The Itinerary
The Journey of Discovery by Moving Truck
"I have a map of the United States, its actual size. When people ask me where I live I say 'E5'"- Stephen Wright
On The Road- in a Penske Moving Truck
The Grumbys' itinerary is a bit confusing, and people have had lot of questions. In fact, one of the most common questions I hear is, “Ron, what makes you so gosh darn charming, and how can I get me some”?
Haha! I'm only kidding. No one ever asks me that, probably on account of they are jealous. But this brief and hilarious (?) entry is designed to outline some details of our impending life as nomadic bicyclers. Ists. ?
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We became Early Retiree Bicycle Nomads officially at 5pm on Friday, May 4. (May the Fourth Be With You), but to be honest, I wasn't working very hard most of that day. Anyway, here we are, retired and liking it so far. In hindsight I would have pulled the plug a month earlier to enjoy sleeping late and easing in to this new reality. As it is, we are trying to cram in last minute training rides and packing frantically to be ready for our May 15 departure. But it beats working!
The Logistics
If we ever get our stuff packed, the plan is to load the moving truck on May 15 and drive to Denver we expect to arrive on May 18, just in time for a wedding on the 19th. Then we head to Missouri, where my sister and her husband will store our belongings. On May 24, we will officially begin our lives as ERBNs. Dammit! I said I wouldn't do that again! I'm sorry. Well, I hope you will still follow our travels, but please expect a lot of nonsense from me.
We will meander along the Lewis and Clark Trail, stopping in Omaha, Great Falls, Missoula, Stevensville and other places to visit with (and mooch lodging from) friends and family.
Returning to Portlandia
Since neither of us has ridden a bicycle thousands of miles, its difficult to predict how long it will take to get to Portland. Jen tends to be more pragmatic and logical, but can skew somewhat skeptical. She predicts our arrival taking between 3 months and "never". I, on the other hand, figure "what's the worst that can happen?" and figure it will take 15 minutes, give or take, which would be quite an accomplishment given my historical 11.2 mph average speed. On the advice of other experienced bike travelers we will be open to alternate routes and roads, but eventually we will complete the trip on the Oregon coast and spend 2-3 weeks in Portland. From there we will head to Palm Springs on track in September for another wedding. Then the plan is to follow the ACA Southern Tier route to the east coast. But that's a tale for another journal.
Ok, now back to packing. It's every bit as fun and glamorous as you remember.
Next: Training rides and final preparations for an indefinite bike ride.
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Before noticing that, my main reason for this comment was that I, too, made a bike tour my first priority after an early retirement.
1 year ago
That's interesting that you prioritized touring. In retrospect, we are certainly both glad to be retired and to have done the tour, but I'd probably wait a couple of months before starting if I had it to do over again. Just to let the idea of retirement sink in.
1 year ago