2006 East Coast Bicycle Ride

Club members Dick Matthews and Jack Lancette along with friend Ray Klein are driving down to Ft. Myers, Florida to start a bicycle ride. Another friend, Joe Insalaco from Poughkeepsie will fly down and meet them. Their plans are to ride about seventy miles a day until they get back in the Syracuse area. They expect it will take them about six weeks to cover the 2100 miles providing the weather cooperates.

Veterans of some distance cycling, this group has done the Adventure Cycling Trans Am in 2002 covering 4,600 miles from Virginia to Oregon. They've also pedaled through the ice fields in Alberta and British Columbia, Waterton and Glacier National parks and most recently through the beautiful state of Vermont.

Camping where possible and staying in motels they will be using the East Coast, Adventure Cycling route that starts in Ft. Myers, FL and finishes in Bar Harbor, ME. They will deviate from the route somewhere in northern Pennsylvania and head up to Syracuse. Restaurants will be used as much as possible but they will be carrying cooking gear as a back up. Consistent with their previous treks there will be no vehicle support.

Progress reports will be periodically updated by Jack and posted here to follow along with their adventure.

3-8-2006

We arrived in Ft. Myers Beach after 27 hours of driving. It was a good idea to rent a van as we later learned that it was $50 more to fly and have the bikes shipped. Today we returned the van so it's just bikes from this point on.

Today Ray, Dick and I rode twenty five miles in heavy traffic. Something there's no shortage of here. In addition to the normal tourist there's also spring break going on. Our fourth partner, Joe arrived today so we're ready to head out in the morning.

Our first destination will be Arcadia, which is about 72 miles from here. We tested our equipment today and everything went well. An abundance of sun has us using sun block after the fact. We expect our expenses to go down immensely when we get out of the hot tourist area and get in the back country.

Tomorrow,Ron Beckman will join us for the day as he's already in the area. So far it's been just restaurants but we expect will have to cook a few times so we have a stove and utensils with us.

I will post more info at the next major library we find.

Jack

3-14-2006

Our second day of the trip had us traveling another 72 miles into Lake Wales. On checking with the only RV park that allowed tents, we learned that they wanted to charge us $24 per tent. This was the same price as a full sized RV. We went down the road and spent an additional $1 and got a motel room. Nice restaurant across the street where we had all our meals. The big event of this day was Dick Matthews blew out a rear tire and almost slipped into the path of an oncoming truck. His tires had a substance in them to make them puncture proof, however this stuff acted like ice and Dick was very lucky. He used his emergency skills he learned when we were in the Rockies. In that instance, his tights got wrapped up in his back wheels and he came to a sliding stop just before the guardrail.

Our 3rd day on the road, we traveled 66 miles behind Orlando and into Winter Garden. This day highlight was Dick and I sending home 11.5 pounds of equipment we decided we no longer needed.

Our fourth day we headed to DeLand where we got to a campgrounds which was off the beaten path and learned that the tent charge was $16. Too much for just a small plot of land so we declined. Bike week just finished in the area and the prices are still high. We continued riding until we passed a church. Stopped and asked permission to pitch tents. They were most gracious so we donated some money to their Youth fund.

Yesterday we pushed on longer than normal with a 90 mile day and made it to St. Augustine. The campgrounds was full so we ended up at a motel. Kind of expensive but essential. Today we're heading up towards Jacksonville and sometime tomorrow we should be crossing the St. Mary's river into Georgia.

Will post more later

Jack

3-18-2006

Today we're in Statesboro, GA. taking a day off after pedaling for nine days. Tomorrow we'll be heading out and will be in South Carolina. The miles are flying so to speak.

Up until today the fourth party in our group, Joe was the only one who had time constraints. He had to be home by April 5th. He was kind of pushing us along to meet his schedule. This morning he left to be on his own and now we no longer have to push as hard. Of the nine days on the road we had three over eighty miles. Totally for the trip this far we've traveled over seven hundred and we're getting stronger every day.

Our general direction is north-east and the prevailing winds have been out of the north west. This quarters us from out left side and creates more resistance than if we had a direct headwind. Although we're starting to encounter more hills by far the wind makes it more difficult.

To give you an idea of what a day is like on the road we usually awake around 5:45 am and we're on the road by 6:30. Our first mission is to locate a place for breakfast. Usually around five miles but up to 20 miles before a good cup of coffee. As we travel along we stop at convenience stores along the way and usually get power drinks. We stop in small towns for lunch and if the campground we're heading for doesn't have any restaurants nearby we pick up something for dinner and take it to the campground. We usually arrive at a campground around 5pm. We're in bed by 7pm or sooner if the bugs are biting.

Yesterday I had my first flat tire on the trailer. Some of the lesser traveled roads we're on are pretty rough. We all carry Tracphone, cellphones to keep in touch with each other and make daily calls home to let everyone know our well being.

