So Who's crazy here?

So, I keep getting strange looks, hushed comments, and sometimes blatant disrespect when the subject comes up of this journey I am taking. And I am ok with that. And I expect it. And in many ways welcome it. A few big potential problems with my plans have been corrected because of critical comments others have made. I considered their message and not their lack of class or education, and did find a few problems that I had to fix. So I am even grateful to them.

But on the other hand, it's getting a but old to be called black by the pot, if you know what I mean.
Is it "reasonable" to ride a motor assisted bicycle so far? Is it reasonable to think I can pedal 50-60 miles a day for 6 days out of 7, for 7 weeks, with only a 1 week rest time in between? Is it reasonable to sleep in a tent every night, pitching it where I can find a safe quiet spot?
For a large chunk of the general population, the answer is a clear resounding repeated NOOOOOOOO!!!! Followed by a laugh.

But lets look at the alternatives people have suggested, and for now we will ignore the financial limitations these all present.

1) Fly. Very doable. Really fast. Saves tons of time. But, I can get the same views and better from Google Earth. Heck, I see something from the equivalent of 20k feet, I can stop and take a closer look on Google Earth. Try getting the pilot of the 767 your on to drop down 18k feet so u can see what that pretty valley looks like! So for sight seeing, flying is pointless. And as for time to think, self-reflect, meet new people, etc etc. Well, you have about 10 hours total, round trip, and maybe 5000 people you'll be exposed to. Of them, you'll be lucky to find 10 who even take the time to meet a stranger.
I'll pass thank you.

2) Bus. Very doable. Fast. Saves time. But, I can get the same views and better from Google Earth street view. Heck, I see something from my window (if I actually get a window), I can stop and take a closer look on Google Earth. Try getting the driver of the bus your on to swing around and stop so u can see what that pretty valley looks like! So for sight seeing, buses are almost totally pointless. And as for time to think, self-reflect, meet new people, etc etc. Well, you have about 48 hours total, round trip, and maybe 1000 people you'll be exposed to. Of them, you'll be lucky to find 10 who even take the time to meet a stranger. Oh, and sorry to burst the bus industry's bubble, but I rode from Chattanooga to Detroit last year, and before that from Chicago to Detroit in 1991, and a few times from Alma to Detroit and back in 1988 and '89. It's gotten worse, dirtier, and less organized!

I'll pass thank you.

3) Drive. Very doable. Fast. Saves time. But, stopping for the night will involve a hotel or at best a full service camp ground. A car sitting in a parking lot overnight is no fun to sleep it. I find the cost of full service camping to be very very offensive, considering that a few miles from my house, I can get a hotel for less! Yeah it's a dive, but for the price, I'll take it! And as for time to think, self-reflect, meet new people, etc etc. Well, you have about 40 hours total, round trip, and maybe 500 people you'll be exposed to. Of them, you'll be lucky to find 5 who even take the time to meet a stranger.

I'll pass thank you.

All 3 of these have one thing in common. They do not allow you to focus on the journey, only the destination. They are all very task oriented - the task of getting where you are going. Today we spend so much time rushing everywhere for everything that we have little time for to see anything anywhere.

For this journey, I get to take time. It's about the journey at least as much as the destination, tho the destination is indeed part of the journey.

And when it comes to those 3 methods, people say them for only a few reasons. Either they cant fathom someone doing that at all, or they find the journey to be nothing more that an inconvenience. Both are very sad. 

Today we think we have to get there as fast as possible. Well, a bicycle ain't fast. 25mph is about the reasonable max, whether its a meat motor or a gasoline motor. But I am going to burn over 6000 calories a day. How many did you burn today? Better yet, how many did you consume? If you are the average american, your fat, out of shape, and struggle with your weight and body image constantly. You have fat clothes, skinny clothes and clothes you cant ever imagine being small enough to get into again. Your cholesterol and blood pressure is too high, you take prescriptions daily, and usually several. You walk from the house to the car to the job to the car to the restaurant for lunch to the car to the job to the car to the house. Or you run your family all over. In the mini-van.

When was the last time you took a multivitamin? A jog? A bike ride? Lifted weights? Ate fresh spinach? Turned down a scoop of ice cream? Watched the sun rise over some majestic bluff? Drank enough water? Got enough sleep? Did yoga?

