6 days to launch

I can hardly contain myself. I seem to be telling everyone I see about our trip. Yesterday the Long Riders had a final planning meeting/cookout at Donna & Tom's house. We firmed up that we intend to be fluid and other then a few firm dates and locations (meeting & dropping off the fly babes) we'll stop & go as we decide on a day to day basis. Everyones bike has been checked & serviced. Some of us will get rear tires replaced in Alaska others just put new on. We organized who's carrying what so we don't have duplication of things like sets of tools, air compressors, spare parts. Fortunately Pete is towing a trailer which gives us a little extra space mostly for the fly babes gear. Tom even has devised a way of carrying a spare front & rear tire which is good as we all have basically the same size tires. We are trying to be self sufficient which will be critical in a lot of areas when your hundreds of miles from nowhere and maybe thousands from the part you need. As I'll be solo the whole trip I've been designated to carry some to the extra gear that's handy to have such as tire irons, bead breakers, jack dunnage, etc as the other folks will be riding two up through out Alaska. We talked about places we'd like to stop at, alternates routes that we may take, potential run to the Artic circle (weather/road conditions permitting), cruising speed (70 mph), packing a lunch or stopping, and a myriad of other thoughts and suggestions. The NLMC is planning a sendoff cookout at this Thursday's meeting and we've been geting well wishes from most everyone. Other then doing our final packing we are READY for depature. By the way I picked up a cool little laptop that 8x6 and 1 inch thick with a 9 in screen so as long as there's a wireless connection available I'll be able to make daily entries. Also we have this neat gadget called spot (http://www.findmespot.com/) where you can go to this webpage http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?&glId=0dZFG8J3iSt3TFy8xKNDySr4Vy5o6mPsz and it'll show you on a google earth map where we've been over the last 24 hours. That's all for now.
PS - If anyone is intersted in joining us for our departure breakfast we'll be at the Shack restaurant in East Lyme at 7 am this Saturday the 28th. See ya from the road!!!!!!!!!!!