Trip Prep – Dennis' Cross-Country Bike Trip

Looking forward to being back in the saddle again!

A vehicle is has been rented and the bike tires are replaced—this trip is going to happen. Jane returns home from being up north on Sunday and we need some time together, so I’ve delayed leaving by another day. I should be riding on Thursday, 23 August, 2018.

I’ve checked out the tent, the cold weather gear, new riding shoes, the new rear panniers and the ham radio station and everything is as ready as it can be. I’ll start out a bit slowly because I am about five pounds (two kg+) over what I like to be.

The good news is the terrain, at least until I reach Vermont, should be reasonably flat. Vermont, NH, and MA are at the right side of the map:

https://goo.gl/maps/CaAqKuDQsLP2

To see the entire route map, click here.

The bike weighs about the same as before, around 85 pounds (39 kg), fully loaded. By the time I hit Vermont, I should be back in shape for those climbs. My daughter, Áine, warned me that the biggest climbs of the entire trip, from Oregon to Massachusetts are in Vermont. Who knew? One would think the Rockies would be the issue. She accomplished this ride just after graduating from high school. She makes me feel like a wimp.

As usual, I will operate the ham radio station in the evenings, when camped. I also get on the air when staying at hotels by going out to nearby parks and setting up at picnic tables or the like. Sometimes hotels have a convenient place to do so. If I have WiFi, I will send out a Tweet from @K1YPP to let the ham radio world know where to find me.

I recall one time in Vermont, I was out in the back of the hostel on a deck. I had the radio on, talking with a fellow in Pennsylvania. I was wearing headphones and it was very dark. It was then I realized that I was sitting right next to the gas grill that had been used to cook salmon and steaks just a few hours earlier. I was deep in bear country. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

Follow along and let’s see where this next adventure leads.

Dennis “K1” Blanchard

17 August 2018

Postponed again.

Life has a way of getting in the way. Originally, it was my plan to return to the ride later this summer (2017). In the interim, there have been a few life changes that will, once again, postpone things.

Jane and I have decided to sell our home and move to something requiring less maintenance. All this traveling and keeping up a home does not go well together. At our age, the traveling takes precedence over mowing lawns and fixing plumbing.

In addition, we have a rental property that we’re selling, for the same reasons. We’re closing on a home to move into, a manufactured home at a local mobile home park. It needs work, but, once done, we can get on with our lives. Of course, a home of that nature isn’t as solid as what we have now and we could end up like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz in a tornado, or hurricane. It is a chance we’ll have to take.

The closings for the properties we are selling will happen in August and September. That, and moving, precludes any bike adventures for the time being. Currently, I go out for midnight rides and will continue until the weather cools. It is just too hot here in Sarasota in the summer to ride during the day. Additionally, there is absolutely no traffic late at night. With a powerful headlamp, tree frogs singing and no traffic, what’s not to like?

This puts finishing the bicycle ride out to next summer. I’m hoping that July will be the right time. I could go earlier, but May or June can be chilly and rainy up north, so why push it? Any suggestions on places that I should stop and see along the way? The tentative route is flexible:

Map.

Leaving on a jet plane…on the 11th.

After jumping through hoops, I was able to reschedule (for considerable money!) another flight to Oregon. I will fly to Portland, Oregon on 11 July.

I’ll finally set off on this adventure. My son, Tom, offered to help set me up with some friends of his in Portland. Unfortunately, I had already changed the flight plans. It may have been fun to see more of Portland, but too late now. Maybe next time?

See you out there folks.

Dennis, K1YPP

Deju Vu all over again…

Back in 2013, Jane and I were headed to Europe to ride a bicycle Camino, from Barcelona, Spain, to Santiago de Compostela. We arranged with the cruise line to allow us to take our bicycles onto the ship. They were going to keep them with the crew member bicycles.

Everything was in place and the day before we left Jane called the cruise line, just to confirm all was still okay. If it wasn’t, we would have to very quickly find a way to leave the bikes in Miami.

When she reached the cruise office, nobody there knew anything about the arrangements. The person she had arranged everything with was off that day and left no record. Panic!!!

Since we had to leave very early the next morning, there was no way to contact the person responsible. The only alternative was to take off all of the bicycle equipment from our bicycles, such as luggage racks, panniers, tools, spares, odometers, bells, in essence, everything. I rushed out to our bicycle storage shed and spent several hours taking everything off and finding sufficient old suitcases and bags to put everything in. This amounted to an additional seven large bags we had not intended on bringing, 11 bags in total.

We ended up having to buy two bicycles in Barcelona, Spain when we arrived. Expensive? Yes. We didn’t have much choice.

Leaving the bike store in Barcelona, Spain

Later, after the cruise, we did contact the person responsible and there was a document allowing us to bring the bikes, but it was a little late at that point.

Tonight, I checked the tracking number at Fed-Ex for my bicycle that I shipped last Friday, five days ago. For reasons I cannot imagine, even with the holiday, it didn’t go out until this morning. This means it won’t arrive in Oregon until July 12th. This leaves me only a few choices:

Change my flight that leaves in a few hours, early tomorrow morning. Delta will charge me $200+ to change the flight.
Take the scheduled flight and hang around in Portland, Oregon for five days. No offence Portland, I hear you’re a nice city, but that could get expensive, even more than the $200+.
There is no “third” option, at least not one that I can think of.

Two of the boxes that I shipped via USPS to a wonderful couple in Lincoln City, OR arrived today and they were going to pick me up tomorrow afternoon. I had to contact them and let them know I won’t be there. Bummer, I feel like an idiot.

How I miss those carefree days, back in the sixties, when one could just run into the airport, grab a ticket and hop a plane. Some things have just not gotten better with time and flying is one of them. As I write this, I have a call into Delta to speak with a representative. The automated answering service told me there is an “over” two-hour wait for the return call. Two hours! If they’re that busy, they might consider hiring more people to answer phones. Two hours.

Dennis’ Epic bike ride across country

I’ll be posting from a long bicycle ride that I’m taking in July/August/September of 2016. My intention is to ride from the coast of Oregon to the coast of Massachusetts. Tentatively, I will be riding across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

From Wisconsin, I will take the ferry across Lake Michigan. After that, my plans are not definite, but I will probably ride across Canada for a few miles and then re-enter the US at New York, then traverse New Hampshire, and finish at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

A lot could change along the way. If I get too behind in my schedule, I could head south from Missoula, Montana and go down through Colorado, and head through Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama and into Florida and home.

In any case, I will be carrying a ham radio with me, since I never leave home without it. I will be active on Morse code, single sideband and a digital radio mode known as PSK31. This will prove useful in places where there is no cell phone service. There are still vast areas where there is little or no cell service. In the summer of 2015 Jane and I hiked the length of Vermont and for most of the hike had very little phone service.

Follow along here as I post when I can. It should be quite an adventure, a proper way to celebrate turning seventy!

Dennis Blanchard
K1YPP