Reunited and it Feels so Good....

we had a fun photo shoot

Our group has finally united, and we have accomplished quite a bit since our last post…2 months ago. It has been a busy summer. Most monumentally, we have all bought plane tickets to solidify our general plan for the trip. The first group (Emma, Gen, and Huli) will leave for Dublin on September 21, 2010. The second group(Lucy and Georgia) will arrive in Rome on December 23, 2010, and depending where the first group is toward the end of December, plans will be made for the second group will meet up.

We have made several visits off the island to check out some gear stores and purchase items for the trip. We are all pretty close to gathering most of the gear we will be bringing with us.

Huli will be riding the Surly long-haul trucker. She is currently toting it around town with panniers filled with beach towels and cans of carbonated beverages, both for weight training and convenience. The rest of the crew will be resting their bums on bicycles made by the one and only Traffic Cycle Design, owned and operated by Spencer Wright. check him out at http://www.trafficbikes.com/

We've also been brainstorming ideas for what to capture on our long journey. We're conducting short interviews of each of the members of the group and compiling a good account of our feelings, thoughts, aspirations, and goals before we embark. If anyone has anything specific that they would like to know about any of us or any questions for us, please let us know.

In a week, Georgia will head back to California and shortly after that Lucy will depart for Brazil, which will mean that we will be communicating via internet and phone until we all meet up again in Italy.

We're also still looking for any contacts, suggestions, advice about where to go and what to see so if you have any ideas, write to us! webikedhere@gmail.com Keep riding and thanks for reading!

tentative starting route

dublin-london-paris-marseilles-parma-rome-brindisi-messina

WE FOUND OUR BIKE FOR THE TRIP!!!

In fear of getting seperated from one and other we have decided to tour Europe on the Co-motion Periscope Trident!!!

*Gen, Emma & Huli

memorial day weekend

so first of all, memorial day weekend was a BLAST! the clan all got together and biked out to montauk and a few biked back as well, 63.06 miles i believe it was.

we gathered around 8:00 am at the barn at the wright house and proceeded to take photos and get ready for the big ride. the cut was closed which made it an easy trek across the sand and by the time we got to the wright & company barn in bridgehampton, breakfast was all set up and the bloody mary's started flowing! we really have stepped it up over the years. the caterers made us a beautiful breakfast and the alcohol was definitely a great addition to the mix.

the next stop was guild hall of course, and then on to amagansett elementary school where we played a really good game of ultimate frisbee and munched on a few sandwiches from mary's marvelous.

the ride out to montauk from here went pretty smoothly as well. it's amazing how much shorter the trip seems to get as we all get older and more able. the first bikers got out to the flagpole around 2:15 pm; the train was scheduled for 3:35. a few of us turned around and biked back (including myself, emma, gen, and lucy), leaving at approximately 2:29 and arriving back at the wright barn to sip down a few beers from the keg (ice cold public house IPA), at around 5:00 pm.

after dispersing for a while, showering, arranging furniture, and setting up for the next round of partying, we all reconvened at the wright house for a pig roast and more keg beer and wine. we were blessed with another one of kenny's poem recitals and i'm confident when i say that it was a big hit, we all had a great time.

but yes, we did accomplish a few other things this weekend other than drinking and eating. for the first time a few of the group members got together and talked about the euro trip! this was really great because i'd really been feeling out of the loop, being all the way on the left coast and pretty much out of contact with the rest of the girls. the night before bike day we got together (gen, lucy, emma and i--huli is currently on vacation) and made pins that had our blog on it and some very artistically beautiful drawings that got people real excited. we handed them out to everyone on the sunday ride and we're hoping for some followers!!!

we also tied up a few other lose ends; talked about gear and money and such. even though the plans are still (and probably will be) up in the air for a while, it was nice to be able to chat together about the whole thing. looks like we're thinking that the first group will start out in london, make their way south through france, then down through italy and meet up with the second group (lucy and i will graduate in december and fly over right before christmas) down in southern italy, possibly sicily or maybe even greece. from there on we'll probably play things by ear but we would like to explore spain, portugal, maybe make our way north and go through the netherlands, germany and denmark, then loop back to the east, head south, you know just poke around and take it as it comes!

of course we'll see how the plans play out over the next few months, never know how they could change. thanks for reading and remember, we're looking for any contacts in any countries around europe. if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone, give us their digits and address, we'd really appreciate knowing someone... somewhere.

ride on.

-georgia

UPDATE

So I just wanted to let everyone know that we have made a major change to the route of our bicycle trip. Rather that starting in northern Denmark and racing the weather southward we have decided to start in Southern France and head towards Italy first. We will spend our winter months in Italy and Greece. Once the weather begins to warm we will head north again. We will do our original route but in reverse. This will give us more time to take trips inland since we will not be racing against winter weather. This will hopefully put us in the position where we can spend the summer touring Scandinavia.

Other than this major change most everything is progressing the same. We are still working on designing our bikes and researching gear and rout options. If anyone has any suggestions for us we would love to hear.

