Ground Zero

The ultimate destination of Bike Trip America was One World Trade Center, also known as Ground Zero. We reached our destination yesterday afternoon. Interesting that our worst day, as far as reaching our time goals, was the last day of our journey, but in our defense, as riders, it wasn't our fault that we were two hours late. Let me describe our day, which actually began the previous day when the Fishkill welcoming ceremonies included the announcement that we would be riding to the boat ramp at Beacon to dip our front tires in the Hudson River. They had already arranged for us to be met there by local press and members of the Beacon American Legion chapter. Our police escort was expecting us to follow that route, as was the photographer who would be riding with us all day, and that meant riding out to Beacon, then back to Fishkill to connect with our original route. That added several miles to an already long day, and put us 1 1/2 hours behind our scheduled start. We felt obliged to go along with the plan, which had been hatched by Fang Wong, a former National Commander of the American Legion. Fang Wong was the same one who had helped organize the welcoming ceremony at the World Trade Center at 3:00 pm.

Anyway, we dipped our tires in the Hudson River. 

From there, we had a State Police escort, accompanied by the Fishkill American Legion Commander. That resulted in a somewhat slower pace than we needed to make up for the lost time. Plus, the route took us up Tarrytown Hill, which had segments with as much as an 18% grade and lasting nearly a mile. When we passed Sleepy Hollow cemetery, I almost felt like stopping, hopping over the fence, and just ending the ride right there ... or maybe taking a Rip Van Winkle nap and finishing the ride in another 100 years. 

We stopped for lunch in Elmsford (I think) in Westchester County. One of the NYSP escorts was so impressed by our efforts on behalf of Operation Comfort Warriors that he bought our lunch for us. We sat outside a deli while eating, and local merchants came out to visit with us and to donate to the cause. Not counting the NYSP donation of lunch, we collected $95 in donations without even lifting a finger! 

After lunch, we picked up a long section of bike trail, so the NYSP escort took Pat and the support vehicle down to Yonkers, where local police (NYPD) were available to guide her to the World Trade Center. Meanwhile, we pedaled onward in 90-degree-plus temperatures, followed a maze of bike trails and roads, and finally found our NYPD motorcycle and cruiser escort! Fang Wong had gone as high as Mayor de Blasio in order to get permits for a police escort and a group gathering at the World Trade Center.

We rode through the Bronx, getting stuck in a traffic jam on the way, across the bridge and crossed into Manhattan, then climbed the hills around the Cloisters museum, downtown through Spanish Harlem, then across the island to the bike path along the Hudson River. Once we reached the bike path, we dropped the NYPD cruiser, but still had the two motorcycles in front and in back of us. Due to the Saturday crowds on a hot summer day, we had to keep to an easy pace, which meant that we had a lot of other cyclists joining us, asking why we had a police escort, and we had time to enjoy the scenery ... the Highline, the Intrepid aircraft carrier, midtown Manhattan, and then we had the new One World Trade Center tower in our sights. 

The final approach to our destination was punctuated by the excitement in Jonathan's voice when he said, "Look! I see my father. There he is, right there!" I was glad that I was wearing my shades ... I was more emotional, more sentimental than I care to admit, but that's how it was. Bryce's dad came running over to direct the NYPD escort, and we rode up onto the sidewalk and through the crowds of tourists, finally stopping in front of a large American Legion banner, and a crowd of around fifty, diminished from what it had been earlier because of our late arrival. The TV cameras had already headed back to the studios to catch the evening news with other stories, but still, there was a sense of being celebrities. There was an honor guard. There were photographers, and speeches. There was the permit that allowed us to have a large rally at the World Trade Center. We were presented with medals and plaques to honor us for our service to the cause, and as usual, there were donations. At the end of the day, we were just below $20,000, nearly double our initial goal of $10,000 in donations. Since our fund-raising account will stay open through September, we should easily double our initial goal.

We were quickly moved along to where Pat had parked the support vehicle, right in front of the World Trade Center courtesy of NYPD. We packed our bicycles onto the back of a car that would take our bikes directly to a bike shop for shipping home, and packed our gear in the back of the support car so that we could enjoy New York with just our "civilian" clothes. We posed for one last shot as a team before an exhausted Pat drove off, headed back to the West, and the rest of us headed off with Fang Wong to a banquet provided by the Chinatown American Legion chapter. 

