Ken’s Transcontinental Cycling Tour

Postscript…Final Thoughts.

October 23rd, 2006

Now here it is, 18 days since the end of PAC Tour and I’ll end this blog with some final, rambling thoughts. First, I was concerned about how it would be to fit back into daily non-PAC Tour life since I’ve heard some horror stories about difficulty adjusting back to reality with depression, weight gain, bloating, changing jobs, quitting jobs, etc. Actually, I returned to a spiffed up office- my staff had done quite a bit of painting and some interior design and my batteries seemed to be re-charged when I started to see appointments. It seemed that the longer I was away on the Tour, the less they needed anything from me!!!- Now that’s a concept. Anyway, the practice WAS still there and we are very busy but manageable caseload.

I continued to ride my bike after the end of the Tour, both because I still like riding my bike and secondly, because Lon advised people at the banquet not to just throw the bike in a corner of the garage. The day after the Tour ended I rode 35 miles to the Savannah airport to pickup my rental car to drive the following day to Jacksonville airport. It REALLY felt strange to sit in and drive a car for the first time in a month- I was almost looking for the shifters on the handleba….ah, I mean steering wheel! My first day off the bike was the 2nd day after the Tour ended when I flew home (Saturday). As soon as I arrived home, Kathy & I shot right down to our cycling team’s Fall party and I received almost a hero’s welcome when we arrived! It felt a bit strange, especially since one of our team-mates is the real hero of the crowd with his involvement in the Air Guard and multiple trips to Iraq. On Monday (Columbus Day) I raced the last USCF race of the season- and forgot what it was like to get the heartrate up so fast and for that long! However, the 39 mile race seemed like a sprint- some hills and still averaged almost 25.5 MPH for the entire race.

It’s getting pretty cold up here in the Northeast with our weekend rides starting in the 30’s for temps and warming into the 50s by the time we finish around noontime. I continue to ride on the longer side with our weekend team training rides- this past weekend saw 80 milers on both days.

As a final thought, I’m psyched that I accomplished my goal for turning 50 years old last November and glad that the daily grind in the saddle is over, but miss the PAC Tour crowd and all of the great new friends I made during the Tour. I’m SURE many of our cycling paths will cross again….

Again, thanks for reading the blog- I received many kind words via e-mail during the trip.

Ken

Life at Home has gotten back to…normal?!!

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Day 26- We’re Here in Tybee Island!

October 5th, 2006

3:43pm- We are all in safely to Tybee Island at the end of our cross country journey. We’ve been in a couple of hours and were greeted by dozens of family members and friends. More later after our banquet at 6:30pm….

10:00pm- Our banquet has just finished and it also was great. Susan presented our photo certificates, one at a time, with an anectdote about EVERY rider! I don’t know how she remembered something about each rider’s trip?! The daily progress map was auctioned off and won by Julie who will make a charitable donation to Lon and Susan’s Peru project to support children in the Andes mountains.

Our ride today was ‘ceremonial’ for the most part along a flat (900 ft climbing), 87 mile route from Metter through Savannah and eventually onto Tybee Island. With 4 miles to go we re-grouped at a sag stop and ALL rode in together, taking over one entire travel lane. It was quite emotional as we pulled into the hotel, somewhat confused about the trip being completed- happy for the accomplishment, but sad that we won’t be riding with all of our new friends tomorrow morning….. I would say that this trip was the most mentally and physically challenging event I’ve ever done! Again, thanks to everyone who has read this blog and sent e-mail from all over the world!…

Overall, my cyclometer (which WAS calibrated by a wheel roll-out) shows the following:

Total Miles: 2,960 miles Total Climbing: 101,108 feet

Total Ride Time: 161 hours and 15 minutes (that’s almost like 7 continuous days!)

Our last lunch stop outside of Tybee Island, Georgia with our outstanding lunch crew on the left and riders enjoying the rest in a local park.

The Women of Southern TransCon PACTour.

Below are photos of our emotional arrival on the east coast with the traditional dipping of the FRONT wheel in the Atlantic; remember that we dipped our rear while 26 days ago in the Pacific Ocean!

GOOD NIGHT!!! No wake-up calls or breakfast in the parking lot for this guy tomorrow morning!!!!

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Day 25- Morning Report and Ride Report
October 4th, 2006

   It’s now 5:50am eastern time on Wednesday morning and as I start my typical day by watching the Weather Channel, it was exciting to see that our current location of Perry is on the same radar screen as Savannah! We are only about 200 miles away from our final destination of Tybee Island, off the coast of Savannah. Tune in later for a report on today’s ride…

The Weather Channel radar screen showing the local area with Perry AND Savannah shown on the same image!!!!

   *It’s now 4pm and we’re into our last ‘on-the-road’ motel here in Metter, Georgia. Today’s ride was probably, mentally the hardest ride of the trip with a final total miles of 117 miles and 2,990 feet of climbing along mostly country roads. We are ALL very anxious now to finish this trip and it’s showing some by everyone’s riding style- we just want to get there…fewer stops…fewer photos…just ride and eat and drink. Physically, my crotch is really the only sore part and I took the time to photograph my butt on fire- see below! Also, below is a photo of Ned’s last sag stop on today’s route. Off to McDonald’s then dinner and one last night on the road!

My crotch on fire!!!!

Ned’s last sag stop!!

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Day 24- “Georgia on our Minds!”
October 3rd, 2006

   Well, we are in our FINAL state of PAC Tour; we crossed into Georgia from Alabama after 3 miles of riding today as we crossed Lake Eufala. The route was slated to be 104 miles (piece of cake these days) and some of us took a detour after lunch to visit Andersonville, GA, the site of the brutal prisoner of war camps were during the Civil War. This detour added a few miles to give me a total of 113 miles with 4,594 feet of climbing. The POW camp consisted of housing the thousands of prisoners out in open fields with no protection from the elements.