-Emma

PS-if anyone is interested in checking out our old blog that Lucy wrote while we were traveling across the country the adress is...

http://gelsjourney.blogspot.com/

Packing List (as of now)

PACKING LIST
Documents:Valid PassportLicense
New debit card &/or credit card
Camping pass/card**
Train pass**

Gear

Bike:LOCK!!!
Comfortable saddle
Handle bar bag*(highly recommended)
At least rear rack w/ pannier
Front rack w/ pannier*
Rack-Tubus, Axium, etc.Panniers-Ortlieb, Axium, etc.
Spare tubes (2+)**
Spare tires**
Camel back ( one liter+)
Reflective triangle (Adventure cycling)
Spare cleatsBento box (small compartment that attaches to your top tube)
Lights:Head lamp*
Tail light(red)
Head Light(white)- Cats eye, light in motion)
Camping:Sleeping bag (20-30 degree down)
Sleeping pad (therma-rest)
Tent (one person, three season)
Stove/cook wear (one for group)
Clothing:
Bike shorts (1-2)
Rain pants- Showers pass, etc.
Rain shell
Wicking long sleeve shirt
" " short sleeve shirt
Ultra light down jacket* - Patagonia, or marmot
HELMETGloves (for cold weather)
Cleats(shoes)/ spares parts
Shoe rain coverBra (1-2)*
Underwear(1-3)*
Socks (2 pairs, tall and short)
Sunglasses
Light PJ/off bike pant*
Flip flops*
Shorts*

Miscellaneous:
Journal,pen, pencil
Duct tape
Camcorder
Digital Camera
Ipod/ other musical device*
Chargers and adaptors
Tarp (for covering bikes)
Knife
Water bottles
Bandanna (2-3 crucial)
Stuff sacks (2-3*)
Travel towel

* - Optional ** - Undecided

Composed by Gen & lucy

THE BIG CITY

We have had a very busy month since our first blog updates. On Thursday March 4th Gen, Lucy and I woke up super early to take a trip to the city. Our mission was well planned out, first to B&H to check out video cameras, from there we would hop on a subway down town to look at some bike shops as we walked to a raw restaurant Gen wanted to check out. We took the 7:20 train from Ronkonkoma station and as we boarded the train we once again felt just a little out of place in the commuter rush. With a mad dash to the ticket kiosk we got our tickets and ran to claim our seats on the train crowded with business suits, briefcases and newspapers. We got to the city around 8:30 and emerged from the underground to find ourselves in the bustling city. Since B&H didn’t open until 9am Gen and I decided to look for our banks. Before even walking a block, to our surprise we found our banks right next to each other. By the time we were done with the banking, B&H was nearly open so we set off to arrive there right on time. I have never been in B&H before but boy is that place amazing the first thing I noticed was the extensive system of conveyor belts above our heads whizzing merchandise from one place to another within the store. Since we were nearly the first people to walk into the store, finding a salesman to answer our questions did not prove to be all that difficult. We checked out several models of camcorder from Sony, Cannon and Panasonic. Sony was quickly tossed out off the picture, due to its lack of compatibility with Mac. After asking tons of questions we decided to wait on line to ask some more questions about microphones and wide-angle lenses. For some reason the line was moving very slowly and there was a lot of drama behind the counter about someone who was late for work. When it was finally our turn Lucy and I stepped up to the counter and before we could even say anything the guy exclaimed, “You must not be from around here because you are awfully patient!” It did seem like the people on line before and after us were awfully impatient. After milling about the store for over an hour, we were able to decide on the Canon HF-S 10. Not wanting to make any rash decisions (or have to carry a camera around the city), we decide to come back after our bike shop tour of the city, and with a full stomach.

From B&H we went back to Penn Station and Caught a Subway down to Chambers and W. Broadway where our first bike shop stop was. Here we tried on ultra lightweight and packable rain gear made by Gore Bicycle Wear. Even though they didn’t have exactly what we were looking for it still gave us a good sense of what the product was like. I really liked the Jackets and after having done some more research over the past couple of weeks I am pretty sure I will buy one of their jackets. Our next stop was a small Travel Book store where I was able to check out a few different types of maps. Unfortunately they were completely sold out of the Europe Road map that I wanted to see. We continued on our journey and stopped at a couple more bike shops and also EMS before we arrived at Quintessence, a raw restaurant on East 10th and 1st avenue. Personally I did not have a very great raw experience. Although I have had plenty of raw food I have enjoyed the chili I ordered was just not doing it for me. The Taco was extremely delicious but unfortunately there just wasn’t enough of it and too much of the soup. Gen enjoyed her burrito, which is good because she is the true raw foodist of the group. From here we hopped back on the subway to make one last stop at B&H. Although we knew what we were going to purchase it still took us over an hour to finally decided on the camera, UV filter, microphone, wide angle lens, and a hood. After checking out and retrieving our backpacks from the bag check we headed back to the train with some new excitement in our step.

Since this day we have begun to take footage for a documentary we are making about this bicycle trip.

MORE TO COME SOON…

Written by: Emma Woodward