Click to biggify! Not all of my purple items show up that well against the purple bedspread. Go figure.

First, everything is going to go into the Ortlieb Backroller Classic Panniers, which I got in the awesome yellow dot style.

More or less from left to right

• Gray North Face polyester/merino long sleeve warm layer
• Light blue tank top, light blue sleeveless bike jersey
• Black Mountain Hardware long sleeve (something like this)
• Tan long sleeve button up quick drying shirt
• Merrell Women’s Bare Access Arc shoes – less than 10 oz. for the pair!
• Shimano mountain biking style bike shoes
• Novara Express 2.0 bike jacket in beautiful purple, black rain pants
• 2x Canari gel liner cycle shorts, 3x non-cotton quick drying undies, 2x Moving Comfort sports bras, 4x cycle socks
• Merrell Alexandra dress, which is so comfy that I sleep it in all the time, and black leggings to wear under it or on cold cycling days
• Bike helmet
• 2x pair of shorts, one purple, one blue-gray, and a pair of capri length spandex, something like this
• 1x batik sarong for use as scarf, towel, skirt, etc and 1x purple tiedye bandana
• Orange REI stuff travel pack
• Mess of toiletries/first aid, incl. one wee loofah, one bottle Dr. Bronner’s soap, one large bottle sunscreen, bandaids, neosporin, painkillers, hand sanitizer, tiger balm, chapstick, handwarmers
• Small camera w/ case & battery charger
• Little blue flashlight
• Kindle, small notebook, pencil
• Lady kit
• Shea butter & tea tree/vitamin E creme for prevention & treatment of saddle sores
• Red dry bag containing REI Halo 40 degree down bag
• 3L platypus bladder
• Sunglasses
• Leatherman, multi-tool, bike lights, spare tubes, patch kit, chain lube
• You can never have too many zip ties

Not pictured – toothbrush and a few other personal items, sleeping pad (I’m about to swap this for this because dammit, for two months of regularly sleeping on the ground, I want that extra half inch of cushion), and my husband’s pile of gear, and the common gear – a variety of tools, spare parts, a tent, the same cookset and sporks we take camping, the initial set of trail mix we’ll be bringing along so when we get to Rome and we’ve been awake forever but we have to be awake a little longer to put the bikes together and figure out how to get to where we’re staying we will be sleepy but not starving.

And there’s also the bikes, which are semi-disassembled and packed into boxes which are triple reinforced with tape at all the corners. We’ve said a few prayers of safety over them, and I made some hand-written signs that say

Please, be gentle with my bike! His/Her name is Virgil/Beatrice and we are going from Rome to Barcelona.

Per favore, siate gentile con la mia bicicletta! Il suo nome e Virgil/Beatrice e stiamo andando da Roma a Barcellona.

(Because we’re heading towards Barcelona, at least.) But my taller half says I’m not allowed to tape them to the boxes in case we somehow have to convince the check in agents that these bike boxes do not in fact contain bikes. Just crazy American cardboard luggage. Very sustainable. I’m sure it’ll soon be the next big craze, just wait for it to catch on across the pond, amirite? I’m not sure how that will go down with British Airways but we already made sure boxes are within the specified measurements for British Airways so it has to go smoothly. *fingers crossed*

*If your reaction is anything like 100% of the people we’ve told about this, then yeah, I know you’re jealous. Except maybe for the biking uphill in the Alps part.