All packed up... my flight is WHAT time?

The bike bag - bubble wrap and all

If you ever want to know the current airline regulations and fees for oversized baggage, give me a yell. I know how they roll, and trust me they love playing hide the ball on the actual price.

So, for Virgin America (love them, by the way... how many airlines can you say that about?) the trick is... yes, they take your bike. But it costs $50. HOWEVER, be sure to keep the bike bag below 50 lbs, or they start asking for first borns. Frontier... about the same. A good airline for flying with bikes too.

Duct tape is your friend

I managed to stuff a bike bag and a large duffle with all of my gear, snacks, clothes and assorted miscellaneous stuff for 10 days of combined traveling, biking and being in northern California. A few of my big ticket items:

- Bike with an electric generating dynamo... because plugging into outlets are for suckers.
- An iPhone and an iPad because I apparently cannot be disconnected from 2011 even for a moment... unless there's no cell signal or wifi (a high probability in parts of Mendocino county at minimum)

Orange rain jacket and a lot of supporting stuff

- Newly waterproofed gear - weather reports... um, yeah... notsogood. notsogood. Rain probable the last 3 days it looks like. I'll be rockin orange in support of my alma mater on the way up to Arcata (Go Orange) and some red, white and blue for my 3-0 Buffalo Bills as I pedal the roads listening to them on Sunday morning...
- Coffee, an aeropress and an immersible water heater... except I need to plug that in (curse you dynamo for not being 110 volts!)
- Lots and lots of Nirvana on the iPhone (see above). I'll need them to get up some of the hills...
- And much, much more. 83 total lbs. in fact.

More from the SF side of things... I have a free day Friday to do my thing and get organized. Saturday is the ride up... Sunday we roll.

But I have to be up at 4am tomorrow... so, good night.