Incidentally, we had to wear our Bike Trip America tee shirts all day because we had a photographer along with us for a forthcoming film about our trip. As a result, we were hot and perhaps a bit dehydrated on our last day, and also, I didn't have any pockets, so I was unable to carry my smart phone and camera. The pictures above are all from Bryce's camera, and from Pat, as are many of the pictures that have appeared in the blog. 

I also want to thank the parents of the boys for entrusting their boys to us for the summer, and for supporting our final day. On the right, in the picture above, you can see Ryan's mom, grandmother and grandfather; and wearing the purple Bike Trip America shirts are Jonathan's mom and dad; and Bryce's dad.  

What happens next? The blog will continue periodically as new pictures come in, and when there are important or interesting updates to our trip. A book may be in the works. Bryce and I have both been asked to do articles, and presentations may be organized. Also, the American Legion is doing a film about our trip, and it was suggested that maybe a feature-length movie could be made. So we can play the game of "Who's going to play the part of ...." (fill in the name of your favorite rider or support driver, Legion Commander, WarmShowers host, etc.). 

As mentioned earlier, our bikes are already on their way home. Mine is actually going to my son's house since I'll be collecting my wife, Wyn, on the west coast, then we'll go meet our new (and only) grandson Owen for the first time. Pat will be driving back to Gearhart, where she'll be happily reunited with her black lab Annie, who is perhaps as demanding as our bike crew, but less stressful because Annie wags her tail with glee and all demands are unconditionally forgiven. Ryan will be completing his senior year of high school in Hillsboro, Oregon. Jonathan will be holding down the fort as a junior at Astoria High School. And our fearless organizer Bryce will be completing his senior year of high school at a boarding school in Canada. Like I said, I'll keep you posted via the blog and via FaceBook when anything related to the bike trip transpires.

And thank you for having faithfully followed our journey across America. 

We made it!

Too tired to blog yonight  so details tomorrow.  From NYC!

Greasing the Skids

This morning, we were met outside the American Legion Hall in Hudson, NY, by the New York State Police. They rotated crews, keeping a car in front of us and a car behind us as we zoomed down the east side of the Hudson River along both rural roads and freeways! If you don't know the countryside along the Hudson, it is hilly, but full of wonderful history. Not only are there numerous pre-revolution buildings, but also we went through Hyde Park, passing right past Franklin Delano Roosevelt's home, past the Vanderbilt estate, and past the second drive-in movie we've seen on our journey. Jonathan assures me that there are only five drive-in movies in the US, and that makes two that we've seen during our bike ride! Only trouble is, they don't operate during daylight hours, and there's nowhere on a bicycle to hang the speaker, even if they were operating! Oh, well, guess that will have wait for another trip. We then went past the Culinary Institute of America, but didn't even stop for lunch. We went flying right on by!

Anyway, today's segment was not necessarily about the ride. It was fairly straightforward ride, albeit a bit physically demanding -- mostly because all the teen-aged legs in front of me insisted on trying to keep up with the police cruiser in front of us, regardless of my aching legs. Right now, I'm reading "The Boys in the Boat," and found that we were cycling right past where the national rowing championships took place, in the Poughkeepsie yacht club to Hyde Park area, giving new life to the book.

When we arrived in Fishkill, our destination for the day, the State Troopers were joined by a sheriff on a motorcycle, so we had a motorcade tooling along the turnpike. The sheriff would block intersections, and the troopers kept cars out of our lane. And since we were on the TV news the night before, and in the local newspapers, a lot of people driving past recognized us, so we were constantly having to wave or otherwise respond to honking cars. Then we turned off the main highway, and shortly thereafter, we heard cheers and applause, and looked towards the left to see a large marquee tent and a crowd of people, a camera pointed at us, and large American flags waving in the breeze! The American Legion, the local politicians, the local media, the Hyatt Hotel and Cracker Barrel Restaurant, all were waiting to greet us. As we pulled into the Hyatt parking lot, the applause got louder. We were celebrities!

An event was awaiting us, and we were center stage. We received proclamations from the local US congressman, from the State Assembly, from the Duchess County council, and speeches from the American Legion and others. We received gift bags, and most important, further donations for Operation Comfort Warriors. After a rousing rendition of God Bless America, the boys were ferried to Cracker Barrel in a vintage Army jeep, and I got a ride from one of the event speakers, Janice Ragazzo.

