Hi-

I'm 60, but unlike yourselves I allowed myself to get seriously out of shape and sedentary after turning 50. Now I'm working my way back, and much of my overwinter angst about fitness has begun to subside as I've worked on losing weight and adding miles to my legs.

There's no such thing as "cheating": if the situation warrants it and an opportunity for a lift presents itself I'll gladly accept. And, I think I may have mentioned somewhere: if somewhere along the way it stops being enjoyable and doesn't look to change (I'm prepared for a day of misery here and there but if I start waking up day after day feeling like I'm on a death march) I won't hesitate to pull the plug.

Hi-

I've got a couple WS hosts in mind, including Jeff Lee and Joy Santee, but many more nights of camping or hotels. Then again, I may make a more concerted attempt at finding WS hosts as the dates get closer.

Hi Keith,
I hear you...not sure what your age is but if any consolation/encouragement I turned 71 on last year ride across country and we are headed to do the Great Divide in a few weeks.
Remember, it's not a race...and we've taken rides on buses, trains, pickup trucks when necessary. We define ourselves as travelers, predominately by bike, but it is only one means of transportation.
Rachel

Hi Keith,
I've only quickly scanned your journal here so this may be answered somewhere....Do you plan on staying with Warmshowers Hosts? On our Northern Tier last summer, we stayed with 53 hosts.

Rachel

Congrats, on the ride and the roadside repair assistance. Gold star!

I find photography a more compelling the older I get, for some odd reason. So many urgent reasons to stop!

Oops I hit Post Reply too soon.

You can find my email address a few comments up on this page. Ping me and let's catch up on the last36 years!

Bret! Great to hear from you. Frisbee golf added a year to my time in Carbondale. Oops.

Hello Keith! Bret Robinson here. (SIU-C Geology, round one '84-'85 and round two '88-'91) We used to study some, but mostly played lots of frisbee golf. Good times!
I'm retired several years from USGS and looking forward to following Dave Henderson's ride on-line, and my wife and I plan to camp a night or two with Dave in eastern KY.
Great to learn than you are well, and I now look forward to following your ride as well.

I'll be on a blue Bike Friday New World Tourist. Four panniers, handlebar bag, tent strapped to rear rack, tired-looking rider with white beard/mustache. Probably sandals strapped across the top of the front rack.

You can find pictures of the bike, not so many of the rider, in some of the entries in this journal.

Masters. My thesis advisor was Larry Malinconico; I did a gravity and magnetics survey in Pakistan, and used software developed by several other geoscience grad student colleagues to process the data and do the modeling.

I started in '83 and should have finished in '85 but diddled around and managed to add an extra year. I think your wife came in with the next year's cadre, who I mostly didn't get to know as well as I might have liked. And now, nearly 40 (!!) years later, the memories are pretty faded.

For a while, I was the caretaker of the seismographs down in the basement of Parkinson Lab. (In fact that's where my final office was, after I moved out of the one right next to the front door of the building.) Every day I'd change the paper on the instruments and periodically update the ones in the display case near the building entrance, along with putting pins in the world display map to show where they had occurred.

The massive 8.0+ quake that devastated Mexico City happened on my watch.

We can take the rest of this off-line. Ping me at ibike2havefun at gmail dot com if you want.

Did you get your bachelors or masters in Geology in 86? My wife got her masters in geology in 86

Forgot to add "Class of 86, in geology"

Your wife and I must have known one another, because I also am Class of '86.

Keith - thanks for the comment on my journal, I will watch out for you as I head east. I have a bright red Trek 520 with red Ortlieb bags. My wife and I both graduated from SIU in 1986, her with a masters in geology, me with an MBA. Perhaps we were on campus at the same time