May 26 – One week after completing the ride

I have been back home for a few days now. I have done two rides and worked out in the gym a few times, but it is nice to not have to do a ride every morning. In fact as the weather in Berkeley has been a little cool over the weekend I have not ridden for the last three days. I had planned to do several rides this weekend, but it was either wet outside, not real rain, or it was cold, not real cold but colder than I would like. On each day I decided not to ride, it was a nice option.

I have also done a little work in order to catch up on things that I didn’t do while I was on the road. This has included seeing a lot of biking and non-biking friends, all of whom had different questions about the ride. However I have not been as busy as Conrad, who has made this sculptor of Darryl for his wife Karen.

When I got on my scale at home I discovered that I had lost about 10 lbs, but more body fat than weight. I also noticed this while riding. A ring I have worn for close to ten years and which was on my finger all the way across America, literally fell off my finger while I was riding last week. That had never happened to me before. Unfortunately, it bounced under my rear tire. I may have lost some weight, but not enough to save the ring from being crushed. It has been difficult to keep my appetite in check this week, so I don’t know if I will be able to maintain my new weight. I will have to work, because I know that last year I was not able to keep the weight off.

Lastly, several people complained about the lace of pictures on my blog this year. As I didn’t take a camera, I didn’t have access to pictures this time. I now have gotten a few from some of other riders.

The first is of me riding on day 3 in Arizona. There are a few things to note in this picture. I used a Camelback this year and it really made a difference in my ability to stay hydrated. I found it much easier to drink from it than from the bottles on the bike. For those who haven’t seen it this is the new titanium bike I bought last year. While diffucult to say, as I have ridden the red Mikkelsen for over 20 years, I must admit that the new Roark was nicer to ride than the steel Mikkelsen I rode last year. I also want to have you see what my club, GPC, thinks is an appropriate length for knicker shorts. Let me just say that I was glad that I never saw temperatures in the 100’s on days I was wearing the club kit.

The second is a picture of me at one of our motels. It is included to show that no matter how hard my days may have sounded, after a shower and a little rest I at least looked non the worse for the days ride.

The third picture is of ‘Team Roark’, two of the ride leaders also rode Roark bicycles. While both were far better riders than me, someone named this picture Papa Bear and the two Baby Bears. It really does show how big my bike is.

The last picture is of some of the older riders at the beach in Savannah. The younger folks said that they were inspired by what we had accomplished. The older riders were inspired by the enthusiasm of youth. The other riders are Perry (center) the oldest rider on the trip at 70 and Martin. Martin who was pleased to have his wife taking this picture on his 63 birthday. He thought it was a great birthday present.

I hope you enjoyed my musings about this trip. It certainly had its ups and downs in just about anyway you might care to use that term. In the end I am very glad that I did the ride this year, and even while riding on some of the worst days I seldom questioned my decision to ride across America for a second time. I will not say that it will never happen again but I have told Karen that I am not going to do the ride next year.

Day 27 Vidalia to Savannah – On to the Atlantic

Today is a relatively easy day of 104 miles, but Mike put the fear of God into us last night by telling us we had to get to our meeting point for the final few miles to the coast by 2 PM. He even calculated times when we should be leaving lunch and the sag stops. Today as usual I started with the early starters. This is as it should be as I am one of the slower riders. However today as today started out cooler than we would have liked and likely to be far warmer at the beach this afternoon, I was underdressed. TO compensate for the cold air I pedaled faster. This seemed to work as my muscles generated more internal heat, but it also increased the relative speed of the wind and this had a pronounced chilling effect. I think on balance it was positive, but I am not absolutely sure. Eventually I passed all the other early starters and was not caught by the fast riders before the first rest stop. It was nice the be first for once, but that moment was short lived as within no time there were 10 riders at the stop and before I left, not the first, everyone was there.

Continuing on to the lunch stop the pace picked up even a bit more as we got a tail wind and the last of the hills on the ride were now behind us. After looking at my watch and tracking my average speed I was surprised to see that at lunch I was barely ahead of Mike’s pace even though I was riding about 5 mph faster than the rate had used to calculate the pace. Only after a few minuets did I realize that I was really over an hour faster than his proposed pace. The last 30 miles were through the suburbs of Savannah. The roads were progressively more crowded and there were more turns. This slowed the pace. The last bit was on the one road to the beach. The road had little or no shoulder and lots of SUVs and pickups with young people headed for the beach. Many were not happy to be slowed to any extent by 25 cyclists. We had the rudest drivers of the entire trip on those final few miles. Fortunately there were no incidents that caused any of us to be injured.

