Well, now I've gone and done it.

February 2016

A little background to what I'll be writing about over the next weeks/months might set the stage. 

I love cycling.  (This is the short version of what follows)

In the winter of 2000-2001 I saw an ad for a ride that struck me as something I really wanted to do.  It was the Montana AIDS Vaccine Ride, run by a then well-known, now defunct organization that inspired a lot of folks to do more good works in their communities.  I signed up online in a flash. April 2001 rolled around and it occurred to me that I would need a bike to complete this ride!  I didn't own one and hadn't since high school.  So my friend Larry Sloma helped me pick one out.  Then he offered to do training rides every week to help me get ready for the week-long 575 mile trek I had blindly signed on for!  Larry was inspiring to me in my cycling "youth", as he and his wife Lyn had previously ridden cross-country and his knowledge of all things cycling is tremendous.  It was a busy summer, and a life-changing week in Montana.  I've not looked back since, except to check for traffic when changing lanes.

Fast forward a few years, and many biking adventures later.  For some time I've had the idea of participating in a transcontinental bike trip.  Having met and become friends with several cyclists who have done this, I knew it needed to be with PAC Tour, Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo's bike tour company.  If anybody in the business knows what it takes to help get me across the continent on my bike, it's these two veteran ultracyclists.  So I've gone and done it.  Signed up, paid my money, and coming in July, I'll be riding from Everett, Washington to Boston Massachusetts with about 40 other cylists.
3600 miles in 31 days, averaging 116 miles per day.  We get one day off, riding the Badger ferry across Lake Michigan at the end of week 3. 
Now the training begins.....