TaDa ... We're on the road!

No more teachers, no more school ... On the road again ... Yep, that's me, standing on the beach in Fort Stevens, west of Astoria, Oregon. We had a ceremonial sendoff from the park, with our American Legion and Boy Scout sponsors, our support vehicle, our wonderful support driver Pat Wollner, her mascot dog Annie, and four riders. Three of the riders are 16, and one is not. While two of the boys will celebrate their 17th birthdays on the road, I'll be celebrating the 53rd anniversary of my 17th birthday. Don't even do the math. Anyway, here's our crew and a couple of our sponsors standing by the American Legion truck that escorted us through Astoria.

And just so that you know that we really started all the way at the Pacific Ocean, here's a picture taken by our half-time Hawaii friend Sue, who came to see us start off.

That's Jonathan on the left, next to Ryan, then Bryce (who organized the trip), and yours truly, the friendly neighborhood blogger. I'm not wearing a wet suit...that's my bicycling outfit for the cold coastal Oregon weather.

We rode from Fort Stevens to Astoria, had lunch at the Legion hall, then rolled out of town accompanied by the escort truck shown above, our support vehicle shown in a recent blog, the vehicles of a couple of parents, and reporter / photographer crew who will try to drop in on us periodically to see how we're progressing. The legion is trying to set up a big welcome when we get to NYC, and have mentioned possibly getting us onto GMA, Fox News, etc. They are excited, mostly because 100% of the funds we raise on the trip go to help wounded veterans. We ended the day's ride in Clatskinie ... first two days are warm-ups for the longer days that are coming. Today, 48 miles, tomorrow 35, and the day after that, 84 miles with 3000+ feet of  climbing along the Columbia River Gorge, to Carson, Washington.

We are truly on the way. And if the Legion continues to feed us the way they did in Clatskinie (I promised I wouldn't say anything, but I'm not saying, just telling) we'll end up putting on 15-20 pounds by the time we reach NYC. Lasagna, salad, salad, salad, warm freshly baked buns, butter, Lasagna, salad, and salad. That should get us through 35 miles without too much problem.

And again, thank you to Sue Saville Lucas for the wonderful pictures featured in today's blog.