Tomorrow is the day!

Here's a map showing our first five days, all in Montana before crossing into Canada. We depart at noon tomorrow from the bike shop where Rick Smith works, in front of TV cameras covering our story for the local CBS news. For you cycling fans out there, the owner of the shop is Levi Leipheimer's brother, Rob.

Boy, have we been busy preparing for departure! I left in the motorhome from Clarkston, WA yesterday morning and arrived in Butte at about 8 pm. I was already tired from the drive (in lots of rain and beautiful mountain scenery), but still had much organizing and chores to do here at Rick's home. Then this morning, first thing I changed the oil, replaced the water pump, removed tons of junk from the motorhome that we don't need to take and to make more room for everyone else's stuff, and then drove around town trying to get my generator fixed and to buy last-minute items.

Later, Bob arrived on his bike from Helena, to complete his ride from Minneapolis that started 24 days ago. His wife Diane and son Derek arrived by car, since Derek decided to make this a rest day. Burt arrived from SoCal a little while later, and in the company of some Alaskan Amber and Moose Drool beers, we sifted through all our gear and junk and finally loaded up the rig. We're ready to go!

Was a beautiful day here in Butte. I hope it's as good tomorrow. We have about 60 miles to do, and then we'll see how we five can manage out of one motorhome. All five of us will ride out to the wild cheering of our fans, and after five or so miles I will ride back to the motorhome and drive ahead and meet them. There, Bob will hoist his bike onto the rack and drive to our campground.

Here's Rick's garage as we do final preparation on our bikes. Rick went over our bikes and got them in tip-top order. He's packed essentially a mini-bike shop, including a bike stand, with about every spare part you can think of. I brought three spare wheels too. Whatever we find we've forgotten, at least we'll still be in "civilization" for a while, and we have a motorized vehicle to drive to get something.

Tomorrow I'll have pictures for you, and a link to the news video they will air here on TV of us riding off in our custom-designed Five For Alaska jerseys.