I did the trip with a couple from work, let's call them Don and Amanda.
I've known them both for several years and have gone on a few climbing
trips with Don. We had been planning the trip for almost a year. There
were a few other people who were interested in going, but, as happens
with any outdoor trip, people dropped out as the trip got closer. 

I enjoy putting trips together almost as much as I like actually doing
the trip itself.We passed many people with completely overloaded bikes.
I put a high priority on carrying the absolute minimum. It makes the
riding more fun. I just try to be prepared to fix anything that might go
wrong. On this kind of a trip you can't afford to lose a day or days
with broken gear. For that reason, we try to get the highest quality
gear possible. Since Don and Amanda had never done this kind of trip
before, they had to buy everything. I guess they spent about $3000 on
gear. Most of that was at a discount, too. It's expensive.

Going light allowed us to average about 75 miles a day. We covered the
3268 miles in seven weeks plus one day. Most people allow 3 months!

We took a day off once a week to rest and to maintain the bikes. Mainly
we kept the drivetrains clean so they would work well for the longest
period of time. We took a 2 day break after about 2000 miles to replace
the drivetrain and tires and to try to let our bodies recover a little.
By the last week we decided to skip the off day in an effort to get
there. My good knee developed tendonitis and I was in pretty severe pain
for the last week or so. My dentist was nice enough to phone in some
pain killers, but, it was quite the exercise in masochism. 

Riding across the desert was something I was looking forward to. The
road was usually perfectly straight, stretching from horizon to horizon.
There were a couple stretches where there were no services of any kind
for a hundred miles or more. We passed the Very Large Array radio
telescope in New Mexico. Lots of satellite dishes on railroad tracks out
in the middle of nowhere.

The big concern at this point was that we had enough water. It got to be
90 degrees on some days and I can't imagine doing that part of the trip
any later in the year. Don, being big, strong and young, got to carry
our extra water which weighed a number of pounds.

We frequently camped at R.V. parks for $10 or so. There were a few days
where we had to camp off the road. We tried to find a spot that wasn't
visible from the road, but, I was still glad to have a gun with me. One
night while I was taking a shower, Don and Amanda and some other bikers
got chased around the campground by a drunken Indian in a van. He didn't
like bikers for some reason. Usually I didn't put the clip in the gun,
but this was one night that I had it right by my head as I slept. 

As we got into Arizona we had many climbs that would last up to an hour.
You need to have a lot of patience, knowing you have to travel 3000
miles and you are presently traveling 4 miles per hour! We spent about a
week over 7000 feet. Since we had basically summer camping gear, we
spent a number of nights in hotels since it got below 20 degrees. We
passed about 500 dry creek beds. Every indication was that when it rains
in the desert, all hell breaks loose. I guess they have had a drought
for quite a while, so, we didn't pass any standing water for weeks.

There is a point where you coast down the last hill onto the plains. I
guess we were hoping that the winds would help blow us across Texas and
Kansas, but, we found out that the prevailing winds on the plains are
from the south or southwest. We had a few days when we rode directly
into the wind. One day, in Kansas, it took us 3 hours to ride 20 miles.
I called a stop to it, since there are some days when it's better to
conserve your energy while hoping for better conditions the next day.

I got to see a tornado in Oklahoma. I was talking to a couple rednecks
at the hotel we were staying at. This huge thunderhead rolled in...I've
never seen anything like it. I watched this funnel shaped cloud over one
of the redneck' s shoulder, not thinking much of it. We found out later
that a tornado hit the town that was 2 miles away. The funnel cloud was
the tornado.

Crossing the plains turned out to be almost as difficult as crossing the
Rockies. The wind was never at our backs. Usually it was from the side,
which always wanted to blow you into traffic. It was hard to control the
bike and really sapped your strength. 

In Missouri, we finally saw a tree after several weeks. Then another,
then a small stand. We saw a little standing water, then, finally things
got forested. The Ozarks were quite difficult to bike. There were
countless short but steep climbs. I couldn't believe how many abandoned
houses and businesses we passed through the middle of the country. We
were chased by about 2000 dogs along the way, though Missouri was the
worst. You could usually outrun them and most of them stopped when you
got past their territory. A few, though got sprayed with pepper spray.
One actually gnawed on Don's rear tire and another got a tooth caught on
Amanda's bag. I ran out of pepper spray and switched to diluted ammonia
in a squirt bottle.

I sprayed one dog in Kentucky and a few minutes later I see this pickup
truck pass me and pull over to the side of the road. This 400 pound
redneck gets out and stands by the side of the road waiting for me. "Wha
jew spray on nat dowg?" We proceeded to have a friendly conversation
about dogs. He assured me that the dog has never bitten anybody. (!) 

By the time we reached Virginia the strain of the trip had broken down
our little group. Amanda prides herself on being strong and independent.
At least that's how she always came off in Seattle. It turned out that
the demands of the trip exposed the fact that she was very insecure and
dependent.I got pretty sick of her by the end. She's had a lot of
tragedy in her life that she's never dealt with, so, I wound up having
to deal with it for two months. I also discovered that three isn't a
very good number of people to have on a long trip. If I ever do another
2 month trip, it will be with pairs of people. Nevertheless, it was an
interesting study, to strip away all the stuff that people usually hide
behind, and see what people are really made of. The person I've known
for 5 years and the person Amanda was on the trip were so drastically
different, it was pretty scary. Ideally it would be good to see how
people respond in stressful situations before accompanying them on a
long trip. Unfortunately, I didn't have that luxury in this case. Most
of the time I felt like Capt. Stubing of the Loveboat. It was convenient
for me to put the trip together for Don and Amanda and be there if
anything went wrong...It was obviously a drag for her, though, that I
had to actually "be" there most of the time.

REI put a huge display in the front window of the store charting the
progress of our trip. So there was a bit of external pressure to finish
the trip together. I had thought of leaving several times, I was that
sick of Amanda, but, somehow we managed to finish the trip. When we
finally arrived at the Atlantic ocean, Don and Amanda didn't quite know
what to do. At the moment of arrival, I was mentally puting a check mark
by this adventure... "Done". Also, a primary thought was, "Can I go home
now?" Pretty sad. With all the climbing I've done, I've learned that
standing on the summit or reaching the Atlantic is only a small part of
it. It's the quality of getting there that's important. Amanda's
whining, carrying on like a four year old, and unrestrained selfishness
were a disgrace and largely ruined the trip for me. 

On the brighter side, all the planning produced a trip with virtually no
mechanical problems. The bikes and all the gear worked great so we were
able to concentrate on doing our daily mileage and not doing repairs.  

Anyway, that was the trip. You run on nervous energy and I'm now paying
for it. It'll probably take a week or two to recover. Mainly I'm very
tired and need to catch up on my sleep.