We gathered for a few pictures before heading out as a group for the beach. In those four miles I got a leak in my rear tire. It would have been terrible to miss the celebration because of a flat tire just before the end. Fortunately I found one of the vans, got a pump and put enough air into the tire to get to the beach with everyone else. (I also got back to the van, where my bike was loaded onto a van for transport to tonight’s hotel.)

The celebration on the beach was great. Everyone there was happy to have made it and we reveled in the warm Atlantic waters. We all had accomplished our goal. Granted some had been modified from those we set out with in Costa Mesa 27 days ago. We had been tested and we had passed. Maybe not physically as much as other cross country rides, but the emotional test was extreme and we all had to deal with it. Most did it in very private ways and there was surprisingly little talk among the riders of Darryl, either on the ride or at the beach. I took off my black ribbon and put it in the Atlantic and said a small prayer.

At the beach there was a lot of joy. Many of the Brits decided to take off their jerseys and go for a swim. Never was the term ‘white folks’ more apt. Many of the bathers were interested in our adventure and we were the objects of a number of pictures. Three of us, Perry, Martin and I –all resplendent with light grey or white hair, were corralled by four young female sunbathers and several pictures were taken of the girls and the ‘men who inspired them’. I will get a copy and post it in a few days.

We had our traditional ending banquet. I missed not having Karen in attendance so that she could have heard other perspectives on the trip. As we did last year everyone said something to the group. Some talked about accomplishing a goal, but the term bucket list, so prominent in the first meeting in Costa Mesa, was surprisingly absent. This was more than just another item on a list. Some spoke about over coming problems they hadn’t imagined before the start of the ride. Others spoke about some of the suffering on the back roads of Alabama and Mississippi. Many spoke of the friendships they formed over the last four weeks. Everyone thanked the leaders and the other riders for their support. I had a slightly different take on the ride and I will try to reproduce what I said.

First I want to than Mike and his staff for all the help they gave me during this ride, at times it was more than one would have expected. But having done this ride with Mike before, I guess I should have expected it. I also want to than all the other riders for their support and patience, and especially my roommate for these last four weeks Norman who had to put up with me each night.

I spent time riding with many of you, but mostly I rode by myself at my own pace. This allowed me to see more of the country than the wheel in front of me and to think about what I saw. Well what did I think about? On many of the hillier days I remembered a song my family sung on family car trips. I will not try to sing it for you, but it involved a bear that went over a mountain, to see what he could see and when he got to the top he saw another mountain, so the song repeated again and again and again. There were many places in Oklahoma and Alabama where the song went through my head again and again and again. I also remember a song from bus trips with junior high school athletic teammates. This song enumerated the number of bottles of beer on a wall and that after taking one down and passing it round there was one less. This song reminded me of a few British riders and was a good way for me to keep track of the number of miles I had to do on some of the longer days. (Note to most readers, Russ and Pete Shaw were known to have a ‘dinner’ of 3 or 4 bottles of Bud and some chips.)

I also was struck by the differences between urban and rural America. For those of us who spend most of our lives in urban or suburban settings with days in large glass covered buildings and nights in smaller buildings with green lawns and gardens it can be shocking to see how people in rural Oklahoma and Arkansas live. And yes there are people in those states as we fly over them at 38,000 feet. For the Brits I don’t want you to think that what you saw on this trip is representative of all of America. I hope that you can come back and visit our cities and national parks, but I suggest that you leave your bicycle at home, bicycles just aren’t that helpful in Manhattan.

I was struck by the poverty of the people on our route, not just the number of mobile homes and the number of vehicles in the yard, but the number of For Sale by Owner signs on cars, boats, farm implements and homes. There were far more than when I did this ride last year and the country needs to acknowledge that. We also need to acknowledge that no matter what you think of your economic situation, we can pay $4000 for a month long adventure and ride a $5000 bicycle. Most of the people we meet couldn’t do that.

I was struck by the obesity of so many of people we meet, there were some that it was truly painful to look at. I am not proud of having to admit that, but it is honest. We all have to be thankful that at the advanced ages that many of us have reached we still have our good health.

The other thing I saw was the large number of people who had a very difficult time accepting the fact that we were riding our bicycles across the country. They couldn’t conceive of doing it themselves, or of anyone they knew doing it. In fact many couldn’t conceive of doing anything else than what they were doing. One server in a Subway would not believe that I was riding across America. She accused me of lying. But when she accepted that I might be riding across America, she asked why I came to Aberdeen MS. There she had me; I had no answer for that question. (Note to readers Aberdeen MS was one of the smallest towns we stayed in, and the one that seemed most likely to disappear entirely in the next ten years. Subway was the best choice for dinner on that Sunday evening.) We have to be thankful that we can envision difficult goals like this trip and that we have the ability to work hard enough to achieve it.

