The making of a dream

Leaving for San Diego in less than 48 hours to start my venture. How does a NYC girl go from the lower East Side to riding across the southern tier of the US? Well, it takes a lot of people who encouraged me to think of my bike in a lot of different ways. You can use it for keeping fit, meeting people, seeing countries and even running errands in a environmentally friendly way.
In the 1980's I joined the Huntington Bicycle Club and that brought a whole new way of using my bike. So I met a lot of people who helped me become a better rider. I picked up several mentors one of which was Harry P. He use to encourage me by giving me valuable bike handling skills and took me on some of the bike tours that a group from the club would do every year. There was Frank C who just would not let me get discouraged when I couldn't keep up and then there was Mark S who would bark at me going up hills so I would try harder. Harry rode across the US using the northern route when he was in his 60's and did so in 33 days. That inspired me to not think I was too old to do the ride. Unfortunately both Harry and Frank passed away from lung cancer, but their well wishes are still with me. I expect Mark to send me a barking email every so often as I cross the US. Will have plenty of time to hear their encouragements.
Thanks to my Colorado friends for all their well wishes and my husband who will hold down the fort for two months.

Real Soon

I ship my bike in two days and will be in San Diego in two weeks. After signing up last May and thinking it was a long way off, it is now right around the corner. Have been able to ride at least once a week all winter and with temps in the mid 60's went out yesterday and will be out again tomorrow.
Getting more excited!

Getting ready

Hi all,
We are about 6 weeks out from the start of the Woman Tours cross country ride. So far we are 14 participants with two paid staff.
The ride starts on March 4th in San Diego and ends in St. Augustine on April 28th. I fly to the ride start on March 1st so that I will have a couple of days to assemble my bike and get my mind and stuff together. After so many bike tours all over the US and Europe, I have come to the decision that arriving a few days early is really helpful. Rather than fly with my full size hard case, I opened a FedEx Ground account and will ship my Serotta right to the hotel saving me the concern of how TSA will handle the bike. It actually costs less than half of what Southwest would have charged me.
Never having attempted such a long ride, there is always some concern but I continue to ride outside whenever the weather permits. Do work out in the gym and go to spin classes at least 3 times a week but until the event starts, you always have doubts.
Contacting me from March 1st to April 29th is best done by either email: es41@cornell.edu or cell phone: 303-859-2830.
For more info on the route and dates, you can go to:http://womantours.com/wt.southerntier_itinerary.html

More after March 1st.