The story of a 9-year-old boy and his dad as they cross the USA by bicycle.
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LA2JAX
| dep LA | | 3/04/03 |
| arr JAX | | 5/12/03 |
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Monday, May 26, 2003
Back to normal life?
 Two weeks have past since we completed our trip, and we've been home for just over a week. Will hit the ground running - he's back in the swing of things at school, and comfortable with his new baseball team. In his first pitching outing ever, they brought him in with the bases loaded and 1 out. He got the first batter to hit into a double play, and pitched another great inning. His teammates and their families have treated us like celebrities after reading the articles in the newspapers. Several people have told us that our ride was discussed on WGN radio as well as National Public Radio.
I have been back at the tracon for a few days now. Everything is fine here; the best part of air traffic is that one can leave for awhile, and upon return there is no huge pile of work to be done. The National Airspace System appears to have done fine without me. Unfortunately, I have a pile of mail about knee-high at home and about waist-high at my law office. Makes a guy think about loading up the bike and hitting the road again! I think I have become more relaxed in the past few months, and I definitely feel something different going on that is hard to describe. I'll have to figure it out.
We hope to add some kind of summary of our adventure in the near future. We also will begin producing a presentation shortly to give to school groups that will highlight things that we learned about fitness, teamwork, reaching for goals, and enjoying life.
Monday, May 12, 2003
--------------------WE DID IT!!!--------------------
 Will's audio message
 We got an intentionally late start out of Green Cove Springs as we only had 30 miles or so to the beach, and then another 5 or so to reach Lynn's cousin Tom and his wife Terry's house. Conditions were ideal; a light tailwind, flat roads. We had been calling "first one in (each state)" and decided that the first one to see the ocean would have the grand prize. As we neared Mickler's Landing Beach Park, I started to slow down to enjoy the moment, but Will was "chomping at the bit" to pull us faster. Our trusty GPS took us right to a long boardwalk that leads through the dunes to the beach. Will called the ocean first at about 100 yards and we both had huge grins as we disembarked to lug the bike into the surf. Oddly enough, there were no marching bands or balloons, but there were many bathers. Most people looked at us as if we were nuts, but we didn't care one bit. We struggled through the soft, dry sand, and were able to roll easily through the hard-packed wet stuff. Although the tradition is to dip the front wheel, we decided to play it safe and dip everything, so that no one could disqualify us on some kind of technical loophole.
It is a wonderful feeling to have completed this ride!
The Chicago Sun-Times has an article today describing our trip.
Sunday, May 11, 2003
The end is near
 We checked out of the Starke Days Inn around 8:30. As we were climbing on to the bike, a guy did a U-turn and pulled into the parking lot, and said, “Didn’t I see you guys last week in Pensacola? I wanted my nephew here to meet you!”. We chatted with them for a few minutes. We enjoy it very much when people come up to us to talk, and are amazed when people see us twice hundreds of miles apart. That has happened at least 3 times.
We pulled into Green Cove Springs around noon. It was already 90o and very humid. We feel a little lazy when we check into a hotel this early, but we want to enjoy these last days. I would like to stretch this trip even longer, but tomorrow we only have 32 miles to go to Mickler’s Landing Beach Park, where we will dip our front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean 69 days after dipping our rear wheel in the Pacific Ocean. We anticipate celebrating the conclusion of this wonderful journey with great emotion.
We were hosted for dinner by Jacksonville Center controller Robert Reddington, his wife Lisa and son Riley. Will had a great time swimming with Riley and we played a little golf before returning to our hotel.
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Getting closer...
 Another easy, but hot day. Again we hit the road early to avoid the afternoon heat. We were on some deserted back roads and didn’t pass any stores or restaurants until we arrived in Starke about 1 pm. We had another flat tire; actually a previous patch failed. One would think if a patch did the job for 2 weeks and 600 miles, that it would last forever. Not so.
We swam,  went to church and then caught “Daddy Day Care” starring Eddie Murphy. We wanted to rush back to the room to watch the new Fox reality show where they choose the new ruler of Iraq :-).
Quote of the day: See yesterday.
Friday, May 09, 2003
Mayo to High Springs
 We both gave Mayo “nays” in our vote to recommend this town in our report.
