Here's a list of everything I took with me. Asterisks denote items which went with me on the plane, but were then shipped back from Oregon. Surprisingly, I lucked out this time and only forgot one thing: shampoo, a very easily fixed mistake. I must be getting better at this planning/packing thing.

About a week before the trip, Jim Hiler had picked up the new bike from its previous owner, about 100 miles away from his house. Since we already knew the existing front tire wouldn't make it across the country, he yanked the front wheel and had it ready for the new one I was bringing with me on the plane.

As a side note, the previous owner was extremely anxious to conclude the sale, as the reason he was selling the bike in the first place was to help his daughter out of a bad financial situation, and apparently his timing was tight. However, since Janine hadn't yet received the cash from the insurance company for the settlement of her previous bike's accident, we didn't have that much liquid cash on hand. Jim volunteered to pay for the bike out of his own pocket, and let us "buy" the bike from him. Now, they say friends help you move, and real friends help you move bodies, but in my opinion, REAL friends buy bikes for you.

When boxed/bundled/packed, the sum total of all the crap I was bringing with me formed a daunting pile. I went over the list several times, but was unable to find anything I didn't really need, so I resigned myself to having to pay extra at the airline ticketing counter for overbaggage.

For whatever reason, it's a lot cheaper to fly out of Cleveland (2 hours away) than Pittsburgh, so the night before the trip I traveled by car to my parents' house there to spend the night. Now, my parents feel that once their kids leave the nest, they ought to come back as little as possible, so consequently they own no spare beds.   As a result, I got to test my Thermarest and camp pillow before the trip even started. I wouldn't call it a "comfortable" night, but I figured a few days of 500 mile riding would probably make me appreciate the set-up more, and since I had to be up at 5:30am for the next day's flight anyway, it was just as well. As it turns out, I was up 30 minutes before my alarm went off. One doesn't sleep deeply the night before the biggest ride of their life.