Meet the group and get ready

Day 0     April 22    Costa Mesa, CA (Newport Beach)


This photo shows the tour mechanic, Shane O'Leary, preparing Bob Papineau's bike. Most riders have had to ship their bikes here, whereas I just threw mine in the car trunk. So, most the bikes have to be reassembled and Shane is helping.

They tried to scare us today! We checked in and had a two-hour orientation by the tour leader and support staff. Hearing the "horror stories" from past rides -- when riders got lost or injured because they did dumb things, or didn't communicate hazards when riding in a paceline, made all of us sit up and take note that we have lots to learn about what can happen out on the roads of America. Nevertheless, I'm anxious to get started tomorrow morning at 5 am, leave here at 7 am.

Annette drove me down here, and my brother Rick also came by to see me off. These photos were taken in the motel room.

My roommate, at least for the first night, is Bob Papineau from the picture above. He's a firefighter from Windsor, Canada. I think my roommates will change for the first few days, and then they'll stay the same the rest of the way across the country. If you want to "meet the riders", go see the tour leader's webpage which I've given in the previous blog entry. We have 25 riders, from England, Holland, Germany, Canada, and all over the U.S.

Been looking forward to tomorrow morning for a long time. Now I need to sleep.