In just five days it will be one month before I head out on my adventure called the Ride for Mike. Up to this point, I knew it was this dream and plan that I have. However, it just seemed that… a dream… something in the distant future. Well, folks, if I keep that perception, I’m going to have a very rude awakening to reality!

It is time to take all the planning and dreams and codify them. I’m going to take you along for the ride as I convert all the thoughts that have been swirling around in my head down into bits stored on my blog’s server. It’s got to be done and I might as well start now.

1. I need a route. This is pretty much done. However, I still have some areas where I am arguing with myself about how best to approach the ride. I can go out on rural two lane roads where there won’t be as much traffic, but this choice will add miles and complexity to the ride. I also realize that while there is less traffic, it will also be harder for what traffic there is to get around me. That equals more frustrated drivers.

   The other option is to take more of the four-lane, divided highway roads. Yes, there probably would be higher speeds and more traffic. However, it gives the traffic more opportunity to flow around me and these routes would definitely cut down on the complexity and mileage of the trip.

2. That leads me to the next important part of my plan = the follow vehicle. This is going to be a important part of the plan. The 2010 Ride for Mike is more than just a cross country tour. There is a definite time limitation and a lot of miles to cover. In someways, it is like a stage race. With a need to average 100+ miles a day, I’m not going to be able to leisurely tour and camp along the route. I need support!

   My wonderful and beautiful redhead will be my support. She will be following me in our 2009 Honda Fit. On top will be the spare bike and a couple of spare wheels. I’ve yet to order the Yakima wheel fork racks. I’ll need to add them to the list. Another “car top” item to add to that list is a blinking hazard light. We will place this on top of the rear of the car to draw attention to us.

   I’m talking with my friend Chris about some vinyl panels we can put on the car to alert drivers to our presence while at the same time giving some publicity for the ride. We’ve talked about it, but I really need to sketch something out with him so we can get the car prepped. It would be cool to have it set up a week before I leave… hmmmm. Yes, that would be neat.

3. That leads us to the obvious next question… what goes in the car? I break it down into the following areas:

   - Supplies for the bike
   - Supplies for the blog
   - Supplies for the bloke

I’ll stop here for today. There is much more to come, but I’m pretty confident that my experiences with cross-country rides with the Palmetto Peloton Project will help me nail all this down and I’ll be ready to go. Besides, like I always tell the beautiful redhead just before we head out on a trip… “Stop worrying about it. If we forgot something, we can always buy it on the road.”

The one thing I can’t buy on the road is health and fitness. Right now, that is what concerns me the most. At least I have a little over a month to get as far along as I can.

 

Tags: Planning, Ride for Mike

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 14th, 2010 at 9:49 am and is filed under Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.