Dear friends and family,
After years of daydreaming and many months of preparation it looks my bucket list may soon be shorter by one and the long anticipated bike ride across the good old US of A will become a reality.
This 4,232 mile journey will start in Astoria, Oregon on May 7th. I will be following what is known as the Transamerica North route. My dad and I will drive up on the 5th, spend another day goofing off and then the following day Pops will kick my pooper and the bike outta the car and vanish. I will spend the first two days pedaling south along the Oregon coast before turning inland. This route will take me through Oregon and into Northern Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia, where I will take my last few pedal strokes arriving in Yorktown sometime in early August. At least that's how it all plays out from my living room couch.
I will be doing this ride alone. Some of you, ok, many of you have questioned my sanity about this. But as Sheldon Cooper in the TV show Big Bang Theory has said, "I am not crazy, my parents had me tested." In all honesty there is a method behind my alleged madness and this methodology contains some very personal components that I wish to hold close to the vest for the time being. I hope you can appreciate my feelings about this. Enough said.
The Balcony blog site you are reading now will undergo a major remodel immediately after I post this piece and transform into my trip diary, new name and all. When I figure out what that name is I will let you know but the site address will not change. It is my intention to stay as current as possible and share with you my stories and experiences as I go along, complete with pictures and an occasional video clip. For you iPhone and iPad folks, I will also be using an app called "trackmytour." It is free and will allow you to follow my progress near live time by GPS waypoints and mapping software. In addition, anyone can go to www.trackmytour.com, click on "tours in progress", find mine and go from there. It has the same info. If you get the urge to communicate with me, texting will be your best bet. I will do my best to stay in touch as much as my situation allows. If for some bizarre reason you feel overly encumbered with the need to see my ugly puss live, I will have a laptop equipped with Skype. I promise to put down my medical marijuana and give it a shot.
I will be riding a bicycle specifically built for long trips, heavy cargo and lots of abuse. It is actually called the, "Long Haul Trucker." Think modern day version of the good old, indestructible Schwinn Varsity bike from the 1970s. I will be carrying everything I need(I think) on my bike in front and back panniers, front and rear rack packs, a saddle bag, a front bar storage box and a handlebar bag. Anything that doesn't fit after that will buddy up with a bungee cord and climb aboard. I estimate the gear will weigh in at 40 to 45 pounds. The bike with all its after market attachments is roughly 40 lbs and the old geezer pushing the pedals currently tips the scales at 230 lbs. What we will have here folks is a 315 lb, two wheel RV that will strike fear into any Mini Cooper that wants to bump ugly.
My accommodations will be varied. Occasionally I will be staying with host families from a touring website. Other times I will be camping out or staying in motels, city parks, churches and maybe even Fire stations, where my retired law enforcement ID ought to get me a shower and a meal. I couldn't fit my California King Posturepedic mattress on the bike but REI has graciously allowed me to spend a small fortune in their store, so I have the lightest, best quality gear a ton of money can buy!
I fully expect that whisky and Top Ramen will satisfy all my nutritional needs but just to be safe I will carry an assortment of items such as oatmeal, tuna, peanut butter, sports bars, nuts and enough Motrin to put down a horse. Home cooked meals will be a nice luxury at the host family sites, but for the most part I will depend on grocery stores, convenient stores, restaurants and fast food joints. I will likely return addicted to MSG.
Why am I doing this. Good question. A long time ago I watched the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. During a dinner scene with his family, Richard Dryfuss began fashioning his mashed potatoes into a form. A specific form. He didn't know quite why he was doing it at the time, but he felt a compelling need none the less. A beckoning. I may not be getting ready to meet with aliens from outer space but there is now and has been for several years a tug at my soul to do this. Maybe there is something out there I need to experience, someone I need to meet, something that will happen perhaps. I don't know. We shall see. In any case, I do feel confident that I will have the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people from different stations in life. I am very interested in their stories, lifestyles and perspectives and I hope to share some with you.
I know some of you have expressed concerns about my safety once I hit the open roads.Some of this centers around the possibility that the emperor Obama may seize the opportunity to drone strike me into a burgundy colored splat first chance he gets! I am way ahead of him. At the very instant I leave Astoria, several hundred Mike Jones look a like decoys will deploy, depart and disperse from cities all across the fruited plains and head off in all directions. Am I really leaving from Oregon?
Hummmmmmmm........
To sum it up, I will borrow lyrics from the song "Netherlands" by the late Dan Fogleberg;
Once in a vision I came to some woods,
And stood at the fork in a road.
My choices were clear, but I froze with the fear,
Of not knowing which way to go..............
One road was simple, acceptance of life,
The other road offered sweet peace.
When I made my decision,
My vision became my release..................
All the best,
Mike
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