You will climb yourself into a 300 horsepower SUV that get 20 MPG, drive it less than 40 miles in a day, eating prepackaged and fast food constantly, gaining more and more weight and getting worse health wise, cause more pollution with your car in a day than I will in 6 months of pedaling my bike, and I am the one who is crazy for my transportation choices? When was the last time you walked that mile to the grocery store? Why do we think that it's reasonable to drive a car 4 blocks to the convenience store because we ran out of milk?

You know, there was a time when people used the mode of transportation that made sense for the job at hand. The average american can chose easily between several types of transportation. Foot, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, car, SUV or minivan, pickup, and maybe a cube van. Each has its use and purpose. Trouble is, you think speed and comfort are all that matters. In fact, you have allowed your life to develop to the point where speed and comfort have to matter most in transportation. Well, as any racer knows "Speed costs. How fast do you want to go?". The tragedy here is that when you pick speed and comfort over health and wellness and environment and stewardship, you still have a destination. You're racing to a miserable and early death. In the end, I promise you that won't be comfortable. Is that anyplace you want to go fast to?

Traffic for a Nut on a Battlefield

I am not getting the traffic I had hoped for, or the comments. I encourage you to tell your friends what a whacko I am, and where my blog is.  Every loves a good nut job! One of my long term goals here is to inspire others to take the time to look at their life, where it has been, how it got there, why it's not where they want it to be. And decide that if life is running them, they stop it, and begin making small changes so they can begin running it! Everyone doesn't have to ride 2800 miles to do that, but there comes a time in everyones life when we just have to stop and look around. Not to smell the roses, as sweet as they may be, but to see the battlefield!

New Plan - Same Goals

Well, after getting the tandem disassembled down to the bare frame, and before that, riding it for a few miles, I realized something. This bike handles unlike any other bike I have ever ridden. Not that it handles bad. Quite the opposite. It is a joy to ride, but the long wheelbase really makes it unique!

On the plus side, it is a much much more comfortable ride. Better that even a full suspension bike. Really nice. That long wheelbase really softens out the bumps. It is also a more relaxed ride. It doesn't feel very "fast", so it is somehow "comforting". It's tough to explain unless you have ridden one yourself i think. And with it being so long, I have the space I need to do with it what I want.

On the down side, it is not very maneuverable. The "not very fast" feeling I mentioned above is from the delay between bumps on the road, the slower steering, and the fact that there is almost 4 feet of bike behind me instead of less than 2. As I lean to turn, I can tell the rear tire is never where I expect it to be, but I cant really tell where it is either. I feel very "disconnected" from the rear of the bike, simply because it is further away than on any other bike. On a single person road or mountain bike, I can pretty much put it where I need it, when I need it there. This bike is never going to be so fast. I have to relearn how to handle it, and out on a wild adventure, miles from any real support system, is not the place to be making novice mistakes!
Also, as a smaller concern, it is quite heavy. Since I will be loading it down with my own gear, I will not notice an extra 20 or 30 lbs by the time it is loaded for travel! And besides, I expect to be losing that much weight as I go along!

So, given the fact that I have to train myself to drive defensively on a very different rig than I have ever rode before, and would like to be in a little better shape to start, I have decided to put off the trip until August. Still plenty of time to go, tho it may be a bit cool in Michigan by October :)

And since there is now 6-ish weeks before I go, instead of 2, I am working on an additional reason to take the trip. I have had it in the back of my mind for some time now, but given the short schedule, there was not really time to pull it all together. Well, now there is time. I will blog about it later this week.

As a teaser, I'll tell you this. I know a girl, who knows a child predator. She knows what he is. And she likes it. And you know her to. But we don't talk about these things. Too invasive.

First New Friend - Right in my own back yard!

Well, today has been really cool! This trip requires items I simply do not have, and can not afford to buy at the moment. Because of the timing of everything, I decided that I would just ask for what I needed instead or wait - again - for things to be "better" for me to go. So I put up a "shopping list" of sorts on craigs list and freecycle of several items I need. And from that I have made a friend!

This is Mary, my first new friend as a result of this adventure.

