Ride Across America - Getting Started

After spending a week in Florida on a family vacation, I began my journey to Astoria Oregon to begin a bike ride across America which will cover some 3,600 miles over thirty days and end on Plum Island in Newburyport Massachusetts. This is a trip that I have been thinking about doing for several years. For lots of reasons, the summer of 2008 turned out to be the best time to make this dream a reality.

As it turns out the summer of 2008 is also a good time for a good friend of mine, Matt Joseph, to join me for a Ride Across America ("RAA"). Matt worked with me for a few years before moving to Oregon last August where his wife Christina is attending PA school. Matt will be attending law school this fall at University of Texas law school in Austin. Most of what I told you about Matt is not really important but you should know that he is about the same age as Ryan, my oldest son.

I started planning the trip on January 1st and have received help from numerous individuals (you can read about them under the tab "Thanks" on the home page - although I probably won't get this posted for a few days). The hope was that all planning would be done by June 17th such that the only thing we had to worry about was riding our bikes. Two other good friends of mine - Larry Hart and Bob Loch - will be driving support for our trip. Larry will drive for 23 days and Bob Loch will drive for 7 days.

Although I didn't plan for this to happen, I wound up driving 3,000 miles in three days from Florida to Oregon to begin RAA. We arrived at Matt's home in Lake Oswego Oregon on Monday evening at 11:00 PM (pacific time). Tuesday morning we will drive 100 miles to Astoria Oregon where RAA will begin, hopefully around 9:00 AM.