Where to begin?
It was a dark and stormy night... (Snoopy). No.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... (Dickens). No.
In the beginning... (God). No, no, no.
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them... (Hemingway). Yup, that will do to get me started.
So, here’s the deal. In the fall of 2005 my son started college attending Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Disclaimer, we’re locals. He and his sister were raised in Manhattan. As he loaded his car to take the last of his worldly possessions to his new dorm room, the only thing left was the used Bianchi Brava he’d bought on-line just that summer. “Dad, if you’ll ride my bike to the dorm and help me unload the car, I’ll give you a ride back to the house.” These, of course, are the offers a Father can’t refuse - so, off we went. Mind you, I’d not ridden a bicycle since I was in college 20+ years earlier. I remember thinking on the way there, “WOW! This is nothing like the Sears 10 speed I had when I was a kid.”
I bought my first bike in years just a month later. It was an aluminum Specialized Sequoia that I still own. After about a year I bought a carbon fiber Specialized Tarmac, which I also still own. I admit it, I was hooked. So Keith, thanks for returning the joy of cycling to my life.
In the intervening 13 years I‘ve ridden a good bit: the Kansas cross state ride a bunch of times (BAK - google it), Hotter than Hell, The Copper Triangle, RASDAK (Ride Across South DAKota), and once rode across the state (Kansas) South to North in a day with a group of friends. But life sorta intervened over the past couple of years. This in the form of my Wife’s father having a stroke, knee replacement for me (an old HS football injury - seriously), my Father passing away this spring, my daughter getting married early this October (Good luck and God bless, Kelsy and Parker)... You get the idea. As a result, my riding had tailed off a bit - but never fallen off the radar. Nor had I lost track of something called the Trans-Am.
So, as I’m nearing retirement (Did I forget to mention that? More on this in another post.) my oft stated desire to ride cross country became a more frequent topic of discussion between my wife and I. Just in case I failed to mention her specifically, her name is Susan. We’re 39 years married and she is the single best thing that’s ever happened to me here on God’s good Earth. Having been together for so many years, I’m convinced of three things concerning this woman who is my best friend in life: 1) She has the patience of Job, 2) She has a huge heart for others, and 3) I’m pretty sure she could organize an ant hill.
She fully supports my goal of riding the Trans-Am and expressed her desire to go along. As a result, my initial vision was to do the tour self supported with her along on our tandem. I was quickly disabused of this forlorn hope. As I recall, it went something like this. Me, “Then let’s do it on the tandem.” Susan, “No way buddy. That’s your dream, not mine.” "Buddy" apparently being her new found pet name for me, I was confused. A state typical of most husbands. However, as I said earlier, she supports the ride and as evidence of same, I proffer our recently purchased RV. (Ah - this is what she meant.) Despite some trepidation her part, which has mostly do do with the mountains, she has become adept at driving it and we will commence the ride with the RV as our base of operations. The kids and I accuse her of hanging out at truck stops in order to pick up on the subtleties of driving a big rig. She denies this with a combination of not-so-subtle eye rolling and vigorous objections, the sincerity of which further bespeak the truth of the matter. Anyway, she’ll be my SAG. Did I mention that she has the patience of Job? She has the patience of Job.
For more on the whole retirement thing, see the "retirement" post. Spolier alert: it explains the logo...
My wife finds it embarrasing in the extreme, but in the meantime I'll leave you with this pic from BAK- one of my riding "habits"...
But she takes the pictures for me any way. I think she has an advanced degree in eye-rolling with a minor in exhaustive sighs.
