Life Spoke

The three things I have left to do are: organizing food, planning parts of the route and keep training.

Food is my new logistical obsession. This week I've been working with the Market of Choice supermarket on getting bulk foods. Rice, dried soups, dried beans, granola, oatmeal and spices are the main ingredients for the food boxes I'll prepare. Variety will be crucial when I'm out on the road cooking dried food for myself everyday.

The Market of Choice has been really helpful. David, the manager of their newest store donated money out of his own pocket for me to use toward bulk food. Barbara, the bulk food manager at the store was a big help in figuring out how much I needed of certain items. This morning I'm meeting with Rick Wright, the president, to discuss further dry food donations. They have been a huge help to me already and I truly appreciate their support.

My friend Brandon loaned me his vacuum sealer so I can prepare individual meals with individual items inside. After working through this process I'll give you an update on how my food prep is progressing. One thing is for sure, it won't be an easy thing to vacuum seal 49+ days worth of food.

Route planning... To date I have a route through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and part of Colorado. I also have a section mapped through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. I haven't had the free time to sit down and focus on the missing sections. Part of it is that I'm confused about the best way to go through the states I have left. Pennsylvania seems like an Appalachian sized question mark and there are some Rail-Trails I want to tie into in Iowa. All in good time.

Training has been going well but I'm winding down. This weekend I did a 50 mile section of very hilly roads with the bike fully loaded. I felt fine. It actually got dark on Todd and me so we had to call for a ride with about 20 miles left to ride. I could have finished the 70 miles if we had more time and more food.

Food is such a huge issue for me. The other night I ate two big sausages then got invited to dinner at a friend's house where I proceeded to eat a full meal complete with second helpings. This is getting out of hand.

Palatability and variety are the two factors that affect my ability to eat as much as I need to. 4000 calories is a huge amount of food. If I'm not interested in eating it, I won't meet my nutritional requirements. Translated into everyday language, that means that I need to have good tasting food that doesn't get boring so I have energy to ride my bike 80 miles everyday.

On the fundraising front, I met with the American Cancer Society this week. They are very eager to help me revise my press release and get me some firm press contacts here in Oregon. They are also going to find press contacts in the cities I'm traveling through. The more press I get, the more interest in my fundraiser I will receive. This translates into donations for fighting cancer and meeting my fundraising goal.

By the way, you can send me a comment anytime by clicking 'Comment' just below the end of this posting.

Thanks to all! Wish me luck over the next two weeks,
Drew

Here's the beast, the fully loaded touring bike. I'm wearing my Team Novara shorts and jersey.

What a difference 30 pounds makes! Fully loaded it handles somewhat like a loaded wheelbarrel. You can make it go straight as long as it's moving at a good speed. When you slow down it wobbles a little and takes a bunch of upper body strength to control.

I rode up the hill near my house the other day with tons of gear in the bags. It wasn't too tough to get up the hill. The lowest gear is perfect; this bike is MADE for fully loaded touring.

Logistics are getting more complicated. I've decided to make up food boxes that Tracey will ship on a weekly basis. Market of Choice, the local supermarket chain, is donating a big pile of bulk food to me. Todd and Rebeca, our friends who own a restaurant, are going to help with wholesale foods to augment whatever I can't get from the supermarket.

I'll make up meals and vaccuum seal them, then make up boxes of the meals. The boxes will be labeled and ready to go. I'll call Tracey and let her know where I'll be in a few days. She can send the next box, General Delivery to me and I'll pick it up at the Post Office when I roll into that town. This also allows me to call and ask for changes to the meal package with additional items like soap, toothpaste, socks, bike tubes, etc.

If you have any suggestions for backpacking-like menu items, send 'em on! I'm thinking rice, pasta, couscous, oatmeal, etc. Gotta keep it light weight. Planning on stopping at stores for fresh foods like fruit, veggies, eggs and bacon.

I just got a stack of detailed maps for the states. Gotta keep pushing the route through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois....to New Jersey.

My parents were in Eugene all week and were incredible. They helped me get the last bits of bike gear in order and were a big motivator. My dad and I hiked up a mountain, Three Fingered Jack, on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing them and the rest of my friends and family in New York and New Jersey.

