SEA TO SHINING SEA: Let's get started

So, 12 years ago in the fall of 2001, in the week following the attack on the World Trade Center's twin towers, Becky and I railroaded west to Pittsburgh and then pedaled back to D.C. on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail and then the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal tow path.  350 miles, seven days. Wonderful adventure.

Along the way, we talked with a man who was finishing a cross-country ride from the West Coast.  He was all geared up and happy, showing us the Adventure Cycling Association maps he followed, extolling the virtues of his Brooks leather seat, explaining the advantages of the touring bicycle that carried him and all his belongings for a few months over the course of 4,200 (give or take a hundred or so) miles.

That planted the seed.

A year and a half ago, watching the calendar pages ripping off ever faster, we decided we weren't getting any younger and if we were ever going to follow in that man's tracks there was no time to waste.

On May 11, birthday of my good friend Tom Herr, we will fly to Portland, Oregon. A few days later - after visiting with our Left Coasters Megan, Maisy Peach and Ross - we'll start pedaling home. Our plan is to get back to Lewes by Labor Day.

That's the plan - that's what we tell people. No celebration until our wheels feel the salt of the Atlantic.

Keep pedaling - that's the mantra.

I'll be blogging every day - starting with this entry.

Pictures, wisdom as I see it, a few words here and there, a journal.

Some stuff about biking too.

The blog will be Sea To Shining Sea.

Meher Baba says: Don't Worry, Be Happy.  Pour your drop into my ocean and become the ocean which in reality you are."

The unity of all life.

This will be a roller coaster ride in more ways than one.

"What about the hills and the mountains?" people ask me.

"We will walk over them if we have to," I say.  "All I know is we will be starting at sea level and we will be ending at sea level.  What goes up must come down."

That's it for now.  How about that sea breeze kicking in today? Wow.  Don't you love living along the coast? Temperature dropped more than 20 degrees in two hours.

More tomorrow.  Rock and roll.