Mary's pretty cool. She's an author, a naturalist, and once-avid hiker. She has a really cool blog an Mary's Detroit Photoblog, showing and telling of things in Detroit I think we all need to know and see. I have lived in the Metro Detroit area for 27 of my 40 years, and her blog, a person who has lived here for less than 5 years, has views I never knew were there, and she offers perspectives on things that a native might never get otherwise. I was going to mention another few of her blogs, but when I said she was an author, yeah, thats kind of like saying Lake Superior is a lake! Her name above is a link to her Blogger profile, which will open you up to a vast and varied world or writing and photo blogging, well worth the time! She is also generous, funny, and not playing with a full deck either according to the stories she shared with me! Thats cool with me since, well, you all either know, or will soon learn, that my deck is entertainingly incomplete as well! The only cards you can be sure make it into my deck at all times are the Jokers, and an ace or two ;-)

She responded to the ad I put on freecycle, offering me a tent. Not just any tent now, but a Northface Tadpole. And a cool little sleeping pad. They are both very light weight, the tent sets up easily, has plenty of space for me, and packs away into a light and compact package. And not just any Tadpole, but the one she has used for years on her own hiking adventures. Thousands of miles, including when she hiked th Northville-Placid Trail in the Adirondacks of upstate NY, alone! And I get the sense that if she had the ability and opportunity to do it again, she would not think twice before packing up and heading out! In spite of discovering on one trip that a food stash of hers, 5 days worth, was found and fully enjoyed by local bears long before she got back to it! No stores around, no pizza delivery. Just a bear-tooth-dented can of tuna, and the kindness of fellow hikers along the way!

This is me holding what I am now calling "The Merry Tent".

And this is the Marry Tent, all set up. My accommodations for the 50 or so days of my trip, minus the time I am at Pa's. Cozy huh? It's gonna be great!

  

See, compared to Mary, don't I seem totally reasonable? Hush! Yes I do! lol

All joking aside, Mary is such a sweet woman, and I'm glad to have her tent with me along my journey, and her support and encouragement as I lay down to sleep each night.

The Bike

When this journey was initially birthed, the bike was, and is, a huge part of the trip. It's limitations and capabilities will play a major role in how the rest of the trip is planned and executed.
Last fall I picked up a Schwinn World Tourist, a 30 year old 10 speed, for $15. It rides great, has full fenders for riding in the rain, and is build very tough. A great bike for a long trip. Now for this trip to work as I hope, I really need a gas motor to help out. And I will be carrying a good amount of stuff with me, so I need space as well.

This is the Schwinn

Nice, right? I love vintage things. Always have. I remember when I was a kid, maybe 13 years old, I heard a friends mom threw away the old (like 1950's old) bike they had that I used to ride all the time. I asked why, because I loved riding that thing! She said "It was so old". I was like "It rode like a dream! So what if it was OLD!!!!" Ugh I was so disgusted!

Anyway, if u look closely, you don't see much space for an engine, and big saddlebags, and still leave room for a rider, do you?  Yeah, neither did I. Now, there is a great product, called a Freeradical, by Xtracycle. It is designed to give a regular bicycle the cargo hauling capabilities of a car, or more! It's a pretty incredible system, and since the first time I saw one, I knew I wanted one!

The Xtracycle system, called the FreeRadicle, and the panniers and snapdeck. 

Now there's room for me to haul everything I need, and plenty of room for the engine too. The problem with this system is my budget. What you see here will run roughly $650, not including the bike! Nope, thats out of my reach for this trip!

So, the other option is one I thought of a while ago, but never built. Then, on www.instructables.com , I saw this

A homebuilt SUB (Sport Utility Bike)

A great idea, and exactly what I intended on doing to my Schwinn. It is a great solution for what I need a bike to do, for much less than $650. Not that I think the cost of the Xtracycle system is overpriced. It's just too rich for me!

But then, I have always thought that a tandem bicycle is a much better choice for several reasons.
1) The frame and wheels are already designed to carry an additional 200 lbs at the rear, in the form of the second rider, called a stroker.
2) They typically have heavier duty brakes because they are designed for heavier loads. What goes must stop too!
3) They are actually a little longer that the SUB, and so there's a bit more flexibility in what to do with all the extra space.
4) If done properly, a tandem bike can be converted easily from load hauling monster into a two person recreation machine and back again with very little work.

Of course, a tandem, even an old one, used, is easily going to be $300 or more, and at that price point, will likely need tires and cables and maybe even long, expensive chains.

But, on craigslist, I saw this!

The ad said $75. So I sent the poster, Justin, an email asking several questions. Mainly, was it ridable, were both cranks free and what shape were the chains in. He said it was ridable, good chains, crap for brakes. I asked him if he would consider trading my Schwinn for it. He jumped at it! So, there it is. I have a tandem bike that is ridable, needs brakes and tires, for $15 (thats what I paid for the Schwinn last fall)! Man what a sweet deal!

