EDIT: Post reads poorly because I’ve quit coffee and am very sleepy. 

I’ve purchased pretty much all the stuff on our list that we need for the trip. I’ve accounted for it all in Quicken, but I have not been able to get it together to post how it tallies up with my Riot 4 Austerity goals for July.

Bicycles - The bikes we bought were Surly Long Haul Truckers.  Although the bikes were designed in the US, from what I understand, they are manufactured in Taiwan. When I originally began researching bikes for our trip two years ago, I didn’t think about manufacturing processes like I do now. Nor did I understand things like the trade deficit or how to begin doing my bit toward purchasing from businesses that have sustainable business practices. I have no idea how the LHTs are manufactured or under what conditions. However, I’ve been reading the cyclosource blog and have learned that there are custom frame builders that are based in the US. However, these frames along are very pricey for someone like me (affluent, but without much money in the bank). But its good to know that such options are available.

Its true that I could have purchased a used bicycle, but since this will be our first long distance trip, I didn’t want to deal with multiple bicycle issues since we’ll be dealing with a variety of unknown factors anyway.

Camping Gear - We bought pretty much everything from REI. This includes our tent, sleeping bags, cooking stuff, waterproof sacks to hold things in.

There are sleeping bags manufactured in the US, but again, they’re really pricey for me. I had asked around about the benefits and downsides to owning used camping gear and I was told that UV protection tends to go down with time. This is one of those things that I have to trust on faith because I don’t know how to check whether something is effective in protecting me from UV rays. In a previous life, I would have gone ghetto and just stuffed everything in plastic trash bags. But now that I’m classy, I’ll use the waterproof bags that are reuseable.

I also bought some klean kanteens to hold water and a bear proof container just to make it difficult for any critter to get into our food.  

The sleeping bags we bought were synthetic (as opposed to down filled) because I read that a down filled bag can lose its effectiveness if it gets wet.  

Since all our kitchen stuff weighs a ton (cast iron, stainless steel), I got some titanium cooking gear. I hope there isn’t anything wrong with cooking in titanium because my other option is aluminium. 

Panniers  - The big debate on what pannier one should purchase is mainly centered on whether a pannier is water proof or not. There are also panniers that look classy and are made using sustainable practices and what not, but their carrying capacity tends to be a bit on the small side. I purchased Arkel Panniers, which  are manufactured in Canada and proudly claim that they don’t use any plastic, except for the part that gets clipped onto my rear rack. Which is very nice. They come with a waterproof bag so its waterproof.

Clothes - Over the weekend a friend convinced me that getting padded shorts would go a long way toward eliminating my complaints on our journey. So I will be buying that this week. 

After reading Large Fella’s review about his MUSA pants, I got one for me and my husband. I rode them on our test ride and like them alot. If I work in a casual dress workplace in the future, I might be able to wear them to work. I purchased a goretex rain jacket from ebay for $14 for my husband and as for the rest of our clothes, we’re taking what we already own (enough for 3 changes). Although I did purchase some undergarments after not buying any for about 2 years. I got them in fancy colors from decent exposures and title nine. I realize that title nine has their stuff made in Honduras and other places (where their business practices might be iffy), but this purchase is something I’m going to live with.

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Packaging - Except for our bicycles, I bought almost everything online. I asked every single merchant to ship things with no plastic/styrofoam and as far as I can remember, every single vendor complied and used paper (brown virginish looking paper or newspaper). Some items were already in a plastic baggy (like our handle bar mirrors), and I guess unless the manufacturer gets thousands of emails from irate customers, that packaging practice isn’t going to change. Some of the companies used the paper tape instead of plastic shipping tape. Although most companies used plastic shipping tape.

I had everything shipped to my PO Box since UPS/Fedex don’t operate the way I want them to, and nashbar was the only company to give me trouble about that despite what their website says about their shipping policies.  

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The benefit of these purchases is that we won’t be in any hurry to buy actual furniture when we move into a new place on the West Coast. And knowing us, we’ll probably be sleeping in sleeping bags 2 years after our journey.

Additionally, The panniers are really roomy so I can imagine haulling alot of groceries on them.