Day 50, A Team Stop A Lot Dream

Last night at the banquet Mike said we would load at 6:15 but that we would start our ride a little differently than in the past. He announced that on the final day we would have a friendly competition, a race, and anyone who wanted to could participate. Immediately a cheer went up from the riders. Every single rider who had started in Astoria wanted to compete, but none of the riders who had joined along the way chose to participate. They realized what terrific condition we were all in and did not feel they could compete with us.

Mike said we would have a staggered start with Teri, Becky, Nancy and Peggy starting first, followed by John, Susan, Aine, Mike H, Karen, Matt, Bill, Steve M, Marianne, Carol, Margot, Sonja, Greg, Bill M and Bill Z. The last wave to start would be the staff, including Mike, Gerard, Karen, Vern, and Bob and Lee. (Barb volunteered to manage the SAG.) Along with them came all those riders who had proven from time to time they had a desire to “hammer”: Charles, aka “The Chuck Wagon”, Jeff, Mike B, Jennifer, Darrell, Cheryl, Mike L, Tim and Cathy, Keith and DeNyce, Tony, Steve W, and Team Stop A Lot, which included Steve J, Mary, Danny and me.

The energy level in the room went up like a skyrocket at Mike’s announcement. Becky even cracked a little smile at the thought of having a staggered start and Peggy, who had recently been riding a good bike, was on her feet cheering and swinging her US Postal jersey over her head . You can imagine what was happening at the Team Stop A Lot’s table: Mary jumped to her feet and yelled out, “Boys, it’s time to step off the porch and ride tomorrow!” Danny motioned like he was on his aero bars. Steve even started talking about taking some of his rain gear off his bike to lighten his load so he could go faster. I watched all this unfold and wished I had changed my chain after 2,000 miles instead of letting it go until the end. Needless to say, every rider was pumped. The noise level was so high it was hard to think.

Just then Teri jumped off her chair yelling, “Bonsai!” Immediately various riders began to group together and talk strategy for tomorrow’s event, who would team up with who, what riders would pull first, and where on the route would be the best place to attack. Team Minnesota got with Mike L., and Mike B., Jennifer, Steve W, and Jeff all met together in the corner of the room while the staff huddled around their banquet table. The only rule Mike laid down was that all traffic rules had to be followed and that the finish line would be at Rye Jr. High. Also, all riders were responsible for their own maintenance tomorrow due to the involvement of the staff. Mary yelled to Mike and asked him if he had enough energy left to compete. I quieted Mary down; (let a sleeping dog lie).

After this announcement at the end of the banquet Team Stop A Lot went over to Applebee’s to carbo load and plan our strategy for the big ride tomorrow. We were so excited that I knew we would not sleep well. We reviewed the route sheet and planned where we would attack. Danny called a sports psychologist friend of his and we talked with him. Mary was so excited that she fell out of the booth onto the floor. We were not surprised by this due to her past behavior on the bike. We declared ourselves ready and retired to our motel rooms for a restless night’s sleep.

After breakfast we all gathered in the parking lot. The first wave of riders started with a roar from the crowd of remaining riders. Other people started to gather in the motel parking lot due to the commotion, and by now there were at least 100 other people watching all the last minute preparations by the remaining riders: tires were being pumped to maximum psi, chains were being oiled, and Mike put a racing saddle on his bike and took a teardrop shaped helmet out of the red van. It was now time to start the largest group of riders. There was a huge cheer from the gathering crowd and they were off. Little by little a single line formed as they rounded a corner and were out of sight.

The only riders now left in the parking lot were the proven hammer heads. A lot of friendly taunting was going on and spirits were high. Danny had pulled out his guitar and Gerard his sax and they played “Eye of the Tiger” from the movie Rocky to get us all in the mood for the competition. The mood was festive and there was a lot of teasing going on. Mary asked Mike if he needed any help putting his saddle on his bike. Mike just rolled his eyes and smiled back at Mary as if to say, Girl, you’d better stay in your sandbox and play with your dolls!

One hour had passed and it was time for us to start. Mike yelled, “Go!” and we all took off. You might have expected to see a peleton form like on the Tour de France, but since we had to obey all traffic rules we were quickly in a single file line on the edge of the road due to the morning rush hour traffic. We were surprised but not so surprised when we made our second turn, and there on the side of the road were John and Nancy changing flat tires. Gerard smiled because he did not have to stop today and help change it. There was much laughter and joking as we moved down the highway at a good clip.

After about 30 minutes of riding we began to overtake other riders. We mooed like a cow when we passed Becky and Steve M, and yelled “Bonsai!” when we passed Teri. There was still no sign of Peggy. During this time there were various surges by groups of riders, but at mile 22.5 Team Minnesota, Daryl, Mike B and Mike L surged to the front and put some distance between themselves and the rest of the group. We were all surprised by this but in the end it worked to our advantage because they went left on Fremont Road when they should have gone right. We never saw them again on the right route until after we had finished. We rounded a sharp turn right before our turn onto N. Danville Road, and there on the side of the road were 9 riders. Mike Haas, who always rides with a USA flag on the back of his bike, had the flag catch on an overhanging bush while pulling a large pace line, which caused his rear wheel to be dragged to the right. This caused confusion in the pace line and all nine members of the pace line ran into a deep ditch which was filled with water. As we came on the scene Mike, Bill, Susan, Sonja and Margo had fallen down and were soaked, while Matt and Aine splashed water on the others and tried to get us wet as we sped by. In addition, Marianne and Carol had slid into each other and their rear derailers had gotten tangled up. They were standing in knee deep water and were hastily working to separate their bikes. Greg had stopped to help.

