Bike trip 2019

In four days I will go west, young man, to start the epic 2019 bike tour. Well, Jon's trip is epic. Mine is fairly ordinary.

Jon is finally scratching the itch that he has had for 40 years, namely the ride across the country itch. He and Tom J started the trip in 1982 (I think), but had to abandon when tendnitis reared its ugly knees. Ever since, I think, Jon has dreamed of the great transit.

He has encouraged me to dream big, too, but it was never in the cards.  Three months on the road? In my unmarried days, perhaps, but certainly not now (even though I, as a college professor, wouldn't even need to take time off).

We have done exploratory tours, reunion tours (as it were), but no grand tour.

But now he's doing it. He'll turn 61 in transit, his health becomes progressively more precarious, he is between (or perhaps beyond) jobs, and it's time. 

So I'm going along for part of the ride--quite small, actually, but better than nothing. I started my "cross-country" ride in Portland, Maine several years ago. I got as far as Rome, NY.  Cindy and I rode from Buffalo to Clyde, NY, along the Erie Canal. I have also ridden, in stages from the Mississippi River to northern Michigan, by various routes. So there are only a few discontinuities in the eastern portion, namely, Michigan to Buffalo, and Clyde to Rome. Now I am going to start at the other Portland (OR) and head east.

I'll meet Jon (and, for several days, a cousin and friend) in Astoria (I think), and follow the Columbia River to Walla Walla, then into Idaho, and finally to Missoula (700 miles, or so) where I'll bail out and jump back on Amtrak for the trip home.

I'm taking the clown-bike-in-a-suitcase, which I bought specifically for this purpose. The suitcase turns into a trailer, and then, at the end, back into a suitcase. Odd looking, to be sure, but it actually works pretty well.