LA to Boston in 49 days

Thursday June 27, 2019.                     Brattleboro, VT to Burlington, MA.                          91 miles Ascent/Descent= 4,518/3684 feet.                                                              Cumulative= 3,579 miles Friday June 29, 2019.                          Burlington, MA to Revere Beach, MA.                    18 miles Ascent/Descent= 473/620.                                                                          Cumulative= 2,599 miles Thursday morning we learned that our hospitalized tour member was answering texts and email.  His physical injuries are substantial, but it is clear that that the emotional pain of not being able to finish with the rest of us after being so close was his bigger problem. We all thought about him as we went about tackling the last big day of biking, and one of the harder days at that.  Perceptions as to how hard this day would actually be seemed to vary from rider to rider.  The stats on our cue sheets (written route instructi

Wednesday June 26, 2019.                    Troy, NY to Brattleboro, VT.                              76 miles Ascent/Descent= 5,287/5,002 feet.                                                         Cumulative= 3,488 miles We enjoyed a warmer start than usual start, somewhere around 70 degrees, but excessive heat was not an issue even though we had a "Mile high Day", with more than a mile of climbing over the official 73.7 miles. We were primarily on NY Rt. 7 and VT Rt 9 all day, with varying grades of climbing through most of the day with a few longer descents, particularly one at the end of the day, which is always welcome.  Once we got out of Troy, it was all rural with a few towns and small cities, which seem to be having better economic times than many municipalities we have seen along the tour.  The scenery was beautiful all day. Most of us held something back during the seemingly endless ascent in the morning because of Hogback Mountain, approximately 75% into t

Tuesday June 25, 2019.         Herkimer, NY to Troy, NY.                                          85 miles Ascent/Descent= 2,223/2,597.                                                         Cumulative= 3,412 miles First thing, I need to acknowledge that my posted cumulative mileages are more than 100 miles greater than the official cumulative posted on the CrossRoads and Big Dream websites. Some of this is explained by little side trips or the few occasions when I was briefly off course due to navigation error, but the difference seems too large to explain by these relatively small variances.  I have looked back over my own data for the last 12-14 days or so and cannot find a math error. Someday maybe I'll check my addition for the entire trip, but in the meantime I stand by my figures. Rain was the forecast for today and we had light rain right up to the only SAG stop when it really let loose. CrossRoads had set up a small canopy over the food and drinks, and we all crowded

Monday June 24, 2019.           Syracuse, NY to Herkimer, NY.                   73 miles Ascent/Desent= 1,492/1,527 feet.                                     Cumulative=  3,327 miles First of all, let me answer the question on everyone's mind: NO, I did not have any flats today. The sun was shining and there was no rain, so how could it not be a great day? Mostly it was. We pedaled along the Barge Canal and remnants of the old Erie Canal and the Mohawk River.  We had very little climbing and a lot of nice rural roads, with occasional busy streets or bad surfaces. Unfortunately, one of our riders hit a pothole and was thrown over his handle bars, only a few miles from our motel.  He was x-rayed and has no broken bones, and has to be very sore. But he is tenacious and wants to bike the rest of the way. He was out this afternoon shopping for a new bike, as his frame was cracked in 3 places in the fall. We are all aware that although we are nearing the end of our trip, there are

Saturday June 22, 2019.              Hamburg, NY to Victor, NY.                  90 miles Ascent/Descent= 3,448/3,636 feet.                                  Cumulative= 3,168 miles Sunday June 23, 2019.                 Victor, NY to Syracuse, NY.                  86 miles Ascent/Descent= 2,587/2,720 feet.                                  Cumulative= 3,254 miles The past two days have been a sort of homecoming without really getting home. We enjoyed nearly ideal cycling weather both days, leaving in the mornings with temps in the low 60's, but with clear sunny skies so that only a biking jersey and bike shorts were needed, and never becoming oppressively hot. Both days,biking into Victor which is very near my home in Canandaigua, and biking on to Syracuse, I was joined by members of my biking club, the Thursday Night Men's Club.  Saturday Jeff Thomas and Steve Simpson, were delivered to our hotel in Hamburg by Steve's wife, Patty, who had to get up before 5:00 AM to

