First blog...

Thursday, March 6th

Spending tonight in Raleigh. 700 AM flight to LA and then San Diego Friday. Weather was iffy for morning travel tomorrow, again, so just came on up to make sure.

I guess my first blog ought to address why I am doing this ride. In a narrow sense, I have the time. This idea has nurtured within for many years, but life's transitions have maneuvered to give me this opportunity. I wish that I had a little more of my energy from the past, but will attempt to give it a go with what's still in this old body.

I did ride quite a bit in the spring/summer of 2013 getting ready for a week long ride in Idaho. Completed the ride, actually pretty good and committed to this cross country ride at that point. I didn't expect such a winter, training has slipped, but off I go.

In the broader sense, I have always been curious about seeing new country, what's over the other side of the hill, or around the next curve.  There was a tv show years ago, I was even young then, called "Route 66".  Two guys, (some good trivia questions out of this show), that traveled the west from Chicago to LA in a Corvette  along old Route 66, the highway that doesn't exist anymore. They found adventure and saw the country.

Something in that sense of traveling, exploring and being a part of new places found a place in my psyche that was probably there anyway, but didn't let go. Riding a bike was part of life growing up in my small home town of Biscoe, I didn't have a 'Vette,  so I thought of the Big Bike trip.

I made many trips out west. Once, after my soph year at Wake Forest, traveled to Yellowstone and back. Gone a month. 6700 miles. My ultimate road trip, in a car. By the way, paid for half of everything, total cost of $175.

My running days left me with increasingly sore knees and feet, so I switched to riding a bike.  Since 1997, when I took my first week long ride across Oregon, I have ridden about 47,000 miles, slowly (no speed in my riding). Have gone on several week long rides out west, the northern CA coast (riding in the Redwoods is nothing short of spiritual), glacier's Going to the Sun highway, the Colorado Rockies over Trail Ridge Road and others.

That thought of the ultimate ride was still there, of course after 4-5 days of those trips I said no way.

But, I have the time. My family supports me as they have faithfully done so in all my crazy schemes. Oh yeah, I won't get any younger.

So off I go...