Yesterday, one of my cycling friend asked me; “Would you do it again?” I responded; “It depends how you mean that”. We all agreed we would not do it again. Did it, done it, no need to repeat it. Speaking for myself; however, I’m glad I did it and I would not dissuade anyone from doing it, in fact I would encourage the adventure. So, if the question is; “Had you known what you know now, would you still have done the trip?” My answer is; “Yes, absolutely”. From my perspective, the fete went better than I anticipated. In 3,800 miles we encountered less idiot and rude drivers than I would in one 50 mile ride around York County. I anticipated riding along roads similar to Route 30 for a significant amount of the route. Although we did ride along some four lane roads, with heavy traffic, I would estimate they comprised less than 5% of the total. The weather was better than expected; the low pressure system that sat over the East Coast was gone by the time we arrived back east. While we did experience rain, hail, cold, and heat, nothing lasted too long. The most we rode in the rain was 2 hours. The hot and humid, 100+ days were only 3 of the 38 days. We were able to avoid some nasty weather by simply watching the Weather Channel and hunkering down in our hotel until the coast was clear. We had no accidents or anything close, except for my near death experience with the high speed bike oscillation coming down a Colorado mountain. I could go on and on, but I need to leave some stories and details to be told by oratory. Suffice it to say, the positives far outweighed the negatives.
As I detailed in one of the initial blog postings, we did not endeavor to cross the United States to raise money for a charity; our reasons were more selfish; we just wanted to do it. But, since we were undertaking the epic adventure anyway, it certainly made sense to earmark a charity to promote and hopefully benefit. We chose to benefit the Wounded Warrior Battalion, in honor of Lt. David Bordon, U.S.M.C. Prior to leaving, I received contributions from various individuals. Some people I told to wait until we returned before making a contribution. I presume because we stayed in hotels, rather than camping in town parks and did not ride bikes laden with packs, people did not find us too much of a curiosity. Consequently, we did not encounter too many people interested in where we were going or why. I assume most people figured we were just a couple of local fitness nuts out for a ride. Of the few curious people who asked about our endeavor, even fewer inquired as to whether we were raising money for a charity. For that reason we received no contributions while on the road. In the event and post ride contributions are forthcoming, please forward your checks ASAP, as I will forward any contributions near the end of July or early August. If anyone is interested in making a contribution, please forward a check to my office at 250 York Street, Hanover, Pa. 17331, payable to the Wounded Warrior Battalion.
As Jere and I each return to work and Tim to his leisurely retirement, we each check off this “To Do” from our respective Bucket Lists. All three of us were flattered by the number of people who followed us, and we were most appreciative of the encouragement, prayers, and blog responses from everyone. We looked forward to reading the comments to the blog as much as some people looked forward to reading the daily postings. We quickly realized we were not alone on our trip so we made a concerted effort to post pictures, GPS downloads and the daily narrative so everyone back home could vicariously experience our trip along with us. Knowing we had such a following back home, was both motivational and inspirational Thank you!
Interesting, but meaningless statistics:
We rode 3,830.1 miles in 38 days; 100.8 miles per day.
Days 16-20 were the most consecutive 100+ mile days (104.1, 111.6, 104.2, & 106.6)
Our average speed was 17.5 mph.
The fastest day was Day 18 into Scott City, Ks. with an average speed of 20.7 mph over 104 miles. (The second fastest day was our last day, 20.3 mph over 81.9 miles … we smelled the barn door).
The most mileage in one day was 130.6 miles on Day 15 into Salida, Co. (crossing the Continental Divide);
The shortest day was 54.6 miles into Cedar City, Ut.
We climbed at total of 223,979 feet or 6,183 feet per day.
Sam burned a total of 279,261 calories on the bike. Equivalent to eating 396 Big Macs, or 1,551 Dunkin Glazed Donuts, or 872 Subway 6” Club subs.
We averaged 5.76 hour per day in the saddle.
As I detailed in one of the initial blog postings, we did not endeavor to cross the United States to raise money for a charity; our reasons were more selfish; we just wanted to do it. But, since we were undertaking the epic adventure anyway, it certainly made sense to earmark a charity to promote and hopefully benefit. We chose to benefit the Wounded Warrior Battalion, in honor of Lt. David Bordon, U.S.M.C. Prior to leaving, I received contributions from various individuals. Some people I told to wait until we returned before making a contribution. I presume because we stayed in hotels, rather than camping in town parks and did not ride bikes laden with packs, people did not find us too much of a curiosity. Consequently, we did not encounter too many people interested in where we were going or why. I assume most people figured we were just a couple of local fitness nuts out for a ride. Of the few curious people who asked about our endeavor, even fewer inquired as to whether we were raising money for a charity. For that reason we received no contributions while on the road. In the event and post ride contributions are forthcoming, please forward your checks ASAP, as I will forward any contributions near the end of July or early August. If anyone is interested in making a contribution, please forward a check to my office at 250 York Street, Hanover, Pa. 17331, payable to the Wounded Warrior Battalion.
As Jere and I each return to work and Tim to his leisurely retirement, we each check off this “To Do” from our respective Bucket Lists. All three of us were flattered by the number of people who followed us, and we were most appreciative of the encouragement, prayers, and blog responses from everyone. We looked forward to reading the comments to the blog as much as some people looked forward to reading the daily postings. We quickly realized we were not alone on our trip so we made a concerted effort to post pictures, GPS downloads and the daily narrative so everyone back home could vicariously experience our trip along with us. Knowing we had such a following back home, was both motivational and inspirational Thank you!
Interesting, but meaningless statistics:
We rode 3,830.1 miles in 38 days; 100.8 miles per day.
Days 16-20 were the most consecutive 100+ mile days (104.1, 111.6, 104.2, & 106.6)
Our average speed was 17.5 mph.
The fastest day was Day 18 into Scott City, Ks. with an average speed of 20.7 mph over 104 miles. (The second fastest day was our last day, 20.3 mph over 81.9 miles … we smelled the barn door).
The most mileage in one day was 130.6 miles on Day 15 into Salida, Co. (crossing the Continental Divide);
The shortest day was 54.6 miles into Cedar City, Ut.
We climbed at total of 223,979 feet or 6,183 feet per day.
Sam burned a total of 279,261 calories on the bike. Equivalent to eating 396 Big Macs, or 1,551 Dunkin Glazed Donuts, or 872 Subway 6” Club subs.
We averaged 5.76 hour per day in the saddle.
Net weight loss: Jere: 0 lbs; Tim: 0 lbs; Sam: 12 lbs (197 to 185).
