TransAmerica

It's on!

After years of dreaming about it, and trying to get in shape for it, and saving up my vacation time, and trying to figure out how to fit it around friends, family and job, and arguing with that nagging adult voice in my head reminding me how impractical it is, day one of the Bike Trip Across America (the BTAA - bee' taw) is in the bag and on the blog!

The plan is to ride Adventure Cycling's TransAmerica route, 4,200 miles from Yorktown, Virginia to Florence, Oregon in 14 weeks, and then meet up with Pattye and drive down to visit my mom and siblings in California. 15 weeks in all. And since I don't have 15 weeks of vacation time saved up (and can't really be away from work that long anyway), my employer has (very generously) agreed to let me convert my three-day-a-week telework schedule into an irregular, part-time telework schedule that will let me keep up on all of my critical work, respond to emergencies, and stay in touch with my colleagues and customers. I'm calling it "extreme teleworking," and my goal is for most of my customers to never notice that I'm gone from the office at all.

So today is the first day. Pattye drove me down to Yorktown this morning (less than three hour drive from the Northern Virginia, DC suburbs where we live). We had sort-of planned to have lunch when we got there, but I was getting very antsy (and not necessarily in a great way - more on this below) She took my picture in front of the Yorktown Victory Memorial and then again at the beach where I dipped my bike wheels in the Atlantic Ocean and set off towards the Pacific.

I had a very nice ride up the Colonial Parkway. The weather was overcast and I felt a few light sprinkles, but he sun broke through several times and it never did really rain. The route leaves the Parkway briefly (to detour around a no-bicycles-allowed tunnel) to wind through a section of Colonial Williamsburg, where I found British soldiers marching in the town green! I spent a half hour or so watching enthusiasts in authentic costumes display their drum and fife skills and engage in rifle practice. I rode on into a more modern section of Williamsburg and checked into a hotel and called it a day. I think I've got all of 15 miles on the odomoter, which is not much of a first day in terms of mileage (which I'm feeling quite the slacker about), but is huge in terms of just getting this started.

And "just getting it started" has been no small thing for me. I don't want to get TOO into this (because quite frankly it feels a bit silly and self-serving and...er...wimpy?) but one of the most difficult things to deal with is just the level of anxiety that I've built up over this trip the past few weeks. Huge heaping loads of anxiety! Don't know exactly where it's coming from (there are several prime suspects!) and I'm sure it's a cumulative thing and (pretty) sure it's going to be largely gone soon. But I'm sure gaining a lot more respect for those who have done this before!

And getting it started wouldn't be possible without a lot of help and support from the people in my life. Thanks to Al, Joe and Rich for taking a chance with "extreme teleworking"; to D for dealing with all the kid-issues this summer; and especially to Pattye for her exceptional support, encouragement and enthusiasm - and for feeding the cats while I'm gone.

Do I look anxious?