Planning the Trip - Part 1

So I have to admit, I'm sitting here writing this on Valentines Day and I've been verrrrrrrryyyyyyy baaaaaaaddddddd!  I haven't ridden in about four days and I feel incredibly guilty.  I had good reason to though, yesterday I had to buy the chocolate and today I have to get home to deliver/share it with my loved one, my best friend, my wife.  But tomorrow I will be back at the training with a vengeance.

However, as I looked at the calendar I realized we are 130 DAYS AWAY FROM THE GRAND DEPARTURE!!!!  This past weekend I spent a lot of time finalizing our route back and I double checked large parts of the route.  The more I look over the maps and the terrain the more I want to ask myself, "what the #@$#@$ were you thinking?"  Or to put it in the words of the singer Jenny Owen Young (Warning: This song contains the "f-bomb" but I'm still mystified as to how someone can make it sound so beautiful);



Of course this isn't to be confused with Avril Lavigne's "What the Hell";



or as Jeff Dunham would put it, "What the hell is wrong with you?" (WARNING: You will only hear Jeff and Peanut, you will SEE this cute little Anime video);



Nevertheless, as I started to go through the maps we purchased from Adventure Cycling Association, I realized that I'll be cycling through TWELVE (12) states this summer - CA, AZ, CO, KS, IL, MO, KY, VA, MD, DE, NJ and NY!  All in the space of 64 dyas so that averages out to just a little more than FIVE (5) DAYS A STATE!  Considering we have at least one rest day every two or three days, that's not too shabby.

Unfortunately, we won't really be in every state for only five days.  As it turns out, once I start rolling, we'll only be in California for two and a half days.  Our longest sojourns will be in Colorado and Kansas which account for 20 days, or almost 1/3 of our journey!

Now tentatively, the route will look ROUGHLY like this;

(The Long and Winding Road)

The big differency is that where it shows looping up into Indiana and back across West Virginia, I will instead go down through Kentucky and Virginia (hopefully to see my sister Alina).  We're about halfway into the planning stage at this point and we're ready to start booking the accomodations so we've been working on locking in the route.

Now I know some of my followers on my Connor's Army facebook page have asked where we're going and we're 90% sure these are the towns we'll be passing through on our way;

In CA:   San Diego, Pine Valley, Brawley
In AZ:   Blythe, Salome, Wickenburg, Ash Fork, Tusayan, Tuba City (as a former Tubist, how can I resist?),  Kaynton, Four Corners
In CO:   Cortez, Pagosa Sptings, Del Norte, Fort Garland, Colorado City, Pueblo, Ordway, Eads
In KS:    Tribune, Dighton, Larned, Hutchinson, Eureka, Pittsburgh (side trip to THE Little House on the Prairie)
In MO:   Marshfield, Houston, Ellington (with a Rest Day side trip to St. Louis?),  Farmington
In IL:      Murphysboro, Cave-in-Rock
In KY:    Owensboro (Utica?), Sonora (with a Rest Day side trip to Mammoth Cave), Harrodsburg, Booneville, Hindman
In VA:    Rosedale, Sugar Grove, Christiansburg, Lexington, Charlottesville (with a Rest Day side trip to Monticello), Fredericksburg, Springfield (to visit Alina)
In MD:    Frederick, Bel Air North
In DE:     Sorry, not stopping here.
In NJ:      Swedesboro, Verona (not sure on that one yet, we have to check with Mark and Laura)
Then HOME!!!!!!!

The plan is for me to start riding at 6:00 (or so) in the morning and stop six hours later (or so) at the day's destination.  The longest distance I'll have to go is 115 miles with the shortest (the first day) being 50 miles.  The following days range from 52 to 85 until I start to get my endurance up and hit the big push of 106 miles from Wickenburg, AZ to Ashfork, AZ the day after resting and trying to see some friends in Phoenix.

Now in all of this we are trying to see some of the country.   And one of the most important things to do is to ride Route 66 - even if for only five miles!  I mean, how can we go across country and not touch at least a little while on THE MOTHER ROAD!  What's that?  You don't know the Mother Road?  Well, let Asleep At the Wheel tell you about it; 



And speaking of Old Route 66 and Ash Fork, AZ - this is the view we'll see;



I'm very excited since I haven't passed over any of Route 66 since I was about eleven years old and we moved from Monterrey, CA for Augusta, GA.  And now my own children will get a gret chance to see it too!

So, take a look at the cities listed above and if we are passing through (or close to) any of you, we would REALLY appreciate the opportunity to visit with you and if you have a place that five weary travellers could bed down for the night, it would be really appreciated.  The money we save could be that much more that goes to the kids of Sunrise!

