Monday, April 13, 2020

We shall not cease from exploration...


It's April 13, 2020. Three days away from the two year anniversary of the start of our Transamerica bike ride. I found myself thinking about the trip a lot over the past several days. So's here's the winding path back to there. As everybody in the world knows, the last month or more has been dominated by the daily news of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 A month ago the first high school track meets were cancelled and our local high school made the decision to go to online schooling at least until April 13, today. Since then every day seems to bring news of increasingly stringent measures to "flatten the curve." As of now, the track season has been cancelled and the local school is entirely online until the end of the school year! Everyone is obliged to "social distance," stay home except for essential activities, grocery shopping for example. I'm not telling you anything you're not living through since around the world governments are taking similar measures! Lucky for me, I guess, since I'm retired my work has not been affected; but, millions of American's have been let go or laid off due to this. Also outdoor activities, running and biking among them, is still permitted albeit with restrictions on groups. So I'm doing my usual running/biking daily routine.

In the midst of this, a well-known singer/songwriter, John Prine, succumbed to COVID-19.  I've known his music but his death introduced me to him in greater depth.  He grew up in Chicago!  He was good friends with Steve Goodman, of "City of New Orleans" fame.  John's family has roots in the eastern Kentucky coal country.  This family history is revealed in one of his songs, "Paradise"  about the town his family was from in eastern Kentucky.  Hearing the song again, I wondered if we'd travelled near to Paradise, which is now a ghost town but was once home to a coal mine.  We travelled north of Paradise.  We stopped at Doolin's Grocery. There the proprietor told us of the end of coal mining in the area and the migration of families north.  In particular he shared that he knew of Hammond, Indiana, because he knew of people who'd moved there.  

Now, I've dug out the document I created of the bike trip, based upon my blog posts at the time.  I've begun making notes in the margins about coal country.  I've already learned more about our travels through Kentucky but I've also begun to go back to other spots along the route and added notes.  I guess the trip isn't really ever over, is it?


We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. ~T. S. Eliot

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

New Year Ahead

I realize that there have been few readers since I got back from my Transamerica bike trip but I’ll take the rap since I’ve barely written anything since then.  I spent 2019 coaching track for the first time and working the front gate at the Indiana Dunes State Park over the summer.  Then back to my fall cross country gig.  My hope for another bike trip at the end of the cross country season got squashed by two weeks of sickness.  I didn’t realize I was sleep walking through the year until our travel partner for part of the bike trip, Finley, contacted me to see if I wanted to ride part of the Northern Tier route in 2020.  The adrenaline surge was immediate!  It turns out I can’t leave when he is leaving because I’ll be involved in the high school track season until June, but the seed was sown. I’ve decided not to work at the park this summer to free up some time and I’m thinking of following in Finley’s footsteps, so to speak.  The route goes from Indiana to the western North Dakota state line.  Much of the route will be new to me.  I’ve asked Steve about joining me but he hasn’t committed yet.   Actually I haven’t committed yet either.  I’m not big on resolutions but having something out there to work for is exciting.  By the way I bought a Bluetooth keyboard, a tip from Finley, to type out my blog entries just in case I take the next step.  Happy 2020!

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Dunes National Park


So one of the consequences of the recent budget agreement is the transition of the Dunes National Lakeshore to the Dunes National Park.  I haven't heard that there will be any substantive changes, aside from changing the signs,  but I'd like to offer some suggestions without any knowledge of whether they're realistic or not!  Here goes:


  1. Partner with the county parks department or anyone to fix and maintain the Calumet Trail!  This is a east/west linking trail that allow access to the state park from the Prairie Duneland Trail without resorting to roads!  As is the trail is pathetic!
  2. Make the trail between the Cowles Bog parking lot and Waverly Road an official trail!  
  3. Find somewhere to add some camping!  The current campground is inadequate.  These could be walk in or canoe camps?!
  4. Expand!
That's all I've got off the top of my head.  I'm sure I'll think of more and time goes on.  

