Day 1 | Upper Mid-West Tour

Well we finally hit the road this am after months of planning, packing, and getting ready to roll, we rolled out around 6:45 am.  Amazingly we hit very light traffic going through Nashville to get to the storage unit to pick up the Airstream. 

Once at the storage unit, we hooked up and loaded the last of the items into the truck to roll out.  Most of the heavy work had already been done the last few days at the unit.  We went and turned on the refrigerator a couple of days ago, and then came back on Monday to add in the frozen food, and refrigerator items, and brought our clothes, drinks, etc.

Today was an easy travel day, because we were expecting more traffic in Nashville, and also more time to get ready to go this morning.  So we arrived just east of St. Louis at a small gentlemen farm, that is a “Harvest Host”.  We are staying here tonight.

Harvest Host is a company that signs up many farms, breweries, wineries, museums, drive ins, and anything else that might want to host RV’ers for a night.  The way it works is you join the company (pay a fee), like a Costco or Sam’s Club and then you can stay on many of these properties each year.  You still have to make reservations, and you are encouraged to purchase something from the companies.  Today we bought some farm fresh eggs and honey that they produce.

Here are some pictures from the farm.

Till tomorrow. 

Tour de USA | Some final thoughts and figures $$

Wow

It’s now been about 72 hours since I was in Revere Beach dipping my front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean, and a lot of things have happened since then, and I have some final thoughts that I would like to share with you.

Today was the first day back to work after an extended vacation, and it wasn’t easy.  I had a zillion emails and voicemails to go through, and I had been cleaning them up when I was on the trip.  This work thing is hard, I am ready to go back and ride my bike some more.  Anyway....

We dipped our wheels on Friday morning, and I had a huge group show up for the final event.  It was very touching and I truly appreciated their support. After all of the hugs and pictures were completed, I brought my bike to the “box truck” for them to bring it to a local bike shop to get it packed up and ship back to Nashville.  I probably won’t see it until next week, as it probably isn’t being packed until today, and Wednesday is the 4th.  I am also leaving on the 5th to go visit my mother in Hilton Head, as the 9th is the second anniversary of my father’s passing, and Lynn and I are going to spend the weekend with her.  So I won’t see my bike for a while.

After the symbolic goodbye to my bike, we walked about a mile down Revere Beach and had a lobster roll, sorry no pictures as they were gone quickly, with all of my family that had come to the beach.  It was a great time to just sit and discuss the journey with them.  They had a lot of questions, and some of them are ones that I have gotten from a lot of you and I will try to answer some of them here.

After the lunch, we all went our separate ways, as I still had a lot of loose ends that I needed to tie up on Friday afternoon, and we had a banquet that evening as well.  I “won” an award, which is pretty funny, as it was presented as I was voted “Homecoming King” of the bike tour.  I am not sure if that’s a compliment or not, haha.  They assured me and Cathy, as she was voted “Homecoming Queen” that it most definitely was a compliment and that everyone agreed.  In any case, thank you.

They also gave out “EFI” T-shirts to those that completed the whole tour, Every Foot and Inch, Every Fantastic Inch, Every F*#%ing Inch, and I know you know this, but, Yes I got a T Shirt.  I think there are several folks that would kick my A$$ if I didn’t get a shirt, and had to sag.  I didn’t sag! (Randy)

We had a great night on Friday and said our good byes to everyone.  Some we may never see again, others I hope to see again and even do a ride with some in the future.  It is amazing how strong of a friendship, relationship you can form in 6 weeks, when you see someone everyday and eat, and ride with them for almost every waking moment.  Great friendships for sure.  I made 2 great friendships with 2 people that only rode part way with us, and will continue those friendships as well.  You may remember that one of them, Greg P. Gave me his tires when he left the tour as scheduled.  And his front tire made it all the way to the beach.

Favorite Things

So what are some of your favorite things that you saw?  There are so many things, and each day was different from the previous day.  And there were so many different challenges as well.  Some times the beauty of the west was awesome, but yet created challenges, like crossing the desert in the heat, to the climbs over the mountains.  Or the beauty of relatively flat Kansas, but the winds were brutal, and never seemed to stop.  And the Midwest, it seemed we would never stop seeing corn, soy, cattle, and farms every where, but with the lush green Midwest came the heat and humidity. It was all a challenge and beautiful. I loved it all.

