My name is Bill Reenstra and I have set up this blog to record my upcoming cross country bike trip.
I plan to ride from my home in
Berkeley,
California to
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
My route will take me first to
Newport Beach, south of
Los Angeles.
I plan to take 4 days for this leg of the journey.
In
Newport Beach I will meet up will a cross country bicycle tour run by America By Bicycle.
Their tour will take me from
Newport Beach to
Boston in 32 days, with one rest day in
Topeka, Kansas.
I can think of several places I would prefer to send my rest day, but I must admit that
Kansas is in the middle of the country and therefore might be a good place for a rest day.
All told I should ride from my home to the East coast in 35 days of riding.
Why do I want to do this? Well, first I have ridden bicycles for many years, pretty much since I was in college, and I have done a lot of very long/hard rides, but I have never done a ride as far as I plan to in this ride. Riding across America has always been one of my cycling goals. Secondly, as I have recently retired I, for the first time in many years, have the time to go on an adventure like this. I have also started to see that many of my friends for a number of health related reasons can no longer even think about undertaking such a trip. As that will ultimately be my fate, I guess I should do it now while I can; at least while I think I can. The third reason is that my 35th reunion from MIT will be in June and it seems like a fun idea to ride a bike to my reunion. Of course it would be far easier if I lived in say Boston or Newton MA, but as I don’t my ride will just have to be a little harder and take a little longer. There also is a certain symmetry of doing the ride to my 35th reunion in 35 days.
I plan to make daily posts on this blog during my final preparation for the ride, during the ride, and after the ride during my reunion. I will welcome comments and try to respond in a timely manner.
Bill Reenstra
