Steve's TransAm Adventure

82 miles, 6:10 riding time, 13.2 mph average, 3809 ft ascent Duane and i stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Marshfield last night.  We were concerned about the forecast of rain overnight so we didn’t want to camp out, and sure enough, we awoke to rain.  We decided to sleep in (0545), enjoy the hotel continental breakfast, and get a leisurely start.  I was apprehensive about starting the day in rain, but also didn’t want to hang around the hotel all day.  I brought a rain jacket, helmet cover and shoe covers and have hauled them up and down numerous mountains, so by golly, I better use them, which I did.  I rolled out at about 0930 in the rain, which takes some getting used to.  I don’t have photos for the first part of the day due to the rain.  Hurricane Barrry gave us another day of tailwinds, so I made good time (13.3 mph avg) over rolling terrain.  But, the Ozarks were not done with us yet.  About 30 miles into the ride I entered into a ...

The year was 1976 and the USA was celebrating the Bicentennial.  An organization named BikeCentennial created a bicycle route named the TransAm all the way across the USA.  The inaugural ride was from Astoria OR to Yorktown VA.  I had just graduated from high school and was really intrigued by the idea of riding across the USA.  Fast forward to 1979.  I just graduated from the University of Virginia.  A friend from North Carolina heard about a bicycle route across NC from the westernmost township to the easternmost town (700 miles) that was also created for the Bicentennial.  We decided it would be cool to ride it as a celebration of our graduation, which we did.  That was my first experience with fully self-supported bicycle touring, and I was hooked.  I did many week-long tours in the following years in NC, VA, NY, NH, ME,  and Canada.  I never could quite take the time to ride the entire TransAm, but it remained on my lbucket lis...