Three weeks to go! I can't believe I'm about to embark on this trip. I am looking forward to meeting people along the way and seeing the country at 15 miles per hour. I'm also looking forward to newspaper interviews and getting closer to the fundraising goal.

Thanks to everyone who's been donating! I'm at 1/4 of the fundraising goal!

Lots of love,
Drew

What an inspirational week! Sorry this update wasn’t posted yesterday but I’ve been training, route planning and getting the bike outfitted. This is definitely a full-time job. Someone compared the process to planning a rock concert as a one-man effort.

Let me apologize for the American Cancer Society website not working. I’ve called them and sent emails trying to get it up and working. Hopefully they can get the problem resolved by the end of this week. The fundraising is moving right along. Before the site went down I had received donations of $5805. Nearly 25% of my goal!

Training and planning are coming along well too! Saturday, I put in an 82 mile ride over five hours and 15 minutes. Sunday, I scoured over maps of Idaho and northern Utah. I found a way through Idaho that avoids the interstates completely!

I found some old fenders in my grandfather’s garage. Monday, I fitted them to the bike. Then Tuesday I pulled them back off and put a fresh coat of paint on them. Tuesday I also repaired a set of panniers that my friend John Dunn loaned me for the ride.

I’ve also been working hard at physical therapy for my knee. I’m happy to say that it feels great. After the 82 mile ride they were both sore, but none of the pain I’d experienced earlier. The way the new bike fits my body along with training, proper nutrition and recovery time have done a good job. The next step is to get fitted for cycling orthotics which will correct my flat-footedness. I got a prescription of topical ibuprofen and lidocaine, which I will rub in every twelve hours to reduce swelling and soreness on the road.

Now I have minor issues like a sore elbow and carpel tunnel to overcome but these pale in light of my long-term knee injuries. I’m doing everything I can to address physiological problems now, while I have time to take rest days. When I’m on the road I’ll have to ride EVERY day to make to the east coast before it gets too cold.

I want to mention that a number of people are under the impression that I’m going as part of a guided tour. Just to be clear, I’ll be by myself the whole time. All my gear will be on my bike. I’ll be camping along the way. There won’t be a support car following me. I’ll pick up food and water at grocery stores during the day. I’m also not following one of the established bicycle routes across the US. I have to find my own way based on the logistical planning I’m doing now. Every night I have to find a place to camp, set up the tent and cook dinner.

Speaking of dinner…I’m eating like a linebacker. I am so hungry all the time, my body is screaming for calories. I estimate that I’m eating between 3000-4000 calories daily. I can sit down and eat 1500 calories in 15 minutes. And I’m losing weight!

I’m trying to bulk up now so that I might have some fat reserves for the road. Bulking is difficult because it’s a 180 from my normal nutrition habits. Fatty meats, flax seed and olive oil, piles of fried potatoes, brown rice, nuts, beans, buttery fish…piles of food.

Not only do I have to think differently about my food choices, but it’s difficult to prepare that much food. I fairly fill my work bag with lunch foods and often I’ll stop to buy food after I’ve eaten everything I packed. Aside from the cost, I wish I could always eat this way.

I feel great too. With this knee problem clearing up I feel like an ox. My legs are strong and my core is thick. I feel like I’m ready for six weeks of bicycle riding on an 80 pound bike over mountains and prairies.

Looking forward, I am waiting to get detailed topographic maps of Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. I’ll lay out a route that avoids major roads and hits my two big stops in Denver and Chicago. The manager of the Eugene REI store is working with REI stores in those cities to arrange for me to come give a talk/clinic on my experiences. I might be able to get a bike tune-up from the stores at the same time. I also enrolled in a bicycle maintenance class at REI so I can do road repairs if I break down somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

I have to get rear panniers for the bike, rain-proof shoe covers, a handlebar bag and padded handlebar tape for the carpel tunnel. Tracey and I have been working on figuring out how to get everyone’s names stenciled on the bike. I also have to arrange for a flight and shipping the bike back to Oregon in October. On top of this I’m contacting friends and family for fundraising. I’m also contacting newspapers, television and radio stations with press releases. I hope to get some press coverage to help with the fundraising.

I’ll be leaving in four weeks.

