Leaving for Butte

I rode through this COOL bridge last Saturday on my Tour of Covered Bridges. More on this later...

Tomorrow, Janet, granddaughter Morgan, and I leave Ohio to drive west. By Friday (June 8) we should arrive in Clarkston, WA, where Janet's parents, son Aaron, and grandson Tyson live. Our car will be loaded with my bike, extra wheels, a huge bag of PowerBars and PowerGels, tubes of sun block, five different types of mosquito repellents, mosquito head nets, LOTS of bike clothes (don't want to have to do laundry too often!), books, videos, CDs, a sleeping bag, and my computer. Well, I suppose I should save room for Janet and Morgan to take some clothes too.

Janet will stay in Washington for the summer and meet us when we return to Butte on Aug 8. Fortunately, she will fly to Anchorage and be with us for a week from July 17 to 24. Morgan will stay with a variety of relatives in the area and fly home on July 17.

I'll be driving the motorhome, which has been in Clarkston since last Oct when I drove it out there (Janet and I were there for five months, from Sept to Feb), to Butte on June 14, just one day before our departure. The night before we leave, the five of us will need to sort through all the potential gear and "want to take" items and make final decisions as to what we have room for and what is "must have".

In my previous blog posting I gave links to the newspaper article about me and the Alaska ride, and to the Cincinnati TV news item they did on me. Now, a Butte TV station (http://www.kxlf.com/home/) has been interviewing and taking footage of Rick Smith, who lives in Butte, and they are preparing not only an in-depth story about him and our ride, but also they'll take live footage of all five of us departing on June 15. The initial story on Rick, the Alaska trek, and our Diabetes Assoc fund-raising will air either this Wed or the following Wed. In my next posting, I'll include a link so you can see it if you haven't already gone to their website to look for it. The TV station has also contacted their sister station in Fairbanks to get footage of us arriving at our farthest point on the ride. Finally, they say they'll get us arriving home on Aug 8. Who knew we'd get so much publicity?!

Here is another bridge from last Saturday's 107-mile ride. We went to or through 11 covered bridges, all but one having been built in the 19th century. This one above is the oldest covered bridge in Ohio (1829), and the oldest of only six double-barrel bridges left in the country.

Interestingly, only about 12 bike riders did the 107-mi option last Saturday. They had four optional distances, and I think they had only 150 riders in all. It was a great day, beautiful, scenic in every way, but still not many takers on the ride sponsored by my Dayton Cycling Club. Because of so few riders on my route, I saw no one ahead or behind for 95% of the ride. So I was alone for most of it, which is nothing new since all my training rides are solo.

The bridge above was built in the 1890s, as were six other of the bridges. The one at the top of this posting was from 1887. It was most fun when we just rode right through them, on small old country lanes where they've always been, as opposed to the ones that were landmarks and no longer used, or relocated to a site for historical purposes.

The one below was the only modern one, finished just a few weeks ago! Look how modern it is, with side pedestrian walkways, arches, wide enough for both lanes, roof towers, and a pretty red color.


Update on Bob Brown and his son Derek, who departed May 22 from Minneapolis: They are now in North Dakota and are on target to reach Butte on June 13. The bad part is how strong their westerly headwinds have been almost every day. Or rain, which they prefer to the headwinds. They have had a tough time, but are hanging in there and getting in good shape. They and Rick will be acclimated to the high altitude, which Bert (SoCal) and I won't be, and we start right out about 5700 feet and go up from there. Heck, I have not ridden above 800 feet in a few years, so riding in the mountains at altitude will be an early challenge for me.

My next posting will probably be June 10, then June 12, and then daily as long as we have Internet coverage. If you check a day and I have not posted, it means no Internet. If I can just post daily, they'll stay nice and short. As you probably suspect, I'm getting VERY excited as we prepare to launch this adventure. Right now I need to continue my packing...