Anticipation builds...
In less than nine hours, I will be starting on the longest bike journey of my life - Richmond, VA, to Boston, MA. While I know plenty of people who have done longer rides, such as the guy from MIT who rode from Alaska to the tip of South America, the pace I have set will be pretty hard - there are at least three 100+ mile days in there. Most of my nights are already set, but there is always room for problems and delays. I just hope that I do better than my most recent long ride (Richmond > Petersburg > City Point > Richmond) where the 100 degree Fahrenheit weather forced me to call it quits about ten miles before the end of the ride. Of course, it is all for a good cause (sponsoring Half the Sky, an organization working with orphans in China), so maybe God will be smiling down on me and give me some cool weather.
The bike is loaded, as shown above, with two panniers and a dry bag that contains my bedroll. The total weight is more than I expected, coming to somewhere between 20-30 pounds. I will also be sporting a backpack with a CamelBak water supply and a few snacks. The bike itself is a rather old frame that I purchased in Boston for $150 from Craigslist (so this in a sort of strange way is a return home for the cycle). Both tires are new, and the gear cables have been recently tightened. The pedal cages, back rack, and new seat were all added relatively recently. Still haven’t decided whether or not to ship everything back from Boston, but that will be a small job to figure out on Thursday.
In other news, we are getting closer and closer to Day 1 with GE in Greenville, SC, and I am realizing that I still have so much more that I want to get done before I depart for this next stage of my life. Too tired to write more now, so start to look for updates from the road. Boston, here I come!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008