140 Years in the Making

According to RidewithGPS I created my first cross country bike route in July of 2018. However, in looking at some old emails, I see I sent something about a cross country bike ride in 2014. So, doing this ride is something I have been thinking about for a while. Why you may ask? Claudia and I are fortunate enough to split our time between homes on both the East and West Coast. It just seems to make sense to think about riding a bike from one house to the other.

Over the years I have talked with many of you about possibly accompanying me. The discussions never really got serious until sometime in 2019, when Thom Deller and I started making plans. Thom and I had decided that we didn’t want to do a self-contained trip (where you carry everything you need on the bike), but would prefer to ride with a SAG wagon driven by someone. The SAG wagon (the car we have in California) would carry our supplies and be available when we have mechanical issues. Thom’s brother Tony volunteered to be our SAG wagon driver.

Thom had a commitment in Albuquerque, which is on our route, Memorial Day Weekend 2020. Tony wanted to finish tax season in 2020, so the details of the trip started evolving with a planned departure in mid-May 2020. Then Covid happened. So last year’s trip was cancelled.

This year things started to fall together. Thom and I have both been fully vaccinated. We decided to move up the departure to mid-April to avoid hotter weather in the desert. Initially we were concerned that Tony would not receive his vaccine in time. Then Tony unfortunately started to have some issues with the recovery from his knee surgery.

In early March, I thought the trip was off. Then Claudia, who is retiring the Spouse of the Year trophy after this ride, said she would drive. The trip was back on!

So here we go!