August 29 – Sept. 5 Crossing America

Home for a week taking a break and getting reorganized. 

Arrived home early evening, only took me 10 hours to drive 625 miles from Denver to Nevada, MO. I drove a little over 2,100 miles in three days and it felt like it.  Sorry to say my welcome home was less then enthusiastic.  Might have something to do with my journey by the time I complete the Atlantic coast section it will have taken over a 1/3 of a year.  Until now Ms. Vickie and I had never been apart for more then a month.  Maybe the separation will bring a new understanding and appreciation for each other but then again maybe not?  Perhaps the other rub for her is that I will be on the Atlantic coast for our 39^th anniversary and her birthday.  Sorry about that honey but this is my one shot to fulfill a lifelong dream and I plan to see it through.

This past week has been busy, doing my laundry, sorting out gear, clothes and food I won’t use on the Atlantic leg.  After the first three weeks on the road, I pretty much stopped cooking any meals preferring to reward myself with a sit down meal prepared by someone else.  So I’m eliminating food, cooking gear and even forgoing a tent for this stage.  I learned from the Bike the US for MS crossing after riding all day, setting up camp and taking a shower it was pretty late in the day and didn’t leave much time to cook.  Not to mention it also cut into my time to keep this journal.  While on the West coast, I stayed with folks over half the time and was spoiled with some great meals.  My deep appreciation and thank you goes out to the McDonald, Covington, Harkins and Pinta families for being such great hosts.

Visiting with old high school friends, friends and family were the highlight of the West coast section of this adventure.   Sure the coast is beautiful but the heart and soul of those I visited out shone the scenery by far.  Oh!  I talked with Jennifer, a young lady from Nevada whose west coast tour ended abruptly when she crashed on one of the roads in southern Oregon.  She was still hostile about the poor condition of the roads.  Like me she was led to believe the Oregon Coast roads were biker friendly with wide shoulders and dedicated bicycle lanes in sections.  Instead we found ourselves frequently on roads with little to no shoulder or unusable shoulders to ride on.  I can assure you it is unnerving for bicyclists to ride on the actual roadway with traffic whizzing by at 60-70+ mph hour especially while trying to ride up steep hills with blind curves.  Listening to Jennifer talk I felt fully vindicated in my sentiment and presentation of what I thought of roads both in Oregon and California.  That’s not to say there weren’t some nice sections of road to ride because there were but not enough of them to compensate for the anxiety caused by the majority.

Bright and early tomorrow morning I will begin the long drive to Key West, Florida via Charlottesville, VA to pick up Mark, one of the riders from Bike the US for MS.  Mark has agreed to accompany me for a few days of the Atlantic coast as a SAG driver.  He will then take my mini-van back to Virginia and store my vehicle until I make it back up to his area.  My plan is to ride where the Atlantic Coast Route meets the Trans-Am route just south of Richmond, VA.  If all goes well I’ll complete this final 1,400 mile stage of Crossing America sometime around October 15^th.

This is the only stage where I will be riding self contained (carrying all my gear on the bike) and no one outside of a couple days with Mark to SAG my vehicle.  It will be interesting to see how well I hold up.  Like I said above I’m forgoing carrying food, cooking gear and even a tent to save weight.  It’s my hope to be able to stay in folks home on the way up the coast or in motel/hotels as long as the budget lasts.  If you or a relative, friend or friend of a friend would like to host the Old Guy for a night I’d sure appreciate it.  See my post “Atlantic Coast Schedule, Urgent Need” for a list of communities I think I will be staying in or near while riding up the West Coast.

That’s about all I can report on for this past week.  I’m very much looking forward to getting back on the road and completing the journey.  There are still a lot more new friends out there to meet.  Keep sending me your comments they make my day as well as helping to keep my morale high.

Take care and God bless you all!  Frank “The Old Guy on a Bicycle”

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