a year, if not more, finances permitting.  After February 5, 2013, I will have been licensed to practice law exactly 5 years, which is exactly the amount of time I need to be able to waive into most other bars to practice law without having to take another bar exam and will give me greater flexibility to move wherever I would like to when I am done with this trip.

The Tentative Itinerary

I had originally planned on trying to start in Mexico and work my way down, but I have traveled to every single country in Central America, some multiple times, and so much of South America is unexplored to me.  And so I tentatively plan to fly into Caracas, Venezuela and work my way west to Colombia, then south to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, cut east to Brazil, and then work my way south to Urugay, and back west to Argentina, and fly out of Chile.  I also hope to work in 21 days out of the biking schedule to tackle my second of the 7 summits, Aconagua, but will know more as I put together a tentative itinerary.

My child-like drawing of this itinerary with absolutely no idea if roads exist or what the political situation on any of the border crossing points is as follows:

Join Me

I'm hoping maybe you will want to join me for parts of this trip (preferably the earlier parts as I do not intend to have a firm itinerary per se as my experience has taught me you never know when you will love or hate a place, or when disaster strikes, when you might need to change plans.  Or to tackle Aconcagua which is best summitted after November 15th, and is perfectly timed towards the end of my trip.  Or just let me know if you have contacts, "must see" places, or "must do" things.  I plan on doing some other adventures along the way, trekking, climbing, paragliding, or whatever else crosses my path.

Short Term Action Plan (January - March 2012)

• Advanced Spanish tutor to recover my conversational fluency (paid, start Tuesday January 17)
• Create spreadsheet of all cash and backup funds (saleable items for emergency cash, 401k, IRA), create total trip budget, create personal budget to ensure all student loan balances are paid through the end of 2014 by the time trip starts.
• Move into a new place with roommate (crossing fingers Sr. Alex), rent no more than $1000 per person.
• Create checklist of items I need to acquire for trip
• Create checklist of bike mechanical skills I need to learn
• Maps and possible routes, get general timeframes
• Adventure cycling organization for travel partners