Countdown to D-Day

Well it’s a little over a month away til I take on the Southern Tier. As the date approaches I’m starting to get anxious. Not eager, anxious!

I think I have prepared. Lord knows I have helped Amazon’s profits this quarter with all the gear I have been buying. I suspect a search party may be looking for me beginning April 1!!

I continue to train and am losing some lbs but not as fast as I like. So beginning 3/1 I am going to double down. After seeing and reading about the first two days, which will involve lots of climbing, I need to get leaner.

There is lots on the Internet about the Southern Tier ride and I have been reading up but frankly I think it’s something that is only understood by experiencing it. The ride coordinators have been patient with all my questions but in reality I’m kind of a just do it guy. I need the basics, but don’t tend to over analyze.

That can be good and bad. The more I read about the ride, the more nervous I get. But as with most things I believe we can tend make it a bigger issue than it is. This journey of 3030 miles starts with the first pedal stroke, followed by another and another………

I’ll be interested to meet my fellow riders, where they are from and their backgrounds. Let’s face it we will be a bit of a family for 48 days. Hopefully I make more friends than enemies.

From what I understand I can expect to see many others on the route, either self contained or supported. Ride the US for MS, and Bubba’s Pampered riders take this route along with other groups.

I think there comes a point in the training process where you tire of it and just want to GO! I’m close. If I didn’t have the weight loss thing going on I would be real antsy to start

My friends who have done long rides tell me “ you can’t eat enough” on these rides and you will lose lots of weight. (They don’t know me very well😜). I’m hoping it’s true.

I’m thinking of having a little contest. I will post my starting weight and ask guesses as to what my ending weight will be. The winner will get an autographed $1 bill. It’s symbolic after all and it is about all I can afford after paying for the trip and all the gear.

My friends here in Az are planning a send off party. I guess they want to be sure I leave. As the old saying goes, “how can I miss you if you won’t go away”. Or my favorite “it’s so miserable without you, it almost like you are still here”!

Although another reason may be they don’t expect to see me ever again. I don’t anticipate to be like Bernard Moitessier who wrote the autobiography “the longest way” which was about a solo sailing route to circumnavigate the globe. He had the race won but continued on for several more months and stopped in Tahiti. While enticing I doubt I could find a route that would allow me to pedal there. But who knows maybe I will adapt the Australian Walk About to a Ride About. Any of you ever fantasize about running away from home??

Another friend wants to be so certain I’m doing the trip that he is driving me to San Diego and seeing me off, Barb is too. As the saying goes some people bring joy wherever they go, others bring joy whenever they go. Damn, never thought I was in the latter group.

So on it goes that date marches slowly along. My friends say they see a change in me. Who knows maybe it’s anticipation, fear, restlessness or enthusiasm. Certainly I have felt all these emotions.

Underlying all of these is a commitment to take on a physical and mental challenge of a duration I have never experienced.

I expect to share many interesting and hopefully entertaining stories from the road with you. Heaven knows, with 6-8 hours on the road each day I should have time to come up with something worth writing

This week I knocked out 160 miles which puts me over 1000 miles for the year. I will be taking 4-5 days off to do a short trip and then get back to some serious training

So until next time Smooth roads and may the wind be at your back