With these words I am beginning a journal to record my
experiences as Sara and I ride across America in Adventure Cycling’s Southern
Route. Susan will be driving the route, helping where we need it and hauling
our bags from town to town. She will be our “sag wagon.”
In early spring, 2017, Sara called me up with some
striking news. She was going to take several months off work to ride across the
country. It was on her bucket list, and she wanted me to join her. After
discussing it for about ten minutes she remarked, “You don’t sound very excited
about this.” I assured her that I was excited and that I was just absorbing the
situation. Three days later I called her back and told her that I had worked
out a route. We were going to leave Portland, OR. on 1JUN and ride 3200 miles
until we reached Washington D. C. She noticed that there was excitement in my
voice!
As 1JUN neared
she called to tell me that circumstances at work would not let her get away at
that time. We postponed the trip until 1SEP. She assured me that she was going
to get the time off in September. A September departure from the Pacific coast
meant that we could not use the Portland-DC route. Weather in the mountains is
always unpredictable and a late start would surely mean snow. I busied myself
working on a route along the southern US border. In a few days I had an alternate route with
the help of the Adventure Cycling website. After clearing it with Sara, I went
to work detailing daily routes, averaging 70 miles per day. The tour would
begin in San Diego taking us 2759 miles in 40 riding days to the Florida town
of St. Augustine. Rest days would add to
the forty count.
On Tuesday, 28AUG’17 Susan and I picked up a rental
van. That evening we loaded three bikes, several suitcases/bags, cooler, box of
food and our FEMA bag! The FEMA bag included a tent and three sleeping bags. As
it happens Hurricane Harvey has slammed into the Texas coast and devastated the
eastern part of the state. Harvey dumped a year’s worth of precipitation onto
East Texas creating a catastrophe of epic proportions. Because we will be
riding our bicycles through there in three weeks, we thought it prudent to
bring our own housing. I assured Susan that the tent would be a last resort in
case we cannot find lodging in the small East Texas towns we will be passing
through.
This evening Susan and I are in Amarillo, TX on our
way to San Diego. We will arrive there on Saturday; Sara arrives the next day. Monday, 4SEP, we will begin our journey across
America passing through numerous small towns and a few big ones: Phoenix; El
Paso; Gulfport; Pensacola; Tallahassee; Gainesville. Susan and I stayed in
Rolla, MO last evening. The drive has been very pleasant, sharing driving
duties as the miles click off and the terrain morphs from lush green to
forested hills to flat savanna. Tomorrow we will stay in Globe, AZ. We will
pass through here again on Day 8 of our tour. Our drive from Globe to San Diego will follow
the bike route in reverse giving me a chance to see the route before riding it.
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