Countdown : 0

8:58 -
The day begins in Houston after the first decent nights sleep I've had in two weeks. Made toast, an omelet and coffee. Generous host Brad gives me and Eliot full run of the kitchen ... We take full advantage.

9:30 -
Frantically packing the bags for shipping tales some effort and lots of trail and error. Eventually we decide Eliot has to ship another bag. Get a text from mom who days to have a cup of tea and take a deep breath. Good advice in any situation so I put
the kettle on.

11:30 -
Brad drives me to the post office to mail a letter for Eliot. We take his corvette which has 10,000 horses in it, porcelain brakes, and no less than fifteen exhaust pipes. I understand enough to know that when we hit 96mph (and we do) the car is just warming up.







12:05 -
Arrive Geoge W Bush International airport. Learn that a plane has crashed into a building in Austin. Taken with the assassination in Dubai on the 15th and the bombing in India on the 13th, it seems somehow appropriate but no less horrifying. Talk to brother Blair in a-town, seems fine with the whole thing. Weigh bags, have some walnuts and stretch out. Airline check in starts in 2 hours. I call Lauren, Blair, and the phone company. Like the Austin crash, when the lady at AT&T starts screwing me out of more money, I roll with it. Hell, i expect it. Unphased, I stretch some more, have some water and eat a chocolate covered espresso bean. Nalgene bottle still smells like purple protein juice from the last training run.


13:00
Eliot is on the phone with his folks in Dubai. Double checking we gave a ride, a place to crash. "were pretty excited. Just waiting for the shoe to drop with these boxes. Then we'll slip into euphoric bliss," he says. I agree completely. More stretching, more water. Working out the last of the nervous energy. Feeling grand. Look up Durga on wiki and discover more connections between Star Wars and Hinduism. Indialicious!!






14:18-
Standing in line fir security. Zero problems shipping the bikes to Dubai! Finally some good news!

15:22 -
Post sandwich trip to duty free. Oggle macallen scotch. Mmmmm ...






16:03 -
Find this interesting tidbit in Outdoor Magazines list of 51 Perfect Things:







16:21 -
Stop at Jamba Juice. Clark calls. Miss that guy something awful. I drink a pomegranant smoothis while he tells us about his newborn nephews amazing farting ability and tries to convince me to move to california when I return. Less than 2 hours to go!

16:50
Change Dollars to Dirham. Foreign money will always have novelty. Head to the terminal and camp for the last hour to hour and a half. Have a brief but steamy conversation re: emirates air stewardess uniforms. Gggggrowwwwl. Our flight crew is outside the gate in football huddle chatting about who-knows-what. Probably talking about the two pasty white dudes talking loudly about clark's nephew's legendary flatulence.








17:10
Flight crew boards! Almost time. Take a second to think about people back home. Hope Sidi is alright.

17:45
Boarding call. Here we go. Love, well wishes and rock n roll to everyone out there. Our next entry will be from Dubai. Be excellent to each other!

Location:S Terminal Rd,Houston,United States

Countdown : 1

The last two days have been ridiculous. Saying goodbye to everyone was hard enough, but there were boxes to pack, furniture to stash and about a hundred things to check off my list. I think (read:hope in spite of a sinking feeling) that I got everything done. The important stuff is done: mom knows I love her, friends know I'll miss them, cat has a home (thanks, teapot).




After Lauren took ricochet, I settled into super last minute crunch. Boxed up bikes, threw everything in a giant duffle and headed to the bookstore. Picked up Death in the Afternoon by Hemingway and Iron John by Bly (again). Then to the bank, the grocery and then on to dad's place.





So my life is a box and, as I sit in eliot's cousin's kitchen petting his cat, I'm too tired to really be excited. I need a good night of sleep, a cup of tea and a good ride. I think once I have boots on the ground I'll be able to be excited but right now I'm exhausted.

Location:Fallen Timber Ct,Spring,United States

2 days to go time - रोचक एंड रोल!

Yep, I turned on the Hindi-translator, so if you dare, dear readers, you may attempt to translate little juicy bits like this: थे क़ुइक्क फोक्स जुम्पेद ओवर थे लज्य दोग. Oh YEAH!

SoooIn other news, Drew and I are prepping to hop in his Dad's car tomorrow morning and ride out to Houston to meet my cousin Lisa। We'll be staying with her (thanks, Lisa!), and hopping a ride with my cousin Brad the next day to the Houston International Airport। Our flight out is at 6:45pm, and once we get all our luggage checked and on the plane and lifting off of US soil, my mind is gonna 'SPLODE!

