T Minus 11.00.00

First of all, for those of you who have been keeping up with our continuing saga, you'll notice from the posted date and time that I have skipped a few days.  I've tried very hard to keep the daily blog going but for now I'm going to have to skip Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's blogs.  There has just been so much going on here in San Diego every day that by the time I get the chance to sit down and write I can only get a few lines down before I get too tired to write any more.  I've started a post for each day and I've only got about a paragraph written about each day that doesn't begin to touch upon what happened that day.  However, I will come back to each of those blogs and update them.  I'll post on facebook (click on the link at right if you haven't already like our facebook page or just click here) later on that I have updated those entries.  For now, here is a BRIEF rundown on what happened each day;

Wednesday - Got here in GREAT time and when we arrived at the Travelodge our room wasn't ready yet. Need parts for Sarah, James and my rides so we went looking for a bike store.  After some bad GPS directions we ended up at Performance Bike, otherwise known as Mecca.  We managed to walk out spending less than $150!  We then went to a burger/malt shop and had what James described as "the best vanilla I've ever tasted".  We checked into our room, swam in the pool and ate Thai food watching TV.

Thursday - We surprised the kids by taking them to Legoland.  It was a bit of subterfuge to pull it off.  We were supposed to meet my friend Shannon McNulty but she's competing this weekend in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and she needed to pack so she couldn't meet us.  It ended up being okay as we found a nice little town called Solana Beach where we took the kids to play in the Pacific, we took in a little music and bought dinner at a whole foods supermarket - which we took home at and ate in front of the TV.

Friday - Sarah turned 13!!!!!  To celebrate we took her to the San Diego Zoo and we all walked ourselves ragged.  Sarah discovered a new group that is now one of her favorites - mainly because she covets the singer's Steam Punk goggles - called Steam Powered Giraff.  Here is a sample of their music;



We then had sushi at a great little place in University Park and follwed it up with frozen yogurt at the Golden Spoon.

Which brings us to today.  The original plan was to have a "do nothing" day but that really meant we weren't going to travel in the car for long distances.  I got up and got Pearl ready for a recon rixce and we headed off to Ocean Beach to scope out the start point of this 3700 mile journey.  While there, I found out that there was some sort of festival happending in Ocean Beach so I thought it might be fun for us to scope out the start point as a family and maybe hang out at the festival for a while.  I knew we only had until 6:00 because at that point we were supposed to meet James"Jim" Connor  for dinner.

Jim is related to us through a common ancestor William Alexander Connor and he got in touch with me some time back through my sister Alina.  He saw that we were coming out here to San Diego and he lives out here so we've been e-mailing and facebooking for a few weeks.  We were so excited because we were finally going to meet this nice individual live and in person.  Alas, it was not to be, but more on that later.

So, I took off on my ride and riding along the first five miles was so incredibly pleasant.  It begins on a bike path that parallels the San Diego River Floodway before breaking off into the city.  Of course, I had a VERY frightening moment when I was almost the victim of a drive by squirreling as one of our furry friends darted right in front of me and I missed him by mere inches.  I had visions of this flashing before my eyes;

(he won't try that trick again!)

I had visions of my Ride Across America ending before it even began with either a broken bike or a broken me.  Of course, a broken bike would be okay as it would only mean another trip to Performance Bike - hey, maybe I can find that squirrel tomorrow!

Anyway, I continued on to try and make it to the halfway point of my journey tomorrow and I got awfully close.  I hit a few 6-8 percent rises that were a tad long but nothing major. Of course, that will all hit me tomorrow when I least expect it! 

I made it back to the hotel in less than two hours after logging 42 total miles (26 out and 16 back) ready to have a fun last day in San Diego with the family.  After cajoling and convincing William that it would be fun, we headed out to Ocean Beach Park to scope out the place where I'll be departing tomorrow.  Of course, the only problem wih that was it was a gorgeous day, it was a Saturday, and this is Southern California where 80% of the population goes to the beach.  So we sat in traffic for a while.  It was while in traffic we came up with a brillant idea - the kids are going to ride with me along the bike path for the first three miles.  Once the path ends and we start on city roads I'll load up their bikes, they'll head up to Lakeside and I'll ride up on my bike.

