Final two weeks before Cross Country 2024

New York

I was busy every day of my final week in New York before flying to Portland, usually waking about 4:00 or 5:00 and working until dinner. During Monday through Friday I prepared several bags of electrolyte powder, ordered daily contact lenses, washed my bike, paid bills for the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation, and made preparations for paying its bills during my trip. I also baked a two-layer carrot cake for the send-off party Lori and I hosted Friday night which was attended by 18 guests. Elysia Belilove, who is Lori’s niece, decorated the cake with the outline of the 48 states and the route I will follow. At the party I made a presentation that included showing pictures of my route and gear on our projector screen. You can find all those pictures in Planning Cross Country 2024 - Update June 27, 2024.

Saturday I spent several hours disassembling my bike and packing it in the box in which it would travel as luggage (for just $35!). Although about a month prior I had partially rehearsed the packing of my bike in the box, there were several difficulties I had not anticipated. But I was able to pack in the box more items from my handlebar bag and trunk bag than I had thought would fit.

At the party Jennifer Hoult encouraged me to carry Ibuprofen for possible altitude sickness, and Christopher North urged me to buy an unactivated SIM card for my backup phone. So on Saturday I bought both of these items, except that the AT&T store would sell me only an activated SIM card. The person who sold me the card convinced me that if my first phone became unusable then it would be best to have an activated SIM card in the other phone. Normally the cost would be $35 per month but because I’m on the account of my brother Mike who worked for AT&T the cost will be just $14 per month, and I can cancel when I complete my trip.

One other task on Saturday was to spray my clothes with permethrin which repels insects including ticks.

The flight

My flight Sunday morning was scheduled to take off at 11:45, so I had a car service pick me up at 9:00. Traffic to JFK was light so we arrived there about 9:30. The trip in the SUV (needed to carry the box holding my bike and other gear) cost me $131, bringing the total cost of getting my bike to Portland to $166. If I had used BikeFlights.com as I originally planned it would have cost me about $250 and I would have had to ship my bike ten days earlier. I’m grateful to Hal Ruzal for suggesting that my bike might travel inexpensively as luggage.

To make the dragging of the bike box easier while carrying my handlebar bag, trunk bag, and helmet, I used the carrying strap for my handlebar bag (which I had never previously used) and I secured my helmet to my trunk bag.

While I was at the airport I started to receive notices about new contributions to my campaign at GoFundMe. The flight took off just a few minutes late. As we approached Portland I had a clear view of Mount Hood.

Portland

A few months ago, when Stephanie Tichenor (a member of the board of directors of the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation of which my wife, Lori Belilove, is the founder and artistic director) learned that I would be flying to Portland to begin my cross-country trip, she offered to host me in her home while I made final preparations for the trip. I was grateful for Stephanie's offer which I immediately accepted. Stephanie's husband Sean picked me up at the airport in his SUV. After we arrived at their home he made lasagna for dinner that included Stephanie, their son Dash, and Dash’s friend Luke. Sean’s lasagna was outstanding. 

On Monday, July 1st, I saw that not only had TSA opened my bike box to inspect its contents, but they had also removed some of the items I had packed in the box around my bike. A few of those items they did not put back where they had found them, but they did a good enough job and there was no damage to my bike or any of the other contents of the box. But next time I fly with my bike or ship it I will place the following message in large print prominently in several places so it will be seen before the box is opened:

I spent a fair amount of time packing this box and strongly urge you to take a picture of any item you intend to remove from the box before you remove it. That way you will be able to quickly replace where you found them any items you remove. If you do not take such pictures you might have a hard time determining where to replace the items and, as a result, waste your valuable time.

I will also send a similar message to the email address on the notice left by TSA.

I spent several hours carefully and leisurely reassembling my bike in Sean and Stephanie's back yard.

By overtightening a bolt I cracked a part of the mount for my bear-spray cage. I think it's ok as is, but I will replace the part as soon as I can.

Monday night I had dinner at Bamboo Sushi with Alan Lindstrom, a classmate of mine from graduate school. It was fun to reconnect with Alan after not seeing each other since he had visited me in New York some years ago.

On Monday the 2nd I received a notice that I was overdrawn at my bank. I think I must have neglected to make a needed deposit before I left home. Besides initiating a deposit to cover the shortfall I also starting downloading all seventy-two daily routes to both of my phones, a process that would not be complete until later in the week. That day I also also completed the page How I Pack My Gear - Cross Country 2024. I still needed to weigh the bike and the bags and include that information. I decided I would leave Portland early Saturday morning and made a reservation for a campsite Saturday night in Vernonia at Anderson Park and for a room Sunday night at the Norblad Hotel in Astoria. By the evening I had received a total of $376 from seven people who had contributed to my campaign at GoFundMe since I was at JFK on Sunday, bringing the total to $1903. I had dinner with Stephanie in her home, Mexican food that was delivered.

On the morning of Tuesday the 3rd I discovered that Sean and Stephanie's dog Honey had left one of her toys in front of my front wheel. How would you interpret that gesture?

I was frustrated in my attempt to learn how to have people respond to an email or text I send them from my Garmin inReach Mini 2 satellite communicator. I won't go into detail, but I have found all the documentation about the inReach to be opaque. That's a polite way of saying that the documentation sucks. I'm good at following instructions and good with tech, so I imagine that anyone without those skills would give up. I told Garmin's tech support just how poor I consider their documentation to be. That night I had dinner with my cousin Pete and his wife Gayle. Pete lived in the floor above me when we were growing up in Chicago. We figured we hadn't seen each other since my mother's 90th birthday party in September of 2016. I was glad to see Pete again and to meet Gael.

On Wednesday the 4th I rigged a line on my saddle bag to be tied around the seat post. This line will allow me to close the zipper of the saddle bag with one hand, leaving my other hand free to steady the bike. When I get home I will remove the line and have Uriel install a piece of hook-and-loop tape in its place.

I continued learning how to have people respond to an email or text I send them from my inReach Mini 2 satellite communicator. I was told by tech support that I needed to update the software on the inReach and then sync the inReach with my account, which required connecting it to a computer. Stephanie lent me her laptop but I didn't have an appropriate cable, but fortunately Best Buy had an adaptor that allowed me to make the connection. After I updated the software and synced the inReach, Tom Reingold and Harold Rosenthal, two friends who have agreed to be available to resupply me as needed, were both able to respond to email I sent them from the inReach.

The morning of July 5th I walked down the road to see Mount Hood.

I arranged the home page of my phones so that it contains all the apps I need most and they arranged the same way on both phones. In the morning I rode to the RideWithGPS office where I met with Kevin Prentice. I then rode to the home of Derek Link, a friend I met on Facebook through Tom Reingold. Derek made lunch for me and two of his other friends. Later in the afternoon I had ice cream with Brian Legate whom I met in a Facebook biking group. After having dinner with Sean and Stephanie in their home, I changed the bar tape.

See all of my daily routes here: Cross Country 2024

Follow my progress on this map.

Follow me on Facebook here.

If you’d like to help pay for the cost of this trip, please do so by clicking on the GoFundMe graphic at the bottom of this post.

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