PAC Tour - Across the continent in 26 days

I'm in San Diego, waiting to begin my second bucket list item of the year.  (The first was riding the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park).  We're riding 2,800 miles in 26 days.  You can see the complete ride description here: http://www.pactour.com/, then click on Southern Transcontinental in the 2011 menu on the left.  So with 20 other brave souls and ten crew members we're about to begin riding across the country.

Last Saturday I dropped my bike off with the tour directors in Wisconsin so they could carry it to San Diego in their van, saving me the boxing up, freighting and rebuilding, and the cost.  Nice, huh?  So needless to say, this ride is being undertaken with some anxiety.  Will I be able to do it?  Am I crazy for attempting this?  And some alternating confidence: I rode RainStorm in July, 6 days, 660 miles with plenty of Southern Indiana hills and Bicycle Tour of Colorado in June, riding Trail Ridge Road, Milner Pass, Rabbit Ears Pass, Vail Pass and Loveland Pass and a couple of other mountain passes.  So yes, I've ridden the distances and the altitudes.  I can do this.  Still there is gnawing anxiety.  Our first three days pass thru El Centro, California, and Blythe, California and finish in Wickenberg, Arizona.  348 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing.  A challenge for sure.  Oh, and we're riding through the desert.  Temps over 100 degrees. 

I've meet some of my fellow riders.  A hardy bunch I'd say.  Obviously each has their own cycling history and reasons for doing this ride.  Mine?  It's on the bucket list.  Its a great challenge.  I love to travel.  I've never ridden in this part of the country.  (I did ride from Houston to New Orleans in May for the Red Cross:  http://american.redcross.org/site/TR?fr_id=1402&pg=entry .  Thanks again to all who supported that ride.)  All parts of the reason to ride.  But there is still an unidentifiable, intangible element that defies identification and description.  I'll recognize it when I experience it and I'll try to relate the experience in this blog.  Its about the experience. 

Today we will ride to the coast.  We're seven miles inland at the hotel.  We'll have the ceremonious dipping of the rear wheel in the Pacific and photo ops and a chance to meet and ride with our fellow travelers.  The anticipation I feel is palpable.  That has been the story of my week, waves of anxiety, anticipation and excitement.  Soon.  The ride begins.

Dear reader, please feel free to comment on the blog.  I'll do my best to post daily, albeit some days briefly, I'm sure.