Four Days Until We Leave

This summer, my sister Janice and I will be attempting a cross country bicycle tour. We will start riding in Astoria, Oregon and follow the TransAmerica Trail for as long as we can. We will ride during the day and camp at night, and if all goes well, we will reach Yorktown, Virginia sometime in late summer. The route is approximately 4, 250 miles. We are giving ourselves about 4 months. We will ride for adventure. We will ride to see things. We will ride because we like to ride, and because we can, and because we have found bicycle touring to be a safe, fun, and environmentally friendly way to travel. But Janice and I will not ride alone. The TransAmerica Trail has been around for over 30 years. Every year hundreds of people follow it. Some start in the east. And some, like us, start in the west. For us, the decision of where to start was not easy. For days, and then weeks, we went back and forth. East. West. West. East. I laid on my back and stared at the ceiling. They were just two small words, and yet I knew they would define our summer. The more I thought about it, the harder it was to decide. But eventually we decided. We decided to start in the west. And we both feel very good about this, which is important because after 4,000 miles of riding, a fly in the ointment can really start to reek.