ARRIVED!

Just landed in Portland, OR and checked into our hotel. I say "our" because my entire family (Laura, Ben and Stephen) has made the trip west with me to wish bon voyage. We'll spend tomorrow together hanging out and exploring both Portland and Astoria (OK, Bob and I will also do a short loosening up ride!), and then have a big farewell dinner with Bob and his wife, Rachael.

Laura and the boys will then stay in the area for a few days, and do a little white water rafting on the Salmon River, before heading home, while Bob and I set out from Astoria on Saturday morning.

The title of Bob's blog post entry (www.bobsarc.com) from yesterday captures my feelings precisely: Trepidatious Exhilaration. I'm excited, but definitely also nervous about my ability to ride this far, for so long, with so much weight. To be continued, I guess...

The "Respect" Continuum

My brother, Greg, very kindly composed and sent me the following guidance for whether and when I can consider this trip a success:

Handy pocket reference "respect" continuum:

• Complete trip, Pacific Ocean to NYC: You are a God among men.
• Make it all the way to Chicago: Total respect. You did all the really tough and beautiful stuff and now avoid Cleveland and New Jersey. Probably a smart move.
• Make it to Bismarck, North Dakota: You still Da Man. A monumental trip.
• Make it to Bozeman, Montana: Not too shabby. Would have been nice if the mileage had made it into quadruple figures, but still . . .
• Don't quite make it out of Oregon: Nice try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
• Fall backwards during ceremonial wetting of the back wheel in the Pacific, get stung on the ass by a 6-foot diameter Lion's Mane jellyfish, rendering bicycling an exercise in excruciating pain, requiring antivenin shots at the Portland Shriners Hospital, administered by a not-cute 300-pound nurse, terminating a trip in which you don't actually make it past the beach on bicycle.

Thanks, Greg. I think.

Training's Over! (sort of...)

Well, this morning I took the bike down to REI Soho for shipping out to the West Coast. REI will disassemble the bike, box it, and then ship it by FedEx Ground to their Clackamas, OR store (that's in Portland). The Clackamas store will then re-assemble and tune the bike and just generally get it ready for my pickup (presumably on June 15th).

Training has been hard. Since I picked up the new bike in mid-April, I have logged over 1,000 miles, much of it carrying weight. A lot of trips across the GW Bridge, up the River Road, to Nyack, or north on the Westchester Country bike trail to Croton. But I've only done about 3 rides or so with what I expect will be my full weight. In truth, it's so hard that it's a bit discouraging. So the theory is that I'll ride myself into better weight-carrying shape during the first few weeks of the actual ride. That, or ship a lot of stuff home!