eLIFELIST.com Bike Trip

Day 1, DONE.  

We left the Outer Banks this morning around 8:30.  We dipped our tires in the Atlantic ocean and hopped on to get out.  Overall the first day went well.  Couple things we learned:

1. Our bags are really heavy:  We were talking about things we could ditch two hours into the ride.  

2. Head winds are the devil:  It is staggering how crucial the wind will be in this trek.  You can pedal at maximum intensity and not increase your pace in the slightest.  When the winds were really bad we averaged between 9-10 MPH.  Brutal.  When they died down or were behind us our average went up to 16-17 MPH.  We had headwinds pretty much all day today.  

3. Clouds are our friends unless they have rain in them.  

4. Eating every two hours is necessary.  

5. This trip is going to be awesome but we have our work cut out for us.  

About 10 miles from Plymouth some pretty hefty rain clouds and a thunderstorm starting moving in from the North.  We high tailed it and beat the storm before it reached us.  It only rained for 30 minutes so it doesn't count as a day towards the bet Brent and I made (1 hour of rain equals a day, I said it would rain 10 days on the trip before Colorado, Brent said 5, the looser has to carry 10 more pounds of gear for a week.)

We're staying in the Port O' Plymouth Inn "A World Center for Wood Products" they have a pool which was great after the first day.  On to Rocky Mount tomorrow, we're going to start leaving as early as possible from hear on out.  

Thanks to everyone that is following us!

Pictures from Day 1

Well we are one day away from jumping on the bikes and pedaling our way across the US one mile at a time. As pumped as we are for the trip to start, it almost came to a grinding halt before it even started. We were at Kitty Hawk Kites this afternoon trying our hand at a little hang gliding and don't think I will be getting my pilots license any time soon (watch the video below). We took the beginning hang gliding class, which takes us to the top of the giant sand dunes at the Outer Banks and fly at low heights WITH the help of an instructor. As you will see from the video, flight #1 goes just fine, but flight #2 comes to a very unexpected sudden halt. The only casualty turned out to be the shin, but fortunately I made the executive decision the day before to do something that I will only do one time in my life because of the trip and will make any kind of road rash much easier to deal with. I shaved the legs… A video of that fortunately does not exist and Lee now can't stop staring at my legs, maybe not.

In addition to having a good time hang gliding, we had good company on the dunes. We met George Simmons, who is now a retired US Park Ranger from Alaska on vacation with his family. They just finished a three-week white water down the Grand Canyon and are now finishing their vacation in the Outer Banks. They were on the waiting list for two years to go down the Grand Canyon, which from everything I had heard is a very short wait. The stories George told us made us both want to change the course of the trip up to Alaska, hey what is an extra 2000 miles?

One day to departure video and pics.  We tuned our bikes up in a Walmart parking lot, had our first night of camping.  We skipped paying for a camp ground and went back into the woods where some houses were being built and found a perfect empty lot to camp in.

We're in the car heading to Kitty Hawk, I'm writing this as Brent drives.  We packed up all the gear and got the bikes ready.  We still have few easy tuning things to do on the bikes before we go on Saturday.

We'll post some pictures of the bikes we're riding later, they're pretty great and we both feel a lot better to be riding new bikes.  

We just had a story published in the Washington Post this past Sunday the 24th.  Click on the picture above to see the article scanned and here's a link to it on the Washington Post website. 

We've been eating our faces off, aka "training" for the past few days, which has been pretty fun. 

We did a 90 mile ride today from Arlington, VA to Purcellville, VA today on the W&OD trail.  The W&OD used to be a railroad line that ran from 1859 to 1968. Now the trail is a popular biking, running, dog walking, and skipping trail in the Northern Virginia area. It runs 45 miles to Purcellville, so it makes perfect sense to see the end of the trail, right?
We ride the trail often, but never really even close to the end so wanted to ride it in its entirety before we head out on the trip and thought it would be a great training and preview of a typical day. It turned out to be a scorcher AND humid. Fun stuff. But we cramped our way, toughed it out, drank gallons of fluids, and limped our way there and back. One of us did not limp and there is speculation that he may be on steroids, but we won't mention names but think it will be pretty obvious from the pictures.

