Los Angeles to Boston...Or how to ride your butt off in 7 weeks

Today I began my journey to Boston by taking my wheel down to the Pacific Ocean. The weather was over cast and cool, perfect for beginning a 78 mile ride. We road through Manhattan Beach and many other towns, to many to remember, but what I do remember are all the stop lights. If there were 30 there had to be 50. It was unbelievable how many we rode through to get to Riverside, CA.

Our total miles were supposed to be 78, but two other riders and I ended up with an extra miles on our computers...can you say "Lost" boys and girls?

But that's not the best part of my day. Before even leaving the parking lot of the hotel, while trying to pump up my front tire, one of my fellow riders asked if I needed "help" and proceeded to take the pump from me and began pumping up my back tire...then before I knew it, my brand new tube exploded! Can we say "Oh Darn!?!?!?" boys and girls... I now have the dubious "honor" of being the only person who has had a flat tire before even getting out of the hotel parking lot! I don't consider this a flat, it was an equipment malfunction.

The ride took 5 and a half hours with head winds the last 15 miles. I was very happy with this and after a good nights sleep I'm looking forward to day 2. Upward and onward to Indio, CA.

Are we there yet???

Fun in the Sun

It's my last day before beginning my ride so I had lunch with a dear friend, Craig, from WCS. We drove down to Hermosa Beach...I know you told me where we were headed Craig, but with all the talking we were doing I didn't pay attention, I think that's what you said. Promise I'll pay closer attention next time!

We walked down to the pier, watched a few volleyball games and then had lunch at a restaurant, Molly's Pub, close to the beach. It was great getting caught up, thanks again Craig for lunch and driving up to El Segundo, Geri you were missed!

In the afternoon, we had our CrossRoads Orientation meeting. It was nice to finally meet Tracy, Tom, Rick, Pat and Mack in person as well as be introduced to the other cyclist. It's an international group with one Canadian, four Brits and the rest of us are from the four corners of America. The reality that I will be cycling across country is beginning to sink in and I'm hearing a little voice in my head asking "What did you get yourself into girl?" I'm excited, a bit scared but mostly I'm ready to GO!!

Tomorrow we'll head down to Manhattan Beach where we'll take a group picture, put our back wheels in the Pacific and then head off to Boston. Our first day will be 78 miles........ so let the wild rumpus begin!

Re-united And Feel So Good....

Today was my first day to ride my bike since shipping it to California. It was a short 10 and a half mile warm up ride out to Manhattan Beach and back with my fellow cyclist Jan Lewis. We checked out the pier where we'll begin our ride on Sunday then tackled the two block steep hill back up. Piece of cake or I should say for Jay's benefit, piece of "cupcake".

Thanks Jan for going with me and trying to locate the bike shop, to bad it wasn't where it was suppose to be and sorry to Doug S and Jon for sending them on a wild goose chase. But if anyone would like an electric bike, Jan and I know where you can purchase one!

Then this afternoon I was on laundry duty. So much fun, at least I had the use of a washing machine and dryer! After today it may be the old fashion way, by hand.

Tonight it's Mexican for dinner and we all know how much I love Mexican!!!! Thanks for going with me Jan and so glad to hear you like Mexican food too. I enjoyed dinner as we talked about why we had decided to take on the challenge of cycling across the country...could it be we're both crazy?? That would explain a lot!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and all you "Mothers" have a great Mother's Day!

From El Segundo to Manhattan Beach

It was a busy day today. I met some of the other cyclists who will be riding cross country and my bike was assembled, thank you very much Rick! I'm looking forward to taking a test ride tomorrow.

The highlight of my day was being given a "personal" tour of Manhattan Beach from my old friend Jay Shaw. We began our tour by walking through the mulch patch path which took us straight into the center of Manhattan Beach. It was a beautiful beach with lots of Volleyball nets set up for play. We saw some surfers riding the waves, runners on the beach and local cyclists resting up at Starbucks or were they getting their caffeine fix in order to ride the hills that lead up from the beach.

These are the very same hills we will be riding on Sunday. I got a good look at what awaits us on Sunday morning when we head out, those two tiers of hills look kind of steep. The hills are alive and living in Manhattan Beach! Craig, Catherine and Kevin you were so right about it being hilly. Hilly but doable for sure! Can you tell I'm ready to hit the road and start cycling!!!

After a great lunch at The Kettle we walked back to into El Segundo to a mall and had the best cupcakes I've ever tasted. I would never had found that place with out my trusty guide Jay, thank you so much!

So now the clock on the wall says it's time to call it a day. Here's to another fun day in the sun tomorrow!

Leaving On A Jet Plane....

"Oh, my bags are packs, I'm ready to go.... oops, wait I'm here. Yep I'm in LA and my watch says 12:42 a.m., but the clock radio says it's only 9:40 p.m. I should be tired but I don't think I've hit the wall yet.

The night before I left there was a surprise going away dinner. Bob you out did yourself with the going away "loot". Thank you all for supporting me in my ride and for the offer to help Don while I'm off living my dream!

My mission for tomorrow is to try and track down my bike and have lunch with an old friend, I mean a long time friend, sorry Jay! Maybe if I can find my bike I might take a short ride down to Manhattan Beach which is where we will begin our ride on Sunday.

So for now, sorry for the short entry, but I know I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully will be sunny and warm so I can go cycling and explore.

Can you say "OMG"

What happen to the end of April, it's all a blurr. Some training, some "practice" packing (it's not as easy as you think to pack for 7 weeks into two "gym" size duffel bags and keep to the 15 pounds for each bag limit! Jyl and Kath are you listening?

I want to thank you for telling me about the weight ins on the first two days of the ride Kath, somehow I missed reading that in the instructions! I'll try one more time tonight to make that 15 lb limit if I don't then there go my vitamins!!!

So now it's May and I'm working fast and furious to get everything done around the house, yard and get Don's "instructions" written. The house is 99% done, the yard about 95% done and Don's instructions about 80% done. So based on that, my blog is short and sweet for the day because I would also like to get a ride in, ha, how many hours are there in a day????

Having said that, I must go, so long, fair well........(you know the rest) So let's all take a moment to smell the flowers.........ok the monents up, gotta go!

If it's Thursday it must be "hill day"

I took Wednesday as a rest day, man o' man did I feel that 5 mile ride up my "imaginary" hills during my Monday workout.

The picture to the left is of a hill in Ireland that we were in the process of riding up, when "someone" got a bright idea that we should stop and take a picture of what we had just ridden up, unfortunately once we stopped we could not get going again and ended up walking the rest of the way up the hill. Lesson learned, never stop in the middle of riding up a hill....Don!

So today I was raring to go and started by riding 16 miles at a moderate pace, about 15.5 and then cranked the tension down to 5 and rode for another 5 "hilly" miles. That was a great workout. I made sure to drink my tomato juice and had some of my "electrolyte" jelly bellies to help with my recovery. I'll be able to tell if it worked tomorrow morning.To bad they don't make dark chocolate peanut M&M electrolytes, cause if they did I would be in bigggggg trouble!

I'm really missing my bike with these nice days and wish I could be outside riding, but I had to ship it off yesterday. My journey is close at hand!!