Blogging basics on tour

As I get ready to depart, I'm constantly thinking about what I want to explore and how I'm going to do it. Right now, I've classified all my writing as some sort of the following
1. Route and challenges of riding
2. Profiles of a person or place encountered
3. Environmental impacts, changes to historical routes or places
4. Cultural patterns, including borders, fisheries, water sources, crops
5. Gear + camping/ restaurant reviews + critiques
6. FOOD
7. Basic data, HR info, mileage, elevation

My mindset when traveling

Thanks to Steve Miranda, one of the coolest journalism teachers on earth, I was once again alerted to this article: http://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/.
Yes, I did, for a period of several months, consider going to an Ivy League school. And yes, I do go to Williams College, which for some reason or another is often ranked as the top college in the nation. I had a lot of personal dilemmas deciding to go to the sort of school that Williams is, and have debated about how to remedy the experience.
One of those ways that I've found most helpful is to travel and volunteer with no specific college acceptance or career ideals in mind. No, I don't mean an I-banking internship or researching in a lab. I mean learning about places, talking to locals, studying what make people make up a place. If I appear to be adopting some sort of Ivy-league personality, please shut me down. Or see me wearing a polo.

Packages

Just got the last package in preparation for the trip, a lovely assortment of detours bags: panniers, wedgie seat bag, handlebar bag, and phinney pack. Hope you like the orange color scheme.
And some schwalbe tires. My parents swear by the marathons, and though I've only run their racing tires and big apples before, I expect the same legendary quality I've been riding the last 5 years.

Gear list so far- kinda ultralight touring

Limited weight= more fun, I hope.

Thus, a Ritchey Breakaway bike with 1" steel fork, rear seat post rack, and the like.

Mavic Aksium wheels- old, beatup, probably their last trip before I get some more standard wheels

Detours D2R panniers (thanks, Shawn!)

Detours seat bag with some goodies, a pump, tube, patch kit, and park mt1

exped downmat 7 xs and a chunk of thermarest z-rest for the feet

Rab endurance 250 sleeping bag

platypus bottle

Williams cycling jersey

Full Rad Racing NW kit

arm/legwarmers

LG Montana shoes

smartwool wool socks

Giro mid-calf socks

Pedros lube

Some zip ties, fiberspoke, quick-link, needle nose pliers in a bag

Topeak white light & super flash rear light

first aid kit

ipod

small waterproof camera

fake ipad

clif bars and gels galore.

Pictures coming once everything is packed up.

ACA maps

I'm sure Adventure Cycling's maps are great for most people. In fact, I've used them on a couple occasions myself. But for a trip across the country, as a single map set, I'm a bit concerned about their narrow scope and minded-ness, which I'm sure is just fine and dandy for folks on an organized tour or who are just out to ride their bikes. Thus, for daily routing, they're awesome, but not so much for experiencing an entire area and recognizing the diversity of a region.
For one, I like to learn about where I'm riding before hand. Thus, I've been playing around with google earth, finding new places to visit, and mapping accordingly. Everything's set up for long days, which you will see shortly, but I'm happy to share once I have a bit more beta.

A photo from the archives

Just a reminder that you can indeed have fun with the fam while cycling long distances. BC and Alberta tour, 2009. Complete with Hot Springs, grizzly bears, and snow.

Williams in purple

This sums up the last few weeks of classes pretty well.