Countdown: 6 Days
Day: -6
Location: Falls Church, VA
Miles Traveled: 0
GPS Position: Still no GPS. If you have an extra one, please email us.
The "miles traveled" number is a little misleading... though we haven't started out cross-country yet, we've been training to get ready. Yesterday a couple of us took a 40 miles training ride with our B.O.B.s (Beast of Burden - not kidding). With all our gear we got quite a few stares, cheers, jeers and questions. Enough people have asked about a website that I've decided to make up cards for the trip with our webaddress and names on them, for our adoring fans. Or fan.
I just made a panicky last minute purchase on Nashbar.com, ordering some energy drink mix and a couple more frame bags for the bikes. Somehow there's this instinctual desire to buy more stuff in the hopes it will make the trip that much better. The reality is that we have to HAUL the stuff more than 4,000 miles. Those hills yesterday seemed a lot higher when hauling the equivalent of a large bag of rocks behind you.
A lot of people have been asking about the trip, so here's an FAQ for those curious minds...
Q: When do you leave?
A: So many people have asked us this it makes us wonder about the quality of our friendships. In case you're bad with math, we're leaving June 20th.
Q: Where do you start? Where do you finish?
A: We leave from Yorktown, VA, the official start (or end, depending on which direction you go) of the TransAmerica Trail. We'll finish in Astoria, OR. We plan on dunking the rear wheels of our bikes in the Atlantic and the front wheel in the Pacific. It's tradition, apparently.
Q: How far will you bike each day?
A: We'll average (hopefully) about 50 miles each day for about 90 days. If we don't, I will edit this blog entry appropriately.
Q: What will you eat?
A: People are very curious what we'll eat. Someone asked me if we will be killing animals along the way and eating them. I'm not sure what they thought we were doing exactly, but the answer is "yes, sometimes". Alternatively, we will be cooking lots of camp food. See next item.
Q: Where will you stay?
A: Most of the time, we'll be camping out. Either at official campgrounds or in parks or people's lawns or fire stations or parking lots or fairgrounds or junkyards or meadowy fields. If there is even a hint of rain we will check into the nearest and highest quality hotel, nothing less than four stars and separate rooms with king sized beds.
Q: What will you eat?
A: You already asked that.
Q: Who is going?
A: See original post. John (JK, Johnny K), Jonathan (JShiu), Daveyray (DR), and Ryan. There will be a contest to help Ryan pick a REASONABLE nickname sometime during the bike trip.
Q: Can we send you stuff along the way?
A: Great question! Yes, you can! If you want to send something, you can email us and we'll send you the address of the nearest Post Office. You can address the package to "General Delivery care of (Fill in your favorite cyclist name here)" and the Post Office will hold it until we pick it up. I found out that a significant portion of your taxes go to support the General Delivery feature of the United States Post Office every year. So use it!
Q: How much stuff are you bringing?
A: The correct answer is probably "a lot" or even "too much". I will say that personally I am trying to keep the weight of my trailer and gear under 40 lbs. The trailer itself weighs 12 lbs. Click here to see the trailers we're using...
Q: What are you going to wear?
A: I broke down and became a Spandex guy. Oh the shame. We're all wearing bike shorts and really cool bike jerseys. I've found that people on the trails have a much higher tendency to wave or nod as you pass if you have an official looking jersey on. The more writing on it, the better.
More pictures coming soon...
Location: Falls Church, VA
Miles Traveled: 0
GPS Position: Still no GPS. If you have an extra one, please email us.
The "miles traveled" number is a little misleading... though we haven't started out cross-country yet, we've been training to get ready. Yesterday a couple of us took a 40 miles training ride with our B.O.B.s (Beast of Burden - not kidding). With all our gear we got quite a few stares, cheers, jeers and questions. Enough people have asked about a website that I've decided to make up cards for the trip with our webaddress and names on them, for our adoring fans. Or fan.
I just made a panicky last minute purchase on Nashbar.com, ordering some energy drink mix and a couple more frame bags for the bikes. Somehow there's this instinctual desire to buy more stuff in the hopes it will make the trip that much better. The reality is that we have to HAUL the stuff more than 4,000 miles. Those hills yesterday seemed a lot higher when hauling the equivalent of a large bag of rocks behind you.
A lot of people have been asking about the trip, so here's an FAQ for those curious minds...
Q: When do you leave?
A: So many people have asked us this it makes us wonder about the quality of our friendships. In case you're bad with math, we're leaving June 20th.
Q: Where do you start? Where do you finish?
A: We leave from Yorktown, VA, the official start (or end, depending on which direction you go) of the TransAmerica Trail. We'll finish in Astoria, OR. We plan on dunking the rear wheels of our bikes in the Atlantic and the front wheel in the Pacific. It's tradition, apparently.
Q: How far will you bike each day?
A: We'll average (hopefully) about 50 miles each day for about 90 days. If we don't, I will edit this blog entry appropriately.
Q: What will you eat?
A: People are very curious what we'll eat. Someone asked me if we will be killing animals along the way and eating them. I'm not sure what they thought we were doing exactly, but the answer is "yes, sometimes". Alternatively, we will be cooking lots of camp food. See next item.
Q: Where will you stay?
A: Most of the time, we'll be camping out. Either at official campgrounds or in parks or people's lawns or fire stations or parking lots or fairgrounds or junkyards or meadowy fields. If there is even a hint of rain we will check into the nearest and highest quality hotel, nothing less than four stars and separate rooms with king sized beds.
Q: What will you eat?
A: You already asked that.
Q: Who is going?
A: See original post. John (JK, Johnny K), Jonathan (JShiu), Daveyray (DR), and Ryan. There will be a contest to help Ryan pick a REASONABLE nickname sometime during the bike trip.
Q: Can we send you stuff along the way?
A: Great question! Yes, you can! If you want to send something, you can email us and we'll send you the address of the nearest Post Office. You can address the package to "General Delivery care of (Fill in your favorite cyclist name here)" and the Post Office will hold it until we pick it up. I found out that a significant portion of your taxes go to support the General Delivery feature of the United States Post Office every year. So use it!
Q: How much stuff are you bringing?
A: The correct answer is probably "a lot" or even "too much". I will say that personally I am trying to keep the weight of my trailer and gear under 40 lbs. The trailer itself weighs 12 lbs. Click here to see the trailers we're using...
Q: What are you going to wear?
A: I broke down and became a Spandex guy. Oh the shame. We're all wearing bike shorts and really cool bike jerseys. I've found that people on the trails have a much higher tendency to wave or nod as you pass if you have an official looking jersey on. The more writing on it, the better.
More pictures coming soon...
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