Gear

So, confession time: I'm a bit of a princess when it comes to sleeping. I'm a very light and sensitive sleeper and I've never been one to be able to fall asleep just anywhere. Considering we'll be spending 80 or 90% of our nights sleeping on the floor, this could be a problem! 

I also recently received my 4K Duffel bag which is super exciting! Everyone gets the same one. We are allowed that duffel bag and a backpack, and everything we need for 70 days needs to fit in that space, and that includes my sleeping gear. So, no Memory Foam mattresses or mounds of blankets for me. I know my backpack will be taken up by my laptop and some books, so I'm not counting on fitting any clothes in my backpack. 

My duffel bag! I have to fit everything I need for 70 days in here.

As you can see, I got my name embroidered onto my bag! It was a great choice.. I chose the font and the color and I love it. It will be great to easily distinguish my bag from the 25 other bags we will have in the vans. The lady that did it for me is a mom that works out of her home just 2 neighborhoods over from me. Crabby Me Embroidery - I highly recommend her, she finished this for me in less than 24 hours and it was very affordable!

So I spent a lot of time shopping around, reading reviews, and making countless trips to REI, etc. looking for the perfect sleeping gear that is compressible but at the same time will make me as comfortable as possible. Here's what I got!

Me being dorky with all my gear set up.

All of my gear lined up next to each other (with remote for size comparison ;) From left to right: pillow with pillowcase and sleeping mask on top, sleeping bag liner, sleeping bag, sleeping pad.

1. Sleeping pad
This is recommended as a little cushion between you and the floor. I went to REI and physically tested out a few:

Physically testing out some sleeping pads at REI

then read a bunch of reviews online. I couldn't decide between two of them so I ordered both and when they arrived I actually camped out on the floor of my apartment for two nights testing them both out (shh, don't tell REI), then returned the one I didn't want. The pad I went with is a "self-inflating" pad called the Exped SynMat 7 . It inflates with air and puts you 2.8 inches off the ground, so you don't feel any ground at all. I went with medium wide, which means it has an extra 6 inches of width. I like this because it means I have a little room to move before I fall off. It has 5-star reviews on REI.com and it is indeed awesome. I used it camping in West Virginia a couple weeks ago and it was great; I slept through the whole night with no soreness in the morning and it really felt like I was sleeping on a bed! It also insulated me from the cold ground.

The mat by itself

The inflation process is simple. I definitely wanted a pad that inflates rather than just being a foamy material, but I didn't want to blow it up every night. So to inflate this one you use two hands to push air into it through a little built-in air channel. It takes about 3 minutes to inflate and about 1 minute to deflate. It rolls up to a tiny 5x11 inch cylinder which barely takes up any space in my bag!

2. Sleeping bag
I also went to REI and looked at some of these:

Sleeping bag shopping

I learned that there are tons of options for sleeping bags, but most of them have very low temperature ratings and can keep you warm down to temperatures below zero. Since we will be sleeping inside every night and it will be summer, I really don't need that. So I went with the warmest bag REI has, which is a 55-degree bag. 

This temperature rating is pushing it, as I should probably be prepared for temperatures as low as 40, in case we do end up camping (we do carry tents and we will camp if all our host arrangements fall through). So I decided to get a sleeping bag liner as well, which I'll explain next. The sleeping bag I got is really light and comfortable but also warm. It also compresses down to a small stuff sack (6x11 inches) and was a very affordable price.

Posing with my sleeping bag....whose sweet bike is that in the background??

3. Sleeping bag liner
I decided to get this because I don't like the nylon feeling of the inside of sleeping bags. The more I can get my sleeping arrangements to feel like home, the better! Sleeping bag liners serve this purpose as well as keeping you warmer. It's basically a cotton sheet sewn into the shape of a sleeping bag. They add 10 degrees to the temperature rating of the sleeping bag, meaning I should be ok down to 45 degrees, and if it's colder than that I am prepared for that as well (see later). Also, on hotter nights I can just use the liner and then use my sleeping bag as more of a blanket if I want. Here's the one I got:  Cocoon TravelSheet

4. Pillow
For the pillow I had a few options. I could bring my regular pillow, but I decided I would rather not because that was too big. The options for smaller pillows include compressible pillows and blow-up pillows, but I didn't really like either of those because they didn't feel soft enough. Again, the more it fels like home, the better. So I went with the REI Base Camp Pillow, which is just a small regular pillow. It still compresses fairly small and it's also way cheaper than the other options. I also ordered a pillow case for it on Amazon.

5. Other random accessories
-Sleeping mask (lifesaver for me)
-Earplugs (VERY necessary, in a group of 26 kids we are bound to have a few snorers)
-Sleeping bag warmers - these are like the hand warmers or feet warmers you can buy at sports stores, except bigger, and you just put one in your sleeping bag for extra warmth!
-These awesome buddies:

These are called Go Toobs, found at REI and Amazon, and they are little containers for toiletries. They supposedly never leak, and are very flexible to squeeze out the last bit of your stuff. The awesome thing is that they have suction cups on them! This is great because I'm going to be showering in ~60 different showers this summer. We all know that not all showers have handy little shelves to put your containers on, which sometimes means you have to put them on a nasty floor. These suction cups will allow me to attach my stuff to the walls :) I'm super excited for these. I got a bunch so that I can put all of my various hair products in small containers that won't leak, although the bigger ones don't have suction cups. I'm going to bring larger containers of shampoo, soap, etc that have screw tops so they don't leak, and then just refill these.

So that's it! I finished my semester on the 13th and have been home since then. My best friend Ellie was visiting until yesterday, and now I am babysitting for the next week. My training definitely suffered during finals week and now that I'm home I don't have access to spin class or spin bikes as I don't belong to a gym. I'm just going to be going out biking on shorter, faster rides, and running, and I'm going to get in one more long ride before we leave. 

Fundraising has been great: My current total is $7,318!! A HUGE thank you to everyone that has donated and otherwise supported me :)

I also got my hair cut yesterday, which was a big deal for me!! I got 6 inches cut off and I haven't had it this short in literally 5 years! I was really nervous to cut it, but I knew the shorter I cut it now, the more I would thank myself for it later on this summer. There was no way I was going to deal with all that hair when I'm going to be on a bike for 70 days. My new look definitely going to take a while to get used to but I do actually like it!!

New hair!

2 weeks until send off weekend!!! 2 weeks from today I will be in Baltimore doing Training Day, and the next day at 8 am we will be off on this incredible journey! I'm super excited and nervous!