In between work and a bit of play, I’ve been prepping the bike for her big trip. ‘Cos we have phones and cameras to charge, I wanted a secure method of hooking them up to a constant current whilst keeping them dry and safe.
My Dad was an electronics engineer and among many other things, he taught me how to solder wire joints when I was about ten!
So I’ve fabricated a charging dock inside the top box which can be disconnected when removing the box if needed. Now, I can leave the phone in the dry, connected by Bluetooth to the Carpuride Apple Carplay screen and have navigation info all day without worrying about battery life. There’s even the possibility of music and answering phone calls too if needed via the headset in my Shoei Neotec 2 helmet.
Andy and I managed to get our headsets communicating with each other so we can talk to each other when necessary – we’ve each promised not to start singing…
The other cool thing is that the stickers with QR codes for the website and Justgiving have arrived and have been applied. We won’t really have time to explain our challenge to folk en route – instead, they can point their phone cameras at the stickers and get full details as we drive off…
Still got loads to do before Saturday morning – packing for one thing! Been receiving emails, WhatsApp & Facebook messages and phone calls all day from both folk wishing us well and also Scottish mountain rescue team members offering help, hospitality and plain, simple kindness. I’ve been overwhelmed to be honest – the whole thing has snowballed in the last couple of days as more and more teams have learned about the challenge and come on board.
Did have a play out with Lizzie and Gyp yesterday morning in the Peak District. Nothing strenuous as our Gyp, like me, is still recovering from the car smash we were in over two weeks ago. But we had a very pleasant meander above Castleton followed by a chippy in the town…
After Saturday, the planning and admin is over and the success of the trip is mainly down to luck, weather, CalMac ferries and a bunch of other things outside our control. All we can do now is to get on the bikes, try to ride safely, stay alert and do our utmost to follow the plan and raise those much needed funds which as the public now know, are going towards our vital Vehicle Replacement Project.
Already, there have been several generous donations via the Justgiving site – can’t thank those folk enough…