I had mentioned earlier that we mailed home some excess baggage well, we're thinking about adding some more. Your values change as time progresses or the hills approach.

Most of our camping areas are in remote areas so we can only get to library about once a week.

Will post in the next town.

Jack

3-25-2006

Well, this morning I'm sitting in a library in Newport, NC. We are heading out to the Outer Banks and the weather although miserable the last few days is sunny and the forecast is promising.

Since my last report we covered the state of South Carolina, glad to be out of there. The back country where we were left you feeling unsafe. It didn't help to have the last store owner in Ga. tell us to bring a gun if we were going into the next state. Most business were secured behind bars and big padlocks. Also we've never seen so much road litter.

The last three nights have been spent in motels as it's been in the thirties overnight and sometimes campgrounds haven't been convenient. Recently we passed through Wilmington, NC and we intended to have a lay over day there but there was so much urban sprawl and traffic we decided to skip it and take a extra on the Outer Banks.

We've been getting into towns in the 5 o:clock rush hour traffic and it's pretty hectic. The present map we are working with gets us to Richmond, VA but that won't be for another four or five days.

Mechanically our bikes are holding up well. I've only had one flat so far and I purchased a new tube so I have a reserve.

Ron & Carole Beckman met up with us again so they are going to be with us for a few days. So far we've logged over 1100 miles on the back roads. Coming down from Syracuse in the rental van we drove 1408 miles but that was on interstates.

Ray Klein seems to think that when we get to the DC area it should take us about eight days to get home but that's going to be climbing hills and into the prevailing winds.

Dick Matthews thinks we'll be home the first week of April and I'm not sure. But it doesn't really matter.

Nothing exciting has happened or anything out of the ordinary and that's good news. We've had a few rainy days in the low forties but that's to be expected.

Tomorrow morning we'll be taking a 2 and a half hour ferry ride.

Till the next report,

Jack

3-29-2006

Today we've stopped at a library on highway 158 in North Carolina. Our destination for the day is Elizabeth City. Tomorrow we'll be in Virginia which will be our fifth state so far. It's been so cold nights that we're staying in motels the last six nights.

We are just getting out of the Outer Banks area and we took our second day off yesterday in Kitty Hawk. Visited the Wright Brothers museum and relaxed. We've had enough headwind to last us for a while but there's always more. Builds character they say.

My wife, Chris will be visiting her mother in Charlottesville, VA this weekend about the time we'll be in the Fredricksburg area. We've been out of the high traffic areas and choosing to do the Outer Banks was a good decision. I expect to get back into a lot of traffic in the Richmond area.

We're still shooting for the second week of April to complete this and I've received reports that your weather is sunny and in the fifties. It's finally starting to warm up around here. Low sixties today.

Until our next stop.

Jack

4-4-2006

Since my last report we traveled through the state of Virginia. Presently we are visiting a cycling friend in Falls Church, VA. We arrived here yesterday and toured Washington, DC on our bikes. Although the weather was threatening the rain held off.

We're on our schedule to arrive home around the 15th of April. Up until Virginia the terrain has been flat but now that has changed to rolling and hilly. A good test for our legs. We've stayed in motels almost as often as camping but no one is complaining.

We just have Maryland and Pennsylvania to complete and we're going to enter NY state somewhere south of Watkins Glen.

Jack

4-9-2006

This morning (Sunday the 9th) I awoke from my own bed. What a great feeling, even though it was 5:30 am, it was great to be home. We had reached the north side of Harrisburg, PA when the weather was not comfortable to ride in. Throughout the Outer Bank in North Carolina the temperatures were 17 degrees below normal but now we had the high thirties with rain for several days and we decided that it was time to pack it in. It was our intention from the start that we could always rent a car and drive home if the weather got bad. Well, we did the next best thing...I called my wife Chris and she came down to pick us up.

We cut the trip short by about four days but we did complete 1,850 miles and traveled through some states I'd never been in before. Of the four that started the trip Ray was the only one that was still on the road and he expected to get home sometime this Tuesday. We later learned that Joe who had broken from the group in Georgia because he had to be home by the 5th of April had bailed out some where in southeastern Virginia and rented a car. This we learned while visiting our friend Jeff Heil and his wife Helen in Falls Church, VA.

The most difficult part of the trip for me was dealing with the traffic. We seem to get into towns just as rush hour was beginning and it was stressful. Especially the big trucks and those diesel "Bubba" trucks that seem to dislike cyclists. The best part of the trip was meeting and talking with people. We looked for McDonald's in the morning as the conditions were always consistent as were Subway restaurants. Most McDonald's we would find a group of senior citizens hanging out and they would be fascinated to see people our age riding bikes. They were impressed to learn that Ray was 67 years old and had ridden across the United States numerous times.

Our next adventure will be Switzerland in June. I had Chris take my cross country bike to the bike shop a couple of weeks ago and get it updated to a 27 speed. I will be leaving the recumbent home because it will be easier to ride in the Alps with an upright bike.

Jack