Bicycle and I arrived at the start

Hello everyone! It is 4:30 AM on Monday, June 19, 2006. I am up and rarin to go, but since I did not get to write more late last night I can fill you in on yesterday. I thank God for such a wonderful day yesterday that is was an easy and stress-less day getting from Fargo to Astoria. My planes were all on time, and the luggage arrived. Always makes for a nice trip right off the bat. A couple of the gentlemen who I sat next to at dinner (one was Peter from the United Kingdom) was still waiting for his bags to arrive. People were already offering to loan bike shoes, jackets and such to these riders. When I landed and walked down to baggage claim I waited for those conveyor belts to spit out my bags. When I saw both bags I did a little "Yippie" out loud. With bags not arriving the other day from Chicago to Fargo, I was really hoping there wasn't going to be a repeat of that.
The rented car was just fine and I left with my directions that I had printed out at home (really like DeLorme map software) . It was an easy drive taking about two hours to drive. Going up I-5 I took the Washington state side of the Columbia River until Longview and then crossed back over to Oregon on to US 30 west. It was so exciting to be here a tisunami of emotions just washed over me! Everything was so green, the pine trees out in this part of the US are so tall and blanket all the hills that line the river valley. When I saw that sign (see photo below) Welcome to Oregon, I again got all the more excited, knowing that I have arrived for the start of this journey.
Another thrilling moment was when driving along US 30 and just before getting to Astoria there is a large sign with a picture of the pioneer explorers, Lewis and Clark. The quote is from Clark: "We're here Lewis, and OH WHAT A VIEW!" And just then you turn a bend in the wood lined highway and there it is on your right -- the beautiful and wide Columbia River. Lewis and Clark wintered in Astoria. I also knew that this was the road we will be cycling UP most of today. Views of this active river will be seen along the way today. There are a lot of logging industries along the banks of this river.
I passed three women on bicycles trudging up the long hill (has to be maybe 3-4 miles long). They were all "self contained" riders. With all their camping gear attached to their bicycles. I sighed a little prayer, "Thank God for the luggage trucks on my cross country trip!"
There was a big Scandinavian festival going on in Astoria. The streets were lined with vendors and music was playing. I heard this festival had started last Friday, so I was passing these things on the final hours of the festivities. I arrived at the Holiday Inn Express at 1:30 PM. Way ahead of the time I figured I would arrive. I was so glad to be here this early, it gave me more time to unpack my bike, get all the necessary check-in papers for America by Bicycle filled out and signed, and be here for the orientation session and dinner. The one thing I forgot which Paulwill have to mail to me is my passport or birth certificate. It was on some list, but just simply forgot to pack it. ABB needs them and will keep them until we pass over the bridge in to Canada at Sarnia, Ontario. The custom's authorities need these since we will be coming over as a group, and ABB will handle showing these documents to the custom's agents. My bike was safe and sound, packed very good in it's box. Not a single hole in the box. Mike at Ernie's in Massillon did a great job helping me get it packed so well.
Jim Benson is the chief mechanic on this tour. Tom too was a big help, he is on the staff and will be helping with keeping our bikes running well. They were so helpful. It was great to have Christine welcome me. She was a room mate on my trip in 2001, and is working as a crew member with ABB this summer. She will be a lot of fun, has a wonder smile and so helpful all the time.
I had some warnings from hubby Paul to please not run the bike into the salty sea water. The wheel dipping thing is over rated in his opinion. He is more concerned with the damage the sand and salt does to these good bikes. So I carried my bike to the water and stood at the edge and said, "Good enough! Let's take this from sea to shining sea and repeat this at the Atlantic!"
There were about 65 riders who introduced themselves at the orientation session, who will be starting out on this journey. Not all are going the entire trip. Some will go as far as Boise, ID, others to Sioux Falls, SD. I think there are about 45 full trip cyclists. We all introduced ourselves and told why we are riding this ride. I liked the retired pilot who said for many years he has been seeing it at 500 miles per hour, he is going to see it at 15 miles per hour! It was great to see so many from across the pond coming over for the trip. They came from France, England, the UK, Germany, Wales, and Switzerland. There will be two triple tandem bikes, and I think 2 tandem bikes. The youngest is 13 the oldest is 74. What a nice group! Many of these people have crossed the country one or more times. For some this is their first time ever doing a group bicycle tour. They certainly started out with a biggie! We were reminded to just think 'one day at a time' so as not to get overwhelmed with this huge undertaking. Andy, the leader along with Michelle co-leader said just think of getting up and going on a club ride of 69 miles. So I'm here to go on 45 club rides, with 5 days off for good behavior.
Dinner was at 6:00. What a nice spread of food -- and I was very hungry as I did not eat any breakfast, and stopped along the road for a burrito for my lunch. Of course there were several dishes on this hotel catered buffet that had the carbo-loading good stuff: PASTA. Bicyclists sure do get into pasta eating, a lot of it!
After dinner was our first ROUTE RAP. This is the time when the next day's map and route is gone over. Map cue sheets were handed out and a few precautions were mentioned - like the long and fast downhill just before the second SAG (support and Gear - food and water) stop. At the bottom of the downhill is the food stop, and it will be easy to keep rolling right by it. Since we MUST stop at these SAG stops to sign in, we were cautioned to stay alert at this mileage marker and not roll right on by.
I'm off to get ready and go to the 6:30 AM breakfast. At 7:30 there will be a group picture out back of the hotel. The background will be the long bridge that spans the states from Astoria, Oregon over to Wellington, Washington.
At introductions last night a few mentioned that they are keeping blogs/websites along the way. The ABB staff member, SusanWalker, will do updates with photos and accounts on the America by Bicycle website. Read her account of our activities here: www.abbike.com Click on "Rider Journals", then on the next page click on the link to the journal titled: "America by Bicycle 2006 America North Journal" There is also a link to America by Bicycle in my Links list here on this page. So if I can't get online you can still get an update from what Susan has posted. This is going to be quite a job to keep this up, writing and posting every day. I will add some aduiobloogs sometimes. If you have trouble listening to the audio, be sure you have Quicktime downloaded on your commputer, and of course you have to have speakers on your computer and have them turned on.
That's it for now. We have cool weather starting out today. I hope it isn't as chilly as it was when I arrived yesterday. It was very windy and felt like it was in the low 50's. It was the brisk wind coming off the waters from the northwest that made it feel so chilly. One nice perk on this trip is if you start off wearing too much clothing and you want to shed say a jacket or arm warmers, you can but it in a box at one of the sag stops and they will carry it in the van to the next town and you just retrieve it at the end of the day's ride.
Pray for all of us!