Day 28 Thoughts on a rest day

It is four weeks today since that first ride over to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon to begin this coast-to-coast journey.  Over this time I’ve tried through this blog to give you a daily glimpse at what it’s like to be on a trip like this.  I’ve tried to share some of the sights, challenges, and daily happenings when cycling across the country with nearly three dozen other people.  But now that we’re more than halfway across from the Pacific to the Atlantic, this is a good time to try and put everything into context.

Without a doubt this has been more difficult than I imagined.  It’s not so much that the hills have been harder, or the long mileage difficult.  It has been the mental challenge that has been the toughest part.  First of all, this is not a trip that leaves a lot of spare time.  The typical day is pretty tightly choreographed.  Depending upon the distance to be ridden, the morning either starts with breakfast and then loading of luggage on the van at a designated time, or vice versa.  On days with mileage in excess of 90 miles, luggage load may take place before 6:00 a.m.  Afterwards it’s onto the bike for the better part of the day.

Upon arrival at the destination hotel there’s time to check in,  get your luggage and your bike and put them into your room.  After a shower, there is the daily “route rap”—a briefing by the America By Bicycle staff about the next day’s route, followed by mechanic’s time when you can have the ABB mechanics take care of any problems with your bicycle.  Then it’s time for dinner, and that then leaves very little time for much else before having to get re-packed before going to sleep so you can set the alarm, get up early and start it all over the next morning.  Doing this for seven, eight or even nine days straight is a tough, mental grind.  Needless to say, the need to get on the bicycle every day, no matter how much you enjoy cycling (and if you don’t enjoy cycling, you’re not doing this trip), can also be a mental challenge if there is a day that you just don’t really feel like riding.  I guess this is not all that different from the grind that baseball players go through during the season where they play every day and then have very little time the next morning before they have to get to the ballpark to get ready for the next day’s game.

What is the day like on the bike?  Some people tend to ride together every day as a group.  This seems especially true among the faster riders, and of course the husband and wife couples (one of those couples doesn’t have much choice—they’re riding a tandem bicycle!).  There are other riders who prefer to ride solo.  The majority, myself included, tend to ride for awhile with one person or group of people, and then either go ahead or fall behind depending on speed, need to make a stop, etc.  I find that I’m too slow to ride with the fast groups.  In fact I am among the slowest riders in this group.  Because I like to stop and take pictures or take a short breather more often than many, I will ride for awhile with another person or persons, and then end up riding with someone else or by myself for awhile.  Even when riding solo, there is generally another rider or riders in sight, either in front of you or in your rearview mirror. While riders are not required to have a rearview mirror, most ride with one either on their helmet, their sunglasses, or the end of their handlebar.

During the day there will be one or more locations where ABB sets up a “sag stop.”  SAG stands for support and gear.  When you arrive at the sag stop you are required to initial your name on the sheet so that the person running the sag stops knows who has not yet reached that point, and when everyone has passed.  In order to try and avoid the spread of coughs, colds, etc. among the people on the tour, everyone is required to remove their bicycle gloves, wipe their hands with an antispectic wipe and then rub their hands with an antiseptic lotion before helping themselves to the snacks that are set out, or before depressing the button to dispense water into their bottles.  It seems to work.  When I was sick early in the trip nobody caught my cold/bronchitis.  Another person got sick several days later and nobody else has gotten sick.  So the process for keeping people healthy seems to make sense.

ABB has three vans that cover the course while we are riding.  If a van comes by and you need help, which may be something as simple as getting more water, you put your hand on top of your helmet.  If all is ok, you put your left arm out.  Likewise if you have stopped for any reason at the side of the road and an ABB van comes by, you either give the hand on helmet sign (stop, I need help) or arm out (all is ok, you don’t need to stop).  They ask that if riders are going to create a paceline (where riders form a line behind each other to get the benefit of ‘drafting’) they limit it to just a few bikes so that if someone happens to go down it limits the number of following cyclists who might be involved.  

At first it seemed like there were a lot of rules, but ultimately everyone has seen the reason for the rules and seems to have bought in.

There seem to be a number of different reasons for people doing this coast-to-coast ride.  For most it is something that they’ve always wanted to do, it’s a big bucket list item, and for a few it’s part of raising money for a charitable cause.  I’ve been surprised to find that there are several people on this ride who are crossing the continent by bicycle for a second or even third time.  There is a woman from the Netherlands, and a father-daughter pair who both took this same tour last year but could not complete it due to injuries.  They are back to complete it in 2016.  Of those who are doing their second or third coast-to-coast ride, most have already completed rides on other routes across the country and this is just another route to do.  For me, a trip across the country is a once in a lifetime trip.  I could not imagine doing another trip.  That would diminish the “once in a lifetime” from this trip.

I hope that this has given you a bit of a glimpse as to what it’s like to do a long bike tour.  Right now I am very disheartened from a couple of days into the wind and from living out of a suitcase.  There are at least two or three more days of headwinds based on the current forecast.  I am not sure whether I am up to doing this for three more weeks.  Do I really need to?  I was warned by someone I had spoken to previously as part of my fact finding, that there would be a day that I would say to myself “why am I doing this?”  That day has come.  If I decide to continue, we are off in the morning into Minnesota.  I will let you know tomorrow what I do.