I think I explained myself previously in this thread. What I find amusing is that the folks throwing around the word "hate" and the like (not you, staehpj1!) didn't lift a finger to help the young man.

WOW! I think I'm gonna go on a cross-country tour with that bunny. "Bunny for Obama" I'll call it. "The Historian rides the Highway of Hare." I'll carry the bunny in my trailer, and paint on the side, Rabbit Transit.....

OK, I'll stop now. :)

So this means he is still moving, or was movingn earlier in the day?

In North Texas today we had mid 60's temps in the early afternoon when I went to bed. I awoke at 7:30 PM to snow and sleet. It's going to be some unpredictable weather for him in South West Texas.

Has he posted anywhere what his cold weather clothing situation is? If any one is in contact with him it might be a good idea to see if he has planned any drop shipment locations where packages could be waiting for him for emergeny supplies.

I don't thik that expressions of disbelief in his not so well thought out attempt are necesarily "hate". It is ok to disagree with someone, or their plans and not be a "hater".

So far, most seem to wish him well, but hold serious reservations about the logistics of the effort. I fall into that camp myself.

I would hope people won't talk a bunch of crap if he fails or takes a shortcut/ride. Seems like it might be a bit of insult to injury. If I were him and did not make it, I hope I would give myself a bit of credit for even setting off on this journey. I'm sure he has and will learn a lot. I also understand that he has tried to make this more than a journey for himself and I think that may be something he should have left out. If we didn't have crazy people doing stunts like this then what would we all go on about?

I was trying very hard to be supportive less informational.

Well keep in mind to all the people who donated their money and resources. He did agree to a verbal contract (as far as I can see on his site). Which is why I wouldn't agree to something I might not be able to complete when accepting money.


*I am starting to have my doubts about this man. . (but only because this is the internet and I only have his record to go on, and the lack of words describing his intentions or improving his record) I got soul video is very disturbing in many ways.

stay warm flyinryan, godspeed.

I can't seem to get it here. Can someone describe what I am missing?

He has posted nothing on the clothing situation as far as I know. Good idea about the mail drops. They can work quite well and I bet folks here would be more likely to help if they knew what he needed and where it could be sent without having to work out logistics. He might wind up getting too much duplication or more than he wants to carry, but that could be avoided by coordinating via this forum. Heck if nothing else some of us might send some home baked cookies or something :)

Note that it doesn't take a huge amount of pre-planning for a ship location. He has posted the ST cycling route locations, so conversation can be something like, "Are you still going by way of Silver City/Las Cruces/Sierra Blanca? How far away are you now and how long are you expecting it might take?" and then "Ok, if you need, I how about I send you X to the post office at Y?" After that, send with his name to General Delivery with the town and zip code and give yourselves and extra day or two so he doesn't get stuck waiting for something to arrive.

Personally, I'd pick those towns that you sort of have to go through but I also don't pick the largest towns (e.g. El Paso). The reason is the post office is frequently pretty easy to find and you don't have much other choice. I don't know where he is now, but a quick look on the maps says some good candidates I might use would include: Sierra Blanca, Van Horn, Alpine, Sanderson, Del Rio. Hopefully he is tracking well to El Paso but if not, towns before that might include Silver City or Las Cruces.

I had a similar exercise on my first trip across the USA. I somehow went through both folding tires I carried and the second one went on backside of MacDonald Pass in Montana. I came into Helena on a Saturday evening after bike shop had been closed. I didn't really want to wait until Monday and instead called my parents to have them mail an extra spare folding tire I had at home to Miles City, Montana post office which was easy to pick up on my way.

I've had more difficulties with mail drop locations when you cross outside the US border since sometimes mail seems to get delayed for longer than you expect. For example, on my Canada trip, I had pre-arranged to pick up mail at Rivier-du-loup that seemed to be abnormally delayed. If I were to do that trip again, I'd likely pick a mail drop or two that involved briefly crossing to the US at places like St Ste Marie.

A new post on his website. I wonder how his bike ride is going?

Yes it works quite well, but not always flawlessly. Too often we passed through towns before or after the post office hours or on a Sunday. Unless we wanted to hang around, the solution was to go to any post office and tell them what post office you have a package at and where you want it forwarded to, but this obviously delays deliveries. At least they do not charge for the forwarding.

Given Ryan's tight schedule he can't afford much waiting around for a post office to open.

It snowed in Austin last night. I am flying to Detroit this afternoon to warm up.