I loved the climbs of the west, the rolling hills of the Midwest, and the climbs again in NY, VT, and NH.  And I am not usually a “I like climbs guy”. 

I loved the fact that I could eat anything I wanted, and I did, and still lost a little weight.  I think I was built to eat.  One of my friends said that they were getting bored with eating.  That never happened to me, haha.  I really couldn’t even image that.  I only got bored with the wind in Kansas.

I also like the fact that I turned some negatives into a positives and one of them was one of the last challenges of the ride.  The last long day, or last real day, Thursday we had a 93 mile ride in the pouring rain, and with a little help from a friend (Jerry F), I turned it into a positive and made it a century (100 mile ride) in the rain.  I will never forget that century for several reasons, the rain, the last long ride of the tour, and just the fact that it was the last century of many in the last 6 weeks.  

I made so many great friends over the last several weeks, and that is just amazing.  I knew no one when I arrived in LA.  I was the only one from TN.  There were 2 from NC,  3 from FL, and 2 from TX, that’s it from anywhere close to where I live.  We also had a lot of people from outside the US, and I made great friends with 2 from the UK (Wales and Scotland).

The support that I received from the “staff’ and the other fellow riders was awesome, we were all looking out for each other, and that helped to strengthen those new bonds as well.

The support that I received from each and everyone of you was humbling to say the least.  I owe each and everyone of you a HUGE THANK YOU.  There were days when I was a little down because of some obstacle that I had to endure and someone would send an email to me about something uplifting, and it was just miraculous that you knew, and sent some inspirational message.  Some were about my father, some were friends just being silly and saying hello.  Just know that they were all well received and appreciated.

The support and friendship that I received from those that came and spent time with me.  My wife, Lynn, thanks for coming to the throbbing metropolis of Abilene, KS.  Scotty H. For coming and spending 2 great days in 2 booming “villages of no where Missouri.  And Dave T. For riding a day with me.  We all appreciated having someone with “fresh legs” pull a little.  To my high school friends, Grimes, Matt and Bill that showed up in Boston, and my family that came there as well.  My sister, Lisa, her husband, Charlie, my mother, my uncle Alan, his wife Franny, and my son Grant.  Each and everyone of them took time out of their busy schedule to cheer me on, and I say thank you.

$$$

So here is another funny story.  When I went to talk to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital before the ride to discuss that I wanted to ride my bike across the country and raise some money for them, they kind of looked at me, like I was a little crazy, and they seemed to be a little skeptical.  But being the good fund raisers that they are, they weren’t about to turn away any money, so they were willing to help, and give some support, but I think they thought we were talking a $1000 or maybe $2000.  When they asked me how much I wanted to raise and I said a lot, and that my stretch goal was $50,000, trust me when I say this, “they definitely looked at me like there was no way that was happening”.  But I am pleased to let you know that as of tonight, I believe that I am very close to $60,000.  The reason why I am not exactly sure is I haven’t gotten a final count from Vanderbilt yet, and money is still coming in, and my company is going to match a portion of the money raised as well.   The match is in Australian dollars, so the exchange rate changes daily, adding to the complexity.  In any case WE are very close to $60k.  We could not have done it with out all of you!!  Thank you!!  I will post the final number in several weeks both here and on facebook.  Thanks again.

Final Thoughts

This ride started out as a “bucket list item” and it ended as a life changing event.  I am extremely glad that I was able to do this challenge, journey, adventure and just enjoy life.  Life is short, and sometimes we forget to stop and smell the roses.  My father left this wonderful earth at a very young age of 75, almost 76.  I am glad that I was able to complete this journey in his honor and raise as much money as I did for the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. There is no telling if I would be able to complete this in several years with my knee issues.

We all go through life, and we have a choice to be either happy or sad, it takes the same amount of energy.  So it’s a choice we all make, and sometimes we forget that it’s ok to be happy.  Enjoy life, and do the things that you want to do.  Be with the people that you want to be with, and stop spending time with the ones that are negative.  I chose to look at the positive and have fun.  We all work hard, and we should pay hard as well.  It is amazing how many happy people we saw along the way, and some didn’t have much to their name at all, and others were about to run us off of the road in their expensive pickup trucks or sports cars.  Granted a lot of this was the part of the country we were in, but it was obvious who was happy and who was not.

