Some wrap-up thoughts

I've been home for two days, I've put away most of my things, mowed the lawn and am getting back into the home routine (though it will be different because I'm not going to work).  I've been reading everyone else's blog and reliving lots of great memories.  I've got lots of thoughts about the trip running through my head.  I thought I'd share some of these random thoughts here.

In no particular order:

In the end I rode about 2/3 of the TransAm route - about 2,800 of the total 4,200 miles.  I missed four weeks of the ride, from western Virginia to central Kansas.  I think I hit most of the highlights, particularly all of the western U.S.  The others generally agreed the parts I missed were some of the less interesting and least favorite.  I'm very proud that I didn't let my broken collarbone stop me, but pushed myself a bit to get back out sooner rather than later and complete most of the ride.

The question has come up to me repeatedly - will you go back and do the section you missed?
My answer is - I'm not sure, it depends.  When I first crashed out I thought I'd just sign up to do the whole thing next year.  After I was able to come back in only four weeks doing it all end-to-end doesn't seem so important.  I've got lots of other things I'd like to do over the next few years.  I'll give some thought to riding the other 1/3, maybe even next year, but if I've got something else going on completing the route may not be priority #1.

Riding cross country on the TransAm is not a herculean athletic accomplishment.  Almost anyone with the right equipment, reasonable fitness and willingness to ride for hours on end could do it.  Most of us on this ride were not great athletes, just recreational cyclists with a lot of determination.

Having said that, riding the TransAm is HARD.  There were some long days, some hot days, some very long uphill stretches capped off by steep climbs over mountain passes.  It's no walk (or ride) in the park. 

I think the challenge is more mental than physical.  The biggest requirement is the determination to keep going at those times when you wonder why you're doing this.  If you just keep pedaling you'll get over all of the passes and complete all the miles.

The rewards for doing the ride are great.  Beautiful scenery.  Getting in touch with rural America.  Good times shared with people who become close friends.  A deep sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

I'd highly recommend this ride to anyone who thinks they might want to do it.  I'd also recommend bicycle touring in general - there are lots of routes, lots of ways to do it and plenty of great places to see.  I'd be thrilled if my blog inspired a few of my readers to take on something like this - no matter how small or large.

Our group had no right to expect the great fortune we had with the weather on this trip.  There was only one day when they rode all day in the rain (in Kentucky - I wasn't there).  I rode a total of about 1 hour in the rain.  No way could we have expected that when we started.  We had thunderstorms and rain showers a few evenings or overnight, but we never once set up or took down our tents in the rain.
Although we had extraordinary heat in Kansas and some hot days in eastern Oregon, we avoided the worst of that by starting early in the morning.  We had some truly gorgeous days in the last few weeks.
(Having said this, this summer's weather has been disastrous for many farmers suffering through drought and scorching heat.  We should keep them in mind as we make note of our good fortune.)

I think riding the TransAm route east-to-west is easier than the reverse.  Many of the passes we climbed looked much harder from our downhill side - lots of steep, switchback descents for us which would have been grueling climbs going east.  There may have been a couple that were harder going west, but in general the eastbound side of the passes seemed steeper.

There's a large portion of the American land mass which is not well served by cell phone service and internet access.  It doesn't encompass a large percentage of the population, but there are still many people living in areas that aren't that "connected" to the rest of us.  Somehow these people go about their lives and seem to manage just fine.

I came home at the same weight I was when I started the ride.  I ate a LOT!  To me that was one of the luxuries of the ride.  You almost can't eat or drink enough every day.

It's surprising how facilities which you might not go near in "everyday life" get rated as adequate, good or even great.  This is particularly true of restrooms and showers.  We encountered some pretty bad ones at times, but others which were a bit "rough" served us just fine and were welcomed.

There should be a federal standard minimum dimension for what constitutes a shower stall.  It's amazing how small some of them are.  Barely enough room for a full sized adult to turn around, let alone bend over and wash your toes.

Food prepared at the end of a day of riding is pretty much guaranteed to be good.  I don't recall one "bad" meal on the whole trip.  Some were exceptional and some just adequate, but everyone ate well every night.

