Day 1 – June 17th

Months of planning and training took fruition today. Gary and I began our trek to cross the US on two wheels. Astoria, Oregon was our initiating point on this 3,500 sojourn. We spent last night in my apartment and then made the drive to Astoria at around 6 a.m. On the drive to Astoria, a myriad of thoughts flashed through my mind: “Will my legs hold up for 30 days? What about my knees, shoulders, neck, back etc?” The most numerous thought was probably “What the hell have I gotten myself into?” My answer to that remained the same: ‘Time will tell.’

Upon assembling our bikes at the Cannery Hotel, we set out to complete this challenge one mile at a time. The first 50 miles went extremely well. Abounding with the euphoria of starting out, we may have been overly aggressive on the rolling hills and mild climbs of the day. Gary, used to the plains of the Midwest, was a bit surprised with the couple of the climbs we encountered. At mile 50 we got into the flat portion of the ride and Gary’s training definitely came into play. I, however, began to struggle. I am not sure if I taxed myself too much in the beginning, or if not riding for two weeks and fighting a viral infection was the culprit; my guess is a combination of them all. Around mile 70 the legs began to recover and I felt pretty good until we finished the 100 mile ride.

I believe it also helped that at the 52 mile mark we picked up an extra rider who was strong and did a lot of the pulling for Gary and I. Bud Morris, the man who helped pull us into Portland, is a friend of a friend, and had asked Gary if he could ride with us the first day. Bud is an experience rider, a multi state time trial champion, and was a treat to have along at the end of the ride today. He knew Portland infinitely better than myself and stayed with us to assist in getting us over the interstate and the river so that we would have a better place to start on Day 2. Thanks Bud for the navigation, the great offer to do some Oregon rides when I get back to town (which I will be taking you up on), and of course for pulling us in.