As we rolled into the SAG at mile 28 the hammer heads had passed all the earlier riders but Peggy. Just as we approached the SAG, Karen got a cramp in her leg. She jumped off her bike and grabbed her leg. Barbara took her bike and said to Karen, “You manage the SAG, I’ll ride!” Barb was in her khaki shorts, a polo shirt, and tennis shoes and took off in a flash yelling, “Don’t forget to sign in!” This was short-lived however, because she got a shoelace caught between the chain and the middle chain ring and had to stop. When we passed her, she had one shoe off and was trying to figure out how to get on the road again.

As you can imagine, no one spent time at the SAG. They signed in and left immediately. Mary jumped off her bike and signed in for the four of us as we continued to ride slowly. Steve held her bike as he coasted forward. After Mary completed the sign in, she ran after Steve, jumped over her rear wheel, and landed squarely on the saddle. She clipped into her pedals and off we went, drafting behind the staff team, the thoroughbreds which included Jennifer, Jeff and Steve W, and Cathy and Tim, all led by the Chuck Wagon on his recliner (recumbent).

Chuck was weaving left and right so as not to let the staff team pass him. As we approached the left turn onto Scotland Road, Chuck placed his feet on the ground Fred Flintstone style and just at that same moment, Vern was coming alongside and ran over Charlie’s foot, bounced up into the air and landed on top of Tim and both drifted off into the weeds on the right hand side of the road. But that was not all. When Vern bounced up into the air, he grabbed Charlie’s windshield to steady himself and tore the wind shield and the steering mechanism right off the Chuck Wagon. Chuck immediately stood up and yelled a number of things which drew our attention to that direction. Vern said, “Aw shucks!” and Tim was trying to reassure Chuck that everything would be all right and that this was only a friendly competition.

As we glanced in their direction we saw Team Minnesota on a side street heading the wrong way. The rest of us quickly made avoidance maneuvers and accelerated through the intersection across route 125 and through the green light. All but Gerard; he caught the red light and had to wait. This was our good fortune because Gerard is such a good rider. I yelled to Danny and asked him how Gerard managed to miss the green light. Danny said Gerard had been singing “Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie, I drove the Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry.” Wrapped up in his own musical thoughts, he missed the light. Cycling musicians are a different lot.

As we turned on to Willow Road Jennifer accelerated up a rolling hill, with Steve W in her draft and Jeff right behind. Cathy was accelerating up the line to the left when Jeff’s valve stem gave way, pssss, pssss, pssss, pssss each time the wheel went around. Meanwhile Tony, who had never pulled and remained at the rear, yelled to Jeff, “Just pump it up! It works for me.” Tony had gotten distracted by Jeff’s ill fortune and did not prepare for the impending railroad tracks. He hit the tracks at a bad angle and nearly went down. The sad part was that six of the colorful strobe lights fell off Tony’s camelback and onto the tracks. Tony just loves his lights and made a decision to give up the race and retrieve his lost equipment. When Tony was questioned about this decision later he would say life is a matter of priorities and I love my lights!

Now let me pause here and recap the lead group. Jennifer is pulling up a rolling hill followed by Steve W, Mike Munk, and Bob and Lee. Cathy has pulled up alongside, followed by Team Stop A Lot. So there are two lines of riders racing up the hill heading for the T at the intersection of Route 108 N and Court St. We all came to an abrupt stop. Clear left! Clear right! We all made the left hand turn and remained in two lines. The road at this point offered no shoulder except loose gravel, so when the dead porcupine appeared on the edge of the road right in front of Jennifer and the riders in her line, she had no place to go but right over the bloated road kill. She tried to bunny hop it but this slowed her down, and in order for Steve to keep from rear ending her he had to move to his right into the loose gravel. He did not fall but had to come to a rolling stop and was well back when he managed to get on the road again. As for Jennifer, she managed to get over the porcupine without injury or damage to her bike. However, Bob and Lee were not as lucky as Jennifer and not as quick as Mike to avoid the pesky dead critter and hit it square on which resulted in both off them with quills sticking out of their tires and air escaping at a rapid rate. As I looked in my rear view mirror, Bob and Lee could both be seen on the side of the road plucking quills from their tires. If you have all read my past journals, it is amazing that we have all made it this far without this kind of accident. Team Stop A Lot has been meticulous in developing hand signals for each approaching road kill. We are committed to safe cycling and carefully treating each road kill as an individual species.

