Why a Bike Ride?

Summer of 2009:
More adventure. The plan: Ride from St. Louis, MO to Upper Saddle River, NJ, via Ann Arbor (to visit my brother), then across Ontario and thru Buffalo to Hobart College (Geneva, NY), then south to the Delaware River, which I'd follow into NJ and continue southeast to home. From Ann Arbor, it is the reverse of the route I took across America 2 years ago.
With a meeting to attend in St.L., it seemed a good idea to ride back.
St.L. departure date: 6/15. Estimated distance: about 1,150 miles, or one-third my Cross-America trip. Theoretically, the wind would be at my back. The hope: a 100-miles-a-day average and 12 days in the saddle. Total elapsed time: dependent upon weather and equipment outages.
My son says it will be dry every night and drenching during the day, the other side of the road will be smooth whereas I'll ride in under-construction rubble, the wind will be in my face, and all roads will be uphill. With my luck, could happen.
No official money-raising, but if you want to contribute, the trip ain't cheap.
I will make the blog entries at sporadic points, with fuller descriptions at trip's end.


Summer of 2007:
It was a personal challenge, short and simple. I needed to prove to myself that this 70-year old man wasn't over the hill yet.

So, while I was at it, I appealed to 4 different constituencies to pledge financial support for my ride. The consitituencies do not overlap in any way. I raised money for:

The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, of which I was the President (2006-8): (http://www.ethicalfocus.org/). ECS is a caring humanist community that believes in deed, not creed, as expressed in social action.

Upper Saddle River, my home town, in support of all the volunteer services: the Fire Department; the Ambulance Corps; the Rescue Squad.

The Interact Club, at the Bergen Academies (a county high school with competitive admissions, where I am a substitute teacher). The club helps the hungry and homeless, and also pays the fare for children from the 3rd world to come to the US for medical treatment.

And last but not least (they are all equal in my mind), I hoped to kindle the giving for my alma mater, Hobart College, so we could present them with a sizable class gift in June, 2008, at our 50th reunion.

So you now have both the real reason ... and the good reasons.

And while I was at it, I wanted to try to show up those who said I wouldn't make it on the (ambitious) schedule I set for myself. I didn't, making an average of only 81 miles per day, when riding. I was done in by the steeps, the weight I carried, some bike problems, headwinds and afternoon thunderstorms. Color me humbled.

And now that the ride is over, I slake my need to write by adding occasional longer-view essays based upon the experience.

To summarize the trip, I covered 3,467 miles, solo. My route ran from home, in Upper Saddle River, in northeastern NJ, to Buffalo, across Ontario, then through Michigan to Wisconsin, across Minnesota, Nebraska, and into Colorado at the northeastern corner. I went southwest from there to Denver, then south to Albuquerque, and due west to L.A., across the Mojave Desert.

I lost approximately 4 days to weather, 3 days to visits en route with my brother in Michigan and my oldest son in Denver, and about 3 days to various bike issues. That leaves 39 days for being in the saddle. Never had a leg issue. Ate like a pig and lost weight.

A great experience. Read on.

Bob

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Day Six (6/20, Saturday)

Bright sun, spotty clouds, less heat and humidity, but still energy-draining. Obviously the problem was as much me and my condition, as it was the weather. The route was a lot of zigzags ... all county roads, first east, then north, then east, etc. The paving was more good than not, but few areas had decent shoulders.

I started trying to determine potential motel stops at 3:30 or so, with no luck. By 6pm the nearest place was 20-25 miles away. I was at a bar. A whole pizza was given to the guy next to me (gratis from the management). He offered slices to everyone near him. He looked like Grisly Adams, with a never-trimmed gray beard – not much of a talker. Good pizza though. It went well with the beer. Doh!

I reached a major intersection of 2 wide roads, but still no motels near. There was one maybe 17 miles due north (I had wanted to go east at that point), but there was no choice. I decided to hitch. It seems that half the vehicles on the roads are pickup trucks in middle America and further west, so prospects were good. It was getting dark. Within 3 minutes of sticking out the thumb, I caught a ride with Bob, a young guy, maybe 19 years old. He was towing a trailer and on his way to fetch his other truck that had died in Michigan City, where I was headed. This truck sounded and ran like it might not make it, but he assured me he did all the rebuild work on it and it was in much better shape than it looked (and sounded). He took me straight to a lower cost motel that he used. It was a rather fine place, actually, but there was very poor cell phone coverage, the fridge never got really cold, and I couldn’t find a place for a cold beer anywhere near, though there were lots of establishments. This turned into a junk food dinner, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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