Final thoughts from Tom:
There’s an old saying
about how to eat an elephant, and the answer is “one bite at a time.” Completing a long bike ride like we did is
kind of like eating an elephant—one day, one section, one hill, or even one
mile at a time. If you start out
thinking about what it’ll be like to ride 1800 miles, you might not make it.
First let me say that the
riding on this North to South ride was harder than on the West to East ride
three years ago, but this ride was much more scenic. Lots of hills on this one compared to riding
from coast to coast.
On the drive back to
Colorado, Patty asked me some questions about the ride. What was your favorite day? I think my favorite day was the ride from
Carpinteria to Pacific Palisades. This
section had everything a cyclist wants—great road surface, great scenery—right
next to the ocean, a tailwind, and until we got into Malibu, the road was dead
flat.
What was your least
favorite day? There were some long and
difficult days, but I think the ride from Aberdeen WA to Seaside OR was my
least favorite. The weather wasn’t very
good—misty and cloudy, we had a head wind approaching and along the Columbia
River, we had a head/cross wind crossing the 4-mile long bridge over the
Columbia, and then we had another long narrow bridge, with lots of traffic, on
the other side of Astoria. I was really
happy to get to Seaside that day.
What was your favorite
section of the ride? The 20-mile ride
from Pacific Palisades to the Redondo Pier was fantastic. It was all bike path, flat, right along the
beach, bright and sunny (no “marine layer”), and no wind. What else could you ask for on Pacific Coast
bike tour?
There were some memorable
climbs along the way—one south of Garberville in the Redwoods, one just north
of Jenner CA, along the coastal cliffs, one
from Stinson Beach to Mill Valley CA, and a couple near Big Sur. I’m always kind of surprised how we can make
those climbs, and still get up the next morning and ride again.
I can’t say enough “thank
yous” to my wife Patty. She really makes
this all possible. It’s no vacation for
her to look after two (or three) crazy old guys who want to ride their bikes
for weeks on end. She makes it easy for
us cyclists. Really all we have to do is
get up every morning, get dressed, and go ride for several hours. She does everything else. Thank you Patty.
I’d also like to thank all
the folks who met us, put us up, and just said hello. There were many. Glenn (Rhodan) Thompson who surprised us at
breakfast in Crescent City CA, Greg and Joleen Edwards who met us for coffee on
Clement Street in San Francisco and also put us up for the night in Oceanside,
Lindsay and Laurie Lautz, who put us up for two nights and a rest day in the
Bay Area, Tracy and Kathi who put us up for the night and threw a party which
included a professional massage therapist for the riders, Jerry and Gwen (and
their boys—Ryan and Nathan) who put us up for two nights, Dave Ward and Roy and
Suzanne Rhino who visited us at Vieau’s, and Fred and Wendy Salter who arranged
for a wonderful rest day at Disneyland.
Final Notes from Jerry:
I can’t believe the ride is over - we did it!
Just like the West to East ride, what seems daunting at first glance is
doable by just taking each day as it comes and before long it’s done. I apologize for the length of this note, but
with the daily grind of a blog a lot just doesn’t get said – we were tired and
sleepy!
This ride was harder, I believe, than the ride across the
country, just because of the geography.
Constant ups and downs, and not little ones either, made for challenging
riding. The roads were surprisingly good
and well marked. From Santa Barbara down
to San Diego I noticed major improvements in bike trails as well as new trails that
didn’t exist just several years ago.
Oh, but the scenery was to die for!! This ride has got to be one of the all-time
bests! My mind has a constant loop of
memories of iconic scenes of the Northwest, the Oregon coast and California,
both ocean and mountain scenes that are even better than Disneyland’s, ”Soarin’
over California” ride. Whether we were
white knuckling the twisting, narrow roads carved out of the cliffs of the lost
coast or Big Sur, or zooming downhill in a redwood forest with dappled sunlight
shining through, the riding was like nothing I could have imagined.
As Tracy has stated early on in the trip, “I may not ever
eat pasta again”. Tom and I have this
thing about fueling up the night before with pasta either as a main course or a
side dish and I realize now that my pasta eating techniques are sorely
lacking. All my clothes are demolished
from pasta sauce/ olive oil drips on the front of my shirts that will never
come out. Pig pen Vieau.
Tracy still can’t believe the amount of food that Tom and I
put away every day. When a long days
ride can use 3600 calories, in addition to calories everyone needs daily, you
pretty much can eat anything and everything you want – and we did. Every day was finished with a glass of
chocolate milk and a beer (or two), Tom’s magic formula.
