Caroline here.Tucker (our dog) is rather depressed and has been curiously taking items out of our bags as per his usual. Mom's shoes and Wills' bike shorts went missing yesterday. They magically appeared out of nowhere later in the day smelly curiously of dog breath. He's very sneaky. Didn't get any of my stuff yet...I may be speaking too soon. If I arrive in Portland sans helmet or something, I will know where to turn.

Yesterday (T-1) was probably the most productive day of my entire life. (Could have used a tequila shot or two in there!) After a fabulous weekend spent with high school friends, Wills and I ran around all day gathering up last minute items and miscellaneous crap. Luckily, Kate and Emily (high school buddies) came over and made us get rid of a lot of it. Good news, girls - we have extra space!!! I'm sure it will shortly be filled with lots of peanut butter, oatmeal, and Ramen noodles.

That's about all we have to say from Memphis other than to mention the coolest gift that Wills and I have ever received. Our sweet neighbor, Glee, gave us St. Christopher pendants last week as a talisman. (St. Christopher is the patron saint of safe travel.) They are on our necks and we're ready to go. Talk to you all from the road!!

 Wills here. Caroline and I have spent the last month or so getting everything together for our big trip - a Portland to Portland journey by bicycle across the USA. Caroline has been in Memphis since March hanging out with the fam and Tucker (our dog). She discovered she had a lot of  extra time on her hands. We'd known for some time that we wanted to go on a trip together, so she started planning and, after talk of volunteering in Nepal, surfing in Africa, and learning Spanish in Argentina, we realized that there is a recession and that we are both unemployed. Then, somehow it came to us - the idea to bicycle across the country. So there we have it.

Caroline set out choosing the route and getting everything together. We discovered it would be much more of an adventure if it was just the two of us rather than traveling with a large group. Also, we found it much cheaper not to have a guide or have anyone carry our gear. We have had a month or so to get all of our gear together and figure out how the hell to use it. I guess I'll go ahead and mention the fact that I haven't gotten on a bike since I was about 14 and that neither one of us are very outdoorsy folk. But luckily, we've made some great friends along the way who have helped us out a lot. (Nick and Jason at Outdoors; Chase, Cort, and John at the Peddler)

At this point, we have almost everything together and are ready to roll... almost.