Hello! I’m Sandy Earle and I’m finally starting a journey I’ve wanted to do for nearly 30 years. I have an annoying habit of forgetting my age and following impulses to do things that I haven’t done in many decades and should think otherwise. For instance, when I  was  about 65, I decided to show my grandkids how I hang by my knees, and to my GREAT surprise I fell on my head! I think it was something about the change in leg strength to weight ratio that I didn’t take into calculation after the passage of nearly 50 years. 

When my oldest daughter was in college, my husband Peter and I were visiting her when 4 boys from her high school stopped in on their way home after a year long trek by bicycle around the US. I was fascinated by their stories. They told me about Adventure Cycling and I’ve been dreaming about a cross country trip ever since. Tragically, one of the boys, Brian, was killed the next year while riding his bike at college. 

I’ve always liked to go places by bike. My younger daughter also loved biking long distances. When she was six, I had to buy her padded Lycra shorts because her tush hurt but she still wanted to keep biking. (Even with the Lycra, they were still baggy on her skinny body.)  My husband and I did several 2 day charity rides and when she was 8, she convinced him to let her join us which she did for the next 5 years.  Luckily, that first year they had a metric century option. We did several week long bike trips in Wisconsin, Maine and around the northern half of Lake Michigan but I could never get enough time off work to do the big one. 

I retired from healthcare in late 2018 and thought it was finally time.  However, the next year my husband had back surgery, 2020 Covid came, 2021 I foolishly broke my ankle (still 8 years old in my brain),  and in 2022,  much to my surprise, I had a cardiac stent placed. (You’d think that would convince my brain of my true status of being a septuagenarian.). So it was this year or probably never. 6 weeks before I was planning to start, I was attacked by 2 dogs while riding. My husband secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that would be the end of it.  The injury set my training back about 3-4 weeks so I’m not exactly in the shape I intended to start. My dear friend who wanted to join me has family and health issues that preclude her from doing so.  On discovering this, Peter insisted on sagging and, in light of the the dog bites, I grudgingly agreed. He’d just be stalking me anyway.  

I plan to follow the TransAm Eastern Express route so I can visit my parents in Arlington Cemetery and visit with any siblings that are in the DC  area.  Peter will follow me with a travel trailer and our Velcro dog Henry. I’ll be starting slowly and adding weight to my bike as I go. I still have to discern how my gps works. (Yes, I’m a Luddite.)  And I’m still figuring out how this website/journal posting works.

Onward!