This trip tested us in a number of ways that we almost certainly didn’t expect when we set out. There was very little bad weather and the winds were never a formidable foe. In fact on several days they were the best friend a cyclist could have. How many sub 5 hour centuries have you done before this trip? What did test us were the adversities that many of our fellow riders experienced. We are reminded by Jack and Karen just how close to the edge of disaster we are when we ride. A moment’s loss of concentration can lead to disaster. We also learned from Andrew and Greg that health problems can occur in people who seem to be in prime of health. We pray for the recovery of Karen, Jack, Andrew and Greg. But most tragically we learned how short life can be. The death of Darryl shocked each and every one of us. I hope that we realize that it could happen one night to any of us. It is ironic that Karen, Darryl’s wife had a quote on the trip web page of ‘Live for today; you don’t knot how many tomorrows you have.’

In closing let me give you a different quote. As many of you know I spent most of my professional life studying a disease called cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that slowly destroys your lungs. A friend of mine, Jill who has cystic fibrosis, gave me this quote. ‘Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of times it takes your breath away.’ I hope you all had several of those breath-taking experiences on this trip. I know I did, and I DO NOT mean those at the top of one of Mike’s surprise hills.

Day 26 – Perry GA to Vidalia GA

Today is the next to last day of the ride. We are now almost at the end of our journey. We have crossed the high mountains of the west, the great plains of the mid-west and the hills of the southern states. The landscape is now flat with a few small rolling hills. Today’s ride of 100 miles has less than 2000 feet of climbing. I would be hard pressed to find any route of that distance and that little climbing in the Bay Area. We finally have gotten some heat in the last few days with afternoon temperatures neat 80, but morning temperatures have been no more than 60. Today it was warm at dawn and all day. We also got our first real taste of southern humidity today. My clothes were drenched with sweet within an hour. It did rain for a bit today, a five minuet downpour that I was able to avoid by getting under someone’s carport. But all things considered we have had rain on no more than 1% of the total distance of this trip. I think that is quite remarkable.

Today’s ride went through several small Georgia towns most with no more than 5000 people and a lot with far less. In general, we rode on lightly traveled highways, but for a considerable time we were on parallel county roads. Most of the time this was OK and the rural scenery and the lack of auto traffic made up for the slightly longer route. However one road was SO BAD. The thought of the extra 5 miles we rode from the main highway to get to and from this road, and the bone shattering vibrations of riding on this road for 6 miles will make me wish I had missed this ‘detour’ until the day I die. It was a tradeoff when the route was designed, longer quiet roads vs shorter busier roads. In general America by Bicycle has done a good job in making these choices, but in this case they made a big time mistake. Even Mike admitted that it was a bad choice.

While in general Southern hospitality has been very good and we have had few problems with any drivers during the entire trip, today was an exception. Let me change that a bit. There were two or three non-hospitable people along today’s route. The thousand or so other people we encountered today were all friendly and or hospitable. However, one car full of boys were responsible for two of our riders being hit by water balloons as the entered Vidalia. Just what someone wants after 100 miles. Fortunately no one was hurt.

Tonight I have visions of getting to the Atlantic tomorrow afternoon. I remember all the joy we felt last year. I am not so sure we will feel that way tomorrow. Yes we will be happy, but we will also remember those who started the ride but are not with us at the end. Reports on the four injured riders who left the ride indicate that they should all recover, although Jack who suffered a concussion on day three may have a longer road to travel. Unfortunately, Darryl can never recover. His death will always be a reminder of the fleeting nature of life. We all hope that Karen can recover from both the injuries she suffered in her fall and the even greater injury she suffered with the death of her husband Darryl. I have had a black ribbon on my bicycle since Darryl’s death. I intend to cut it off tomorrow at the beach and release it into the Atlantic. In this way I hope to help Darryl complete his journey.

Day 22 – Aberdeen MS to Tuscaloosa AL

Today’s ride was about as good as any ride can get. The morning temperature in Aberdeen was in the high 40’s. It warmed up during the day to the high 70’s by the time we got to Tuscaloosa. The sky was clear all day. If yesterday was like one of those perfect fall days, when it’s cool but not cold; today was that wonderful spring day that occurs once a year. It is truly unbelievable that we could have ridden this far in the South and not had a hot, humid, miserable day. While the roads in MS were not the best, we only had 19 miles of the 110 in MS. Alabama seems to have far better roads. There was almost no traffic on all of today’s route. Lastly, my GPS recorded 4800 feet of climbing, mostly in relatively short, and often steep, climbs of 100 to 150 feet. The biggest climb was listed as 250 feet but I think that might be a little too big. Needless to say there were a lot of ups and downs and as Norman, my roommate, said, the route profile looked like an EKG for someone with a messed up heart.

Today as I entered Alabama I entered my 50^th state. I have now been in every state in the Union. Actually, I collected my last 3 states on this trip, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. I think that it is quite an accomplishment, it only took me 58 years to achieve it, but other more experienced travelers may not think it so much of a big deal.

I could have done without Tuscaloosa. Our route tried to avoid busy streets, but it was not too successful. I wish we could have gotten to our Best Western by another less traveled route. The final 10 miles through Tuscaloosa were not pleasant. Yesterday the sandwich maker in Subway wanted to know what all these cyclists were doing. At first she could not imagine, and would not believe, that we had come from CA. But when she finally accepted that we had come from CA and were going to GA, she asked why we were stopping in Aberdeen. Yesterday, I had no answer to that question. Today I do, Aberdeen is a lot easier to navigate on a bike than Tuscaloosa.

At one of the sag stops Chris was fixing yet another flat. If you read Mike’s blog you know that Chris has had a rough time with his bike, flats, broken spokes and problems with his brakes. A few days ago he invested over $1000 for a new set of wheels; they may be worth more than the rest of the bike. While he has not broken a spoke with the new wheels, they have not reduced the number of flats he has gotten. Today at the sag Mike was talking on his cell phone to a friend when he was asked to help Chris change his tire. He told his friend on the cell phone that he had to help someone fix a flat and his friend immediately asked if this was Chris. Mike exploded with laughter. It seems that Chris’s bike problems have become known to a very large number of people.

Day 21 - Senatobia MS to Aberdeen MS, 138 miles from nowhere to nowhere with nothing in between.

Last night a severe weather system went trough Mississippi and Arkansas. Several of the towns we rode through yesterday reported tornados. I don’t know how much damage occurred. It was not as severe as in Oklahoma, but being near to any tornado is too close for me. This morning was dry, cool (60’s) and the winds (20 mph) were from the west. It was a great day for a ride. In fact it never got hot or humid today. At this rate Mississippi might turn out to be the most pleasant state to ride through on this year’s trip.

Senatobia is not a happening place and I mentioned the food problems last night. Aberdeen is even less active. There are four places to eat out in town, a bar and grill which is closed on Mother’s day, an ice cream and sandwich place that was also closed, McDonalds and Subway. Despite my purchase of a milk shake at McDonalds a few days ago, I refuse to eat their solid food. This reduced my Sunday dinner options to Subway where a foot long roast beef sub, coke and chips had to substitute for dinner. I will see how I perform on this fare tomorrow.

The other important chore for today was wash. I washed ALL my cycling clothes and just about all my non-cycling clothes as well. With my cycling clothes now clean and dry, I hope to make it to the Atlantic without having to do any more laundry. I can then ship the dirty clothes back to Berkeley with my bike and have the Berkeley laundress take care of the problem. I am sure that among other things, Karen has missed while I have been on my adventure is the brightly colored cycling clothes that dry in the bathroom.

My biggest problem today was pollen. It was always in the air and being blown by the winds. I never have allergic reactions to pollen, but something in Mississippi must e just the right thing to set me off. Thank god for Sudafed and Visine. They certainly helped me today. The other hazard I faced was falling trees. Twice today trees or large branches fell into the road just in front of me. Once a small tree fell across the oncoming lane of traffic barely 50 yards in front of me; even if I had been 50 yards further down the road it is unlikely I would have been hit. In the other incident, a large branch fell into a ditch on my side of the road, just as I was passing by, neither incident caused me any harm other than to increase my heart rate for a while.

Today’s route went through the back country and rolling hills of MS. It was Sunday so many stores were closed However, we may have passed ten stores and gas stations and I can only recall two that were open. We saw a lot of rural country side, some farmland, some very nice homes on several acres, and some barely livable homes and trailers that housed both black and white families. We also saw a lot of churches and the only traffic on the road occurred when we passed a church just after the service was over. Today there was almost no traffic on the roads; I guess everyone was staying home with mother.

Each church we passed seemed to have a cemetery and many have what appeares to be fresh graves. Each time I saw one I immediately thought of Darrell. It is still hard to appreciate that he is dead. Other riders who have had accidents or became ill, leave the trip and gone home to recover. From the perspective of the people on the ride that is all that happened to Darrell. But we know it is not like that, but in some ways the closure has not been achieved.

Day 19 – Conway AR to Brinkley AR

Today was an easy ride, 100 miles and less than 2000 feet of climbing. This may seem like a long ride, but as the trip has progressed I have become stronger and provided I have 6 hours to spare and the winds are not in my face all day, it not a big deal. Today there was only one 10 mile stretch were he had real head winds so the winds were not that bad. One of the less attractive parts of today’s ride wais the flat terrain. This means that your butt should be glued to your seat. On roads where the surface is rough, this can be a big problem. Road surfaces vary among different roads with highly traveled roads and more recently paved roads generally having smoother surfaces. In Arkansas another factor is which county you are in. You can ride on a state highway that crosses several county lines, and the surest way to tell that you are in a new county is to notice the change in the surface of the pavement. Each county seems to have different specifications for their roads, some are very good and some from the prospective of cyclists are very bad, se la vie. In Oklahoma road surfaces varied from county to county, but there must be an election for local officials fairly soon, because each county would have two people running for county sheriff, and at each county line the names of the individuals on the lawn signs would change.

Our route took us around Little Rock through some nice country and on a few very pleasant rural roads. It also involved some urban riding that was not all that pleasant. The last 30 miles were dead flat and a long part was on a levee with water on both sides. It was strange to look out on both sides and see water for mile after mile after mile. We are now in the land of cotton. The fields are just now being planted. There are some very large farms with nice homes but there are also very poor people.

Today’s ride ended in Brinkley AK. Brinkley is a small rural town with a lot of motels and fast food places because it is also on I40. Today my first stop was at a McDonalds, where I ordered a big chocolate milk shake. Then since the roads were wet from rains early in the morning my next stop was the bike washing stand to clean the road grime from my bike. Then I got my room key and found my room. My bags were in the room because Norman, my roommate, had bought them to the room. We have an arrangement were the first person to see the bags, brings them to the room. Norm is usually the first rider to finish, however as he always beats the sag vehicle with the luggage, he may be in the room when I and the luggage arrive. So far he has brought my bags to the room more often than I his, but it is not all that one sided. Once in the room I took a shower and called Karen to let her know that I was safe. Then I set clothes out for tomorrow, have dinner, write my blog and go to sleep by 9 PM. 5 AM comes very early each morning. With the exception of cleaning my bike, occasionally having the mechanic fix something and the order of showering and calling Karen, this is my post ride evening routine.

Day 17 and 18 - Fort Smith to Conway

Day 17 was a rest day in Fort Smith AK. I got a haircut and a massage. The rest of the day I rested. Of the 30 who started, we are now down to 25 coast to coast riders. We have lost two riders who only planned to do part of the ride, but we gained two new riders for the last third of our ride.

On day 18 we rode to Conway. It was a 125 mile ride with very few hills and a pretty good tailwind for most of the day. As a result I got to Conway in 7 hours. Yesterday night it rained and we started out with wet roads, but no rain. As the day progressed the skies became bluer. It also got into the high 70’s. So it was a nice day for a ride.

Our rout followed the Arkansas River and therefore had few long climbs. Spring has come to Arkansas trees are in leaf and there are lots of flowers in the gardens of the houses we pass. However tornados and severe hail of last month have put most natives I talk to on edge. In fact two men today expressed the concern that today’s nice weather was simply the calm before the next storm. I hope not, for their sake and for mine, as I would like not to see any tornados and any more thunderstorms this year.

As I ride the highways of America, I encounter a great amount of formerly wildlife. In Arkansas the most common animal on the road side is the armadillo. Their shell-like body must protect them from most other animals but it is no match for a car. I also see opossums, a few raccoons and the occasional skunk. In general skunks are the only animal I can smell. The skunk is another animal, like the armadillo, that is well protected from other animals, but whose defensive measures are also no match for a car. In Oklahoma and Texas there were lots of rabbits and I saw a few coyotes in New Mexico. In addition, there have been a great number of birds who probably were killed while eating a last meal or roadway carrion. There have been a few dead snakes. In fact I ran over one a few days ago. I don’t know if I killed it, but I suspect that I did put a large dent in it.

Rides like these become like families and all families are different. On this ride a lot of riders are counting the days to the end with a sense that they will be glad to see the ride end. Last year there was more a sense of sadness that our group would be splitting up, never to be together again. The feeling may develop on this ride, but I am not sure. First there are far more people who came with friends or relatives on this ride and therefore have interacted less with the rest of the group. But the biggest factor is that on this ride 1 in 6 riders is no longer on the road and one is dead. I do believe that there is a sense of fear/recognition of negative consequences of cycling. And a real fear that it might happen to any of us. Maybe we just want to be out of the danger zone.

Day 16 McAlester OK to Fort Smith AK – and the rains came

Today was a little strange. Everyone was upset about Darrell’s death, and we all seemed to be dealing with it in different ways. One way we all shared was the addition of a black ribbon to our bikes. They are small and a nice symbol to remind us of Darrell as we ride. I think that I will take mine off the bike at the wheel dipping in the Atlantic. Everyone had questions and no one had any real answers. Those who speculated as to why were most certainly wrong. Well at best one might be right, but I doubt anyone will ever know the entire story.

We had a late, 8 AM, start because it was a short day and because many of us did not get to bed until later than usual. Some also mentioned having trouble sleeping, even after 145 miles. Starting at 8 was a mixed blessing because by then it had started to rain. So we should have been prepared. For me rain gear includes addition items rain jacket, booties, a rear light and a plastic shower cap over my helmet. Sadly a few riders started riding with none of these things. A few had black or dark wind/rain jackets and no rear light. They were hardly visible, when the black clouds of the thunderstorm approached. I thought to check my tires more often due the increased likelihood of flats when riding on wet pavement. Unfortunately I got one about 2 miles into the ride when something cut my rear tire. Since I needed a new tire, I was stuck until a van could get to me. There were a few mix ups and one van had to go to the hospital to check on Greg so it took about 20 mins. before a van got to me. By this time I had walked 400 yards to be under an overpass. This got me out of the rain and reduced my chances of being hit by the lightning that was now all around me. When my tire was replaced, I decided that getting into the van for a bit was better than waiting out the thunderstorm under the overpass. This decision eventually led to my riding to the first sag stop at 30 miles. When the thunderstorm passed I continued the ride from there. In the end I did 86 miles.

(Greg Light had ridden a lot with Darrell and when Mike told us of Darrell’s death, Greg ran from the room. I thought that he might have had an anxiety attack, apparently it was worse. He spent the night in the hospital and after tested today it was concluded that he should not continue with the ride. So of the 30 riders who intended to do the entire ride only 25 are still riding. I will miss Greg, but his prognosis is far better than Darrell’s. While on this terrible topic we hear that Andrew is doing well at home in San Francisco. Jack who crashed on day 3 is still having short term memory problems due to his concussion. Karen still has her hip problems and far worse now has to deal with the loss of Darrell her husband of some 25 years.)

The rest of roads today, while wet but who was I to complain, were pleasant with good shoulders and not much traffic on the highways. I played tag for much of the day with Bill and Christine’s tandem. Yesterday, they were forced to sag in because of a strange noise that seemed to be coming from their disk brakes. When they opened up the brakes, the noise persisted, ruling out the brakes as the cause. Today’s theory is that it is a bottom bracket problem. As this is less likely to lead to a life threatening failure, they chose to ride today. Hopefully, when they take the bike to a shop in Fort Smith they can get the problem resolved.

Routing today seemed a bit odd, in one place in order to avoid a mile of OK but not great highway riding, we were routed through a circuitous route in a residential area. I eventually got lost, ended up on the road I was supposed to avoid and was unable to find anyone who knew where the street I was supposed to take was. I found the highway I needed to be on at a different exit and started to ride. Later we had to get off the highway and take two rural roads that added a mile to our route. People who missed that turn didn’t see anything wrong with the section of the highway we were routed around. When we got to Fort Smith, we again had some odd routing in order to avoid some roads that we should not have been on, but it seemed to everyone that there must have been a better way. Maybe it was just that everyone who rode yesterday came in late and tired and wet. Any additional distance seemed under those circumstances would seem to be an even greater bother.

Day 15 – Chickasha to McAlester – The death ride

This was going to be the hard day of the ride. It was a long day, 145 miles, and there were lots of hills, 6200 ft of climbing. We all started out early, I was on the road at 6:30. After a brief stop to add leg warmers and a wind vest, I began the ride in earnest. I learned my lesion from a few days ago, even if it seems warm at the start take a little extra clothing. As I told many of my fellows in the lab, this gives me class 2 intelligence. (Class 1 intelligence is learning from the mistakes of others. Class 2 intelligence is learning from your own mistakes. Class 3 intelligence is recognizing that you have made this mistake before.)

The route today was mostly through lesser traveled state highways and county roads. These roads had smaller shoulders and in general but less traffic. However, traffic on the state highways often seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere and greater vigilance was needed to ride safely today than on most other days. Today’s roads also traveled in straight lines, east-west or north-south. This is likely in part due to the fact that Oklahoma was surveyed before settlers were officially allowed in for the land rush of 1889. However like yesterday’s ride, the roads tend to go straight up and over any hill they encounter. And since the landscape is of Oklahoma is rumpled, resembling a rather large bed that was very poorly made, there are a lot of hills. The fist 65 miles today could be called rollers, but they were either to big or poorly spaced to get any sort of rhythm going. In the end I just had to be content to speed down the backside and grind it out going up the front side. Once we got onto county roads the coarseness of the road surface increased, the traffic decreased and the grades of the hills increased.

We went through several Indian reservations today each with a casino. Unlike Indian casinos in much of the country these were no mega operations. In general they were no bigger than a large service station and probably had less external lighting. From all I could see the natives in Oklahoma are not making a killing from gaming.

At our last sag stop there was a pizza/hamburger/chicken joint that also sold ice cream. Another rider’s milk shake looked so good, that I ordered one too. The woman who made it for me was working overtime with several tables to wait on, most with customers she knew by name. She appeared to be no more than 18, but she also had three kids in a booth, the oldest of which was at least 6. They were eating a pizza for dinner (it was 3 PM) and making a real fuss. I found a place to payback some of my Karma debt of a few days ago .I gave her a 100% tip for my $2.50 coffee milkshake, and much to her amazement, I proceeded to drink in one long sip.

Fortified with my milkshake, I was able to make good time over the next 30 miles of the ride. However, the last 5 miles through McAlester were another story. First I was beat, second it was rush hour and the traffic was heavy with drivers who wanted to get home, and lastly the route through McAlester was on some of the worst roads of the tip. The last mile was on an access road along a major highway. The road surface was terrible. The traffic coming and going to the Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and similar big box stores was horrendous. Lastly, the motel was not where the route sheet said it should be. In desperation I called the van to get help. They said that yes the route sheet was wrong and that I should go back along the frontage road, under the highway and along the frontage road on the other side to get to the motel. Apparently, the Holiday Inn express had crossed the road in the two years since America by Bicycle last did this ride. I don’t know why the chicken crossed the road, but I am sure the Holiday Inn crossed the road to exasperate Bill Reenstra at the end of a very long day.

As much as I wish that I could say that my day then ended with a shower, dinner and a nights rest, I can’t. We had a rap meeting to discuss tomorrows route, these are either in the evening or at breakfast before we start so even though the rap session had originally been for the next morning having it in the evening was not unusual. What happened after the session was. Mike told all the riders that one of the riders Darrell Keefer had died in his sleep the night before. To say that we were shocked was an understatement. I knew that I hadn’t seen Darrell during the day but, that often happens because people ride at different speeds and tend to get spread out over the day. In fact before Mike made the announcement none of the riders knew. It was shocking to say the least as Darrell was one of the strongest riders in the group, he was relatively young at 51, and he was a large presence in the group. He started the ride with his wife, who fractured her hip on day 3 and when she left the ride he would have left with her, except for her urging him to continue. The day before he died he rushed to get to Chickasha early so that he could spend time with his son, daughter-in-law and two year old grandson. He must have introduced his family to every other rider that evening; he was so proud of them. It is really hard to put this into perspective. While all riders know that bad things, even death, can happen when we ride, no one thinks that they will die in their sleep. We are all too fit and no matter what our age, far healthier than most of the people we see along the ride. Why would we be at risk? It is a wake up call, and as Darrell’s wife posted on Mike’s ride site her favorite quote is "Live for today, tomorrow could be too late."

Day 14 - Elk City to Chickasha: Half Way There

Today was another cold start with temperatures in the low 40’s at 7:30 AM. We left a little later in the morning in order to let it warm up a little. Today’s wind was from the south southwest, so we started today’s ride with 15 miles to the south. While most of the ride was on roads that ran due east, the wind never seemed to be of any help today. Most of today’s ride was on rural county roads and we had more turns than usual because many of the roads are unpaved in sections. We came upon several intersections where a perfectly paved road suddenly became gravel or dirt. This required the route to zig and zag. It also meant that if you got off route you were likely to discover yourself on a gravel road – as sure sign that you had missed a turn. While several riders found themselves in this predicament, I was not one. I rode with three other riders this morning, but I left them at the lunch stop and finished the ride on my own. This required a little more effort and some more mental work to stay on route, but it also let me ride at a pace that best suited to me.

There were lots of farms with crops of hay ready to harvest. There were lots of cows in the pasture. At one intersection a fellow rider commented that this was a long way from everywhere and that he would hate to run out of milk. Within a few yards we realized that there were dairy cows on this farm and that milk was probably closer than we had thought. It being Sunday the roads were fairly free of traffic but we did see a lot of cars around the many churches we passed.

We passed the half way point on the ride from coast to coast today and Mike took pictures of each of us as we approached that point. A few riders decided to ham it up for the camera. I simply rode to the sign on the road, had my picture taken, and rode on. The goal is to get to Georgia, not to get to Nowheresville OK. Well in point of fact we did pass a water tower that proclaimed that it was in Nowhere OK. I didn’t see a sign for the city line, but I may have missed it.

It was a long day, 125 miles, and I didn’t finish until 5 PM. Even the usually fast riders did not get in until after 4 PM. Tomorrow is the longest day on our ride , 145 miles, to McAlester OK. When the last of my laundry is done I will be going to bed as early as possible and hoping for favorable winds tomorrow.

