We had a fairly casual, late morning departure from Savannah. I got the worlds slowest haircut from an old fashioned barber shop in town ,but it was much needed. My hair got so long it started to look like it did when Brad and I first met, 28 years ago, which is a scary thought.( it isn't my hair that's a scary thought, it's the concept of knowing Brad for 28 years.)
We had a pretty hectic departure over two huge bridges from Savannah and then an intense stretch on 17N because there was no shoulder and lots of heavy traffic with lots of trucks. But we were able to get beyond that after 10 miles or so and had a very pleasant ride into Hilton Head Island. Brad, of course, decided to make it a ceremonious ride and rode in his street clothes and those crazy flip flops. So, yet again, he was slowing us down one last time. Actually, he didn't slow anyone down on this ride or any other ride during the entire tour.
We arrived at Coligney beach to a warm welcoming party. My brother Joe, his wife Bridget and one of their sons, Joey were there. Betsy and Dan Brown ( Dan and I worked together for 15 years and he is retired and living in HHI). We even had two Pittsburgh friends make a special trip to Hilton Head just to greet us, John Campbell and Bill Simpson. Plus, the Browns had arranged to have the local newspaper do a story on our ride so there was a photographer from the famous Island Packet snapping pictures as we arrived. Joe met us with some refreshing and humorous drinks. He presented me with a Fat tire beer but of course he modified the label to read "Flat Tire". He had two bottles of wine for Brad, one to represent his flip flop riding days, the winery was called "Barefoot", Joe added, "with sandles". The other bottle was called Red Bicycle and he cleverly inserted the word "Ass" in between the other two words to reflect Brads emergency surgery episode. And for Hutch, the fastest Guiness beer drinker I've ever known, he had a can of Guiness which was modified to read "Guinee pig".
So, we took a few minutes to enjoy the cool drinks and talked to the reporter for a bit and headed 50 yards away to the Atlantic. We had a great time riding into the ocean. What a great feeling of accomplishment but more present was the feeling of fun, true adventure and a life time experience. We moved from the beach to a perfect lunch spot, called Woody's. After a much needed late lunch and some pretty interesting dialogue with our waitress, we headed to Joe's house.
Ironically, the Steelers were playing Monday night football against Brad's coveted Denver Broncos so Bridget and Joe were nice enough to cook an outstanding dinner for us and allow us to abuse Brad through most of the game, certainly the second half. Joe pulled together a great fire outside and then proceeded to move the TV outside so we could enjoy the game in style. We have lots of fires outside in Pittsburgh but the concept of watching TV outside is pretty foreign to us. It was a great final night. THANK you Bridget and Joe. We flew back to Pittsburgh today and Brad and Hutch were taking off to their respective towns late this afternoon. We said our final, for now, good byes at the Airport. While we kept it brief, there was a lot of unspoken communication confirming that we just pulled off a special, rare and once in a lifetime event that none of us will ever forget.
There is more to say and more pics to post. I know that Hutch and Brad want to add some perspective as well so stay tuned for a few more days and then we will wind this thing down. But, I am going to miss this blog, it has been a fun means of communicating to a large, diverse group of people.
November 10, 2009
November 9, 2009
Day 35
We left Jesup and rode 65 miles to Savannah. Nice easy ride. We arrived in town mid afternoon and stopped in the old part of town for a cold beer and some live music out in the street. Hutch knows Savannah fairly well and he guided us to a great dinner spot. We all enjoyed some local fried green tomatoes that were awesome. We found a local pub ( or two) afterwards and had a perfect night in Savannah, pretty cool little town. We leave this morning for a casual and easy ride into Hilton Head Island. It will be less than 40 miles, a short ride, which seems fitting for this our final day of riding. We will post some more photos and a some general reflections about this long strange trip after we put in this one last ride.
November 7, 2009
Days 32, 33 and 34 "The World According to Hutch"
In the beginning, Shorty and Brad went for a bike ride. I'm not going to re-hash the whole trip of these travelers, but I have been asked to be a guest blogger tonight and I would like to update everyone on how things are rolling.