Friday June 21, 2019.                 Erie, PA to Hamburg, NY.                         81 miles Ascent/Descent= 1,943/1,768.                                           Cumulative= 3,078 miles Yesterday was our last rest day and I slept longer than I have on the whole trip.  It rained most of the day, but that's OK on a rest day. Kathy drove me and some of my biking buddies around to get some things we needed at a bike shop and a pharmacy.  We enjoyed the beautiful view from our hotel. I had no idea that the lakefront in Erie is as nice as it is. Kathy left this morning,but will see us tomorrow night in Victor, which is only about 15 miles from our house.  She had brought homemade cookies: chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and molasses, three of my favorite kinds.  I tested a couple of each kind over the rest day and as expected they were delicious.  The rest went into the fan for today's SAG stop and they were a big hit with everybody, as was the strawberry short cake tha

Sunday June 17, 2019.           Richmond, IN to Marysville, OH.                         107 miles Ascent/Descent= 2,182/2,252 feet                                               Cumulative= 2,708 miles Monday June 18, 2019.         Marysville, OH to Wooster, OH.                            105 miles Ascent/Descent= 4,470/4,567 feet.                                              Cumulative= 2,813 miles Tuesday June 19, 2019.          Wooster,OH to Niles, OH.                                      94 miles Ascent/Decent= 3,347/3,283 feet.                                               Cumulative= 2,907 miles Wednesday June19, 2019.          Niles, OH to Erie, A.                                              90 miles Ascent/Descent= 1,634/2,005 feet.                                             Cumulative= 2,997 miles Thursday June20, 2019.                   Last of 5 rest days I apologize that I neglected to hit the publish button after I wrote my "most recent" post, &q

Tuesday June 11,  2019.     Springfield, IL to Champaign, IL.                            89 miles Ascent/Descent=  1,428 feet/1,245 feet.                                   Cumulative= 2,391 miles                                                                                                   (Including rest day miles) The bike from Springfiedl to Champaign was pretty much what I think of Illinois south of the Chicago area, flat with a lot of corn.  There are still fields that are not even plowed yet due to flood residual, but more and more fields are planted, many that will have corn well over knee high by the 4th of July.  Are 1st SAG stop was in Chestnut, IL which has a plaque identifying it as the geographic center of the state.  It is otherwise a very typical tiny Illinois town.  Our second SAG was at at Casey's gas station. Casey's is regional known for pretty decent gas station pizza, and most of us have a slice or two. Champaign is the hometown of Peyton Kaiser ou

Saturday June 15, 2019.      Indianapolis, IN to Richmond, IN.                      73 miles Ascent/Descent = 1,714/1,265.                                            Cumulative = 2,601 miles It rained throughout the night and continued to rain lightly as we departed.  The forecast was for a high probability of rain with scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, so it is difficult to get fired up to hop on a bike and get out in the weather, but it is part of the adventure.  What wind there is, is generally at our backs, or close enough that it is some help, and although the rain is fairly persistent, it is light. That is until we are within about 5-10 miles from our stop for the night, when the rain became heavy enough that you got wet no matter what you were wearing.  The hills seemed to increase at the same time, just to make our finish a little more unpleasant.  Two bikers had flats within 10 miles of the end, one biker needed a new wheel at day's end and another fell and cr

Friday June 14, 2019.        Crawfordsville, IN to Indainapolis, IN.            56 miles Ascent/Descent = 789/1,082.                                            Cumulative= 2,528 miles We had a fairly short ride today getting us into Indiannapolis by noon.  It was a very enjoyable ride except for a 2-3 mile stretch of some of the worst road conditions we've encountered along with no bike able shoulder and more traffic as we approached the city from the south.  The payoff was getting on the White River Bike Trail which took us literally right downtown.  Indy has a very extensive system of bike trails and many well marked and driver-respected bike lanes. As we emerged from the tree lined portion of the trail we had an immediate panoramic view of the downtown area including the Captiol Building and Lucas Oil Stadium where the Colts play.  One little problem we encountered was that our bridge was closed for a Zoo festival, but we found another bridge right nearby which took us to the