And now, one more little video for a dessert treat - "Life is a Highway!"  - ain't it fitting?!?



Stay well my friends, and I'll see YOU on the (long and winding) road!

Honorificabilitudinitatibus!

So when I was a kid there was a cartoon series featuring a young boy named Tom Terrific and it was shown as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show.  It starred Tom Terrific, who lived in a treehouse and could transform himself into anything he wanted thanks to his magic, funnel-shaped "thinking cap," which also made him smarter. He had a , Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an arch-foe named Crabby Appleton, whose catch-phrase was, "I'm rotten to the core!" Other foes included Mr. Instant, the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam, the Candy Bandit and Isotope Feaney, The Meany.

Now I know a lot of people have annointed him as a Hall of Famer already but Tom Terrific should not be confused with Tom Brady;

(Now where did I put those car keys????/)

Or confused with the "Terrific Tom" of the cycling world, Tom Boonen (pronounced "Bone-en") - a Tom that actually wins;

(Car Keys????? WE don't need no stinkin' car keys!!!!)

No, Tom Terrific was a different kind of hero.  To give you a little taste of cartoons from "Back in the Day", here's what his show looked like;



I think that one is particularly appropriate seeing as how we're going to be heading west on June 15!  I only hope we can manage not to crash into the Mississippi river the way Tom and Manfred did.  Yes, that's what used to pass for animated entertainment way back when as opposed to some of what we find on TV today;



of course as an avowed Phineas and Ferb fan I do enjoy the musical renderings of those little guys - much better than the Tom Terrific theme song I have to admit.

What all of these individuals DO have in common is that they are all what William Shakespeare would define as Honorificabilitudinitatibus - "the state of being able to achieve honours".  The word is first mentioned in his play Love's Labour's Lost (a prequel to the lost play Love's Labour's Won) and is spokken by the character Costard;

"O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon."

It should here be mentioned that "flap-dragon" was a game which involved trying to eat hot raisins from a burning bowl of brandy (Of course, that is not to be confused with a burning bowl of Brady which I guess is what happened after his "melt down" during the Super Bowl).

Even although the palmarés of  both Messieurs Boonen and Brady are well-documented, it is a little known fact that Messieurs Phineas and Ferb have indeed earned an Emmy award for "Outstanding Writing in Animation"!

Well, it now appears that some out there have also considered Connor's Army to be Honorificabilitudinitatibus as well!  A recent article penned by Miss Tara O'Connor (no relation, unless it goes generation back to the old country) in the Syosset Patch entitled "Syosset Teacher Goes the Distance" has generated a lot of interest and has helped us spread the word about Connor's Army Ride Across America.  That came out on Monday and generated a lot of interest and messages to us.  I also have to say I am incredibly humbled by all of the people who shared the link on Facebook and for all the comments people wrote. 

And you remember the interview with the Long Islander I spoke about a few weeks ago?  Well it seems the article came out in a few local papers that are under the Long Islander umbrella - the Record and the Northport Observer.  It was a 3/4 page article and it really gave us a lot of glowing compliments.

Now you have to understand, one of the things I'm not very good at doing is "tooting my own horn";

it was probably one of my biggest weaknesses back when I was performing, the business of "the business".  I've always been one to simply do and hope that my efforts are good enough.

Well, it seems that things are starting to happen and folks are starting to take notice.  It seems that the Long Islander also publishes a paper in Dix Hills and one of the Town Councilpeople(?) took notice of it.  As a result, yours truly is going to be honored by the Town of Huntington for our efforts to help Sunrise Day Camp on April 17th!!!!!!!  I'm incredibly grateful to them for this honor and for everyone who has supported us thus far!  I want to invite everyone who lives on Long Island and who supports us to join us at Huntinton Town Hall on April 17th at 7:00 and maybe we'll go out afterwards to Ben and Jerry's to celebrate!  Nothing says support a cyclist like filling him with ice cream!!!!! 

And in the meantime, please do me a favor.  PLEASE help us to spread the word even further so we can get the word out - Invite everyone YOU know on Facebook to go to https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Connors-Army/143446649035655 and add us to their likes.  That goes for friends, colleagues, other facebook pages and groups - everyone you know.  It really would mean a great deal because every person means someone else who might be able to help us spread the world.  Besides, I really am hoping to get 3600 likes by June so I can have one person for each mile I'm riding - YES, I'M DEDICATING A MILE TO EACH PERSON WHO LIKES MY PAGE!  I WANT TO RIDE FOR YOU!!!!!

And now to give you all a little dessert treat in preparation for the April 17th soiree, here is a little song I just found called "I Love My Bike" by Italian hip-hop star J-Ax;



I only wish I knew what he was saying!

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