LA to Boston in 49 days

Friday May 31, 2019.     Liberal, KS to Dodge City, KS.                 88 miles Ascent= +1,059.    Descending= -1,392.               Cumulative=  1,434 miles Prudy and John said good bye as we left for the day's ride and they headed out to Colorado to see friends, but plan to meet up one more time in Junction City, KS during our 3rd rest day. Weather conditions were again all most perfect with a more gentle following wind. After a relatively quick 40 miles, we had our only SAG of the day in Meade, KS the site of the Dalton Gang's Hideout with an 85 foot tunnel to an out building.  It was an interesting place with a small museum, but was several blocks off US-54, next door to the middle of no place, so it's not an attraction you would just stumble upon. After another 20 miles most of us stopped in Mineola at a small Mexican restaurant, which served American fare in addition to Mexican and Tex-Mex.  I had a Taco Salad, while 2 of the others at my table had Philly che

Thursday May 30, 2019                  Guymon, OK to Liberal, KS          46 miles "Climbing"= 373 feet     Descent= 654 feet.       Cumulative= 1,346 miles After nearly 2 1/2 weeks traveling through 3 western states (California, Arizona and New Mexico), we have now been in 3 additional states in the past 3 days (Texas, Oklahoma and now Kansas).  Now we will be spending a full week in Kansas, crossing the state from the southwest corner to the northeast. Today may be the easiest day of the tour, a mere 46 miles under blue skies with relatively flat terrain, negligible wind, factor and temps rising to the mid 70os while we biked.  No reason to hurry since our hotel rooms would not be ready, so we savor end the ride. We stopped at Dorothy's house on the Yellow Brick Rd. In Liberal, Kansas. Prudy and John were able to meet us at that point and John helped me change a flat front tire. We also visited the Mid America Air Museum, the 5th largest collection of military

Wednesday May 29, 2019.         Dalhart, TX to Guymon, OK.             72 miles Elevation Drop 865 feet.             Cumuative 1,300 miles We continue to have unseasonably cool weather with a starting temp of 49 degrees at 7:00 AM. Our friendly tailwind had turned into a 20 mph headwind with gusts of 30 or more mph.  We have also lost our sunny skies, so it feels even colder, particularly with the "wind chill" factor.   The wind has turned what seemed likely to be a slightly shorter day into a real indurance contest.  I personally would much rather climb than face a wind. A group of us formed a pace line in which we drafted behind other riders to conserve energy until it is your turn to "pull" or lead the line, expending extra effort to  break the wind for the riders behind.  Even with the pace line our speed was a fraction of the average speed yesterday, and a long arduous day was inevitable. Again we are on US Route 54 all day, which is generally a 2-3 lan

Thursday May 28, 2019.     Tucumcari, NM to Dalhart, NM.              96 miles Ascent and Descent approx. equal, 2,100 feet each          Cumulative= 1,228 miles I realize that a large portion of my posts have dealt with weather condition, which can make them tedious and boring, but you cannot spend the majority of your day on a bicycle without being obsessed with weather conditions and how they will effect your day. They will dictate everything from what you wear to how much you may need to eat to generate the power to move from Town A to City B. Today we spent the entire day on US Route 54 traveling northeast from Tucumcari to Dalhart, crossing the New Mexico / Texas state line and entering the Central Time Zone. I would describe the terrain as gently rolling countryside, remaining at an elevation of approximately 4,000 feet throughout the day, There were relatively few trees, many ranches set back from the road, and both sides of the road were lined with barbed wire almost the

Monday May 27, 2019.      Las Vegas, NM to Tucumcari, NM.           109 miles Ascent  +4,278 feet.       Descent- 6,611 feet Cumulative= 1,132 miles Similar weather today. At our usual 7:00 AM start the temp was again in the mid 40's reaching 89 by the end of the ride.  We also had another wind advisory with winds steady in the low 20's mph with gusts over 40. We followed NM Route 104 which is the only option to get to where we were going, and really an excellent road for a bike ride; the road surfaces were good virtually the whole way and encountered only occasional cars or trucks. Within a few miles I thought that we had left the mesas and mountains behind for a rolling prairie, but the mesas and high ridges returned, and at one point nearly 100 miles east of Sante Fe we able to still glimpse the snow capped Sangre de Christo Mountains. We a reasonable amount to climbing, but even more descent and with an initial following wind we were able to reach the second of our SA

