…taped myself inside the box.
It’s already, per Fedex, in Halifax.
BikeFlights [linkie] is absolutely the best!
Month: August 2016
Some maps with more detail
So, Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Key West, Florida. About 3,600 miles/5,750 kilometers, but that’s because the route I’ve planned hugs the coastline to the greatest extent possible. It’s actually a couple of hundred miles shorter because of a couple of ferry rides.
Here’s the RidewithGPS link: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/15693357
The POIs on the RwGPS map are notional overnights. They are 50 miles/80 kilometers apart north and east of New York City and 60 miles/95 kilometers apart south of there. The reason for that dichotomy is because south of NYC the coast is basically flat as a parking lot. I’ve stuck with my “ride six days a week” plan from before, although that has never been set in stone. If I depart Halifax this coming Saturday, the 13th, and all goes well I should make it to Key West by or before the 30th of October.
Here’s some larger scale RwGPS maps that will give you a quick idea of the route.
Halifax, NS to Acadia NP, ME
Acadia NP, ME to Boston, MA
Boston, MA to New York City, NY
New York City, NY to Ocean City, MD
Ocean City, MD to Nags Head, NC
Nags Head, NC to Myrtle Beach, SC
Myrtle Beach, SC to Brunswick, GA
Brunswick, GA to Cape Canaveral, FL
Cape Canaveral, FL to Miami, FL
Miami, FL to Key West, FL
I’ll post some specific thoughts and observations about each of these segments over the next few days.
Whee Boy Howdy!
If the Delta departure counter area at Tampa International Airport is any indication…
I was at the end of this line over an hour ago
…you might want to delay your travel plans or choose another carrier. My experience once at the counter to rebook and check my panniers was that Delta’s computer system is still not all the way back up. Many Delta flights out of this airport this morning were showing as cancelled. I have now been rescheduled for the fourth time and leave here late this afternoon. Not complaining, mind you. Lots of people were inconvenienced far worse than I was.
We Interrupt this Scheduled Flight…
My flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia on, you guessed it, Delta, was rudely interrupted today by the massive failure of the air carrier’s computer system.
Oopsie.
So I’ve been rescheduled to depart at 7:00 tomorrow morning. And this was in my email inbox this evening.
Well played, Delta Airlines. Well played.
Weigh-in #6
This confirms two things for me.
First, there is now no question in my mind that my weight, after ten years in the 360s, is solidly in the 340s.
Second, cutting calories alone won’t result in weight loss for me. There has to be an exercise component.
Nova Scotia
Here I come.
Now that’s the way I like it. Flight boards around quarter of four.
And the answer is…
…Halifax!
Tomorrow I’ll fly to Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving just after midnight. I’ll hang around in the airport until about five in the morning when the buses start to run. At that time I’ll catch one and travel on to my lodgings for the next few days- an unoccupied (for the summer) dorm room at Mt. St. Vincent University. For $22 a night it was a great deal. I will then spend my time sightseeing in Halifax until my bicycle arrives on Friday.
Well, it is Fedex Ground
I’ll assemble the bike Friday evening and the next morning I’ll start riding as far south as I can go by the third week or so of October.
Key West, here I come. A RidewithGPS map link will follow shortly.
My SAG Team
While this is a solo bike trip, in that I’ll be riding alone and do not have a support vehicle traveling with me, I do have a SAG (support and gear) crew helping me along the road from home in Alaska about 5,000 miles/8,000 km away.
My wife Heather and her mom Frankie are there for me every day over the phone and by text and email with words of encouragement, advice and news from Alaska. They are taking care of the things at home that I can’t while I’m gone and are there when I need things mailed to me, like refills of meds, along the way. Frankie came all the way up from her home in Tennessee to stay with Heather and do this with her.
Heather and Frankie make the best support crew I could ask for and I know I owe each a great deal for their willingness to be a big part of my b2b trip.
How do I…
…find a place on my bike to put my Quad-Lock [linkie] iPhone mount when there is no regular tubular surface on the handlebars or stem?
I plan to use my iPhone 6 Plus as a cycling computer during my ride. To this and I have bought one of those nifty Quad-Lock cases which allows the phone to be securely mounted to a corresponding Quad-Lock handlebar mount. You just simply position the phone over the mount 45° from the up-and-down or sideways position, press, and twist it into place. There is a locking system on the mount that makes it virtually impossible for the phone to come off during a ride. It is the best handlebar mounting system for a smart phone that I have seen, and I think I looked at most of them.
So after thinking about it for a while I went out and bought a piece of 1 inch PVC pipe, which I trimmed to about 6 inches long. I attached the Quad-Lock mount to it with two zip ties. Then I drilled two sets of holes on the other side of the pipe from the mount the corresponded to the spacing of the supports for my Ortlieb handlebar bag. I inserted two more zip ties into the holes, leaving me with this.
Attaching those zip ties to the handlebar bag supports fixed my new Quad-Lock mount bar quite securely.
So now I have an iPhone dashboard for my bike!
Garden gnomes gone wrong
I think I know how he feels.
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