Another amazing thing is the amount of people that “love” me and really took the time to follow, support, donate, and just commmunicate with me during this journey!!  And I thank you for all of the support.  I have heard from a lot of you saying, that they are “addicted” to my blog, and when am I going on another trip, as they love reading the blog.  I don’t know, although it won’t be this year as I used all of my vacation plus some this year.

Again thanks for all of your support, and I will let you know some final numbers and anything else that I might have forgotten or want to share in the next couple of weeks, so check back every now and then.  And yes the donation link is still active.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.

Tour de USA | Stage 49 Boston/Revere Beach | EFI

Well what a trip!!  It ended today on a great note and a beautiful short ride to the beach.  49 days later I have crossed the US from Los Angeles to Boston, truly an amazing trip.  It’s late, and I will try to share some of the pictures from today and some thoughts.  

Above is me after dipping my front wheel into the Atlantic, we dipped the rear tire in the Pacific in Los Angeles.  It is amazing to me how fast the trip went, and how the terrain changed everyday, even in the desert to the Midwest, to the northeast, no 2 days were the same.  

There were so many different challenges that needed to be overcome, and so many amazing things to be seen.  It’s fascinating how much more you can see from the seat of a bicycle. 

Below is Cathy and me rolling out one last morning to head to the beach for the tire dip.
 

The clock at Revere Beach


L-R: Pete, me, Barry, Cathy


L-R: Mark, Pete, me, Barry, Cathy


Upon arriving at the beach I was immediately greeted by family and friends, some I had no idea that they were coming, such a great surprise.  I loved every minute of it!!

Below are L-R: Lisa (my sister), Lesley (my mother), Franny (hugging me my aunt)


L-R: Lisa, Lesley ( my mother hugging me)

I am surprised to see my son, I had no idea that he was coming to Boston.

Grant ( my son in the black t shirt )


My family L-R Charlie B. (My brother in law ), Lynn, me, Franny ( my aunt ), Alan ( my uncle), Grant, my mother

Lisa, my sister

And then another BIG Surprise was 3 of my high school class mates from BGA showed up!!  Great to see them. L-R: Grimes Baird, me, Bill Melley, Matt Johnson.

L-R: Bill M., me, Matt J., Grimes B.

Another one for good measure 

This is our group that made it the whole way.

After all of the ceremony we were hungry, so we walked down the beach to the local Lobster shack, Kelly’s and had a lobster roll, yum!


Here is the map from today’s ride.

It’s never to late to donate!

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.

Tour de USA | Stage 48 Burlington, MA 100 miles in the rain

What a great day!!!  You may say, “Bruce your title says 100 miles in the rain?”  And that is correct, so how does one have a great day in 100 miles of rain?, you may ask?  Well it is really quite a simple answer, and one that my friend Jerry F. Helped me see last night when I was texting back and forth with him.  I knew this, but he helped bring it to light, and that is, “Life is what you make of it”. If you chose to dwell on the negative, such as 100% chance of rain all day than you are going to have a bad day.  Instead I decided it was going to be a great day.  I am at the end of a fantastic journey, and I want it to end on a high note!

So if I were at home and I looked at the weather and saw 100% chance of rain with periods of HEAVY rain, there would be 0% chance that I would have ridden today at home, but I am not at home.  With those weather conditions, I decided to ride, and to make it a great ride, and a big ride of 93 miles wasn’t big enough for me and my friend Mark P. From Wales. We decided to add 7 more miles to make it a complete century (100 miles). Let me ask you bikers out there, have you ever done a century in the rain?  Me either, so I decided to make my last “real” riding day a great century in the rain.  Now my 1 and only century in the rain is the 2nd to last day on my amazing journey across the US!!  Thanks Jerry for helping me see the positive, and I made it mine!

This is what I saw when we were having the morning route rap at the front door of the hotel under cover.  Yup, a wet one for sure.


After a couple of miles we were into New Hampshire, I didn’t realize that we were that close to another state our second to last one last night. Below is Cathy and me.