Sunday May 26, 2019.           Sante Fe, NM to Las Vegas, NM.                 74 miles Ascent 4,533 feet   Descent 4,014.        Temp=. 45-78 degrees Cumulative = 1,023 miles First of all, if you are interested in some nice pictures of our tour and a sort of aerial/Google Earth kind of view of our daily routes, you should check out:  bigdreambiketours.com Today it was another chilly start at 45 degrees, again with almost immediate climbing.  It was sunny, however,  and the forecast was for the temp to rise quickly through the morning so I was comfortable with just arm warmers in addition to the basic bike shorts and shirt and I took off the arm warmers after an hour or two. Other than the day leaving Flagstaff, we have had amazing blue skies with very few clouds for two past weeks, not something that is common in western New York State.  About 35 miles out of Santa Fe the snow capped mountains of  the Sante Fe area disappeared behind us. We reached the high point of the bike t

Friday May 24, 2019.            Albuquerque, NM to Sante Fe, NM.                     68 miles Ascent= +4,942 feet.    Descent=  -3,380 feet Albuquerque is schizophrenic mix of bike friendly and bike hostile.  The bike hostile was due to a generous portion of drivers who do not believe that bicycles should not be allowed on surface streets.  The streets apparently are meant for the exclusive use of vehicles with internal combustion engines. Many drivers honked and most of the group had close encounters of the worst kind with trucks or cars which cut them off unnecessarily, while other drivers yelled encouragement. The most bike friendly part of Abuquerque was a nicely paved and maintained bike path which we were able to follow for several miles as we left town on Friay morning during early rush hour.  It was 45 degrees to start, but warmed fairly quickly, plus we started climbing as soon as we left the hotel, so within an hour or two I shed all but my short sleeve bike shirt and b

Thursday May 23, 2019   Grants, NM to Albuquerque, NM.         79 miles Ascent +2,045 feet,  Descent -3,366 feet. Cumulative 881 miles Just as we have all week, we started biking with temps in the mid 30's although it did warm up to a high of about 70 while we biked.  Once again wind was a major factor, this time with an actual wind advisory, so we were all worrying about exactly which direction the wind would blow from. We would deal with steady winds of 20-36 with gusts up to 46 mph throughout the day.  Both the wind direction and our direction of travel varied somewhat throughout the day, but we started out south into a direct headwind of about 20 mph. 5 of us got a pace line going which really helped to minimize fatigue.  A pace line is where bikers take turns riding and front to break the wind for the other bikers who draft behind.  After the first 45 minutes or hour, I developed trouble shifting to some gears, and my chain would jump from gear to gear on its own from tim

Monday May 20, 2019.  Flagstaff, AZ to Holbrook, AZ.           95 Miles Ascent +1,177 feet,  Descent -2,886 feet Tuesday May 21, 2019.  Holbrook, AZ to Gallup, NM.              94 miles Ascent +2,412 feet,   Descent -1,122 feet Wednesday May 22, 2019.   Gallup, NM to Grants, NM.            67 Miles Ascent = Descent. (I don't know the number of feet because I lost my cue sheet with the data, but the elevation of Gallup and Grant are equal Cumulative = 802 miles Well I haven't achieved daily blogs yet, but the past 3 days have had much in common. About 80% of the past 3 days were spent biking along the breakdown lane of I-40 East, and most of the rest was spent biking along the original Route 66, which in the pre-Interstate days was the major highway between Chicago to LA.  We also have had unseasonably colder and extremely windy weather. During our rest day on Sunday we became aware of the weather we would be encountering, and none of us had packed biking clothes

