Countdown continues

We're closing in on the last week-and-a-half before we leave for France. Dave has gotten, and is taking, an opportunity to fly to Denver to see our good friends Marco and Jacqueline Vasquez (and little Marco) this weekend. He and Marco are going to do two uphill time trials Saturday and Sunday. Dave won't ride it competitively, or - thank goodness - take any risks, but it's a good opportunity to get some good ascent riding in before we leave. Needless to say, I encouraged him.

More stick shift driving under my belt, thanks to Ian's little VW GTI. I must say, I did pretty well. Only panicked once when I killed it after a stoplight on the highway and had vehicles behind me. That's down from the multiple panics in the previous drives, even when there were no vehicles for miles! I'm progressing. Dave even gave me a couple "excellent jobs" on my accelerations from stops to 1st gear. Yee-hah!

I actually started "staging" the things to bring on the trip in one of the bedrooms. Maps, books, camera with 8GB memory card, Garmin with European card, small first-aid kit, small backpack for touring, etc., etc. Liz is loaning us her camcorder and dad is loaning us his little binoculars. If anyone out there has suggestions for things to bring or otherwise, please send us comments. We don't want to forget anything as buying it in Europe, if necessary, will be more expensive.

On that note, I did see that the dollar is now at 1.385 Euros (down from a previous high around 1.42). Good news. Keep dropping, please!

Dave has the new Merlin built up, thanks to our Kaos friend Bryan Redemske. It turned out great and Dave said it's a fantastic ride. Stiffer than the Felt. He's still getting a few things dialed in, like the seat, but the ride in Denver will also help him with that. Still needs a few more things - most importantly an extra set of wheels - but the other things are little and he can buy at the bike shops around here or in Denver.

The excitement builds!!
- Julie