Although the pace of bicycle touring affords much more opportunity to actually see the country, there were many places where I would have liked to have an extra day or two to explore the area.  Unfortunately, part of riding the TransAm is about putting in the miles every day to make it from coast to coast.  If you don't keep making progress you'll get caught by the winter snows before you reach the other end.

In general, the people of this country are great!  We met lots of friendly people all along the way.  Many take an interest and have lots of questions when they learn what you're doing.  They offer lots of support, encouragement and well wishes.

The drivers throughout the country are generally courteous, too.  Most make a point of giving you room as they pass on the roads.  Commercial truck drivers are probably better than the general public.  Having said that, there are a minority of jerks out there too.  Some are probably just not paying attention.  Others go out of their way to let you know you're not welcome on THEIR highway.  (It's their world and we only live in it!)

As you ride this TransAm route you meet lots of other riders making their own way across all or part of the country.  Sometimes you spend several days staying at the same stops - in many cases there aren't a lot of alternate stopover points.  It's a neat part of the experience to share stories with the riders you meet.

Our group has nothing but respect and admiration for the many unsupported riders who carry all their own gear and fend for themselves everyday.  We recognized how good we had it with our van support.  Not only did it lighten our bikes, but we could meet the van for drinks and food in the middle of nowhere, when service stops were miles apart.  We also could buy groceries in the larger towns and keep things for several days, instead of relying on the meager choices in many of the tiniest towns.

Clearly it takes a different personality and mindset to tackle this trip unsupported.  We were all attracted to the van-supported mode because of some similarity of mindset.  Hats off to those who carry all their own gear.

Still, even the unsupported riders take advantage of the vast resources available throughout these United States.  Without that a trip like this would be an even more challenging undertaking.

Blogging about the ride took much more time than I initially imagined.  I also imagined that I'd have lots of witty and imaginative things to say everyday.  I think I ended up more in a reporting facts mode just to get the updates out semi-regularly.  I appreciate all of the readers out there and hope you've been able to live vicariously through my reports. 
(If you want witty and imaginative I'd suggest you read Gina's blog which was "ghost-written" by her partner Dena or Simon's blog.)

And once more I will offer to anyone - if you have questions about any aspect of the ride or would like more information, just post a comment here or send an e-mail to mikesbikeride2012@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading!

The TransAm Olympics bicycle run-off videos

In Baker City on our last layover day Nicole borrowed two small girls bikes for Ubald and Simon to ride in a competition to break the tie in our TransAm Olympics competition.  Here are videos of the rides.

Hanging around Portland for the flight home

On Friday morning Paul drove by with the van and trailer to take my bike to the FedEx drop-off at 8:00 am.  My bike is supposed to arrive home in a week traveling by FedEx ground transportation. After that I went back to my hotel, did laundry and updated my blog.  I left my bags at the motel front desk and went downtown on the Tri-Met light-rail train around 2:00pm.  The trip was supposed to take about 20 minutes according to the schedule, but actually took just over 40 minutes.

The platform at the Parkrose Sumner station of the Tri-Met Max train near my hotel.

A view down the Willamette River from the train crossing the bridge.

A view towards the north end of downtown Portland from the train - the Union Station is near the center.

Downtown I walked around and saw some of the sights in town. The city was very busy and pretty clean.  There are bike paths on many streets and lots of cyclists all over downtown.  The transit system also provides lots of options for getting around center city.  It also seems like Portland has more than its share of homeless people and "characters" for a big city. 

The Pioneer Courthouse in downtown.

Union Station on the north end of downtown.

An Amtrak train getting ready to depart.

This city park near downtown had water fountains and was filled with kids on this very warm day.

It happened that there was a weekend food festival on the downtown waterfront which began on this Friday at lunch time - the Bite of Oregon.  I went in and found a couple of very good food choices for reasonable prices.  I also took a walk around the waterfront area.

Entrance to the Bite of Oregon food festival on the downtown waterfront.

Inside Bite of Oregon.

A view towards one of the drawbridges looking south along the waterfront.

The view to the north from the downtown waterfront.

Around 6:30 pm I rode the train back out to my motel near the airport.  I picked up my bags at the motel, walked back to the train and rode it to the airport.  The access to the airport from the train was very easy.  The station is right at the end of the departure area which made getting out of town very easy.