Okay, here is were I'm going to vent a bit.  You see we have gotten a lot of offers of help from various sources over the two years we've been talking about this ride to benefit Sunrise Day Camp.  Unfortunately, too often that help has either dried up or failed to materialize at all after the initial contact.  One such individual had offered to help me connect with local riders to perhaps ride with me the first part of the journey.  Despite numerous attempts at contacting them, I've heard nothing from that first offer.  We get offers from people who have offered to either sponsor or donate to Sunrise - nothing ever happens.  It has started to wear on Amy and I becuase we feel like we are alone in this endeavor, that although people think it is an amazing thing we're doing, they don't want to help.

However, trying to be more like Brian and looking on the bright side of life, we have gotten some amazing help from Gina Nemo with some press contacts and there have been many recent offers of help that HAVE come through. "Live It Up! With Donna Drake" has offered to come aboard as our official media sponsor and we have had some amazing offers of free nights from some of the hotels that we have contacted along our route.  We're hoping now that some media attention about our ride will help generate some funds for the campers of Sunrise and that's what this is all about.

Okay, off the soap box.  After we finally found a place to park (using Amy's patented parking karma) we headed to the beach and the festival.  It turns out that part of the festival was a chili cook off!  The kids weren't in the mood for chili (damn!) so we headed to a funky little cafe instead where we had an amazing light lunch and I had the best tomatoe basil soup I've ever had!

We headed back to the beach where the kids proceeded to run in and out of the waves until William backpedalled himself right into the water.  We had to curtail the highjinks for a bit but then the whole family eventually got into building a sand castle before heading back home.  We packed up a bit, got everyone showered and prepared to go to dinner and meet the other James Connor.

It was while trying to get to Ortegas that we realized the other part of the festival was this HUUUUUGGGGGEEEEEE street fair.  Amy's karma kicked in again and we ended up parking a block and a half from where we needed to go.  Unfortunately, Jim never got there so we have yet to meet him.  However, I had some amazing Mexican food - and THE best chimichanga I've ever eaten.  While eating the thought hit me that this was my last supper before starting on this epic ride and that led to me thinking about the Last Supper and despite my Catholic conversion, the only thing I could think of was this;



But, I know its just the start of a new adventure - one that I hope will make a difference in the lives of some very deserving young people.  If you're reading this for the first time, welcome.  If you ARE reading it for the first time, I would invite you to go here and give whatever you can, no amount is too small, to help us help the kids of Sunrise.

Well, its now 10:45 PST and that means its only T minus 9 hours 15 minutes.  Time to get some shut eye.  Tomorrow's post will be from Pine Valley, CA.

Stay well my friends, I'll see you on the raod!

Planning the Trip - Part 2

So yesterday I was reminded of the reality of what I'm going to be doing - I realized that we are only 88 days away from our departure in San Diego.  Only 88 days away from what will probably be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and my family will be there with me to help me through it.  Although many may look on this as just a middle aged guy checking off something on his "bucket list", its really much more than that.  In the movie The Bucket List Morgan Freeman's character tells a story about how the ancient Egyptions believed at the entrance to heaven a person is asked two questions: "Have you found joy in your life?"; and, "Has your life brought joy to others?".  Their responses determined if they would be allowed to enter heaven.  Of course, he tells it much better (but then again, he IS Morgan Freeman);



And of course, part of the irony is that in this movie his character talks about the questions that would allow one to enter Heaven and in another movie he actually played God;



Yesterday I realized that both of these clips from Mr. Freeman's work are really appropriate for what my family and I are trying to accomplish this summer - we've prayered to be able to make a difference and we're hoping that God will provide us with this opportunity to do so.  I have found so much joy in the health and happiness of my children and now I would like to have the opportunity to bring joy to others.  Now could I do this by teaching at Sunrise for the summer?  Yes, perhaps.  But the chance to be able to make it possible for eight children to attend camp this summer, I think, is the best joy I could bring.