Monday, October 29, 2018

How I Spend My Time


Since 1999 I've been an assistant cross country coach at the high school where I ran cross country!  When I started this I took pride in being able to keep up with the team, if only on the long run runs.  I still run but more often it's alone or with the coach who has decided to go at my pace rather than his pace.  We plan and troubleshoot the competitive season on those runs.  From June until the end of October I'm immersed in the day to day lives of these young men. Today is the first day of the "off season", the time between cross country and track.   I'll see the team only occasionally between now and June, although I may drop in on track since I'm retired now.  I reminisce about this season during runs on the dune trails.  Fall will always mean cross country.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

TA Post Mortem

I've been home three weeks (July 8th).  My bike made it back home on July 19th.  I have been searching for things to do with all the unscheduled time I have now.  I realize that prior to my departure I wasn't really retired.  I was involved a few hours at my work right up until a few days before we left.  Now aside from cross country practice, and a week of cross country camp, I have very little scheduled.  This might sound like a happy problem to have but I'm not happy about it.

I've run about 75 miles in the past three weeks after not having run for three months.  I've biked about 370 miles since I got back home; some of it on my mountain bike.  I've gone to two exercise classes.  If you know me at all you'll know that physical activity is a big part of my daily life.  I suppose it's part of the reason I could accomplish this long ride.  When I returned home I had this notion that I could maintain the fitness level I enjoyed on my trip.  I wanted to maintain this level of fitness.  I know this isn't realistic.

I still think a lot about my bike trip.  I'd talk a lot about it as well, but aside from Steve, I'm convinced I'd bore anyone else to death long before I ran out of things to say.  Everything relates back to those three months for me at the moment.  I go back and add details to my blog entries where I can and relive those days.

People have asked if I would do this again, ride across the country.  The answer is a definite yes!  I've also been asked "What's next?"  I take some pleasure in knowing that I'm seen as someone who might take up another challenge because when I began I wasn't confident I could accomplish this one.  Also I found out that there are people, lots of people, challenging themselves with these self-chosen undertakings.  I've got no deep wisdom or insights to share.  I don't know what's next but I know it will be something!

Looking forward to a fall filled with family and high school cross country!




Monday, July 09, 2018

Trans Am Numbers

I'll add stuff here as I crunch the numbers:

Days: 81
Miles: 4336.74 (updated 7/12/18)
Daily Average: 53.54 (updated 7/12/18))
Longest mileage day- 81 miles on 4/17/18; 80.8 miles on 6/22/18
Shortest mileage day-9.83 on 4/30/18
Longest cycling day-8:53:10 on 6/12/18
Shortest cycling day-55:29 on 4/30/18

Total Ascent in Feet=171,145
Daily Average Ascent in Feet=2194
Most Ascent-4530.8 on 4/22/18
Least Ascent-78.7 on 6/28/18

Days camping=43 (updated 7/13/18))
Days motel=20 (updated 7/13/18))
Days hostel=18

Days Off: 3







Bits and Pieces, Part #2


I'm home!  Steve and I left for the east coast on April 14th so it's been 85 days since I slept in my bed!  It was fun hanging out with my nephew and daughter and son-in-law in Seattle for a couple days being a tourist.  I ran about 2 1/2 torturous miles along the Puget Sound.


Here are the links to some of the players in our adventure saga.  Each of these blogs or Facebook pages is impressive in it's own way.  They put my meager efforts to shame for sure!

Jules' Blog

Finley's Blog

Phil's Blog

Richardo's Facebook Page

Alan Baker's Facebook Page

Susan's Facebook page

Anna's Blog

We rode many miles in the company of Rich; Nick; and Mike but none of the three of them was keeping a record of their trip.  They were relying heavily on the narrative provided by Donna Lynn Ikenberry's 1993 book Bicycling Coast to Coast to plan and followed most of her suggestions for mileage; places to stay; and other details.


As I mentioned in my last post I will be "enhancing" many of the pages about the trip.  This post in particular will get expanded as I come back to it and add things.  Stay tuned!  Thanks!  Tom