Over the last few years as we've talked about this trip, I have looked for blogs or articles that talk about the difficulties of this type of trip vs just a log of daily mileage and encounters.  I wanted to know what women were feeling when they did this.  Not the super athlete types, but your everyday type of person like me that enjoys riding maybe 20 mi a few times a week with a longer weekend ride with a pace more around 13mph vs a higher pace.  I really didn't see that type of information out there, so I struggled to know if this was the right thing for me to do.

I thought it might be interesting to some if I talked about how I got to this point in my life.  While Terry has done some form of touring since he was a teenager, my bicycling didn't really begin until my late twenties, after meeting Terry.  I remember one of the 1st rides was just a 10 mile ride to a park and back with very few hills.  I thought I was gonna die.  

It took awhile, but I continued to ride and eventually got a new bike with granny gear - I was really excited.  Terry and I left from our house and within 2 miles there was a significant hill which I was not fond of, but with granny gear I was ready!  Terry took off up the hill and said "whatever you do, don't walk!"  Well, I didn't walk, but I certainly had a few choice words for Terry when I got to the top.  I couldn't shift the bicycle into an easier gear.  So gasping for air, I said to Terry "I couldn't shift", to which he responded "oh yeah, there's an adjustment I forgot to make".

I've come a long way since then. I actually didn't ride much once we got married and started having kids.  Life got too busy.  But, once they were high school and college age I started bicycling more and we started touring again.

I've always had those words of Terry's stuck in my head when going up a hill - "whatever you do, don't walk".  Well, there have been times while touring where I couldn't make it up that climb, wherever it happened to be, and I would feel like I failed.  Terry never seems to have a problem, even when loaded down with gear on our tours, and he doesn't seem to need granny...

Fast forward to 2019/2020 and the planning was starting for the Northern Tier cross country bicycle trip. To be clear, this was always Terry's dream, not mine.  The way I looked at it was, I for sure wanted to share the experience with him, but I didn't know that I wanted to actually ride bicycle the whole time. Why would I do that? That was the bigger question.  I was having trouble with my hip on and off - more so walking than when riding. So in March of 2020 I decided I would attempt to ride through Washington with Terry and our son Ross and then arrange for our daughter to bring our small class C motorhome and I would be reunited with our dog and continue on as the sag wagon for Terry and Ross. There was a possibility that I would leave the camper and our dog in Rochester, MN with friends and ride the rest of the way with them, but time would tell.

As Terry mentioned in the Preamble, COVID became a reality that we didn't want to deal with while bicycling across the US.  We all decided it was best to postpone the trip a year.  

In August of 2020 I decided my hip was bothering me enough that I should get it checked out.  The surgeon said if I wanted to do this bicycle trip it would be best to get the hip replaced. So August 18 I had a total hip replacement that I thought was going to be a breeze.  Because I am such an active person, recovery should be fairly quick according to people I talked to and things I read.  But, that wasn't quite how it happened.  I felt recovery was slow and I still have pain and part of my leg is numb and tingly from the hip to just above the knee.  It's not the same pain though and it feels a lot better than it did last year at this time! I had a checkup a few weeks ago and the surgeon said the hip looks good.  The numbness may take awhile yet to go away he said.

I continued training with Terry, and the more I rode, the more I thought "maybe I can do this whole trip".  I don't know what changed my thought process, but I came to the conclusion that I'm not in my 20's or 30's anymore and if I can't make it up a climb, so be it.  I can walk.  It's ok to walk.  My body just can't handle those climbs the same as my husband or son, and there's no reason to think I'm failing just because I have to walk part of a climb.  I am slower than they are, but again, that's ok.  They can wait for me if need be, and they are fine with that.

Do I have concerns? Yes, for sure.  Can I make it the entire way? None of us know for sure, but we are certainly going to give it our best!  So the trip is planned.  Our dog will be well cared for by our daughter and her fiance (THANK YOU to them!!). We have been vaccinated and COVID restrictions are letting up.

Let's do this!!