Another water fountain near downtown filled with kids cooling off.

Surprisingly, I ran into Ben and Simon while walking around downtown Portland.

I also found riders warming up for a downtown criterium cycling race just before I had to head to the airport.

My flight from Portland was a red-eye leaving after 11:00 pm on Friday.  I arrived in Chicago before 5:00 am on Saturday morning, waited for just over 3 hours and caught my plane home to Allentown about 8:00 am.  I arrived home about 11:00 am.  When I walked out of the airport with Pat we walked into heat AND HUMIDITY - something I hadn't encountered for several weeks.  Welcome back to the northeast U.S.!  Still, although it was a great trip, it was great to be back home.

I still plan to post a few thoughts on the trip sometime in the next day or two, so don't quit reading just yet.  Thank you to everyone for your words of encouragement about my ride and about my blogging efforts!

A few observations about Portland:

Portland is a very bicycle friendly city.  It claims to be the best bike town in the country which is probably true.  There were cyclists everywhere.

The commuter traffic on the highways around town is terrible.  We ran into and saw traffic slowdowns everywhere around the area.  That may help explain why bikes are so prevalent.

The Tri-Met MAX light-rail train helps with the congestion, but can be very slow.  Perhaps this is because it runs on the city streets instead of being an underground system like Washington, D.C.

The transit system is FREE to everyone in a fairly large area of center city.  This probably helps relieve some downtown traffic congestion.  You still have to pay to commute to/from the suburbs.

Driving from Florence, OR to Portland, OR - making our way home

We awoke to another cool, overcast day for the drive to Portland.  Some of us had planned to ride our bikes about 20-30 miles up the Pacific Coast Highway (U.S. 101) for one last ride.  However, when we got up we all decided we'd rather just have a relaxing morning.  That made things easier for Paul who was driving the van today.  Instead we all went out for one last breakfast together and then packed up the bikes and all our things for the drive.

A foggy morning looking toward the historic Siuslaw River Bridge near our hotel in Florence, OR.

A view toward the dunes in the early morning.

The Siuslaw River Bridge from the old town area of Florence.

Packing up for the drive to Portland.

Paul drove up U.S. 101 for ~30 miles so we could still see the coastline.  Looking at the roadway made us all glad we had decided not to ride.  There were places where there was no shoulder, traffic was heavy and the road was a series of climbs and dips for most of the way.  It would not have been a very enjoyable ride.  We drove north to Waldport and then turned inland to Corvallis, I-5 and then north to Portland.

A view of the Pacific Coast from the van.

The Alsea River Bridge on U.S. 101 is in the distance.

When we got to Portland traffic was at a crawl on I-5.   It took much longer than expected to get through town.  We stopped first at a bike shop where Jake had made arrangements with the owner to get bike boxes.  Four of us packed up our bikes for shipment in 1.5 hours with lots of help from Jake.  It sure helps to have a pro with lots of experience.  Thanks again, Jake!  Jake and Wendy let the bike shop ship their bikes home.  Paul and I loaded ours in the van, Paul to check his as airline baggage, me to ship on FedEx through a company called BikeFlights.com which offers special rates for bikes.

While we boxed bikes Paul dropped Greg and Monica and Huey at motels near the airport.  When he returned we took Ubald to a guest house downtown, then Nicole and Judy to a hostel nearby.  Again we fought traffic - by this time it was rush hour.  Then we made our way back to the airport to drop Jake off for his flight home.  When Paul, Wendy and I got to our hotels near the airport it was just after 6:00 pm, too late to get my bike to the FedEx drop-off center nearby.

We had planned to ride the Tri-Met light-rail train downtown to meet Ubald for one last dinner.  When we started out on the train we realized we'd have to make a transfer and at the transfer station the board reported a >20 minute wait for our next train.  Having already had a long, tiring day, we decided to just get dinner nearby and head back to our hotels.  Our day ended after 9:00pm. 

More photos from the Pacific Ocean beach celebration

As I mentioned, I took a LOT of photos on the beach on our last day.  I figured the easiest thing to do with these is just post them all.  I haven't captioned them, but most are pretty self evident.