Waiting for the Bike

The weather has been nice enough these days to ride, even though there is ice and snow in some of the shady spots. But the bike hasn't come in yet, so we are waiting for a call from Kelvin in Woodland park. Laura swears she ordered the bike, so we're going with that. Once it comes, we'll be out at Washington Park, weaving like drunks. The road there is really wide, but also crowded with dogs on 20 foot leashes, rollerbladers, and joggers. We're bound to hit something, and with the clip in pedals we'll still be attached to the bike when it lands on top of us.
Looks like Laura is warming up to the idea of sticking with the route from Astoria to Denver, even though it is longer than she thought. And I checked into a GPS unit last week, but they are not really designed for what we need, so I'm not going to waste my time with it. But it does look like an I-phone is in my future, it has alot of what we need for the trip and my phone died besides. So until something else happens we are sitting around waiting. With the Democratic convention coming to town next summer while we're gone, we have contacted Hillary's people about renting our house while they're in town. No response yet.

New Route?

While going over the maps the other day, Laura noticed that the route we are taking from Oregon to Denver was about 2000 miles on the mapped route. Needless to say, this caused much apprehension since she thought it was only going to be about 1200. Wonder how she got the wrong info? Now we have to look at alternatives, the dates are set, so looks like shortening the route is the only option. We only really want to have to average 50 miles/day. So we'll see.

Weather

Looks like maybe some people are reading from Salt Lake, thanks for the interest. Most of you are from the Northwest somewhere, I need advice on how the weather is from the 15th of May going into summer. Are we going to end up like the Donner party? We're starting in Astoria, Oregon and going east to Bozeman, the south through Yellowstone. I'm thinking there are generally tailwinds, right? And no snow. Please confirm.

Working

Well well, sitting at work at midnight and decided to update the blog. Have become friends with a lady from Paraguay who will look at the blog from back there with students at her language school. Hope they comment some, it would be one way they could help their English along. No news on the bike, hasn't arrived yet, and with things around here in a winter death grip, no training is possible anyway. We have found a couple of ways to leave our house with someone in it, more as it works out. The democratic convention is in Denver this August, glad to be out of town for that. More time at the gym on the hamster wheel is about all that can be done.

New Bike

We ordered the bike yesterday. It's exciting and scary at the same time. I've been putting off buying a new bike for me, actually thought I might do it this year, but with the new tandem there won't be any new hot rod for me. That's all right, maybe next year, this is the year of the trip. Hopefully we will use the new tandem for more than one excursion, I think so. The bike is a Rans Seavo, and it is pretty much the Rolls Royce of bikes for riding cross country. It takes four weeks to get it from the factory, and then we will go to Woodland Park to get it from Kelvin at his custom bike shop. It's about 10 feet long, but comes apart in the middle for transport. Everything we need will fit in a box on the back, and we will start to take Helen on our training trips. Maybe not.

Tim, you are my hero, for actually commenting on the blog! We'll get these other folks to put in a little creative effort and participate yet. Upon the return from Mexico yesterday, it has come to my attention that I need to acquire one thing for this upcoming trip, a bike. Don't have it yet. And it's going to take some serious practice before we start. Riding the demo I had the feeling of being in an 18 wheeler and trying to make a u-turn on a narrow country road. Hope that goes away. Looks like we may just buy the one we want new. No luck finding anything used, and don't want to compromise on the quality, the one we want has everything going for it except price. I'm figuring to take it out of the kids inheritance.
Received the maps today from adventure cycling, so I will start looking at them with the object of finding out if we can do this without a tent at all for backup. Heard from a friend named Blake, who's done this before, that he averaged 55 miles/day, but there wasn't always a bed convenient. Have to think about that. I'm sure Laura won't mind a bivouac or two.

Still Planning

Well, in the interest of keeping this current, here's the latest plan. Probably to change later.  Looks like I can work it out to retire the 1st of May or so.  Then off to the white rim trail with the Harless group.  Perhaps from there we will go on to Astoria, Oregon with a one way rental car, carrying the bike.  We'll have plenty of time to get back to Denver by June 14, which is a sort of deadline brought on by my niece Kelci.  I signed up today with an organization of people who host riders, in hopes of having some places to stay in homes along the way instead of motels every night.   We are also expected to host people doing the same thing, which would be interesting as well.  Still trying to find a bike at a reasonable price, nothing so far.  Ordered the mapset for the entire route from Oregon to Yorktown, Va, even though we will be deviating some due to Ragbrai and staying with friends who have the audacity to live off the mapped route.  

Looking at the number of comments posted, it appears that there is either no interest in any of this, or all of the readers are internet challenged and can't post a comment.  Either way, I'm committed to writing this as a record, either for me or for future generations.  Your post will be part of history!!!!!