I'd like to thank my bodacious Grandparents for baby sitting my car and my cat, Merlin. Their house is covered in huge old Oak trees on which Merlin shall be exploring on a daily basis. Thus, he is happy. Thanks, फोल्क्स!

In the meantime, we're still very much concerned about the bombing in Pune, south of Mumbai, on Saturday. In sifting through the requisite warnings and such from the state dept and US embassy, we're keeping our wits about us and keeping abreast of the developments from the Indian government and Pakistan. Know this: if stuff "gets real" while we're over there, we have no druthers about hopping a flight to Dubai, or Hawaii for that matter, and chilling out in relative saftey until relative saftey is reached in India. But for now, we're just keeping our ears open. Thanks again for the words of concern from friends and family. We're praying to Ganesh to get them obstacles outta the way.

Namaste for now, all - 2 days to go!

bombing in pune

for more information on the attacks in Pune yesterday, check out this article from reuters. sounds like it was likely in reaction to the pakistan-india talks and meant to derail the peace process. this stuff can really creep a dude out, who is about to travel there. all the major cities are on red alert which is actually good - things should (*fingers crossed*) be calm for a while. at least enough time for us to get to the countryside.

and stay there. with the cool, calm people of the country.

countdown : 4

skipped the countdown yesterday since i spent the whole day packing (again). tensions are running high, still. i seemed to be on pins and needles all the time these days. jumping at everything, emotions swinging. and after the bombing yesterday in pune, there are some serious fears. the state department sent us an e-mail asking us to take extra caution. thankfully, we're avoiding serious tourist spots in favor of rural regions and should be able to avoid any major attacks, bombings or kidnappings. your prayers and well-wishes are appreciated. we're smart and we're careful and we're watching out for one another.

biked up eliot's bike tonight and got the bags more or less ready to ship. tomorrow will be my last real day at the house - i'll still be living there but everything i own will be in storage. just my bed will remain.

oooooohhh the anxiety. flight-or-fight is kicking in BAD.

4 Days to Go-Time

Here's a summary of Eliot's countdown week:

Yesterday: We weighed our checked luggage (see: bag of pannier bags) at Kinkos FedEx ( the guy there really gave us the hairy eyeball, too) - after a quick wager between Drew and I about the total cumulative weight of our non-bike stuff (he said 40-something, I said over 50 lbs), the bags came out to just about 41 lbs. Point Drew - he's definitely going to the showcase-showdown now.

Last night: Fabulous party at Cameron's folks' house (your Mom is a premium dancer). Ended up in a very cold swimming pool. Good night, amen.

Today: Packed up my junk, i.e. worldly possessions, into the back of the car and ready to take it down to my Grandparent's house for storage.

Tonight: Put my bike and anything else under 50 lbs in the giant shipping box that we'll be using to check our bags on our Emirates flight to Dubai in 4 days.

4 DAYS!!!!!!! HOLYMOLYROLYPOLY!!!

Tomorrow and Tuesday: Breakfast at Chuy's with Grandfather, dominoes and Trivial Pursuit with Grandmother, quality time with Merlin.

Wednesday: Hop a bus to Houston, meet with my cousins and spend the night. More Trivial Pursuit, hopefully.

Thursday: AIRPORT!!!! Adios, 'mer-cuh, hola Dubai and India-na-na-na-na-na-na

Time's up, let's do this!

countdown : 6

another big day at ghost runners HQ - e-man was coming back up from pleasanton, tx so i once again had the house to myself. me and the cat spent the morning sleeping and packing.  while ricochet the cat lived up to species' particular brand of napping, i made buckwheat pancakes, boxed up some more of my life,  and headed over to the storage facility.

it's my life ... in a box

goodbye money - i never loved you anyway. ugh ... so much stress and joy in these final days, all piled on top of each other like some kind of anxious caprese. man, i'm hungry. regardless, storage facility is a go and, like the phone and (soon) my water and power bills everything is being auto-debited. you know, i may hate money, but paradoxically i wish i had more of it. then i could do this trip in truly, truly, truly outrageous style instead of poor-dumb-schloob-style. man, even my sentences make less sense these days. 

bought some bells and string to make a late-night bike thief deterrent / low-tech snake / tiger / bear repellent. the idea is to have a string of bells we put over or around the bikes at night so if someone tried to gank 'em, the bells would ring and the dude will be all "Oh No! Bells!" and jet. also tigers and snakes hate humans (i assume) and everything we stand for, especially joy, ergo christmas. hence, silver bells = evil animal repellent. to a grouch, christmas is a bummer.  LOGIC'D!

