TV Interview

I just had my first ever live television interview. I sat down with Ramona from Telluride's Plum TV affiliate for about six minutes during the Morning, Noon and Night show which is the weekend morning show that Kiley used to host. I was a bit nervous as I waited to go on, but the interview was surprisingly fun. I will attempt to get a copy and find out if they'll let me post it here.

Bob Dylan played in Town Park last night. I had a great time, although the music was actually secondary. His singing was mostly unintelligible, as he just mumbled through most of the songs. Still, his band was great and they performed a very cool version of Masters of War, a song he wrote about 16 years before I was born.

This is a painting that Lisa did for me almost a year ago when I first told her I was planning this ride. It's hanging on my wall facing my bed, so it's one of the first things I see when I get up in the morning. A potent motivator, wouldn't you say?

The quote is from a Damien Rice song.

Silent Auction Coming Together

So I spent a few hours yesterday going around soliciting businesses for silent auction bid items. An interesting experience. It's a little difficult walking into a shop or restaurant and asking for charity. I was having trouble working out a concise spiel that would grab an owner's attention, but despite my bumblings I managed to get a really positive response, overall.

Almost every place I went in seemed enthusiastic and promising, and one place (La Marmotte, a fantastic French restaurant) wrote out a gift certificate right then and there, which was wonderful. Some other places were a bit more noncommittal and there were several that didn't have someone available to talk to me, so I just left a short summary with my card. There were two places that rejected me flat out and wouldn't even take my little piece of paper, which was a bit shocking, but still, I understand. I'm sure they're always being asked to give things away for nothing, especially after the whole Valley Floor thing (massive eminent domain fund raising project completed this past spring).

There are still more places to try and I'm hopeful that I can get approximately 20-25 items for the auction and try to raise at least $500, plus what Tommy's brings in on drinks. It turns out that the Turkey Creek Ramblers are playing a show in Montrose that day, but that's fine because I've got a commitment from Michael Psarras to play. He's a great singer/guitar player that plays open mic sometimes and plays a regular gig at Las Montanas. It should be a great night, I can hardly wait.

Here's a shot from the top of the hike up the pass in Jackson.

More on Ride to the Coast Night

The Tommy's fund raiser night is coming along nicely. Everyone around here has been so eager to help me out, it's a bit overwhelming. I've had numerous offers from people wanting to share their contacts and put me in touch with people that could help. My friend Andrew who is the regular host at open mic has offered to help me with a press-release and to put me in contact with people at the paper and the radio station. He's also come up with the best idea yet for that night: Silent Auction. Eh? Eh??

I've written up a little solicitation letter that I'm going to take door-to-door to local businesses in an effort to get some auction items. I've seen this work to great success many times before, I really hope I can generate some solid participation...Keep your fingers crossed!

Also, I'm waiting to hear back from The Turkey Creek Ramblers, a home-grown bluegrass band that has taken off recently. They're a ton of fun and likely to get people through the door if I can get them to play a set that night. There are a number of other musicians that would be great to have play too, but TCR would best fit the mood I want to create.

Stacy from Tommy's suggested pairing Ride to the Coast Night with a shot-themed night they were planning anyway. She had a clever name for it, but I forget what it was. It would involve paying one price for a selection of five shots of their own invention, I think. And as she pointed out, alcohol tends to loosen purse strings. Teehee!

Finally, there will be a table selling those yellow Livestrong bracelets. I have a box of 100. I hope they sell, because I had to purchase them from the LAF, they wouldn't give them to me as an advance on the donation. What I don't sell that night I'll take with me on the road and try to sell them to people I meet on the way. They're only $1, so I figure for those people who say they can't afford to make a donation I can present them with that option. Most people can afford $1, right? Especially since they're getting something in return?

Okay, how 'bout some more winter photos? These were taken when I lived in Jackson Hole.

Thanks Tommy's!

As some of you know, I've been playing music at a local pub called Tommy's since the winter when it was bought by three wonderful women from Chicago. They put on an Open Mic night every Wednesday and I've been to almost every one. I've also played there by request a couple of times, most recently to celebrate the birthday of one of the lovely ladies, Rose. Needless to say, I've gotten to know them and they've gotten to know me, and a little while ago I asked them if they could host a benefit night to help me raise some more money and get more of the local crowd involved in the ride and they said yes, enthusiastically. Yippee!

So on Friday, July 27th, it's gonna be Ride to the Coast night at Tommy's! There will be live music and Tommy's will donate a portion of the proceeds. We're gonna put fliers up around town, contact the paper and the radio station, we'll set up a booth to sell Livestrong bracelets, and there'll be computer terminals set to the blog and to the LAF website. Sounds good, right? I'm jazzed about the whole thing.

Anyone have suggestions about what else we can do? I'm all ears. I was thinking we could create a cycling-themed cocktail. No sure what would go in it though...hehehe.

Thanks Bridgette, Stacy, and Rose! You're wonderful!

So I was riding through town a little while ago and some guy on a motorcycle pulls up along side me and says, "Hey, you know you've got a scorpion on your butt?" How does one respond to a comment like that?

New and Improved!

I just finished marking the map with possible daily destinations and distances. Much of this is likely to change, of course. For instance, according to this most of our days will end up being around 80-85 miles. I'm not sure if that's entirely realistic. I think a lot of those will have to come down to between 60 and 70 miles.

Also, this schedule has us completing the ride in just 32 days, which is clearly ridiculously shorter than I anticipated. I think I need to go ahead and adjust those distances. Ordinarily I would do that before posting, but I just spent several hours doing this and really need to get away from the computer for a while. My method for determining these rest stops was really too ludicrous to mention, but at least I've got a good place from which to start editing the route later.

And no, I didn't use the GPS to map the route. I tried, but the PC software it came with seems so much clunkier than Google, and doing the entire route on the handheld unit is too much work. My plan is to use the GPS as a backup, because, as Finn noted, Google maps can be a bit unreliable. The GPS will also prove particularly useful when trying to find specific things in cities and towns, such as a post office, restaurant, or movie theater.

Here's another shot from the Yellowstone ride. This is just past the entrance to Grand Teton National Park, with the Grand behind me.

Route Update

Here's the latest route.

Changes include a stop in Fort Collins, CO where Finn and I will meet up (the timing for this part could be tricky -- he's 500 miles from Fort Collins and I'm 400 miles away), and a stop in Nazareth, PA where Finn's mother and step-father live.

I expect more official and unofficial changes, but it's starting to take shape. Okay, now I've gotta go ride.

Here's the Route

Okay, here's the preliminary route. I haven't conferred with Finn about it yet, so there will probably be some changes. Also, I didn't put much effort into precision, so at some places we may not be on the exact roads shown here, particularly as we get closer to New York and traffic and road quality get worse. I took a few detours, notably to go south through Urbana/Champaign (to see John and Natalie) and then further south to Cincinnati (to see Liz). I need to find out if there are places Finn wants to go through as well, but this should give you a general idea. If anyone lives close by this route and wants to say hi, just let me know.

View the map here.

Ignore those yellow "pause" markers, that's just how google maps lets you manipulate the route.

Google says it's 2,349 miles. If we average 50 miles per day, that's 47 days of riding. I'd say we can probably do quite a bit more than 50 per day, but I don't want to count on it. Factor in a rest day approximately every 10 days to bring the total up to about 52 days, give or take.

I've got one month left. This is starting to seem pretty real.