Pre-BAK

Late night Thursday, last minute adjustments, around midnight. We leave early tomorrow. Should have finished all this a week ago, but we didn't. I decided to put on a new chain, but it made too much noise so I put the old one back on. Amy's putting on new tires. What training I could get in will hopefully be enough. My total training mileage of 400 should have been around 700 miles. March snows delayed training until April.

The last time we did BAK was 2007. Dan, Amy and I. Good memories and some stressful memories. This time fiance Cody suggested we do it again, this time with him. After what Dan called a "lapse in judgement" we decide to do it. Memory of 2007 aches and pains have faded.

This year BAK has 800 registered bikers (our typical number) and 60 support staff that ride. Each night is coordinated and is usually at a High School or similar educational institution. Roughly half of us bring our tents, half of us sleep on the gym floor or in the hallways. Local non-profit groups have volunteered to operate food booths as fund raisers for themselves and a convenience to us. We really appreciate them. BAK uses rental moving trucks to haul our gear to the next night's stay. We wake up, eat, pack up and load our gear in the trucks and hit the road by 7 a.m. (no set time) and a typical day is 6 hour in the saddle. This is every day for seven days. You get in a groove after the first couple days.