I'll do another blog post in a few days as I repack the cranks and wheels and fix the brakes, and probably repaint it too, but for now, there is what this meat motor is going to power down to Florida on! Sweet huh?!

Shopping List

As I have spoken to people about this journey, and all the myriad of details to be worked out before I leave in July 2nd, I keep getting reminded that I should ask for this, or that. And a few have said that the best place to put this list is here on this blog. So, here is a list of things I need for my trip. If you have any of these items and no longer need them, I would be very grateful if you gave them to me instead of let them sit unused, and useless, buried in some corner any longer. Thanks so much.

Bike tire patch kit

Bike tire pump

Bike chain breaking tool

26x 1 3/8 road tires

tubes for above tires

bike tire levers

Dry milk

natural peanut butter

oats

first aid kit

spary paint (dark green would be nice :)  )

spray primer

mountain bike handlebars (with brake levers and shifters ideally)

A mini camp stove

A very small dc generator (10-20 amps @12vdc)

Brake and shifter cables

scrap hard drives from computers

LED flashlights

nimh rechargeable AA and C batteries

sun block

insect repellent (Avon Skin-So-Soft anyone?)

Protein powder

Small cooler
solar panel, 10 watt or so...
12v motorcycle battery
Rain riding gear
Tupperware food storage containers
Bubble wrap

And gift cards, to Walmart, Subway, Nashbar

Thanks

The Meat Motor

So this little tour of mine is going to be powered by 2 motors. The main engine is going to be a 40 year old, 200lb meat motor that has seen better days. The second motor is a 2 stroke engine scavenged off of a very small snowblower, about 20 years old.
This blog is about the former. This meat motor is also known as.... me. At first glance, one might respond to me with "You haven't trained for this, you don't have good equipment to this kind of trip, you haven't ridden more that 100 miles in a week in 15 years, and your overweight. You're gonna die before you make Kentucky!" I got that response from one person already. For the most part, they are right. But, I also know that Micheal on The Biggest Loser, at over 520lbs, didn't train for going on the ranch before he got there either. If a 520lb + man can get into that gym and workout for 8 hours a day, and I cant handle pedaling under my own power for 60 miles a day, shot me. Please. Seriously. Right in the head, just put me out of my misery quick!
Yeah, it's gonna be tough. Demanding. Exhausting. Draining. And tough. But it is also going to be gratifying. Empowering. Revealing. And Fulfilling.
I fully expect to be in better shape at the end of this that I was at 23! One huge thing going for me now is the pleasant fact that at 23, I smoked 2 packs a day, and today, its been more that 7 years since I smoked! I expect that to counteract any limits imposed by age.

Me at 12 - WOW I forgot how well I was built then! No, it wasn't natural, I worked for that build!

Me at 23, my youngest son, and his mom - Still built, but smoking by now. But I could still make a 21 mile ride thru metro Detroit out to the suburbs in an hour flat, on some old junk road bike, and STILL have time to smoke a cigarette halfway thru the ride. Did it every Saturday for the whole summer.

Fast forward to about 2008. I am still built! Just with all the wrong stuff! Here I am 225lbs! WOW!

That last pic was my limit. I remember putting on a pair of jeans with a 36" waist one day and commenting that they were too tight. Well, my everso helpful, but none-to-smart, 245lb wife says "Well we'll go tonight and by you some 38's." I do not remember exactly what was said, but the jist of it was this. "The hell you will! There will be NO 38 jeans in my dresser, ever. Don't you dare buy me 38's!" She explained to me that it was not right that I suffer with jeans that are too tight. Well, I concluded that day that either I was going to stop gaining weight, go naked when my 36's no longer fit, or get cut off at the waist wearing the 36's I did have. I was going to suffer because of my excess weight, just like everyone who is obese does. I just chose to suffer in a different way than most.
There was NO WAY I was going to tolerate myself getting any bigger that a 36! I know most people just buy bigger clothes when what they have no longer fits. I did too for a while. In my early and mid 20's, I wore 30's, and 32's were pretty baggy. Over the years, my weight rose. And so did my clothing size. But 36 was just it. So I topped out at 225. And stayed there for a few years. Far too long actually. Being 65lbs overweight is a big burden. Right now I weigh 205, and thats a burden! This ride will totally remake my body, and I can't wait to see the results!