We are staying in suites donated by the Hyatt, and had a chauffeur-driven limousine (the limo driver was a local councilman and funeral director) to the best restaurant in town. Everything was donated.

So how do we follow up a day like that? Well, I can guess. We have a police escort all the way to the World Trade Center. We have other cyclists joining us. We have a crowd awaiting us at One World Trade Center.

I regret two things about tomorrow. After the ride, we will be done with the bike riding phase of Bike Trip America, and I've been so enjoying myself and the ride. And after the ceremonies at WTC, Pat will be leaving to start the long drive back to Oregon with her friend Ruth Anne. We will miss Pat. She is one of the key links on our team. When she is gone, and when the kids are joined by their families, and I begin my own trip homeward, a joyful episode of my life will be over. It will be time to revise my bucket list and start setting new goals.

"Let Us Go, Then, You and I...."

Tonight, we are in Hudson, New York. That is "Hudson" as in Hudson River, and that means that NYC is just down the river from us. One more night on the road! This morning, we had a police escort again, this time making sure we got out of Amsterdam safely. A cruiser in front, and a supervisor behind us until we got onto the canal trail.

Just wanted to reassure you, we are NOT riding with handcuffs on!

We went through Rotterdam, through Holland, through Herkimer, through Schenectady, Albany and Rensselaer, south along the Hudson until we reached Hudson. Lots of hills, lots of narrow roads. And tomorrow, since the roads are still just as narrow, we have door-to-door police escort from Hudson to Fishkill.

In Hudson, we had interviews from three newspapers, plus a television story that appeared on the Albany CBS news. Even bigger events are planned for the next two days, but they will be revealed as they unfold. For tonight, we have a lot of cub scouts and boy scouts staying with us, and they are adoring Ryan and Jonathan, who are inspiring them with notions of what they can do with their own lives as they grow up.

We have grown so accustomed to meeting local, regional and state officers, and getting generous donations from Legion chapters, that it will be hard to stop riding once we reach NYC.

Pat's friend Kit, back in Gearhart, wrote this little dittie for me for my birthday yesterday:  "Oh Donnie boy, the bike, the bike is calling---from bend to bend and down the mountainside. The trip is quickly making you much younger, oh Donnie boy, oh Donnie boy, oh what a ride!"

To that, I add the following:  "I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled....Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?...." 

Stay tuned to find out what else is in store.

Connecting the Dots

When I first contacted our ride leader, Bryce Nurding, I knew nothing about him or his planned trip except for a couple of dots on a map -- Astoria, Oregon, and New York City. When I said that I was interested in riding with his team this summer, he said "Yes," with no questions asked. He needed an adult male rider, and it didn't matter that I'd be turning 70 this summer, but it did help that I was a combat veteran. I didn't know at the time that Bryce was a 16-year-old with a dream. Then he sent me a spreadsheet that listed every town we would be staying in, where we would be staying, whether we were being given meals or not, how much elevation we would have to climb each day, the total mileage to date, plus the date and the number of days on the road. Projected onto a map of the United States, that equaled 59 dots.

Eventually, those dots got fleshed out, and the lines connecting them became maps on Strava.com, a route tracking application for cyclists, runners, and other athletes. Once I learned how to use Strava, I was able to zoom in on individual routes, research road conditions and alternate routes, and occasionally Bryce would consider changes to the route he had plotted since he was 15 years old. Most of the segments were consistent with Adventure Cycling routes, MapMyRide routes, and even Google Maps. The routes then had to be transferred to a Garmin cycle computer. Fortunately, Bryce is good at reading the Garmin, because the screen is unreadable for someone who wears distance correction lenses and polarizing sunglasses. Somehow, we manage to navigate every day from start to end, sometimes changing courses on the fly, and sometimes following bike trails that do not show up on the computers. It must work. We have managed to get from Astoria, Oregon to Amsterdam, New York, three days from our destination.

This morning, we had breakfast at a small cafe in Little Falls, thanks to the American Legion and the Chief of Police. When my breakfast was delivered, it was magically decorated with lit candles, and with one huff of breath, my personal wish for my 70th birthday came true...a bicycle trip across America! Jonathan captured the moment on digital film.

On this trip, I've come to realize that I'm a lot healthier than most 70 year old men. No arthritis. No crippling illnesses. No obesity. No smoking. I can even keep up with three teenagers all the way from Little Falls to Amsterdam! And in another couple of days, I'll be following them (or leading them) into New York City! See you there?