Thursday June 13, 2019.      Champaign, IL to Crawfordsville, IL.                81 miles Ascent/Descent= 1,909/1,936.                                              Cumulative= 2,472 miles We did get to see some of the University of Illinois as we left the Champaign Urbana area, but it was a little hard to feel the college atmosphere at 7:30 AM on a summer day. .I only saw a few people on campus and they looked more like employees than students. I'm not sure if they are even in session Anyway, a big school with some big buildings. The weather was again on the cool side with very little chance of rain, and a big wind which was closer to a tailwind than a crosswind.  With a relatively flat course, we moved right along, and I averaged about 17.5 mph reflecting help from the wind.  Not much of particular note along the route other than a series of bicycles mounted along the wall of a building in Hillsboro, IN, which presented a photo op. Check out the Blog for Day 34 on the Big Dr

Monday June 10,2019.          Quincy, IL to Springfield, IL.        108 miles Ascent/Descent= 2,726/2838 feet.                      Cumulative= 2,299 miles It's amazing how your perspective changes about what is a long ride and what is not.  80 mile rides are average, but actually seem like a shorter ride due to days like today when we were slotted for a 106 mile ride, and were told  at breakfast that the route had to be changed due to another road closure, so that we would now be biking 108 miles.  Most amazing is that 80 or 110 miles day after day does not seem impossible or even unreasonable, it's just, "OK, let's get out there and ge it done." We were again fortunate with weather as it was a cooler, less humid day, but the wind was significant and a bit of a wild card. Wind speeds of around 20 mph with gusts above 30 mph were predicted, and I suspect that some of the gusts were well above 30. We were traveling due east with wind direction NW to North, so

Sunday June 9, 2019.             Kirksville, MO to Quincy, IL.                      76 miles Ascent= 1,971 feet.  Descent= 2,165 feet                                      Cumulative= 2,091 miles Breakfast ended up being served an hour later than everyone anticipated but we still left within 15 minutes of our usual departure time to immediately encounter more of the same type of hills we had been seeing for the past 2 days.  But these rollers gradually mellowed out and mostly disappeared within the  first 30 or so miles and we enjoyed a relatively flat ride as we approached the flooding mighty Mississippi River. The flooding caused the most minor of detours for us.  There are separate bridges for both eastbound and a westbound traffic into and out of Quincy, and our eastbound bridge was all but under water in an area that is usually nowhere near the river bank.  As a result we were shunted onto the westbound bridge, which now had one lane of traffic in each direction, with a few fe

Saturday June 8, 2019.         Chillicothe, MO to Kirksville, MO.                75 miles Ascent/Descent= Approx. 4,500 feet/4,300 feet.               Cumulative= 2,015 miles I sat with Rick Wardell, Pharmacist and CrossRoads Cycling Adventures Master Bike Mechanic, at breakfast this morning.  Rick is a remarkable fellow and the nicest guy you would ever want to meet, and he has been on this tour annually for almost 25 years, riding his bike cross country many times.  He was not going to be able to ride today, but he called this his favorite day of the tour.  He has counted the number of hills between Chillicothe and Kirksville multiple times, initially coming up with slightly different totals, but then counted 148 hills on 4 consecutive years, and this is now the official total. Needless to say Rick likes climbing hills and especially these particular hills.  He explained his criteria for what counts as a hill and what doesn't, and his strategy for handling this type of hill,

Friday June 7, 2019            St. Joseph,  MO to Chillicothe, MO.                        87 miles Approx ascent= 4,500 feet.  Aprox. Descent=  4,700 feet.        Cumulative  1,940 miles We enjoyed another very nice day with a high of 86 degrees and mostly sunny skies. The terrain remains quite hilly, again mostly GRC, but there were a couple of half mile climbs. The undeniable highlight of the day occurred when we were the guests of honor in Maysville, MO at our first SAG stop of the day.  Apparently, the CrossRoads Tour passing through town has become a real event in this town of just over 1,000, the Couonty Seat of DeKalb County, MO.  The bikers congregated in a parking lot within view of the elementary children who were lining the street in front of the County School. When all the bikers had arrived, we cycled past the children and their signs and applause and on to the Historical Society / Museum where a group of locals including the mayor, some farmers, and a romp of women