And then about 40 miles later we were in Massachusetts. Because of the rain we were focused on the road, and traffic, and we almost missed the sign, actually we did by a few feet and had to turn around.  In the picture below are Pete from Scotland in the yellow, behind him hidden is Mark from Wales, and me.  We also had Peyton the New Kid with us, and Barry took the picture.




Because of the rain, the pictures were only on a “necessary to take our phones out of our zip lock baggies basis”, so no more pics from the ride today, which is unfortunate because there was a lot of beautiful stuff to see from lakes, rivers, ponds, big beautiful homes, parks, and golf courses.  All was very green, when you see ferns growing on the side of the road wild, you know they get a lot of rain up here.  Hence the  reason they call Vermont, The Green Mountain State.  Or is it because of Bruce Green?

The other thing of note is the roads in Massachusetts are terrible, on a scale of bad they are just a little worse than New York roads, and New York roads were the worst until we got here.  And believe it or not the Massachusetts drivers are the absolute worst and intolerant drivers of all the states that we went through.  New York was the second worst, but still not even close to Massachusetts.  They were not happy about us riding in the rain today and slowing them down.

Here is a picture of my new friend Mark.  What a great guy, and this is at the end of the 100 mile in the rain ride today.
T



And my friend, Peyton, the “New Kid”, and bike mechanic, and just a great guy.

We have a banquet tomorrow night and a dinner tonight with our spouses, so I imagine there wil be a lot of stories told over the next hours, and tomorrow.  Looking forward to it.  

Here is the map from today.

And the stats, a lot of climbing today, more than I thought.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.

Tour de USA | Stage 47 Brattleboro, VT 78 miles

Another great day on the bike.  We entered, I believe the 11th state on the tour, Vermont, and we only have 2 more states to go.  We will hit New Hampshire and Massachusetts tomorrow.  Tomorrow is really the last real day of riding, 96 miles and a lot of climbing like today, because Friday is a 17 mile ride, more of a ceremonial ride to the beach.

We thought it may rain today, but it held off, and it was a nice overcast day in the low 70’s again, what am I going to do when I get back to Nashville with record high temps, UGH!

I was a little concerned with my knee and all of the climbing today, over 5500 ft, but the knee held in there.  I found yesterday that a few things that I did differently really paid off in terms of the knee swelling and pain.  I took more Aleve, and some other anti inflammatories, Paula taped my knee with KT Tape, and I spent less time stopping.  If I stopped I only did it for a short period of time.  I found that I have been spending too much time at the SAG’s, and by the time I get back on my bike after hanging out, eating, drinking and talking for 30 minutes that my knee isn’t happy when I finally get back on my bike, so I have more than cut that time in half.  Also when I stop for pictures, I stop, get the picture, and get going again, and this is a real help as well.

All in all, I am really happy with today, and I am looking forward to our ride tomorrow.  I am icing my knee and will elevate it more later.

When I saw this sign coming into town, I laughed, Who Sick? You sick?  Me Sick? We all Sick?  OK Ice Cream works better.


Be on the look out for farmers!  Lots of farms for sure.  Upstate NY, and VT is very pretty.


Hard to see in this picture, but this is a ski resort at the top of the first mountain we climbed.  It had a 6.5 mile climb UP, yup, loved that one. :) 

Looking for some Moose, but didn’t see any.


Nice 8% grade going down, was the same going up, but I didn’t want to stop and take a picture, I was focused on getting to the top.  The road was freshly paved, and not even striped yet.

The river was a lot smaller as I was going up the mountain, and pretty.




Many of you may not know about my animal taming abilities, but it is a skill I greatly enjoy.  I tamed this Vermont Spotted Leopard. 

And again this Vermont Green Faced Cheetah. 


And hard to believe, but one last cat, this time the famous Vermont Two Toned Big House Cat, she insisted we do a selfie, such a millennial.


Not sure what kind of snow machine this is, but I think it would go anywhere.

At the top of the second mountain climb of the day, Hogback Mountain, VT.

Cathy and me on the top of the mountain. 

Welcome to Brattleboro, VT our home for the night.


Vermont is famous for it’s covered bridges, and look a covered bridge, and I’m in front of it!

Here it is again with our bikes checking it out from the replacement bridge.

Cathy and I stopped at the Top of the Hill Grill, a recommendation from the bike shop in town.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.