Today's the Day; Let the Journey Begin

This is the day our Bike Vietnam 2011 gathers together to begin our journey to and through Vietnam over the next two weeks.  We've been preparing for this beginning and these weeks of pedaling for a year: receiving an invitation from our friends in Vietnam, dreaming the possibility, building a team, researching our options, thinking through logistics, raising support, training together, training individually, making lists and checking them twice, and then packing lightly and tightly.  We've done all we can do to prepare for this trek.  Now the trek itself commences.

This photo is from one of our training rides early in autumn.  Looks like we're all a bit confused!  I'm sure we've made significant progress since this day.  Too bad, however, we won't have Donna (Bob Yardy's wife, pictured here) as our competent navigator through Vietnam.  By the way: a special thanks to Donna for her huge part in planning and organizing for Bike Vietnam 2011.  She works lots of behind-the-scenes and logistics details. Donna is an accomplished cyclist; we wish she were riding along with us.

The first leg of our excursion actually has all seven team members converging in Mahomet, Illinois (near Champaign) today.  That's a long way from Vietnam!  This is the home of team leader Bob Yardy.  There, we'll bring our boxed bikes, equipment, and luggage together, repack for optimum weight distribution (there's a 50 lb limit per checked item, including the bike boxes).  No small feat.  We'll also make sure all our documents are in order, review our itinerary, receive assignments, and do whatever is needed to easily negotiate the airports, security and immigration checks at Chicago O'Hare, Seoul, South Korea, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

During the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning, we'll load a mini-bus and travel together to Chicago--the second and last four-wheeled leg of our journey for the next few weeks.  We're looking forward to it all and will be relishing every part of the journey.