After months of planning and fretting, my wife Leslie and I flew out to Portland, Oregon, on May 9, 2024 to spend one last week together eating and drinking throughout Portland and the Willamette Valley. You know, the perfect way to train before a 4,500 mile bike trip.

After a few days of this, we met up with our good friends from Seattle, John and Julie Duggan at their place in Long Beach, Washington. This gave John and I time to put my bike together and get in some trial runs to make sure nothing would fall off, a very important feature when starting a trip like this.

As we unpacked the bike, we realized some problems occurred in transit-namely a loose derailleur and a faulty back hub. Just the thing you want to happen prior to a 5,000 mile trip. We ran to a local bike shop and after three hours of hard and dedicated work by the local mechanic, it still didn’t work.

The next day John and I woke up bright and early and drove 70 miles to a bike shop in Portland, Oregon. I decided that I didn’t want to worry about whether the bike would fail during the ride, so I bought a new wheel and I was back in business.

After some great meals and more wine with John and Julie, and suffering through some spikes in adrenalin due to last minute repairs, I think I am finally ready to put my money where my mouth is. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a few butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of tomorrow, approximately 357,432 butterflies to be exact, but I think I will settle down once I hit the road. As Jackie Gleason said (kids, you can google him), awaaaay we go.