24 isn't old if you're a hawaiian green sea turtle

Welcome to my blogalicious bicycle journey journal. Starting now, this is where I'm going to be posting all my exciting stories from the 2007 bikathon extravaganza that is to be my life for the next three months. I'm picturing lots and lots of neon and spandex. If you're lucky, I'll post pictures.

Here's the nitty gritty: Ryan and I leave in a few days from Corvallis, OR to bike across the country. The decision has been made, don't try to dissuade us. We've decided to bicycle down the coast first to give spring a little head start. When we reach San Francisco we'll turn east, with a possible detour by train to the Grand Canyon. We have to be in New York City by June 6th come hell or high water. (More like saddle sores and the Rockies.) If you know anyone between here and there who might consider hosting us, please let me know. Also, if there's a park, state, lake or iconic piece of americana we shouldn't miss along the way, please pass it on: kaileawallin@yahoo.com
Muchas Gracias.

Good news! I bought a bike. A solid first step I figured. Second step was applying for my FIRST credit card ever, a sure sign that I'm getting old and misguided if I think I have the money to pay it off. Just emergencies, right? And a night at the Hilton when my backside is too sore for only a thermarest.

Here's a sneak peak at my packing list:
eye-crampingly bright mesh orange reflective crossing guard vest (love, mom)
dorky rearview mirror to attach to helmet (Ryan refuses)
5 packets of tropical flavored Goo (the stuff cyclists "eat")
spandex shorts so padded I walk like a cowboy or a toddler in diapers
the coolest cleats in vibrant superman colors (if only I knew how to unclip them from my pedals, ow)
more blinking lights and reflective tape than you can shake a stick at (again, thanks mom)

Off to a killer stylish start! I can only imagine how helmet hair is going to add to this Vogue worthy ensemble. Good thing I'm a feminist-raised nature-loving hippie chick from the Northwest so I don't care about things as material and consumeristic as my appearances. Right. Moving on.

More good news: I got a job! Quitting my ecotourism whale watching naturalist job in MAUI may have sounded like a bad idea and in fact, it closely resembled financial suicide at the time. However, in the month since I have not regretted it once. I am so happy to be back on the mainland! This is where I belong. Maui kids, I miss you dearly. I wish I was as strong as you and could handle living day-in and day-out on the most climatically perfect picture postcard beautiful island on earth. I salute you. And please, don't be like me and move away because I need a couch to crash on when I come to my senses and fly out for a visit.

But back to the job. I applied and was hired for a competitive position as educator and deckhand aboard a 100 year old tall ship that is on the National Historic Registry. Her name is the Adventuress and she's a legend. I grew up watching her sail majestically (and a bit pretensiously) into the Port Townsend harbor every summer. I remember adults practically drooling as they gazed at her. Remember I'm from a "wooden boat freaks unite" town. I went aboard as a student in sixth grade and learned all about the Puget Sound and marine environmental issues and our positive and negative impacts on our waterways and even about the planet's limited resources, modeled by the ship's own resource consumption. Of course I only really remember getting to set the sails and stand at the helm, hands on the wheel and wind in my hair. But something must have stuck because look at me now, I can't stop with all the environmental stuff.

Things have come full circle and now I will be the one teaching the little ones and not so little ones aka at-risk high schoolers all about plankton, marine life, non-point source pollution and sailing. That last one is pretty funny because I don't know how to sail! That's akin to growing up on a dairy farm and not knowing how to milk a cow. I mean, my high school had a sailing team. Everyone on my block had at least a dory. We had kayaks, crazy Alaskan women. Obviously, it's high time I learned how to jibb and tack and ebb. (Wait, that's the tide.) I train in June, right after the bike trip ends, and then start late August and work into October. Short but sweet and still counts as sea time towards my dream of obtaining my captain's 100 ton license.

Someday I'll have a sturdy little boat of my own to cruise around the world teaching conservation psychology (that's my projected M.A.) to environmental educators and I'll fund it with ticket sales from my globally renown African ballet tango troupe Las Mariposas. Auditions March 15th, 2013.

That's enough for now! Back to packing the panniers. Keep in touch!

love, kdizzle