Now back to the action. Cathy is pulling Team Stop A Lot on the left and Jennifer and Mike Munk remain on the right. We don’t know where Peggy is. No one has seen her since she left. Could she possibly still be out in front of us? We did not have to wait long to find out, because just as we made the right onto Rt. 27 E there is a deli/bakery on the corner. Sitting under a green umbrella was Peggy, sipping a latte’ and having a cinnamon roll. We all waved and yelled, “Nice riding Peggy!” and screamed on by. Oh, I had a hard time passing up a good cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll! Mary yelled at me to get over it, that it wasn’t like missing a Dunkin Donuts coffee and roll.

We were less than 9 miles from the Jr. High so we had to make a move soon. Cathy is an outstanding rider and fearless on downhills. She is hard to draft behind because she gets so low on the top tube resulting in little wind resistance. Mike was resting behind Jennifer, letting her do all the work and saving himself for the finish. As we climbed up a steep hill heading toward the left onto West Road, Jennifer began to tire and fell back, sucking wind. We stopped and made the left onto West Road and started a steep descent followed by a right onto Washington. Cathy got to going so fast that she could not complete the right turn and careened off the road through a beautiful lawn and came to rest in a bed of petunias just to the left of the front door of a white colonial home. We were relieved that she was OK. I guess if you had to go off route, nothing would be better than to land in a bed of petunias.

We are now 1.6 miles from the finish line. It is head to head competition, Mike Munk and Team Stop A Lot. Steve had been pulling followed by Danny, Mary and me. It was time, time for us to implement our strategy. Steve rotated to the back behind me and Danny dropped onto his aero bars and accelerated to 30 mph. That’s when the unexpected happened! For some unknown reason, Steve drifted to the right off the pavement and onto the shoulder. He lost control of his bike in the loose gravel and slid onto the grass and under an electric fence into a cow pasture. We felt so bad for Steve. You know what is on the ground in a cow pasture and yes, Steve had slid a long ways. Oh Yuk!

There was not much time to dwell on this loss. We were coming to the intersection where we bear left on Washington, and down the street you can see the Rye Jr. High. Danny had been letting Mike pull him along by grabbing the back of his teardrop helmet. Mike became aware of this when he stood up to sprint toward the finish line. Click, Click, Danny changed gears and accelerated again, flashing a grin at Mike that ran from ear to ear that says, “I’m going to get you!” Mary yells out to Mike, “Is that all you’ve got?” I am anxiously waiting to make my own move. I grip the break hoods and start to stand to accelerate. My heart is pounding, my hands are sweating, and suddenly……Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep! What was that?

I sat straight up in my bed! It was 5:15 AM and time for me to get up and face Day 50. This was the last day of Riding Across America North.

Oh well, even if it was only a Stop A Lot dream, I’ll always wonder how it turned out. I have learned one thing from riding across America, dreams can come true.

[The events above have been created by imagination in order to protect what really happened. The names of the characters have not been changed.

Day 50 was filled with mixed emotions. Team Stop A Lot rode in a casual manner to the first SAG. Mary’s brother, John, had joined us. It finally happened; I dropped my camera while shooting pictures of a beautiful lake. Most of my pictures have been taken while I was riding. Mary and John picked up the camera and the battery cover and if you can believe this, it still worked. After the SAG stop we continued on and at mile 37.5 there was a wonderful bakery and coffee shop where nearly all the riders stopped and visited and reminisced.

My bike had been making a funny noise so I asked Gerard to look at it. He did and made some minor adjustments to my rear wheel. After the coffee shop stop, little by little smaller groups of riders linked up together. This led to a hammer fest on the part of a few of us all the way into Rye Jr. High. It was a great way to enjoy each other’s company. As we waited at the Jr. High for the police escort and a few remaining riders to arrive, Danny broke out his guitar and Gerard his sax and entertained us. There is some real talent in this group of riders.

The last rider, Teri, arrived to the cheers of the crowd and the group picture was taken. As the parade to the ocean started, I rode in the back so I could more safely take pictures. All of us were in our own thoughts as we approached the Atlantic Ocean. As we made that last right hand turn we could feel the cooler temperatures and smell the sea and we all knew it was going to be over soon.

As we turned for the beach we were greeted by family members and friends. We celebrated and took the ceremonial wheel dip pictures. What a great time! Afterwards I caught Gerard and told him my bike was still making funny noises. As he turned to look at my bike, I saw a nut on a thread duck taped to my seat post. It had to be Danny. I removed it from my bike and slipped over to Danny’s and taped it on his bike.

After the beach festivities, Team Stop A Lot rode through Portsmouth, NH and across the bridge to Maine for a photo. Then it was back to our motel and the boxing of bikes for shipping. What a great day! Many riders left with family from the beach, but about 20 of us had dinner together in Portsmouth that evening and left town early the next morning. I was now homeward bound via Boston and spending time with Barb. It was hard to say good by to my new friends, particularly, Steve, Danny and Mary. These are friendships that likely will last a lifetime.

PS: It was Gerard that taped the nut on my bike.

Click here to see more pictures from today!