all in all, me and eliot have reach a high level of excitement. there is still some stress - a few little gaps in the plan that need filling in before we take off. and i'm going to miss the people here TONS. last night me and the gents went to the bar and had a jolly old time. if i die in india, it'll be okay. but i think i'd miss being able to hang out with those guys. unless after you die you get to go to some tavern-in-the-sky with a bunch of famous old dudes and kathy ireland from 1984. Hands off of the jukebox, Mark Twain -  Rythym is a Daaaaaancer! wooooOOOOOOOoooooo KEEP IT GOING, former president William Howard Taft! Man that 'stache can groove. 

countdown: 7

[[ soundtrack: cloudkicker ]]

god willing and the creeks don't rise, i'll be in the international terminal of the Houston airport this time next week. until then, this has become my life:

LISTS, LISTS, LISTS

boxed up books and records for lauren today. she's being amazing with me leaving. i'm sure it's not easy or fun for her to watch me box up my life and leave the country for 3 months. but she's being super encouraging and in an act of what seems to be only slightly-less-than-pure-generosity, is taking a selection of books, my DVDs and my records to her house for safe storage. go-go gadget girlfriend.

called a storage place that'll keep my stuff for the next three months for much less than i thought i'd have to pay. gotta keep boxing stuff up.  coming from a family of pack-rats and bibliophiles, i have boxes and boxes filled to the brim with books. besides that, everything i own seems to be 4 lamps, a 48-star flag and a painting of edgar allen poe.

new pictures of the bike coming today or tomorrow. the new bag configuration is highly efficient and awesome. plus now my pepper spray is actually where i can get to it. as i said, pictures forthcoming. the lesson learned? pay for quality when you can, but a little thought and a little elbow grease go a looooooong way.

countdown : 8

with eight days to go - and no more job to have to go to - i'm in full preperation mode. eliot took off to pleasanton so there are no distractions.  i woke up and spent the (incredibly cold) morning boxing up all my stuff to haul off to storage.  as i box up my life, the perrenial lament: why oh why do i have os many books? i had a coffee and cleaned up the kitchen a bit. my backpack had some cat wee on it so i through it in the wash, saying a not-so-silent prayer that it wouldn't tear to shreds like the last pack i tried to do that with ...

then i spent some time at the bank figuring out how money withdrawals will work over there and depositing some back checks. heading over to the at&t store to discuss the workflow for the iPhone (it's complicated but it looks like we'll still be taking it), skipped over to the outfitters and picked up a better watch band and some small luggage straps for the handlebar bag i picked up at best buy - i'm converting a camera bag that cost $21 instead of paying bontrager $100. makes sense to you, too, huh?

VERSUS

picked up my 30-days-at-time contact lenses (which i am dreading using [they aren't comfortable] but what can i do?).  finally had something to eat about 2 and instantly fell asleep for 2 hours. i think my body was telling me to slow down. refreshed (sort of?) i head off to the 'bux for some coffee and internet. gotta blog, close up my e-mail account at work, and do a little more research. then it's a phone conversation with the storage facility, the landlord, the housemate and a quick repack of the bike.

then, god willing, lauren will come over with some wine and i can relax but i hope she brings something italian (montepulciano d'abruzzo? ripasso?) because i already have a cabernet decanted and it would really be a shame if- OH MY GOD WHY AM I SO WOUND UP?!?

Thanks, Push-Up Preston

oh yeah, i'm leaving the country for three months to survive on my wits and health alone for 3 months, that's why. thankfully i'm the good kind of wound up - excited, more-like. fear and elation have given way to determination. gotta move, gotta make steps forward.  beaming down to the planet surface and praying my shirt ain't red - unless i'm scotty. i don't think i'm scotty.  i'm more of a chekov, let's be honest.

Checklist: √

Tickets to India - √

Visas - √

Travel Insurance - √ (mostly)

Bikes and Gear - √

Fear - √√√√√√√√√√!!!

Yep, a little shaky and nervous, but readyreadyready to rummmmmmmmbleeeee!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!

IT BEGAN IN INDIA_A_A_A_A_A_A_A

HUGE news today, kids! visas were approved by travisa outsourcing meaning we are all-lights green for entry into the glorious country of India! beautiful landscape, friendly people and world's most amazing culture, here we come!

RWWAAARRGHHH! 

in celebration i invite you to visit this little site i put together. mute the video on the right, please.