Yes, it's odd that while he's busy trying to complete, err, start his ride he has time to post left-wing videos to his blog.* I think he needs to focus if he wants to ride to DC.

* Note to certain posters: The previous statement does not fit the definition of "hate" in Webster's.

The post was by "Administrator". So Ryan may have had nothing to do with it. They could just be trying to fill the void while there is pretty much no real info about his trip.

My apologies to Mr. Bowman for my mistake. Still, a "thank you" to permanentjuan for the panniers seems a better topic for a post to the blog.

That's kinda strange, isn't it? I'm not convinced Ryan, or his website administrator, are very much into bike touring (whatever that is). But call it what you like, publicity stunt or crazy adventure, I wish he or his website administrator would tell us how he's doing.

No info on his page if he's gotten tickets or not either. That would be sad to get to DC and not be able to join all the revelry.

-If I were him I'd look into contacting elected officials in my district. I understand he's on the road now(I think), so it makes it difficult for him to do so.

Would be a great help if his home support team were to wrangle with the politicians. I'd imagine his contacts (college proffessors, student body president, news media) would be an excellent place to start.

It has the 9/11 attack video in it. I don't want to watch that, and being a blog about bikes I shouldn't have to.

Secondary this is propaganda For some other cause. Once again on a bike blog it talks about some other motive or agenda in Africa. http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php
video link http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...ideoid=1958298
Caution NSFW. Violence

It was removed thanks.

It was really cold last night. I hope things are going well for him.

I was just down in south Texas yesterday riding a century, which I rode in shorts and T-shirt. Nice. Got up this morning, and it was 39 degrees, had rained, with a hard wind blowing. That would have been the pits to ride in. Glad I didn't have to ride today.

Something else I thought about is that on a typical century ride, you go more or less in a circle, and if the wind blows the same way, you've got a head wind half way, a tail wind the other half. With a cross-country route, you could be riding into the wind a week at a time. That would get old.

We are also in Texas now - and it's been very cold yesterday and today. We didn't ride at all yesterday because of the rain/snow. Today wasn't bad at all because we had a tail wind - so it was nice and warm while we were actually riding. Breaks, however, were miserable!! I hope Ryan passes us soon.

They removed the silly video, as another poster pointed out. Still no update on the trip.

It is very strange just how little info there is about the ride so far. I can understand not checking in too often, but he has posted no daily mileages and nothing about where he stayed, who he met, or much of anything.

Ryan said he might end up taking the train. It's only cheating if you misrepresent what you're doing. As has been said, enough with the hatin', please.

Ya know, the more I've been thinking about Ryan and his priorities on this trip, the more pissed I've gotten. As an Obama supporter, I had to hear all of the crap during the campaign about him being an elitist and how all of the poor people will get free money, feel entitled, etc.

Ryan is the epitome of someone who feels he is entitled to something. He's the quintessential elitist. He decides he's going to ride his bike across the US. He decides that everyone else should pay for it. He wants a camera to document the journey, so he begs for a $4500 camera. IF I were in the position of begging for donations to ride a bike across the country, I would set my standards a little lower. Like, the $100 cameras from Wal-Mart, or a used version.

He has (allegedly) embarked on a 4000 mile journey with a bike and a rack-top bag. No panniers, no sleeping bag, no tent.... do any of his brain cells actually communicate with each other? I am just completely dumbfounded by his lack of planning, lack of judgment, and lack of humility.

The anger I feel that someone such as Ryan is "representing" Obama is beyond words.

Ryan's website states he's riding a bicycle from LA to DC - have you read it? Do you recall a fellow who was adamant that Neils on Wheels had to ride from downtown Pittsburgh in May because starting in McKeesport at the trail head was misrepresentation? By your own standards, Ryan's misrepresented himself - Phoenix is a heck of a lot further from LA than McKeesport is from Pittsburgh.

I think we've seen abundant evidence that the haters are the folks misusing the word "hate."

WOW! You need a vacation.

I don't see the hate. If your going to make yourself a public figure and expect reward for your good deeds, you have to expect criticism when you don't meet the lofty ideals you claim for yourself.

Using the term "haters" (which I personally detest, and immediately catalog the users of such as morons, idiots, and cretins) makes one a "hater" - a hater of haters, if you will.

I do. I'd like to ride across the country on my bike. Send me some money.

I think you win the thread for recursiveness! :lol: