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.