1. Get passport renewed. After my last trip the passport is looking a bit worse for wear, and has only two available pages for visas to be stamped into. Also, the U.S. need some sort of new fangled bio-metric passport to make life easier. Getting a new passport is now a number one priority.
   -----  Update 09/02/09. After filling out forms, getting photos taken, getting uit checked and handing over 100 pounds (yes, 100 quid!!!!), my passport has been sent off to be renewed.
   ------ Update 25/02/09. The new passport has arrived!! Goal number one complete!!

2. Apply for US visa. In theory, i can enter the U.S. without a visa, using the visa-waiver scheme. However, this means that i only have three months to cycle from Alaska to the Mexican border, which although do-able is still a bit of a rush, and that i may also need a plane ticket out from the US which i will never use. Although no doubt there will be hoops to jump through before i get a visa, in the long run, it should make life easier, as i will have longer to cycle, and no need for a ticket out.

3. Buy a bicycle. Although a seemingly obvious essential for a cycling trip, i still haven't bought one as yet. I have my eye on a Dawes Sardar 2004 model with 26" wheels and a steel frame, and am just waiting to hear back from the bike shop which has it. Failing that, i fear i'll go down the same route as everyone else and get a Thorn bicycle, which i can ill afford.
  ------  Update 09/02/09. After many conversations with http://www.bikesheduk.com (which happens to be the same place i bought my previous bike from for the trip where icycled from england to cape town ), i have finally paid for a bicycle which with good fortune will be delivered this week. I'll put a seperate page up when it arrives.
  -------  Update 25/02/09. The bicycle has arrived!! Here's a picture of it, and at some point over the weekend, i'll write an incredibly boring page listing lots and lots of technical stuff that i haven't a clue about.



4. Organise a flight to Alaska. Again, an obvious thing to be doing. I've seen a flight with a company called www.condor.com, which amazingly flies from Heathrow to Fairbanks in Alaska - this could be the way forwards.
   --------- Update 09/03/09 - the flight is now booked. Well, at least the bit from Germany to Alaska at any rate. Read about the flight to Alaska.

5.   Insurance. I don't want to get ill in the US. Anywhere else, but there. Insurance is pretty essential.

Rough Route Planning

This is my pre-trip planning of the route i think i will be taking, with estimated stops.

Rough route for Alaska 

Rough route for Canada 

Up until the Mexican border, nothing is neccessary (beyond mosquito repellant for Alaska). For Mexico and beyond,  i will have to start looking into Malaria zones and courses of treatment. Another page listing innoculations and malaria treatments will be added over the next few weeks.