Chasing Rainbows

You know how rainbows are formed ... the sun reflects off of raindrops. That requires two elements: sunshine, and rain. This morning, we only had one of those two elements, and it wasn't sunshine.

The day started in Syrheated upacuse, where we stayed with WarmShowers hostess Keri Vito. She recommended a breakfast restaurant called Malts, since we wanted to get out of town early, and Malts opened at 7:00 am. The food was good, but maybe going in first thing in the morning was not the best time for them. I don't think they had the stove warmed up, and the waitresses were in no hurry, so the slow service was a bit of a damper on an otherwise good breakfast. But the real damper was the weather. Soaking rain. We had to pull out the rain gear for the first time, and rode all the way from Syracuse to Uttica without once seeing anything but pouring rain. Pat asked what we wanted to do for lunch, and we said, "Somewhere warm and dry." So we found a small pizza restaurant, feasted, and rode on.

The sun finally came out as we were approaching Herkimer, our original stopping place for the day, then we had a fast descent into Little Falls. There, were met at the outskirts of town by the chief of police and his assistant chief, and they led us into town with the lights flashing, through red lights and stop signs, across a bridge over the river and freeway, finally stopping at a beautiful boat house along the Erie Canal. Nearby, there is a 41-foot lock, and the main branch of the canal can be navigated from Syracuse to Albany, finally emptying into the Hudson River. Our route tomorrow will be along the canal again ... a wider path than the adventuresome trail we followed yesterday. And hopefully, the trail will be bathed in sunshine!

Anyway, the chief of police led us directly to the marina boathouse, where the American Legion and the Mayor were awaiting our arrival, along with others. We will sleep on cots in the boathouse tonight. Here's a view along the canal showing the boathouse.

In front of the boathouse / marina is a pleasant little park that pretty much marks the beginning of our morning ride tomorrow.

After showers and laundry, we went to the Little Falls American Legion Hall for a spaghetti dinner, and yet more fundraising. We were given the reserved head table, and were treated like celebrities by everyone. But alas, the evening had to end. Tomorrow morning, we have breakfast at 7:00 again, then off along the canal path.

Ad "Bikes" to the sign in front of the marina building, and we would be (we are) totally happy!

"Low Bridge, Everybody Down"

If you know the song, then yep, you're right. We found the Erie Canal, and rode the old mule path for about 20 miles on our way into Syracuse, New York. The path was crushed gravel, and where the gravel had drifted into deep piles, the traction was pretty mushy. After about 15 miles, Jonathan decided it was time to let nature alone, so he rode the last few miles to our WarmShowers' hostess in the support car. Here's a wide part of the trail.

The Erie Canal meant 20 miles of no automobile traffic! What a luxury! But the whole day wasn't like that. We had a couple of interesting things happen along the way. First, we had a breakfast with a full host of members of the Avon, NY American Legion Hall. At 8:00 am, right on cue, we lined up in front of the Veteran's Memorial for a photo, then started rolling east on Highway 5. The Avon chapter was very generous with their time, and presented us with a nice proclamation, along with a poster welcoming us to their Legion Hall. They wanted a copy of the photo of us leaving from the Pacific Ocean, and they want another of us dipping our tires in the Atlantic so they can commemorate our visit to Avon. 

We touched the north edges of the Finger Lakes as we rode along, and at one point we lost Ryan and Jonathan, who wanted to ride faster than Bryce and I were going. Only trouble is, they took a different route than we did, and pretty soon we realized that one or the other of us was lost. Bryce had the route programmed into his Garmin cycle computer, so he and I followed that, and settled in for a good lunch in Seneca Falls while Ryan and Jonathan used Google Maps to get from wherever they were, back to wherever we were. Actually, Seneca Falls is a beautiful little city, and quite famous. It was here that Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850. By the time we were done with lunch, Ryan and Jonathan had found their way back to the correct route. However, they had added several steep hills and seven miles to an already long day, which would explain why Jonathan decided to ride the last few miles in the support car. He still got in an almost 90-mile day! These kids amaze me every day we are on the road!

Anyway, it was a good day for learning a bit of history. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Erie Canal. And even a bit of the "Last of the Mohicans." The Finger Lakes district is very pleasant on a warm summer's day. Guess it's a good time of year to see the area. We'll keep our fingers crossed that we can make it all the way to NYC without a touch of bad weather while we're out on the road (or the canal path).