Day 12 – Dalhart to Pampa TX

Burrrr. This morning was cold, and what’s more, I didn’t determine how cold until after my luggage was loaded onto the van. Since I didn’t have my long fingered gloves, I rode the first 12 miles one handed. The other hand was held behind my back in an attempt to keep it warm. Every half mile I would switch hands. After 12 miles I stopped at the first store on the road. I hoped to find some hot chocolate but settled for what passes as coffee in the non Peets drinking parts of the world. As I was about to pay for the coffee I saw some while liner gloves. When I went to pay the cashier asked what I was doing, everyone else in the place was preparing to tend to their farm land or to work in the oil fields. So I guess a shivering person in bike clothes looked a little out of place. I told her that I was from California and I was cycling across America. She said the coffee and gloves were on the house. I simply could not give her money. At this point another woman said that while she was married with five kids, ‘Honey’, the cashier, was looking. When I said that I was married, Honey’s friend replied that Texas was a long way from California. I suspect that Honey’s friend was going to be reprimanded at some later time. I left to store with a smile, but also in Karma debt. Twenty miles down the road two other riders told me how they had made good investments in gloves at that store. Both paid retail, or more, for their gloves.

Eventually the day warmed up. Our route turned so that the winds were more to our backs and we started to speed across the Texas Panhandle. By no means the fastest rider, more likely in the slowest third of the group, I did today’s ride of 110 at 20 mph.

There was very little to see along the route. I saw a few cows in pastures, many more cows in several feed lots, a lot of ‘cricket’ well pumps, and a large number of trucks from oil service companies. The trucks were not a major problem because Texas has WIDE shoulders, at least a lane wide on most two lane highways. We had our lane and the traffic had theirs. The highways are one good thing about Texas, even though I am sure they were not designed for the benefit of cyclists.

The motel, from what I could see the only one in Pampa, was near a Wal-Mart. This allowed me to restock items for my long ride fuel of choice: a mixture of apricots, gum drops, prunes, and walnuts. This plus the lunch food and some fruit at the sag stops gets me down the road. When I talk to the other riders, many have problems with the offered food options and seem to run on power bars, gels, and powders. I have used my mixture for years and see no reason to change.

The one sad note of the day was that we learned that Andrew, a 47 year old Brit who lives in San Francisco and who started off as one of the strongest riders, spent the night in hospital. He had been feeling ill for a few days in the higher elevations and when the doctors in the Dalhart ER checked him out, they concluded that he had had a minor heart attack. Needless to say all of us were shocked by the news. Our hopes and prayers are with Andrew.

Day 11 – Tucumcari to Dalhart TX

If yesterday’s story was a tail wind today’s was about even more wind. Today’s ride was 96 miles on US Route 54E. Our road was strait as an arrow and went to the northeast. Today’s wind was from the west-southwest at 25 mph. This resulted in a very fast ride. We started at 8 AM, fully 90 min later than our usual starting time, and we lost an hour when we crossed the NM-TX boarder. However, the lead riders still got to Dalhart shortly after 1 PM and I arrived at 1:30. My average speed while on the bike was nearly 24 mph for 96 miles. Even with 30 min off the bike at two rest stops; I rode 96 miles in four and half hours. I suspect that if the ride had been in the other direction I would have been lucky to maintain 10 mph.

There was very little to see on the ride today. We passed through only one town of any size and had a rest stop at an out of business gas station. I averted my eyes from the Welcome to Texas, Home of George W. Bush sign at the Texas boarder. I also held my breath when I rode past the Texas sized feed lots just west of Dalhart. To the south there was a vast open space that was sparsely filled by Texas brush. I wonder if this is what W is so fond of cutting on his ranch? If there were any animals out there they were not seen by me.

On the north side of the road there was a rail line that paralleled our route but there must have been a problem with the tracks because I saw only one train all day. I also saw several vehicles that I would call rail-trucks. Rail-trucks appear to be standard pickup trucks; they even have tires, that have been modified to run along the tracks. I guess they have train wheels. They carry workers to and from places were repairs need to be made. It appeared that repair work was being done today. I wonder how much disruption this caused to the system and if they can route trains onto other lines. The work must be complete, because as I write this in the evening I can hear train whistles. However, I don’t think they will keep me awake tonight. My daily rides have been very good for inducing sleep by 9 PM.

From what I can see Dalhart exists because of the railroad and to a lesser extent the feed lots. If you lived here, Dalhart would seem like a great place to be from and a rather poor place to be. Tomorrow we are off the Pampa. This the first part of the ride that I didn’t do last year, so for the first time I can’t visualize the next day’s ride as I drift off to sleep.