Wickenburg, AZ to Prescoott, AZ on Thursday May 16, 2019                    60 miles 6,087  feet ascent,    2,798 feet descent. Highest Elevation: Yarnell Pass- 4,780 feet Prescott, AZ to Cottonwood, AZ on Friday May 17, 2019.                          44.3 miles 2,380 feet ascent,     4,851 feet descent Highest elevation :    Mingus Mt.- 7,815 feet Cottonwood, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ on Saturday May 1, 2019.                       46.8 miles 5,093 feet ascent,      1,511 descent Highest elevation:  Flagstaff. 7,000 feet Cumulative 546 miles I decided to put some of the vital statistics at the beginning of each post for anyone that is following this just to see where we are now, how far we've biked, etc. After 3 days of. desert biking we headed north out of Wickenburg, AZ on towards Prescott, AZ. At our morning "Route Rap" we discussed "false flats", which have to do with an optical illusion in which you appear to be traveling over a flat stretch of

We are. Currently in Cottonwood, AZ.  I have posted only a brief note in the past 3 days,in large part due to the demands of the biking.  I mentioned the desert in my last post, over 3 hundred miles in 3 days, a personal record for me, in temperatures we don't do in Canandaigua or Rochester, NY.  It doesn't get to 100 there,and if the temperature is in the mid 90's I would generally not bike.  I did train extensively for this trip, logging over 2,000 outdoor miles since the beginning of the year, and was gratified and somewhat surprised that my legs were not sore after the first 3 days on the road, 2 of which were desert days, but it hit me on the third day of desert riding when about 90 miles into it my legs felt completely sapped of strength.  The support crew of CrossRoads were very helpful and attentive, checking on me frequently, and riding much of the last 25 miles with me. With about 10 miles to go Dana, one of the CrossRoads owners was riding with me and said, "

Just a very quick post before we head out this morning for over 6,00 feet of climbing. There have been concerns expressed about my health and welfare and my technical ability to post a blog. Neither concern is silly, and hopefully a brief post will reassure all concerns. I feel as good as I could have expected after the itinerary for the last 3 days. We have spent the last 3 days in the desert covering 313 miles, about. 130 of then on the shoulder of I-10 eastbound due to the lack of an other alternative. High temps have been 100, 101, and 95, so I have been concentrating on recovery, but I also usually hand wash my bike clothes, etc. I've got to get ready for breakfast now.I will try to write more tonight or tomorrow.

Yesterday was the official start of the tour, but it was a day of orientation and meeting the other participants and the staff who will accompany us. CrossRoads Cycling Adventures has done this tour for several years and is very organized, as you would to need be to assist 14 or 15 bikers across the continent. There are 2 riders who are each doing 1/3 of the ride, one with us now from LA to Albuquerque, NM, and another joining us from St. Joseph, MO to Boston. It is a great group, everyone is very friendly, and the staff is great. After a 5:45 breakfast we had our bikes ready and bags loaded in the truck for transport to Riverside,CA where we stay tonight.  It is Mothers Day and we applauded all the mothers present, and I want to wish a very happy Mothers Day to any mothers reading this. At 7:00 bikes were rolling and we made our way 5 miles to Manhattan Beach for the ceremonial dipping of our rear tires in the Pacific, with the plan to dip our front tires in the Atlantic at Re

Just a quick post to check that this all works, since I have never blogged before.  I am Jeff Page and my main purpose in writing this blog is to chronicle my transcontinental bike ride, from LA to Boston, to help me better remember the trip and for family and friends to keep tabs on me  if they are so inclined. So the name of this blog describes it all:  LA to Boston in 49 days.  I will be biking with 17 other inscriptees, 15 of us going coast to coast, the others doing differing large segments of the trip. Just as a side note, I had chosen a more colorful title for this blog, but my wife, Kathy, said that she would to embarrassed to share the title with anyone, so I have renamed the blog for her comfort.  I thought that the previous name was perfectly appropriate for use in mixed company. It did, however, include a precise, clinical, scientific name for an anatomic structure, namely the one that supports most of the body weight on the bicycle saddle, which I did not consider offe