eLIFELIST.com Bike Trip

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 have Compete in the Muddy Buddy Race on our lists and August 19th we will be competing in the Muddy Buddy Ride and Run race in Boulder, Colorado.  It is the 2nd annual Muddy Buddy event and they have them all over the country: San Jose, LA, Austin, Chicago, Richmond, Atlanta, Orlando and Boulder.  The race is in teams of two and consists of roughly a 6 mile course with several obstacles courses; a bike ride, a run and ends in a huge mud pit crawl.  It looks like a lot of fun and we’re pumped to participate.  Check out a few videos from Last Year. 

We are leaning much more towards using Bike Trailers than Panniers.  A trailer just seems to make more sense and people we've talked to that have done long bike trips agree.  The one that seems the best is this guy, the Bob Ibex with it's Dry Sak which is 5600 Cubic Inches, meaning each of us has to fit 2 months worth of stuff into 5600 Cubic Inches.  Doable. 

There's even a flag attachment that comes with it which will be perfect for an eLIFELIST.com flag.

Brent checked "Skydiving" off his list yesterday, he went at Skydive Virginia in Louisa Virginia.  We'll have a video up on eLIFELIST.com soon of his jump.

We are in the process of getting things together to accept donations for Livestrong, we'll have more details about this in the coming weeks.

In preparing for this trip we are finding there are tons of lists tomake, isn't that true for every trip?  List of things to pack, gear we'll need, places to stop, things to see, things to do on our lists problems we'll face , people to contact , expenses we'll have on the trip.  So much to think about, but it feels good to start flushing everything out.  Brent seems to think there's not as much planning necessary for the trip as I do, I think he's crazy.  This coming from Brent, the guy that had 5 alarm clocks in college, seriously, and one of them was this little drumset .

We've talked about it enough, almost a year now.  So, we're trying to put together everything to go on the Bike Trip Across the States.  We've definitely decided we are going and to make it happen.  Brent made the point that we're only getting older and it's just going to get harder to do things like this.  It's just a matter of making it all work, there is a lot of gear, planning and severe organization that has to go into place in what seems like a short amount of time.  We are planning to leave on August 1st which gives us 82 days to get everything together.  We will keep this site updated and loaded with as much content as possible everyday.  Next on the list is finalizing a route which includes making the list of all the events and sights we want to see along the way.  Lots to plan, but it will be incredible.