Epilogue
By
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
October 4, 2005
I've been trying to find time to write up some final thoughts about the ride since I finished almost 3 weeks ago. While it is good to be back to real life, there are far to many things to be done that have higher priority than writing final thoughts about the ride.
I've ridden only twice since I finished. One early morning 18 mile ride before work and a Saturday ride of 68 miles that was interrupted by an endo over the handlebars less than 10 miles from the start. I'm ok, with a bit of road rash on my shoulder and face and a sprained finger. I'll be riding again in a couple of days.
I finished the ride on a Wednesday and had a planned departure from Jacksonville late afternoon on Thursday. In many past cycling trips I have taken my bike on the plane, after purchasing a box from the airline. I decided to go that route, rather than taking my hard shell bike case with me. On a one way trip, you are faced with shipping the hard shell case to the end point and then hoping it will wait for you to arrive. I also decided against shipping my bike using UPS or FedEx as they limits my access to the bike for at least a week before and after the trip. As it turned out, ABB took everyone's hard shell case in the truck and that would have been a better way to go. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and discovered that American Airlines didn't have any bike boxes in Jacksonville. Fortunately Jerri was taking the same plane I and watched my stuff as I trotted all around the airport looking for a box. I couldn't find one and she helped me down to the taxi stand where I got into a taxi, and headed out to a bike shop. The closest shop was about a 25 minute cab ride. I dropped off my bike and had them ship it home to me FedEx Ground. I dashed back to the airport, and was late enought that they wouldn't check my bag, I had a few bike tools and an extra bike chain in my bag. Security discovered the bike chain - evidently it looks like ammo under the xray machine and after some stern warnings they went through everything in my bag in detail. I dashed down to my gate, the door was closed and the agent was down the jetway and out of sight. I banged on the door to no avail. I spent another night in Jacksonville.
I had a great time on Ride The East. I think I'm one of those cyclists who could ride past garbage dumps and still have a great time. The scenery was excellent and the views inspiring. I enjoyed the company of many of the other riders on this ride and also enjoyed riding alone at times also -- the best of both worlds. I discovered that there are other cyclists with the same love of bad jokes, travel, bad jokes, political views, riding to enjoy stopping for a great view; bad jokes, a good meal; browsing in bike shops; and bad jokes. We all take great pleasure in talking with people we meet along the way and telling them about our journey and seeing their reactions : 1/3 Way Cool; 1/3 Can I come too; and 1/3 disbelief. Thanks to other members of Team Zed, or the Magnificant Seven: Dave, Sandy, Mick, Travis, Mike, Sara, Jerri, and Chris for they company and spirit. Truely everyone was inspirational. We hear that recently, the person who hit George with her car and fled was discovered by the police - a 33 year old woman who nearly killed him with her car. Everyone is grateful that she was found and hopefully will pay for her crime and neglect. It was great riding with Frank again - we had spent 2 segments of the Mississippi River ride cycling together. I met many others who I had ridden with before, or who knew other riders that I know.
Writing this journal took much more effort than I imagined. Each night I would spend about 30 minutes downloading and cropping photos and writing a few words. I didn't have time to edit beyond simple crop of photos. In the fuure I would bring carry a small handheld voice recorder so I could record thoughts during the day That would help me write more clearly at the end of the day. Despite the extra effort, it was worth the time as now I have a journal to relive the trip. If I had used pencil and paper, it would have been illegible. If I had waited until the end, it would have been much more brief. I know that my family and friends followed my trip and they too enjoyed hearing about my days.
Of the 60+ riders who took part in all of part of this ride, about 60% had ridden with ABB on previous rides. Many of those had ridden on those rides where Mike and Barbara Munk were the ride leaders. Mike and Barb have a strong following and I believe much of the repeat business is due to the way they run rides and they way they represent America By Bicycle. ABB is successful and and attracts riders since they hire outgoing personable people to staff their rides.
