March 22, 2009

We are seriously training now.... riding three days in a row , 4 to 5 hours each day, just to get used to spending time in the saddle and do the butts know it (George says his butt feels like it spend a night in Cell Block B of the North Carolina penitentiary). Rest of the body is responding well to the training and we are hoping that the butts will too soon, as our seats get more broken in. I am really enjoying another part of the training which we just started. Truthfully, I don't really need to train in this department but hey, I am such a good sport, gotta do it all. I am talking about eating bad for you (but tastes so good) foods.... like Snickers candy bars. The reason for this is.... two fold. One, our stomachs have to get used to eating this kind a food as we will be mainly getting this on the bike tour (no problem here... esp. since I will be getting back from India right before we get on the road and I will have plenty of practice with this). Second, we have to add more fat to our body (definitely no need for that here), to have reserves for riding day in and day out. But like I said this is the fun part of the training and I am enjoying every bit of it. We also just had our first experience of what they call Trail Magic. We went to this really cool little gas station/restaurant/convenient store (all in one) in this little town for our lunch break. We needed to buy some drinks and food. We had thought that we had more money than we really did. No matter, how we added it up, for what we wanted (two Gatorades and a sandwich (Organic) to share) came out to at least $12.00. All we had was $8.00. So, I went up to the cashier at the store and asked her what if got a much smaller sandwich than listed on the menu, with lot less stuff on it, how much would it cost. She was really nice and gave us a full sandwich for less then half of the listed price. We had enough for two Gatorades with a quarter to spare. Yeah.... So, now we have a new stop during our rides and of course, next day, we went in with more money and this time paid the listed price. The folks there seemed happy to see us again.

(P.S. The blog is Kitty's writting with the exception of George adding a line here and there (Yes the Penitentiary one was his, George handles logistics of the trip)

March 14, 2009

This is our blog about our bike trip. We are starting from Yorktown Virgina and riding about 4200 miles to Oregon. Little history about how this trip came to being.....

Mid Feb. (2009) George woke up in the middle of the night (about 2 am) from a dream and said, " We should bike across America (this is what happens when you work for over 2 years with only 1 long weekend vacation). Yeah, that's what we should do." Kitty half asleep said that it sounded like a good idea and rolled over and went back to sleep. While George grabbed his laptop and started his research. So, in the morning, he was pretty sure of the plan. Kitty liked this idea but was reluctant as she is going on a very long awaited trip to India in April and then there is her cousin (Raji)'s wedding that can NEVER be missed. This was not going to discourage George, this only meant that the trip had to be planned accordingly. And that was the end of a beginning. There was a lot that had to be done.

We tried to adapt our existing race Road Bikes but unfortunately that was not going to work. George found a Cyclocross that worked for him with little difficulty. But as always, Kitty had a harder time finding a bike that would fit her little torso. After some hardship and looking around, she ended up with a Trek. The training started with a first ride of about 30 miles. George was not happy having to ride with his new bike that had a bell and Kitty still on her road bike (as her new bike had, of course, not arrived yet). By the end of the ride, George no longer had a bike with a bell (as the bell flew off, coming down a steep hill of Boorland) and he also had a reality check of how much lower our average speed with the new bikes was going to be. To make things worse, by the next training ride George had gotten his side bags and had to ride with those while Kitty still on her road bike. Third ride was little more even as Kitty had her bike but no added weight while George was now riding with his bags full of gear that we will be taking on our tour. He was a bit frustrated and wanted to see if it was him, being out of shape or the bags were really bringing him down, so he put the bags on Kitty's bike for one of the uphills. There was no question as to what was going on as now Kitty felt like a Mule, who was pushing really hard but not going anywhere.... at least not uphill. Kitty thinks that this whole experiment was George's way of showing her, how hard he actually is working with those bags. I get it.... I do.... Kitty thought.

So, the training goes on.... 'till next time. We are now up to 50 mile rides with our full gear.