Today, Saturday, (day 34) we just finished another big day of riding after putting in 108 miles in the saddle. I use the term saddle only because they do, but the seats on these bikes would more closely resemble sitting on a steel fence pole while two people hold it on each end and shake it for 7 hours. This activity repeated several days in a row can cause what are called "saddle sours". We now know how to treat saddle sores when they get really bad. First you need to find a nurse in your hotel lobby who is teaching a class to other nurses. Then you have to have her look at your area of concern and perform the necessary procedures. The viewing audience of this blog site is such that I cannot give any more details on this subject.
Anyways, we are now in Jesup, GA and just finished eating some gator tails at the Daily News Bar & Grill. We only have about 70 miles tomorrow to Savannah and then 40 to Hilton Head, so we are winding down. None of us want this long, strange trip to end, but tomorrow we will be very close to the Atlantic Ocean and unable to travel east on a bike anymore. This may be harder for Shorty and Brad because of all the days and miles they have put into this venture.
Lunches have presented us with the most interesting characters each day. One day, after eating, we were outside getting our bikes ready to ride when a "vertically challenged" man came outside shaking his finger at us and shouting: "We have already called the police and they are on their way!" He paused just long enough for me to look at Shorty and Brad and think about a half dozen things that day he may be referring to, when he continued with: " You should all be locked up in an insane asylum for riding on this road."
We had one lady get a hold of Brad's ear, yesterday, so that she could compare and contrast the northern blacks to the southern blacks.
We met a guy who was walking from Daytona Beach, Florida to Seattle, Washington. It was going to take him 8 months and all he had was a backpack and a walking stick.
We have also become quite the conisours of "rumble strips". In Florida they are convex, and above the ground, but very rough on bike riders when you hit them. Here in Georgia they prefer to make them concave or cut out of the pavement. Some are not so deep and very subtle, probably designed to alert the driver they are drifting off the road. Others are so deep and severe they must be designed to pull truck drivers out of a stouper.
Finally, I just want to say that Shorty and Brad have been great teachers. I have learned more about bike riding in one week, than I would have after years riding. They are anxious to complete this great accomplishment of riding coast to coast, yet they are already wondering how much they will miss these adventurous and healthy days and so am I.
See Y'all,
Hutch
November 6, 2009
quick update
I've asked Hutch and/or Brad to do some guest posting. They both will add some good color I'm sure. We are in Valdosta, GA taking an earned dayoff. We rode about 100 miles each of the last two days. Hutch has never ridden over 60 miles and he has done back to back centuries, pretty impressive. He is riding like a champ. Has picked up our drafting routine quite well and is a welcome addition to the pace line. He didn't train as much as Brad and I did but he has completed 17 marathons so we knew he would be just fine doing long rides. There is no quit in that guy.
We are in Valdosto, GA today taking an earned day off. We rode pretty hard the past 6 days. I have posted some information from my Garmin GPS. Unfortunately, I can't do a cumulative summary so I just put up the last 6 rides individually. If you scroll and click on any of the Garmin heading you should be able to see the detail. It will just give you a sense of the route we are taking and the data behind the riding. I probably should have been posting it all along.
We are going to head out to see a movie. Hopefully one of these two guys will have enough energy to update the last two rides. Almost to the Atlantic, probably 3 days out !!!!!!!!
November 4, 2009
Day 31
We did take it easy on Hutch today but mainly because he went on the offense and stopped at every seaside town he could acting like he was on vacation. So, we let him have his day in the sun and we'll set him straight with a real ride tomorrow. We just rode 52 today but it took as long as any of our 100 mile days. But Hutch had a good vacation.
Forgot to mention one aspect of the start of Hutch on the tour. We rode 1 mile down the road from lunch and realized Hutch was in desperate need of air( in his tires). We pulled into a gas station to use the air pump. Brad was kind enough to take charge and fill his front tire. As he was filling his back tire , Hutch asked: do these things ever blow? At EXACTLY that instant, the tire exploded!! Classic start. We were probably another 5 miles down the road and as Brad was moving up to take his turn in front he turned to me and said, I can see it all changing right here, right now its going to be completely different from here on in. And right he was.
