What On Earth?

The basic plan is to cycle 3,857 miles from the Other Washington to Washington on fully loaded bikes, in 9 weeks. This a very ambitious timeframe given our current level of fitness, the generally unfavorable summer weather conditions over much of our route (at least to those of us acclimated to the Pacific Northwest), and our penchant for lazying about. One might wonder why we would undertake such a trip. Some might venture to ask. In fact, a work colleague delicately inquired, "And just HOW did you come up with this idea?" To us it seems obvious: why WOULDN'T you want to cross the country on a bike? We love to ride, we like to travel, and heck, neither of us has ever been to eastern Kentucky. For as long as we've know each other we've talked about riding cross-country SOME DAY. It never seems like the right time and there have always been a long list of reasons why we couldn't go that summer: it's a long time to take off from work, it's too much money, there are so many other things we should be doing, what would we do with the pets for that long...yada, yada, yada. Well, we're currently petless. More importantly, we've been reminded recently more than we care to think about that health and physical ability shouldn't be taken for granted. If we keep postponing the things that we most want to do until "the right time", we may miss the boat altogether. So, this is THE summer. Here we go. Hold on and enjoy the ride with us.