The terrain today continued to show us some early large rollers and then flattened out some as the day progressed. The weather AGAIN cooperated but it was still on the hot side in the mid-90 degree range. So, tomorrow’s 114 mile ride to Metter, GA will be our last ‘full’ day of riding before our arrival into Savannah on Thursday with an 86 mile day. Also, we are finally now on Eastern time which is my home time zone and easier to make phone calls to friends and family in Rhode Island and Florida.

   Arrival here tonight was extra special for me as two friends from the Atlanta area drove 2 hrs to have dinner with me. Stacy and Taffi are veterinary ophthalmologists and good friends in addition to being colleagues- it was great to see familiar faces from ‘home’ and a sign that we’re getting close to the end of this PAC Tour adventure. Well, time to post this info and photos and will ‘talk’ to you tomorrow night….

    Two photos taken at the Civil War P.O.W. camp in Andersonville, GA…not sure if the ‘Andersonville’ has any relationship to my friend Paul Anderson at home?…Nah…

Stacy (left), myself, and Taffi (right) meeting in Perry, GA for dinner. I wonder if I can write off this trip since we talked practice management over dinner?….Nah…. or….”How many veterinary ophthalmologists does it take to change a light bulb?” Answer: Three- one to turn out the room lights, a second to examine the burned light bulb filaments with the slit lamp biomicroscope, and the third to replace the new bulb… or something corny like that…

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Day 23- A Hot Second Day in Alabama…
October 2nd, 2006

   Today’s 111 mile, 4,454 foot route from….oops, now where were we this morning?….oh, yeah, from Greenville to Eufala puts us on the Alabama/Georgia line and will launch us into our final state of Georgia tomorrow morning! It was very hot and humid and the rollers got bigger today, all resulting in a long day in the saddle. We found a neat antique shop just outside of Clio, Alabama and used the opportunity to find a gift for Kathy which I carried on my back and bike 10 miles to the lunch stop and then mailed a package from the Clio post office. Now that I’ve carried two items on my back, the watermelon for Andrew’s birthday and today’s secret gift, some people are suggesting that if the veterinary ophthalmology thing doesn’t work out, I should consider a career as a bike messenger in New York City.

   A few words about the way our riding works with directions and road surface comments. First, I have to admit that the two factors I was most concerned about prior to the trip were 1. weather and 2. following a cue sheet. Well, the weather has been perfect the whole trip except for a couple of short rainy hours. As for the cue sheet, Chris T, ultracyclist from Newport, RI made me realize that there are less than about 10 turns a day- in fact, it has been very easy to follow the laminated daily sheets, especially when riding in a group. Also, the PAC Tour crew has been great about arrowing the route when there are a few turns in/out of towns. Most of the time we follow long miles on a given road and as long as we see the sun in front of us until noontime, we know we’re headed in the right direction. If all else fails, the local churches have words of wisdom for us to follow as you see pictured below. Now for road surfaces, we’ve had hundreds of miles on what’s commonly called ‘chip seal’ or ‘chip and seal’ which is a rough stony surface. It’s not so noticeable for a few miles at home but the butt sure knows the difference between that type of road and smooth roads! Well, that’s it for tonight as it’s been a long, hot day…

Left: One of about 5 antique ’sheds’ in a cluster. Right: Kathy’s gift on my back and bubble wrap taped to the bottom of the top tube; on my way to the post office 10 miles down the road.

Gene (California- recumbent rider; chiropractor) taking a stance inside the antique shop.

Change in pavement with smoother road on left side and ‘chip seal’ on the right. Our butts like smooth at this point of the trip!

     ”Lost”? No PAC Tour arrows? Just follow some of the church signs…

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Day 22- “Sweet, Smooth Alabama!”
October 1st, 2006

   Well, they say things run on a slower pace down south and I guess that includes the internet too! I’ve tried posting several times and it just ain’t workin….Check in tomorrow from the next hotel….Ken

Back on line- here’s the entry I meant to write on Sunday night:

Alabama gets our #1 vote for the smoothest roads we’ve experienced since we left San Diego 22 days ago. Today’s 149 mile/ 4,600 foot route into Greenville, Alabama yielded some rollers that could be muscled to the top; when the day was done our paceline consisting of myself, Don, Brett, Andrew, Don, Peter, Ned, and Paul averaged 20.0 MPH and most of the time we were riding between 20-30 MPH.

Many of us realized that today was a big psychological gain since it was the last long day with the remaining 4 days consisting of 115 miles or less. We’re really starting to chat about the end with questions like, “When do you fly out?”, “What do you think it will feel like to ride in a car again?” and “How do you plan to kick the soda habit when you return?” Speaking of soda, Lon and Susan said that they buy about 50, 2-liter bottles of soda EVERY DAY, resulting in an average of one bottle/person/day! I’ve had all flavors including Coke, Root Beer, Crème, Ginger ale, and the favorite drink of our team captain, Randy Rusk….Mountain Dew!

Thanks to everyone for sending e-mail, cards, notes, and home-baked cookies to riders to share with the group at the end of each day’s ride. It’s great knowing that lots of people are back home supporting our efforts.

Ken, Brett, and Andrew at the Alabama state line.

The day’s paceline: Ken, Pete (Australia), Paul (Wisconsin-veterinarian!), Don (Cal.), Andrew (Australia), Ned (NY state), and Brett (RI and Australia). We worked well together all day with about 10 minute pulls at the front over the rolling route.

I’ve never drank so much soda! Here I am showing the secret drink of Arc-En-Ciel’s Randy Rusk…”The Dew”!

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