Of course this constant eating was just brutal for Patty,
rather Saint Patty. After a ridiculous
breakfast at say, Denny's, she would meet us at designated spots 15-20 miles up
the road for a mid morning snack that would
consist of water, half a sandwich (which she would make on the spot), yogurt,
hard boiled egg, string cheese etc.
Totally unbelievable but oh so appreciated! Lunch would be an expanded version of this,
usually at some scenic spot. The trip
would be much, much harder and less enjoyable without her constant support, all
without complaint. Thank you again Patty!
Patty’s support really came in handy with my flat
tires. I had 8 flat tires!! I only had to use Tom’s hand pump once or twice
as Patty had a floor pump in the car.
One lesson I did NOT learn from West to East, was that on a long
distance trip, ditch the CO2 cartridges.
After flailing unsuccessfully on the first flat tire, I used Tom’s hand
pump or the floor pump. Tom said he would
be a rich man if he would charge me for using his pumps.
I need to thank Tom for allowing me to benefit from his
incredible organization and planning. He
really thinks ahead, plans for the worst and has everything under control. I think we make a great team, because I am up
for about anything and can think we can do anything, but he makes sure it can
happen without killing us. We are very
compatible on riding, I drag him up the hills most times and he does the same
to me on the flats. We do a pretty good
job of communicating to each other the potholes and hazards to avoid. I would only do one of these long rides with
Tom and Patty because I KNOW it will be fun, well organized, and successful!
Finding a place to stay one night ahead is a real pain, and Patty
and Tom, were pros at finding the cheapest, clean place. What agony.
Kathi and Tracy also drove ahead if Tracy was done for the day for some in-person
door knocking. Thank you to Frys and
Vinings for a great job.
Finally, having Tracy and Kathi and their three dogs on the
trip will be a source of stories for years to come! I can’t think of anyone else who would decide
to join in on this adventure without having been on a bike since probably the
1980’s! Despite our best attempts to dissuade
him we mapped out a training regime for Tracy to slowly ramp up his
fitness. It takes time and some hands on
riding with others to pull off something like this. Since Tracy was not geographically nearby either
of us and he was the only one still working, he did his best to train for the
ride. The hills were rough for all of us
but especially for Tracy. I feel even more for Kathi, because Tracy
didn’t know exactly what he was in for, and the bar for “sag wagon”/ support is
extremely high as Patty treats her role
as a job, not a vacation.
I am totally amazed that both Tracy and Kathi stuck it out
until Tracy’s vacation time ran out two days before finishing. Best yet was that no one got hurt or crashed
despite several missed clip-ins resulting in Tracy on his back in the parking
lot with the bike on top of him. The
legend of the calamity kid lives on!
Since Tracy would typically be several miles behind us, our favorite
line was to call Tracy and ask, “ Where are you, or where is Kathi”? The answer was inevitably, “I don’t know and
I have no idea”. If we called Kathi with
the same questions we got the same reply.
What fun.
Some final thoughts from Tracy
Am I glad I did it? Yes. I have always held Tom and Jerry in high esteem but I gained a whole new world of respect for what they did in the cross country, what they did on this trip and for what they will probably continue to do in the future.
Did I do everything I wanted to do? No. I thought I could do more but then I really had no idea what I was up against. All considered I probably did more than what I should have expected.
Would I do it again? Yes. But I would change my training regimen. The “hills” I included in my riding were nothing compared to some of the hills we encountered on the trip. I thought the coast was going to be a lot more flat than it was.
Will I make another of these trips? Probably not. I can see some one or two day adventures in the future but nothing like what we just did. Also, I think I provided enough stories to be expanded and enhanced over the years that another trip will not be necessary. (Nearly arrested at the Canadian border, the wrong way on 101, the woman who “is just your type. She might pick you up”, the midnight skulker,) You’ll have to join us on the Trout-a-Thon or the Ski-a-Thon if you want to hear those stories.
We are about to celebrate Vieau’s (and Coach’s) birthday. I might suggest that everyone kick in and get Jerry a pair of Armadillo bike tires and a half dozen new tubes. His Continental tires didn’t fare that well. Eight flats. That must be a new record. He has had enough practice that I could probably get him a job in a tire store.
We all owe a great deal of gratitude to Patty and Kathi. Thanks gals. It would not have been possible without them. They did a wonderful job watching over us, meeting us for snacks or lunch, making arrangements for lodging and just doing whatever was needed. And it doesn’t get any better than having someone meet you at the end of the day with cold chocolate milk and a cold beer.