It doesn't matter that I have been looking forward to this for two years, that its something I knew I had to do ever since the 2,000 miles of the original Connor's Army mission.  I reasoned back then that if I could ride 2,000 miles and raise over $10,000 then I should be able to ride 3,700+ miles and raise $50,000.  So now, only 88 days out we find ourselves trying to get all the planning done and begin booking the accomodations we'll need upon the way.  We're still working on adjusting the route in regard to where we stay as we find motel and hostel availability.  We are hoping to connect with people we know along the way who might let us stay on their floor/couch/lounge chairs, whatever.  For instance, we've adjusted the first day from 50 miles to 80 miles so we can actually stay in a place where we might have a chance to eat dinner.

Now don't get me wrong, we are not looking at this as a luxery vacation for the family that we can hide in the mantle of doing good for others.  The whole point of this is to spend as little money as possible, especially since all the family's costs are coming out of our own pockets.  And, the more we save, the more we can use those sponsorship monies as more funds to add to the monies we are trying to raise for Sunrise.  If we can reach our fundraising goal AND add another couple of thousand dollars on top of that, it would be a dream come true.  The more money we can raise for Sunrise the better.  Its part of the reason that my daughter Sarah is using her thirteenth birthday as an opportunity to fundraise for Sunrise.  She really feels that she wants to celebrate this important turning point in her life giving to others.  Part of the way we want to reward her for what she is doing is that we are going to try to get to San Diego early enough so that we can spend her birthday at the San Diego Zoo.  Its sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to take her there so we've been saving up to take her before I start pedaling east on the 23rd. 

With that in mind I'm still trying to work out the kinks on the bike.  As you may know, I'm not spending money on a fancy bike to carry my butt across the country.  I'm using a fifteen year old steel frame I dug out of the trash one day on a drive in to work.  I've upgraded it as much as I have been able to afford using gift cards received at birthdays and holidays, buys on e-bay, parts I've cannibalized from road finds, and deals I've been able to get from my sponsors at Adams Cyclery of parts that have come off of other bikes as people have upgraded.  I've got a little more tweaking to do but once I have everything dialed in I will get it tuned up at Adams and we're ready to go.  I still need to fix the gearing a bit and I've just upgraded my saddle to one I had been using on my mountain bike (its got more padding for my tushy) so now I just need to ride.

And that's the next step of my planning is to get my fitness level up.  I'm averaging 18 mph on a fifteen mile ride in to school and I can generally average 17.5 mph over a 30 mile course of rolling hills.  Now if I can build on that over the break next week I may have a good solid core.  And that's the difference between training for what I'm doing and training with the HBC guys on the weekend.  I'd love to join them but many of them are really about hammering it out and basically making the rides a team time trial and I really need to get my body used to maintaining a steady 17 - 18 mph pace for longer distances than just 30 miles (which is when they usually stop).  As we get closer to June 15 (my last day at school) I'll start taking the REALLY long way home and try to log in as close to 40 miles as I can.  I'll have to work on climbing hills and trying to maintain a steady tempo up hills like this up Snake Hill Road in Lloyd Harbor, NY;


View Larger Map

Just follow it on up and check out the switch back that is oh, so much fun!!!!!!

Amy and I area also in the process of trying to get a few more sponsor to help us purchase supplies that we'll need for the journey - we're hoping someone can help us gather together the things we'll be needing (3 tires, 6 tubes, 6 spokes - three for each of the two types of wheels I'm taking, 4 derailleur cables, 4 brake cables, degreaser, a spare nine-speed chain, brake pads) basically the replacement parts that we'll be hauling with us (hence the need for a van and a support driver) in case I break down in the middle of nowhere.
But the closer we get to the event, the more excited and scared I get.  My biggest fear is that my body will give out somewhere along the route and I'll feel as if I have let the kids of Sunrise down.  My greatest hope is that this turns out to be a jounrey without problems and that I will find joy in it and bring joy to others at the same time.  If I can manage to reach my goal and indeed raise $50,000 then I will feel that I have done some good in this life.
And now, since its been so long since I've actually posted a music video - this is the official video for a song that I plan on choreographing to for this year's Spring dance concert - Panic! At the Disco performing "The Ballad of Mona Lisa".  And for those of you who are fans of the Steampunk look - enjoy!!!!!!


Stay well and I'll see you on the road!