This week brought home the realization that the clock is
ticking toward my trip. Making plane
reservations to fly out to Oregon, getting a detailed preparation guide for the
trip from America by Bicycle, struggling to get in my training miles because of
a thousand other priorities, and trying
to do that in the face of adjustments to my normal cycling nutrition routine
due to the Passover holiday all made me very aware that there’s a million
things to be done in the next seven weeks.
But probably the thing that brought home the magnitude of
the impending trip had nothing to do with the trip itself. This past week was the fifth anniversary of
the death of my wife, Dot, in a tragic fall from the second floor to the first at a
townhouse we owned at the Jersey Shore that was going to be our summer post-retirement
home. She had gone up there to spend a
few days during the Easter/Passover break from the school where she worked,
while I stayed home in Maryland to work. Passover
will always be a sad reminder of that week.
As I realized this week that this trip is going to happen, I
thought back to 1998. We lived in Dallas
then and I had gotten agreement from my employer there to take two months off
that summer to do a similar ride across the country. Due to a medical issue, I had to cancel. But Dot always encouraged me to plan to do it
again, whenever I could get the two months I'd need. So with the focus
this week on Dot, and on the impending trip, I’ve thought many times how happy
she would be that I’m finally getting to realize my dream. But it just won’t be the same for her not to
be there in New Hampshire to see me dip my front wheel in the Atlantic to mark
the completion of my journey, 18 years after the first time it was supposed
to happen. Because even though I may realize my dream, she was not able to realize many of hers.
My longest ride this week was a 60-miler. But because of Passover I couldn’t use my normal energy gel during my ride. I ended up getting the bonk and barely got back to where I had parked the car. Wednesday morning it was raining and I looked forward to riding in it. After all, there’s very little chance that in 50 days of riding, it won’t rain on me at least a couple of those days. So I threw the bike in the car along with my rain gear, drove down to the park, got out the bike, and then watched the rain stop! And what happened as soon as I finished my ride and headed back home? You guessed it. It started to rain! How does that old saying go? Everyone talks about the weather….but nobody can do anything about it.
This morning, though, I finally got my wish. There are a number of blind athletes in Marci’s
triathlon club. Several months ago she
asked me if I would be the “guide” on the tandem for one of them in a triathlon in May. I thought that would be a great thing to
do. I’ve piloted Kevin’s tandem twice on
practice rides with him riding on the back. Well, today was the triathlon and guess what--it was pouring this morning! After he
finished his swim (which he is able to do by himself because it is a pool swim
using roped off lanes) we headed out on the bike. Despite the hard rain we did well, my rain gear worked well, and I realized after about 10 minutes that I hardly noticed it was raining (despite the need for
windshield wipers on my glasses and the frequent puddles we had to roll through)! I am a bit more confident now about rain on
the tour. And even though the mileage
was short, the tandem ride, especially on the uphillls, was a good workout!
By the way, Marci was Kevin’s guide on the run. He ended up first in the Physically Challenged division. It felt good to have helped make it possible for him to compete and win.
By the way, Marci was Kevin’s guide on the run. He ended up first in the Physically Challenged division. It felt good to have helped make it possible for him to compete and win.
Tomorrow 80 degrees and hopefully enough time for long
mileage. Seven weeks from today the trip starts for real.
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