We stopped for a great swim in the Gulf. As we were drying off getting ready to climb back on the bikes Hutch surprised us by pulling out three bottles of Guiness, packed in ice, from his saddle bags. They were just as refreshing as the swim.
We rode to Panama city beaches and found a condo complex renting condos for the night. We got a great deal on a three bedroom condo on the beach. What a welcome change from the motels we typically stay in. Spent some time looking at google maps charting a course for the next few days. Had pizza delivered and called it a night.
Forgot to mention one aspect of the start of Hutch on the tour. We rode 1 mile down the road from lunch and realized Hutch was in desperate need of air( in his tires). We pulled into a gas station to use the air pump. Brad was kind enough to take charge and fill his front tire. As he was filling his back tire , Hutch asked: do these things ever blow? At EXACTLY that instant, the tire exploded!! Classic start. We were probably another 5 miles down the road and as Brad was moving up to take his turn in front he turned to me and said, I can see it all changing right here, right now its going to be completely different from here on in. And right he was.
We stopped for a great swim in the Gulf. As we were drying off getting ready to climb back on the bikes Hutch surprised us by pulling out three bottles of Guiness, packed in ice, from his saddle bags. They were just as refreshing as the swim.
We rode to Panama city beaches and found a condo complex renting condos for the night. We got a great deal on a three bedroom condo on the beach. What a welcome change from the motels we typically stay in. Spent some time looking at google maps charting a course for the next few days. Had pizza delivered and called it a night.
November 3, 2009
Day 30
Well we found Hutch. Brad and I rode 46 miles this morning to Pensacola Beach and found Hutch enjoying a Bloody Mary at Hemingways on the beach. After lunch we rode another 42 miles to Destin and called it a day. Brad's cousin, Donna, lives in Destin so she was our host for the night. Thanks Donna, it was great to see you again. We had a good day and Hutch got reasonably acclimated to our routine. Spent the whole day riding along the Gulf Coast. Beautiful! Had a nice stop along one of the few areas that are not developed and went for a swim. I have a few great pics that I will post later. We plan to have a fairly casual day of riding tomorrow just to give Hutch one more day of peace before we put him to the test.
Seems like I have been in the central time zone forever. Looks like we will cross over into EST tomorrow. Losing that extra hour of daylight, on Saturday, at the end of the day puts more pressure on getting up even earlier to ride.
Keep your comments coming, they are great to read and we take them as motivation as we head into the final stretch.
I got a few questions about the the picture I posted of the road that was flooded. That was while I was in TX, actually riding through a State park. I came up over a rise and was surprised to see the road was completely washed out. I actually considered walking across but the closer I got the more I realized that was just not an option. I found a work around solution that only added 7 miles or so and I was back on the right route again.
Keep your comments coming, they are great to read and we take them as motivation as we head into the final stretch.
November 1, 2009
Day 29
We rode 117 miles today. We are now in Gulf Shores, AL. It was a great day for riding. Cool but sunny skies. We rode for a little over 7 hours today and averaged 16.4 mph again. Not bad after riding 126 yesterday. We rode the last hour in the dark but didn't have to use our headlights because we were under a full moon and could see fine. Of course we had ALL of the blinking lights on the back that we keep on all day long so traffic could see us from behind. We had to take a ferry from Daughin Island to Ft. Morgan. The ferry was 95 miles into our ride. We wanted to catch the 3:30 ferry since the next one didn't leave for another hour and a half. We pulled onto the ferry at 3:25. 95 miles and we arrive with 5 minutes to spare!!!??? In fact, we finished lunch at 1:30 and were still 36 miles out. We ripped through those 36 to make it. It was a good challenge to have a goal with a deadline. We have a goal of making it to some specific town every day but no real deadlines. It was fun to test ourselves like that late into a ride.
We will probably ease up a little for the next day or so. Hutch landed in Pensacola. We are about 35 miles west of him so our plan is to meet him mid morning and see just what kind of training he has been doing. He called tonight and it sounded like his bar room training has been robust but we'll have to see how he is in two wheel drive.
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