Time to Ride Again

It's been over three years since my seven-week, 3,400-mile bike ride from Los Angeles to Boston in 2008.  It was a great trip with spectacular and diverse scenery, with good companions striving for a common goal, with a few adventures, and with generous donors raising over $30,000 for the good works of Catholic Charities.  Since then, I've pedaled over 20,000 more miles, attended a hill-climbing school in North Carolina, and done some three and four-day tours.  But I have not recaptured the simple magic of eat-sleep-bike for weeks at a time.  It's time to ride again.

On September 21, I will meet two dozen other bicyclists from twelve US states and three other countries for a 3-1/2-week, 1,600-mile bike ride from Portland, Maine to Daytona Beach, Florida, arriving on October 15.  Four of those riders are familiar companions from the 2008 trip, and the others are also veterans of cross-country rides in other years.  Just as in 2008, the trip will be supported by Tracy Leiner and her staff at CrossRoads Cycling Adventures.  It's time to ride again.

Over the past weekend, Tropical Storm Irene dropped over four inches of rain and a 22-foot long tree limb in my driveway.  Over 12 inches of rain fell over much of the Catskill Mountain watersheds that drain into the Mohawk River valley where I often bike.  It was way too wet and windy to bike, and many of the valley roads were under water.  But now the sun is out.  It's time to ride again.

Although the storm left upstate New York on Sunday night, the creeks and rivers rose for another day to levels not seen in hundreds of years.  There have been deaths, destruction and power outages that continue.  I am sure there will be a surge of folks who need the emergency assistance that Catholic Charities has provided to eastern New York families regardless of faith for nearly 100 years.  And Catholic Charities needs generous donors again to help it provide that assistance.  It's time to ride again.

I invite you to read this blog as I prepare for and complete my 2011 Maine to Florida east coast ride.  Feel free to comment if you are so moved.  And please consider a donation to Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.  It's time to ride again.