-Brent

Today we put all gear out to see what we're dealing with.  It seems like a lot obviously but we've been pretty careful to not take anything we don't absolutely need.  We're going on a 90 mile ride tomorrow to Purcellville from Arlington.  We head to Kitty Hawk this Thursday morning and will be hang gliding Friday, and heading out Saturday morning. 

Amtrak ride to DC

There are a ton of things we will be doing on the trip.  Below is a list of the Life-List items we plan to check off. 





- Hang Glide in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
- Go to a Durham Bulls baseball game
- See the Smashing Pumpkins in Concert
- Camp in the Great Smokies
- See the Ozarks
- Go to Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
- Camp in the Badlands of South Dakota
- See Mount Rushmore
- Climb a 14,000 mountain in Colorado
- Compete in the Muddy Buddy Race in Boulder
- Mountain Bike Moab, Utah
- See the Grand Canyon
- Hike the Narrows at Mount Zion National Park
- Bike the “Extraterrestrial Highway” at Area 51
- Camp in Yosemite/See El Capitan
- Finish at the Golden Gate Bridge

I sat down with my friend George Babiak this past weekend to talk about the Bike Trip and some of George’s biking journeys.  In 1995 George biked with his wife from New York City to Alberta Canada and covered over 4,000 miles. 

George now works for the 52nd Street Project and has been there for several years.  The 52nd Street project as described by their website is “a not for profit organization that matches kids (age 9-18) of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City with professional theatre artists to create original theatre.”  The 52nd Street project is an exceptional organization and they do an amazing job of connecting with the young community in Hell’s Kitchen.  There are several types of theatre programs that the kids and professional artists can work on together.  One is called “One on Ones” where a playwright and kid work together and the playwright then writes a play specifically for that kid.  The kid then rehearses with a professional actor to perform the play in front an audience.  Another program is called “Playmaking” where the kids take classes in playwrighting eventually leading to them writing their own play, which is then produced with a professional director and performed by two professional actors.  The 52 Street Project productions are hands down the best theatre I’ve ever seen. 

George took a minute to sit down with me and talk about some of the things he ran into on his big trip.  George is also a pretty serious bike mechanic having worked at Bicycle Habitat in New York for eight years.  He also helped create the Recycle a Bicycle program that trains kids to repair and ride bikes.  One of the craziest things George and his wife Vanessa ran into on their long bike ride was a reckless driver in Canada hit both of them.  It was a hit and run, the car first struck Vanessa from behind and then moved on to hit George.  Luckily, they both turned out to be fine but one of their bikes was destroyed in the accident.  I guess it just goes to show that you can’t prepare for everything.  He said they also had a couple times where things were stolen, but nothing too major.   

George gave me a few tips on some of the basic maintenance issues we might run into on the road.  Watching him change a tire looked like it was on the same level of difficulty as him snapping his fingers.  I appreciate him taking the time to talk and show me a bit of his skills.  I’ll have his number on speed dial during the ride just in case.  

We've pretty much nailed down our route across the country and have referenced a number of different sources for the right roads to ride on.  We are riding on parts of the TransAmerica Trail established by the Adventure Cycling Association.  The Adventure Cycling Association was established in 1973 and is the number one source for Bicycle routes and travel by bicycle.  We will be following the TransAmerica Trail mostly through Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas.  The trip is fairly straightforward until we get to Colorado and then we are in for several physically grueling weeks.  We are completing numerous Life-Lists items, competing in races and attending all sorts of events in Colorado and Utah. 

If you click on the map and the little biking icons on the map you will see each stopping location plotted out on Google Maps, the projected mileage, and the projected dates we will be at that location.  The mileage and dates are subject to change and not set in stone.  We have several "padding days" built in, some days we may do more or less miles depending on the conditions.  Up to the departure and once we're on the road we will be updating this map with content for each of the locations.  The GPS map tracking us will be very similar but with tons more stats about the weather, altitude and our speed.