We started out at daybreak. Visibility was down to ½ mile in fog and haze, but improved by about 9 am. Our ride was typical of the last few days, with stands of pine trees on each side of a nicely paved road with great shoulders.
Will fished in the Suwanee River, but again came up empty-handed. We looked into going on a rafting trip, but we couldn’t make the logistics work.
We have seen many signs for “hot boiled peanuts”, and today tried them. They are served wet and the nut inside is soft like a cooked lima bean. They’re OK, but we can’t figure out what the big deal is.
When we arrived in High Springs, it must’ve been 95oF, with high humidity. We shouldn’t complain though, with what the rest of the country has been going through. We’ve only had about 3 partial days of rain over our 70-day journey.
We have planned out 3 more easy days to arrive on the coast on Monday afternoon. Each afternoon will end in a town with motels; although we have enjoyed the camping that we’ve done, it’s nice to crank up the air when we end our day at 1 or 2 pm.
Quote of the day: “Man it's hot. It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot.” – Matthew Broderick’s character Eugene Jerome in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues
Thursday, May 08, 2003
Hold the Mayo (Cafe)
 We had a relaxed departure from Perry this morning. Will wasn’t feeling well after doing many flips into the pool yesterday, so we decided to take it easy. We pulled into Mayo, Florida, around 1 pm as the temperature started to exceed 85o with about 90% humidity. Ideally, we would get out at first light on hot days like this and then find a hotel around lunchtime.
We had dinner at the Mayo Café. We give it zero stars (out of 10). Poor service and bad food are often the death knell for restaurants. This one had a great gimmick though, one that I have always joked about… “all you can eat, to go” (really!). Most restaurants would go out of business right away, but this one makes it work by providing horrible food.
Our current plan has us hitting the coast on Monday afternoon, then spending some time with Lynn’s cousin Tom and his wife Terry before hitting the road on Wednesday or Thursday in our Avis van to Chicagoland.
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
A rest day in Perry (our last?)
 We took the day off today. Will finished his homework and emailed it to his teacher. We walked down the street for breakfast and some shopping.
Today was a good day to sit around and catch up with some details, swim, and make plans for the last 6 days of our adventure. We may actually have trouble stretching it to 6 days, as we can easily do it in 4.
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost over. We’ve been on the road for 66 days; far longer than either of us has ever been away from the rest of our family. We have mixed emotions about finishing. We are anxious to reach the ocean, anxious to see friends and family who have been following our trip, but sad that this adventure is coming to an end. We are comfortable with the slower pace of this lifestyle. We've learned to appreciate simple things: a little shade around noontime, a sale on cold Gatorade, a curb to sit on just a little bit higher than average, a window table at a restaurant with our bike leaning against the other side of the glass. We know that our lives will always be more complicated than this.
My former co-worker, retired O’Hare Tower/Tracon controller Bill Fick, and his wife Linda drove up from their home near Ocala to take us to dinner. It was great seeing them for the first time since Bill retired late last year. Bill and Linda report that retirement is treating them well.
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
With a remedy for all diseases, we leave Panacea
 We left Panacea a little late after eating breakfast and paying for our room in the adjoining restaurant. Our route was to follow the shoreline of Apalachee Bay before heading east into the heart of Florida toward Perry, the next town with lodging.
Our route again took us through endless groves of pine trees on a great paved shoulder, giving us plenty of clearance from the hundreds of logging trucks leaving the forest.
Several people asked us today where we were headed. They all seemed impressed by our response of Jacksonville, most of them without knowledge of where we had come from. One guy read our little sign and said, “LA is lower Alabama, right?”. After a brief discussion, he said, “I drove a truck from Los Angeles to Jacksonville once. That’s too far; I’ll never do that again!”.
We struggled into Perry after 60 miles of crosswinds. We are starting to wind down now, and would prefer 40-50 mile days, but our desire for a hotel room outweighs all else.
We will take off Wednesday so Will can catch up on some homework that we just received by fax. For those unfamiliar, we have a free account with eFax; they gave us a Denver telephone number to receive faxes. eFax then forwards the faxes as attachments to emails. If we were to pay the monthly fee, they would give us a local telephone number and hold off on the “junk faxes”.
