Well, things have been hopping trying to get myself ready for our June 15th Grand Depart from Butte. Most of the prep isn't what you'd think for a bike trip of potentially 5,000+ miles. Most of what I have been doing lately has nothing to do with riding a bike, training, or gathering my gear. It's all about getting post winter repairs done on our home in Butte before my two month absence to be on the bike. Since we only live in Butte for the summer months, I had a huge list of projects to complete when we returned here in late May. They were all the tasks I had on my lengthy "To Do Upon Return" list left from last summer when we bought the house.


It's really a good thing I did some hard training on the bike from late October 2011 through mid-May of this year. I have a solid base of miles and hundreds of hours in the saddle time to fall back on.

The only riding I'm getting in are what I call "maintenance miles". They are miles to keep the fitness edge sharp, the mind alert, and to help my body adjust to the "mile high+" altitude of Montana where we live.

Now that I have the new fence and gate built, the down stairs bath shower leak repaired and door  reversed and re-hung, furniture moved into the downstairs, a new mailbox installed, and a computer desk built, I'm ready to move on to my last few projects.

What do I have left to do in the 10 days I have remaining until the Mrs. is left all alone to take care of things (which she can manage quite well I might add without me)?

These are my projects:

1. Installing the storm door I bought last summer and ran out of time to install last fall.
2. Putting the finishing touches on the down stairs bathroom.

These are the projects left over from last summer that I've set up with local contractors to complete since I ran out of time last summer and still don't have the time this summer:

3. Installation for exhaust fans and ductwork I bought last summer for both bathrooms.
4. Installation and wiring for a new kitchen range hood over the stove. Bought that last summer, too.

The nice thing..silver lining if you will....all will be done when I return from the Alaska bike tour.
Then I can just focus on family time and riding my mountain bike through the forest. I know the road bike will be retired until I return to Las Vegas in October as I will have ridden it far enough this summer.