Michelle Sahli, the head of the America By Bicycle ride leaders for the past three rides across America recently got her PhD in Epidemiology. She'd been working on her doctorate while on days off during our rides, often crunching numbers and other statistical tasks from the front seat of SAG van. After receiving her august degree, Michelle got a posting at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor but, almost immediately, was seconded to the University of Michigan, Flint, where she is now working with some of the pediatric clinicians who originally called attention to the developmental problems with children in that city owing, ultimately, to the contaminated drinking water. So she's now at ground zero for that terrible situation.
So what's that have to do with cycling? Michelle felt she had one last ride in her before having to devote her time and attention fully to the situation in Flint. So, for her last summer fling, she decided to do the East Coast ride. And, of course, as she would now be a rider, not a ride leader, she wanted company for her swan song ride. Hence, me joining her. Couldn't leave a friend riding all my herself.
So, once again, I'm on the bike. In truth, I thought this was going to be the first summer off the bike and focused on a renewal of my tennis ambitions. Finally get serious about tennis again. Join a club. Play weekend matches. Train for tournaments. The whole nine yards. So cycling wasn't much in the picture. All my winter and spring training was on the tennis courts. Barely touched the bike.
Yet, as fate would have it, I'm back in the saddle again. So after a few mere months of training in New York City, New Jersey and Vermont, I'll join Michelle and tour the East Coast from Maine to South Carolina in August. My training has been nothing like what I've done in the past and, quite frankly, not nearly enough distance or hill training for this ride. But it'll have to do.
The ride actually continues on to Jacksonville, Florida, but neither Michelle nor I can stay with the group to its conclusion. She's got to go to work in Michigan and I have meetings in London that last week of the ride. As a result, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina will be our final stop and our destination for the 1200+ miles she and I will ride.
Yes, I'll hydrate. Yes, I promise to stay on the bike! And yes, I'm looking forward to having fun and seeing yet another part of America along the backroads of Atlantic Coast.
The fun officially starts on Sunday, August 14th from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but Michelle and I (and I'm assuming most of the other riders) will do a warm-up ride on Saturday the 13th over to Maine. We'll leave from Portsmouth, go across the bridge over the Pascataqua River that separates New Hampshire from Maine and ride through Kittery, probably along the beautiful coastline. Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch to say we're riding from Maine, although even from the southernmost city in that state, it's technically accurate. (Every summer that we took our kids up to Maine to their summer camps, I always looked at the wide and smoothly-paved shoulders of the state highways around Freeport, Gray, Yarmouth and Poland Springs with envy, wishing I would have brought my bike up there to ride after visiting the kids. For now, this is as close as I'll get to that wish fulfillment.)
See you on the road. I hope you all enjoy the ride along with me.
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