How this Happened


Carol with biking buddy Ken
Here's my first post about why I'm riding, and how donating to Water Life Hope will make the bluebird of happiness nest in your front yard.  

There are some questions that have answers too long for the FAQ.   For example -- How did this happen?  How did you decide to go across country together?

Steve and me on tour
Steve and I and got here one way, Carol another.  Let's start with Carol because it's the most remarkable story.  Carol lived an adventurous life, joining the Coast Guard and then working on merchant ships in Asia.  She's even been to North Korea.   After retirement the weight piled on and she was diagnosed with diabetes. 

Carol, however, is a determined individual.  She decided to change her destiny.  The Silver Comet Trail is close to her house, so she started riding bikes.  The weight melted off, and the diagnosis reversed.  Let's say that again: Carol beat diabetes with a bike.  Along the way she went online and learned about bicycle touring.  With no experience whatsoever she decided she wanted to ride across the country and settled on Bicycle Route 66.  She put an ad in Companions Wanted section of Adventure Cyclist magazine.
the

Adventure Cyclist showcases drool-worthy aventures on two wheels.   One recent issue chronicled a journey across the Congo.  Most of the stuff is tamer, but the journeys with fewer boundaries bring out the Walter Mitty in me.  We'd been able to do abridged versions of some of the rides -- going across the Yucatan, touching base in Mongolia, rolling down the Danube.  I was a partner in a small business, though, and there just wasn't the kind of time available to do the things I saw on the pages.

Carol's ad hit when I was thinking of retirement.   I was determined that life after work would be full of the extended adventures I'd been longing for.  Negotiations with husband Steve started with the Cairo to Capetown ride.  I thought of it as very safe and sane, since it's an organized ride with people looking after you.  Steve had a different point of view, and the expense is daunting.  Eventually we settled on the idea of a ride across America.  Steve didn't want to go on the ride, but he thought he wouldn't worry so much if we were in the same country with a limited number of time zones between us.

So a Companions Wanted ad for a cross country tour hit a sweet spot.  It was from a woman roughly my age who wanted to go across country.  Perfect fit.  Right gender, right tour.  I really didn't care how she wanted to go.  So Carol and I made contact and started planning.  We took a test ride on the Silver Comet to see if we'd kill each other before we got out of town.  It went well.

And once it was clear that Carol and I really were going, Steve decided he was up for it.  And here we are.


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