RAGBRAI Weigh-In, Test Ride

Alright, there is good news! This morning I tested the Hennessey Hammock again and was able to quickly set it up and take it down. And I verified that, while I would normally only need 4 pegs for tie downs, I really need to bring along 6 in case I have to end up setting it up as a tent (two pegs replace the two trees that would normally be used). Again, though, I hope I don't have to use it as a tent as it would be a hard bed to lie on. And, as before, when I crawled inside to test out the hammock I almost immediately wanted to fall asleep ... that thing is sooooo comfortable.

Next, I packed all the bags and mounted them on the bicycle. A quick weigh-in test told me that the current load (with 2 bottles of water) is 39 pounds. I plan to add a third bottle so I'm sure it will hit 40 pounds ... and that's 15 pounds less than last year. My current weight is 161 so that's about 2 pounds more than last year (all muscle, of course, heh). Today I had a banana smoothie in preparation for all the strawberry-banana smoothies I'm planning on downing during the ride this year.

Finally, since one of my old (and smaller) pannier bags lost a rivet last year I decided that was a sign that I should get another set of (larger) bags and so I picked those up this afternoon. Yes, no more fashion faux pas for this rider, now the front and rear bags match up nicely, hehe. One more test ride tomorrow morning and I'll be good to go. Just hope I don't somehow manage to forget something anyway (I told the bicycle shop there was a 90% chance I'd be back there sometime tomorrow after I remember at least some of what I've forgotten). But seriously, I think that my list is pretty good as I've built it on last year's list and it's more complete (and lean) now.

Tomorrow I do have to also remember to mow the lawn (and I hope the rain lets up enough for that to be possible). Oh, and I need to take my bamboo plant to the neighbor across the street as it really likes water every day and it's special enough to me that I'd hate to see it suffer (and perhaps die). Remember, I've been known to kill cacti so it's not like I need to push the green thumb thing (hehe).

Later ...