Monday, May 05, 2003
Apalachicola to Panacea, Florida
 With the extra hour granted us with yesterday's unceremonious entrance into Eastern Daylight Time, we were able to pack, eat and depart by daybreak today. We had a strong crosswind coming off the Gulf and we actually got splashed a couple times by the surf as we passed through tiny towns every 10 miles or so. The town of Carrabelle has a little gimmick going that has gotten it some pub. The Guinness Book of World Records says that Carrabelle has the "world's smallest police station", which is a telephone booth. They even had a squad car parked next to it.
We're enjoying this slower pace, and pulled into Panacea around 1 pm after 48 easy miles. We are staying in a motel with an attached restaurant that is closed on Monday. We were instructed to take a room key out of the mailbox and register/pay in the morning at breakfast.
Sunday, May 04, 2003
Rest day in Apalachicola
 We decided to spend the day here rather than ride today. No good reason, really. Our room here is quite large and comfortable and there's a nice clean pool. We'll get out at daybreak Monday and hit it hard.
Apalachicola is a nice little town near the entrance to St. George Island, which apparently is a bustling resort. We rode around town today looking at shrimping boats (we're experienced shrimpers, you may recall) and other old, dirty boats that look like business. Half of this town is full of century old Victorians that have been meticulously restored, and the other half is full of broken down shacks.
We are still "winging it" on our route, as we departed from the Adventure Cycling route in Pensacola. So far, so good.
Quote of the day: "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else." - Yogi Berra
Saturday, May 03, 2003
Apalachicola
Will's audio message
We left Panama City with the threat of scattered thunderstorms all day. We thought we could probably make it to Port St. Joe in just a few hours, so we took the chance. Even if we were only to get 25 or 30 miles in, it would be better than staying put.
We spent most of the time today on a newly paved 2-lane highway with great paved shoulders between tall, dense stands of pines. The weather improved and Port St. Joe didn’t have suitable accommodations, so we continued on to Apalachicola. We are in a nice, albeit overpriced, hotel here and had some great gumbo for dinner.
Friday, May 02, 2003
Fort Walton Beach to Panama City
 We were on the road by 6:15 this morning and put in a quick 10 miles before stopping for breakfast. We had a tailwind and cruised along at about 15 mph as we talked about making this a longer day than usual. There was heavy traffic in Panama City and with the sun beating on our backs we started looking for a motel around 1:30 after about 70 miles. Although we are following the Gulf, US 90 in this area is usually a few miles off the coast and we rarely saw it today. We crossed a few long bridges today; we stopped to fish off of one for 15 minutes, and decided to walk over the one into Panama City on an 18" wide sidewalk. It was just too dangerous to ride with no shoulder and fast moving traffic.
We had oysters and gumbo with beer (root and Bud) for dinner at a great local place that was next to our hotel.
Our shirts are courtesy of the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative. Take a look at their web site or check out a brief description on our charities page. We have consciously avoided high pressure tactics; any size donation (even a dollar!) is appreciated.  Remember, there are no fund-raising administrative costs and your donation will not go toward financing our adventure! Our other charity, St. Anne's Project Hope Ministry is also a worthwhile charity.
We are actually ahead of schedule right now and will slow down somewhat to pull into JAX on May 12th or 13th. We would stop here but we want to be ready to absorb a rain delay if needed.
Insignificant stat of the day: Number 1 hotel room assigned = 108; 2nd place = 109; 3rd place = 104.
Thursday, May 01, 2003
Hot and humid on the Gulf coast
 We slept late today, ate a big breakfast (grits again; they grow on you!), hit the road around 9:00 and cruised through Pensacola and across a long bridge over Pensacola Bay. It was very humid and we perspired heavily, cooled somewhat by a 10 knot crosswind from the south. We rode through some very rural areas before passing Eglin Air Force Base and arriving in Fort Walton Beach, where we decided to spend the night.
As expected, we are getting many of the same comments over and over. We have heard "the drivers around here are crazy!" in virtually every area of the country, and everyone seems genuinely surprised that we have not been run off the road. Almost everywhere we go, we are treated with great respect by professional, over-the-road semi-trailer drivers. Unfortunately, it seems that dump trucks are all driven by young, angry men. They routinely try to squeeze us a little.
Our hometown newspaper, the Barrington (Illinois) Courier-Review, has an article today describing our trip. Take note: Will's legs do not really cause him pain and he can coast whenever he wants (he rarely coasts, though).
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