The call of the West will eventually lure me out of the city...

This weekend I saw a bunch of pictures of our friend's new studio in Montana. I don't have any of them availible to post but it is very close to Glaicer Ntl Park, which looks like this:













We are invited to stay with them if we make it that far. This fills me with excitement, which is good because I need to remember how little of this country I have seen and how great it will be to see more of it. Otherwise I will spend all of my money on stupid stuff and not be able to afford to ride to Glaicer and other amazing places. Another inspiring thing is that it was 70 degrees in Chicago this weekend. It made me remember that I love to be outside on my bike during warm weather.

I bought a new front rack for my bike, a Surly Nice Rack, just like Andrea's. You can see that i has a lot of room for stuff, like a sleeping bag and a couple of panniers full of gear.



























I also hope to mount a light or two on this thing. Sam and I have been talking about ways to mount a mini maglite on a rack, which would be perfect becuse they are really tough and waterproof. There are so many lights availible that I don't know what to buy. Most are more or less the same(plastic flashlights with a mounting apperatus) and then there are the battery pack variety that cost $300, which is way too much for me. Too bad, because they are almost as bright as the lights on a motorcycle and would be great for mountain biking at night, in a non-touring scenario. Check out the Chicago flag on my front pannier. Even though I'm not from this city, I've live here for six years now and I feel like I want to represent when we are on the road. I'll have to get a big Wisconsin patch for the other side(Does anyone know of one with girls holding beer and cheese?)

One thing I will really miss when I'm on the road is riding my track bike around town at high speed. I love to be on a light, responsive bike, darting in and out of traffic and flying through the crowded parts of town. Hopefully some one will let me take their bike for a spin when we are in New York and San Francisco. I've heard that those are both great cities for urban riding. Any doubts, check out some of the nail-biting action in these alleycat racing videos.