Much of the positive experiences on this ride are directly due to Mike and Barb, Shane, Lee and Bob, Jim. Karen and Susan joined us later. I had met Karen on prior rides.. Mike and Barb are much more laid back than when I first met them in 2001 and are very well grounded and balanced. Lee and Bob are an amazing couple - they share a joy of cycling and temperment and life in general. Jim's dry sense of humor and love of folk music and the outdoors makes him the perfect person in a crisis. I had this sense that Shane is a crazy wild guy who had to set the proper serious and safe example for all of us riders - maybe one day Kathi will tell me if I'm right. Karen is an inspiring athlete. Susan is more reserved, unless you get her talking about butterflies or birds. I'm sure the staff jobs are fairly low paid jobs. They work 18 hour days and must really love what they are doing otherwise why would they do it? Another reason for ABB's popularity is their ability to provide personalized service. I have a fear of heights and that kicks in when I'm faced with a big bridge to cross. Whenever I was faced with such a bridge, I knew I could count on Mike, Shane, or Jim to show up and SAG me across.
The first 9 day segment was the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. We had about 40000 feet of climbing and I have few hills to train on around my home. I had no strength to climb another hill by day 7 and I almost gave up and went home on at least 2 occasions. I'm a fairly decent recreational cyclist, I ride about 3000 miles a year, and the segment from NH to DC was a struggle. Fortunately we had a rest day and then it flattened out and I was able to continue.
This was the longest ride I had ever done. It was a thrill, an adventure, and I'm glad I did it.
I had ridden the Great Mississippi River Ride with America By Bicycle in the past doing a portion a year for 3 sequential years. I had no doubts about doing rides with ABB in the future. Some things about this ride will make me consider using another tour company in the future.
Portions of the route were unacceptable. Out of the 1700 miles, about 300 miles were unacceptable. I often lead rides for my local bike club. If I chose roads like these 300 miles, I would be invited never to lead a ride or choose a route again. The primary problem was traffic, especially truck traffic, and the secondary problem was road surface. On at least 5 separate occasions I worried about my safety. The most harrowing situation forced Sara off the road, she was 2 riders in front of me.
I expected the motels to be low end. Several nights were very nice and I enjoyed them especially. On the other hand the nights in Phillipsburg, Pottstown, Lancaster, and North Myrtle Beach were totally unacceptable and certainly not the promised AAA rated motels. One of the advantages of ABB is motels over a camping trip but when the motels are disgusting and one must check the sheets and towels for cleanliness (they weren't) I'd rather be in my own tent and sleeping bag than have to worry about unclean motel rooms.
I must acknowledge that I hadn't read all the information that ABB sent me before the trip. The info looked identical to the other trips I had taken with them before. I was not aware until I arrived in Portsmouth that Lunch was included and Dinner was not. The Mississippi River ride was reversed. My own fault, but the cost was more than I expected due to the dinner cost. Lunch was sandwiches, we made them ourselves. The sense of the riders was that the lunch budget was far too low (probably about $2/person/day). The route was such that lunch had to be provided - alternate places for lunch were not available on many days when we were on back roads. Dinner choices were available close to the motels nearly every night (I don't consider fast food a valid choice). Many riders were angry about the lunch. I was ok but not excited. I do wonder where the staff washed the plastic utensils every night. The whole meal situation prompted many other riders to question the value of the services ABB provided given the quality of the lunches.
The route and motels needed better pre-qualification and 50+ riders was far too many to take on an initial ride.
A ride like this one attracts riders of a wide range of ability. One or two of the faster riders had clear significant disdain for the slower riders. One thing I am sure of - the slower riders had just as much fun and rode just as many mile as the faster riders and we were glad that they were not riding with us - as Dave taught me to say about their misguided attitude: "How Nice".
As I wrote earlier, It was a thrill, an adventure, and I'm glad I did it. I probably won't do any first time rides any more. Let someone else work out the kinks.
