Day 0 -- Orientation and Astoria

MIKE's RIDE OVERVIEW:  Well, it's time to start another adventure.  Karen, Barbara, and I had a nice trip out to the west coast as we stopped a couple of days to ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopped to see our daughter and plan a little on her upcoming wedding, stopped in Boulder to get a pro bike fit at the Center for Sports Medicine with Andy Pruitt, then we stopped in Jackson WY for a day of sightseeing (where it sleeted and snowed on us), then we went through Yellowstone to finish our trip out. We got in a couple of good riding days in Eugene at Karen's house on the final days of "rest" before ride start.

We arrived in Astoria on Thursday evening and joined the other staff who had already arrived...Josh, Mark, Susan, and Cov.  All are veterans except for Cov and Susan who are first-time staff.  I'm excited to have them on the crew this year as they both bring special skills to our group that will only make our staff better.  Susan has graciously volunteered to help me with the web site (She doesn't know what she is getting herself into, but I can use a break from the site for a ride...I'll get it back for Mississippi though and she says she'll let me be a "guest writer" a time or two...we'll see how it works out). 

Between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, we spent most of the time preparing the vans and going over staff training. Saturday afternoon we provided an early bird bike assembly to ease the work load for Sunday's orientation/bike assembly session.  The early session allowed us to get 19 riders signed up, which made Sunday much less stressful...we expected about 48 riders.  For joy...all the riders showed up by Sunday afternoon and, even more impressive, all the bikes showed up too!!!  That's a good thing since most everyone was expecting to ride Monday morning.

After bike assembly on Sunday, everyone had to sit through 2½ hours of orientation while I explained how we do business and what to expect on the ride. At one point when I got into it, I paused and said, "Sounds like I'm still in the military, doesn't it?" Without missing a beat one of the riders called out, "Can I buy your jinzu knives?" I try to impress upon them that the fantasy of crossing the country on a bicycle and the reality are two different things...that while they are enjoying the trip of a lifetime, they shouldn't lose focus on the reality that what we are doing is serious and we must all be diligent to remain safe and all get to Portsmouth in one piece.  At the start of the session, I asked how many riders were returnees from previous ABB rides...about 10-15 riders held up their hands.  We must either be doing something right or they just figure they'll keep coming back to see if we will ever get it right...I hope it's the former.  It is always great to see our friends from previous rides and this was no exception.

After Orientation, it got  serious . . . it was dinner time.  Our first meal together was great...salads, pasta, and cake.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the time to get to know one another and it seemed everyone really enjoyed the meal.  Seems like a good group.  You can meet them at the "Meet The Riders" link as we get them in there.  It may take a bit to get all their photos in there so be patient. 

SUSAN'S SUMMARY COMPARISONS:

Distance riders will cycle = 3,700 miles

For comparison’s sake, each of the following is 3700 miles:

White Nile River in Africa

Mississippi-Missouri River system in the U.S.

Length of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail

Riding across Montana 14 times

The span in Europe of a single super colony of Argentian ants discovered in 2002

The distance moon Phobos is from Mars

Distance riders will climb = 127,964 feet

For comparison’s sake, 127,964 feet = 24.23 miles, roughly the distance between earth and outer space