20 days to go.
There is a number to give one pause, we are inside of the twenty day ring to the start of the rally.
On one hand I could (and probably should) have a good panic attack about my preparation right about now. The actual list of work to be completed is not really that large. I could make the list real short by simply having on item:
Get ready for the rally silly!
But that is a bit broad.
I am a detail oriented person or at least that is what I have been told. A number of years ago I was involved in the management and preparation of a new yacht for Key West Race Week, the largest and one of the most competitive regattas in North America. The captain of the boat who I respected greatly told me I was the “most detail orientated muth**rF**ker he had ever worked with which I took as a great compliment. I also took being called a workaholic a compliment too. I just like to be busy.
Once in while I get a bit freaked out over all the details on this bike, some of which I won’t have time to get to. When I get worried I look back on my previous rides and break the game to its most basic elements. I have a great bike, the lights work and I can navigate. I don’t need all the little extras to finish the rally but I do need to get my seat sorted out. Such is life at 19 days, my custom seat is giving me a wicked hot spot and it will be going back to Rocky for a little adjustment.
There is a huge amount of equipment involved in riding the IBR. I have been fanatical about trying to save weight, space and clutter by taking as little as possible. I will have two sets of just about everything with a plan to switch out at the mid-rally checkpoint back in St. Louis. Even so from things like an alternator belt and tools to lubrication for the ear plugs there must be space for everything and everything must have a space. I have got just about all of the “what” and most of the “where” figured out but I will still be refining this over the next two weeks. I remember a buddy giving me grief before the start of my first IBR as I packed and repacked the bike about a dozen times to make sure I knew where everything was and to try to calm rally jitters.
So in the next 15 days (I leave five days before the start) I will ride three thousand miles, spend a day in Vermont with Charlie attending to a few bits, spend a day at Max’s getting full service and attend my local club rally (the Damn Yankees Rally) in western Mass. I have a mile long work list on the bike and will spend every spare moment testing, packing and fine tuning my set-up.
Also in the next 15 days I am kicking off a 100k IT project at work and will visit two of our vessels, one in Virginia and the other in Savannah, GA or Baltimore to get them up to speed with our vessel management systems. In a nod to Andy Goldfine’s Ride To work day, I will ride to work on the ships.
Time to get crackin!