I put about 110 miles on the new bike. 40 miles last Friday, 50 miles on Sunday and about 20 miles on Tuesday. It's nice! The brakes are so smooth that I'll be riding along just itching for a reason to tap the brake levers. Nice shifting, ergonomic handlebars. I've never had a rack on a bike so I'm enjoying putting my bag back there for my ride to work.

On Sunday, I strapped a box with three gallon paint cans onto it. I rode about 20 miles just to get the feel of the weight. It handled surprisingly well with the 25 extra pounds. It wasn't too much effort to get the bike up to speed and keep it there, even with a light headwind. I'm getting really excited about taking this trip.

To be honest, starting about three weeks ago I was having minor anxiety attacks...about once a day or so. I think it began the night after I injured my knee. I was feeling like I'd painted myself into a corner. I have a small window of time to train so I couldn't stop riding, but I couldn't ride much because of the injury.

I knew the bike I was riding was a major contributor to the injury. So the search was on for an affordable bike. It would have been so easy if I had the cash to walk into a bike shop and walk out with a new bike. I needed something affordable so I spent over two weeks contacting bike companies, talking with dealers and expanding the search. Everyday that went by was another day of riding the 'pain machine' and another day closer to the departure date. Tick-tock.

So you can see why I'm so happy to have a bike. It also happens to be the BEST bike out there for touring and I got it at a great price from REI. Now that I've had the opportunity to load it down a little, I'm getting really pumped about the ride. My knee feels much better too. I feel like I did when I was a kid and had always wanted to go backpacking. Everything I need to survive is strapped to the machine and I power the thing across the country!

I'll have a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, stove, pots, utensils, toiletries, first aid kit, cycling clothes, cold weather clothes, rain gear, camera, cell phone, a sizable tool kit, food and water. All that stuff will be stuffed into panniers (think saddlebags) that hang over the front and back wheels of the bike. Mounted on the handlebars will be a plastic map case and some food. Load it up and go east young man.

I visualize pedaling along a small farm road in Iowa with soft sunlight and looking down to see your names on the bike. Voices and faces, murmuring and smiling. I think of my buddy Brian and wonder what he would think. I can hear my grandmother exclaim, "Wow!" the way she did. My friend Dan cracking a joke about my ass being sore. In a way, doing this alone makes me feel closer to you all.

There is a satisfying feeling of doing the right thing; like handing someone a dollar they dropped or going back into the store to pay for something the checker missed on the bottom of your cart. If you could concentrate that feeling and shoot it in your arm, that's the way I feel about doing this fundraiser. It is so much more important than two months of salary or being cozied up at home as autumn sets in.

Every 60 seconds we lose another minute to do the right thing. We lose a day here or there. As my buddy Chris Schauffele would say, we lose a minute of "sucking the marrow out of life." It can be so rich if you are really felling something positive about the things you are doing.

All your supporting emails and phone calls have been a big motivator. Tracey's support has been overwhelming as well. This full-time job of fundraising has actually made us quite close in the past two months.

Last weekend we were on our front porch and a girl walked by with a kitten. Tracey asked if she could hold it. As the girl handed it over she told us that she rescued it a few blocks away from three kids who were kicking it down the street. It was so cute. We mentioned that we'd been thinking about getting a kitten and she said, "Now ya got one!" and walked off.

Now we got one.

Poor thing had fleas, an eye infection and lots of tape worms. Despite all these ailments she has the softest fur and nicest demeanor. Now a few days later, with the fleas gone and the worms dying off she's very happy. She'll be prancing and jumping and batting at empty paper bags then come snuggle up to you and start purring the moment you touch her.

We don't have a name, but send us your suggestions.

Other than that, I've been working like crazy on laying out my route to New Jersey. This is really important because I could railroad myself right into a big mountain pass or onto a busy highway with no shoulder. I think I'm going to follow the Oregon Trail through Idaho and half of Wyoming before I drop down into Colorado. From there to Chicago should be straight forward. Ohio and Pennsylvania will be challenging; I need to find a way around the Appalachians.

Thank you for reading this blog. Thanks for donating too! By the way, it's at nearly 20%, almost $5000!

Adios,
Andrew (Drew)