Long Drive

So today was mainly just a long long long drive!  Not a great picture but if you notice there’s a splattered bug on the windshield.  Also the sun is out.  What you can’t tell from the photo is that it’s 83 degrees!  We drove to summer!  As you may know if you live anywhere near northern Indiana, where we started, it was a wet raw 40 degree day.  This is the Pennsylvania Turnpike by the way.  I’ve got good memories of these tunnels from family trips east.  I haven’t been back through them since then. The drive ended after dark  in Virginia, only a couple of hours from the eastern end of the Transamerica Trail in Yorktown.  Good night all.

Transamerica, T minus four days!

Steve and I rode 50+ miles today fully loaded with the gear we plan to take across the country!  It was enough to ease much anxiety about our preparation.  It didn’t hurt to have possibly the best day weather-wise of the year.  

Botony 101

Finished 5 week introduction to local plants offered by the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.  I had the privilege of listening to the two individuals pictured above share their prodigious knowledge with a group of about twenty.  I was reminded of how much there is to know.  Maybe more importantly I was impressed with the ongoing work to maintain and expand the protection to the wonderful but fragile ecology of the area.

Transamerica #4

Well this my first post using the iPhone app I just added to my phone.  Today I stopped by my local bike store Buck's Bike Shop.  I’ve decided that I’m switching out the triple chain rings that came with the bike for one a bit more forgiving.  Before we get to the fabled dogs of Kentucky we’ll meet the crazy steep hills in Virginia! I’ve decided I’ll need every advantage I can get!  Funny thing is my buddy Steve had already been in to order the same thing!  This had been a topic of discussion during our Sunday ride.  Still hoping for some warmer weather so we can get more road miles in.  Spin class doesn’t do it!

Transamerica #3

Rode 72 miles today! 

Something to Learn, Transamerica #2

So today I'm puttering around the house.  I've re-checked some logistics for getting to Yorktown, VA to start the trail.  Although Amtrak could take us from Chicago to Washington, D.C. and accommodates bikes, the trip from D.C. to Yorktown (more accurately Newport News) would be torturous.  So I'm still stuck on renting a car at the airport in South Bend and driving to the airport in Williamsburg, VA.  It's about 9 miles from there to the Yorktown Victory Monument, the eastern terminus of the Transamerica Trail.  Along the way I ran across this video.  I don't pretend that our journey and this adventure have anything in common beyond the fact the the trip has much to teach us!

Transamerica 2018 #1

Happy Valentine's Day.  My friend Steve and I have been moving slowly but inexorably towards riding the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) Transamerican Trail for several months now.   Some of the things we've done:

1.  Bought a 2017 Trek 520
2.  Bought full set of maps from ACA (essential!)
3.  Read several travelogues Crazy Guy on a Bike site
4. Attended strength and spin classes at the local YMCA 3-4 times a week
5. Settled on a direction for the trip-east to west.  This allows us to start earlier.
6. Settled on a start date.  April 14, 2018.  The day after Thomas Jefferson's birthday as it turns out.  We'll ride by his place in the first days of the trip!  If we average 50 miles a day, we should finish in the first week of July!7.
7.  Generated a set of notes about the route from the stuff we've read.  Steve is the lead on this.  I think every Starbuck's has been located.

There's lots more we've done and lots more to do.  I must say the prospect of trading the drone of dysfunctional politics; voyeuristic and sensationalized social media; and, existential anxiety for the elemental concerns of where to sleep; what to eat sounds good.  Everything I've read suggests that other travelers on this route have been as awed by the many wonderful people they've encountered as by the scenery.  We all long for that connectedness don't we?  More to come!