Tues. 6/14/2016: I realize that some of you must be wondering just how we get from city to city w/ o getting lost. So, I took a photo of the turn by turn document we use to get around– it’s called a cue sheet. The entire group meets each night at 530PM for a route rap session to review the next days ride. The staff person assigned to present goes over tricky or complicated turns, risky railroad crossings, big climbs etc. it is a necessary 10-15 minutes of data. The cue sheets in Kansas were short i.e. Go out the hotel and go straight for 50 miles. Now there are more streets and lots of turns and stop signs– the usual old story more people= more risk! The ride today was fun. The weather was cooler 60-79 range, and that simple change allows the body to stay cool to the core and use less fuel and expend less energy. I and Kevin rode the entire day together- it was the first time on the trip that us San Diego North County buds were able to do so!! Ron was off having fun also- a reported great coffee shop was part of his experience. Our ride consisted of Lots of hard paced energetic periods topped off with a closing almost 20 miles of really mellow riding on this terrific bike path. Before that we rode on SR 446 – a busy high truck use route — that kind of riding is focused intense cycling. Check the hand video I shot of the path– very fun. As I said it was an instant push of the “Happy Button” .
JQsBigAdventure 
Looks very organized. When I biked across Europe in 1983 the summer after my sophomore year at college with a group, we had a 5 minute recap at breakfast that we wrote down key facts on a napkin and put the marked up napkin in our front carrier guide and made sure not use it for clean up by mistake. No cell phones, but fortunately I knew some French and Spanish and most West Germans knew English so we asked a lot of questions (and got invited into local homes frequently for water and food). Being a solid charades player definitely helped. No SAG vehicle either – oh to be young, tough, and in retrospect probably just lucky and plain stupid not to know better.
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Well said– can we go back and try again? That’s probably what I’m doing , right!?
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Yes you are way tougher though. We usually biked 40-60 miles a day (I don’t recall being over any days of 100 except on the last night when we biked from Paris to London and got to sleep on the ferry in the middle of the ride).and were almost 50 years younger than you. Vienna to London is a LOT shorter distance than Los Angeles to Boston
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Proves, in my case, you don’t necessarily get smarter as you get older!!
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Jim, glad to see you survived the truck incident. More angry truckers ahead of you as
You hit the Northeast so watch your back.
You are going at a great clip which is great as you soon will hit some mountains.
Ride On!
Kos
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Yeah I’m surprised by the amount of climbing we will see in New England and NY state. End is in sight but still about 600 miles to g!! Crazy numbers which I will probably never do again but what a fantastic experience. Jo has been commenting too- cool stuff!!
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Hi – my name is Chris Sachs and I did this ride with Tracy back in 2001 (gold Waterford track bike – she may remember me because of my choice of ride – cross country with no shifting or coasting – what a nut). I work in Akron, Ohio and was thinking about visiting the group at your rest stop just south of here earlier this week. Alas, work got in the way.
Thanks for the updates. They bring back fond memories. Good luck in the last days of your adventure. You folks are going great! Sorry to see you had one injury ending the rider’s trip, but at least it is one that he can recover from.
A technical question – what software are you using to report your rides? I haven’t moved on from an old Garmin and basic Cateye computers. I think I need to come into this century with my bike electronics. I really like the look of your app, so I thought I would ask.
Anyway, enjoy the last of your adventure. I would do this again in a heartbeat!
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Wow- Christopher I’m always flattered to hear from a CR alumni! I’m using the Garmin 520 which is not nearly as sophisticated as the 810 or 1000 but I enjoy it’s reports which are blue tooth transferred to Garmin Connect. That ability was a key part in my choice- I did not need my computer to download data. This trip has been awesome after we all got through the first 2 weeks!! Tracy currently is off tour dealing with a neck issue in Denver. She should be back soon- I’ll let her know of your contact. Keep riding!!
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