Thursday June 6, 2019        Topeka, KS to St.Joseph, MO.                          98 miles Ascent/descent unknown                                                     Cumulative. 1,854 miles The big weather concern when we left in 70 temperature was the threat of thunderstorms. It had already rained and the streets were wet, throwing spatter from our wheels onto our legs and bikes, but  that was the only moisture we encountered.   The rerrain was increasingly hilly, generally falling into a GRC (gently rolling countryside) category. The temperatures were somewhat lower with less humidity, and the day was going along very well until our 2nd SAG stop in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen in Atchison, KS.  (We hit the trifecta: Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe).  While the early arrivals were Sagging, and maybe getting a flurry or other DQ delight, word was radioed from the lead  vehicle that one of the roads on our route was closed due to flooding. It was initially unclear how we could p

Wednesday, June 5, 2019.              Junction Cit, KS to Topeka, KS.                        82 miles Ascent= 3,263 feet    Descent= 3,388 feet.                                     Cumulative= 1,755 miles Temp= 71-93 degrees Yesterday was our third of five rest days, and I was able to spend it with Prudy and John. After a Cracker Barrel breakfast, we rode back to Abilene in their nice new car, with a seat that was much larger and softer than my bike saddle was when I biked this the day before.  We were able to tour Eisenhower's boyhood home and Presential Library, and the chapel where he and Mamie and one of their sons who died in childhood are buried. The Presidential Musem was closed for renovations, but  if I'm back in Abilene within the year, I can get into the museum free. Or, if you are planning to be in Ablilene within the next year, I can mail my ticket to you. We returned to Junction City where Prudy again volunteered to do my laundry. She claims that it is her f

Monday June 3, 2019.                   McPherson, KS to Junction City, KS.                  87 miles Ascent= 1,852 feet.    Descent= 2,291 feet.                                    Cumulative=  1,673 miles We have reached the middle.  We still have a few miles to go to reach 1,700 miles, which is halfway to 3,400 miles, the advertised length of our tour, but we are midway through the seven weeks duration of the tour.  Tomorrow is the 3rd of 5 rest days and we are still in Kansas, wherein lies the geographic center of the US. The scattered thunderstorms that were predicted for at least the start of the day passed during the night so we left on dry pavement with the temp in the low 60's eventually rising to the low 80's. About 7 miles into the day we came upon a construction site where they were repaying US 56 and it was down to one lane for about a mile where they were removing the surface layer and leaving that scored surface that creates a lot of extra tire noise and a sl

Sunday June 2, 2019      Great Bend, KS to McPherson, KS.         65 miles Ascent= 854 feet.    Descent= 1,198 feet.             Cumulative= 1,586 miles We have been following US-54 since Okahoma, and again today we followed 54 all day. The temperatures have been gradually rising, and we left this morning at 62 degrees with a temp of 76 when we reached McPherson and it eventually reached 86, but temperature was not the meteorological factor we were most worried about.  There was a 30-40% chance of a thunderstorm, but that never materialized.  Again wind was the issue, and a nearly dead on headwind of 10-20 mph turned a short day into a longer and much more difficult slog.  Again, a pace line was the order of the day, and about 8 of us stayed fairly close to each other through the first 30 miles to the only SAG stop.  We left the SAG together, but the pace line only lasted about another 5-10 miles, and riders started to drop off to take pictures, eat or drink, or whatever (comfort st

Saturday June 1, 2019.     Dodge City, KS to Great Bend, KS.               87 miles Ascent 431 feet.       Descent 1,086 feet.                           Cumulative 1,086 miles This has been, and I am sure will continue to be, a really fantastic trip.  I first wanted to bike across the US in 1976 when I heard that there was a group doing it to celebrate the country's bicentennial, but it wasn't reasonable for me to do it at that time as I had only been married two years and was entering medical school in the fall, without much money, so I needed to work.  Now a mere 43 years later here I am in the middle of Kansas, almost halfway across the US by bike. We did reach a point today equidistant from San Francisco and NYC, but it is not our midpoint yet. We have traveled farther than the distance to San Fran and have farther yet to go.  I believe our midpoint is at least 2 riding days away. The CrossRoads Cycling Adventure staff has been amazing, watching out for us, helping us wh