I always get a little distracted this time of the spring. It seems that no matter what I'm doing, a part of my brain is spinning around to remember what I was doing at this time in 1984.
That's the year my friend Bruce and I took leaves of absence from our jobs and began a cross-country bicycle trek on May 13.
We'd met at a newspaper job and became friends. Neither of us were particularly athletic, but we did enjoy bicycling. A week-long loop in Virginia one year was followed by a bicycle tour along Lake Champlain and up to Montreal the next.
I seem to remember the idea of a TransAmerica ride hit us at a party while a bottle of Yukon Jack lubricated our bearings, but it took a couple of years for us to bring it to fruition.
We both kept journals. Last year I published my scribblings in this blog; this year I'm adding Bruce's as well. Over the next 10 weeks, I'll post that day's journal entry on the main page, then move it inside a few days later to the TransAmerica Tour 1984 blog folder.
I've checked out journals online, like those in Crazy Guy on a Bike, and a lot has remained the same in the intervening 26 years. For instance, everyone still talks about the Cookie Lady, the trains passing through the city park in Sebree, Ky., and the good pies in Kansas.
A lot has changed, though. The biker's hostel in Elk Garden, Va., used to be a log cabin, but is now a brick building. Lazy Louie's bike camp in Missouri is long gone, but there are other folks along the route who regularly entertain bicyclists.
Please feel free to comment, especially if you've pedaled the route since 1984. I'd be interested in your impressions.
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