Taking car rides devalues any trip if the point of the ride is to say that you rode from X to Y. In this case that would seem to apply. Also if he didn't ride on the weekend, he probably has ridden farther by car than by bike.

The whole thing is quite confusing due to the sketchy details he has given about where he was and when. He rationalized taking the ride by saying that he "had already ridden 200 miles to get to my map’s starting point at Ocean Beaches, CA". That doesn't sound right though. Isn't Ocean Beaches about 125 miles from Occidental College?

In any case he has botched this thing pretty badly from a logistical perspective. He really needs to pull this together if he is to have any hope of success. He should be up to speed by now and should be managing decent weekly mileage this week, if he is on track to succeed. If he doesn't manage at least 500 miles of actual riding this week I think that he needs to revise his goals. Even 500 miles isn't nearly enough, but at least he will be improving his progress. After two weeks on the road he really needs to be up to speed and should be on track with daily mileage that equates with arrival on time.

I still keep hoping that we are interpreting his comments wrong and he has ridden a lot more that 220 miles before he hit Phoenix.

Wow, light rain and low 60's is bad weather! You SoCal folks have it made That actually sounds delightful other than having to break camp with a wet tent. Since Ryan wasn't camping yet then the breaking camp part wouldn't apply any way.

How much worse would it have been at the elevations he would have been riding at?

Shhh! Folks, don't let Ryan know who "Neil" is. It will blow his mind!

You ol' soft hypocrite, you.

Is that a fat joke?!?

I think he should rename the trip "Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Bicycles."

For what it's worth, Ryan's website is down.

Got down close to freezing over night in Julian but the daytime temp was in the 50s. That said, many tourers would have pushed on down the other side of the hill into the desert where it was in the mid 70s.

Oh goodness, I hope he's OK.

I wanted to hear how all his interviews are going and wether or not he obtained tickets.

Tickets are still available, albeit hard to get. I figured he might be able to use his contacts/publicity to get some.

Yes that would have been my choice, but he may not have known to do it. It makes sense to ride to lower altitudes when it is cold if that is a choice given the route and timing. I have found that it usually is. If you are at the top of a pass, it usually doesn't take long to ride down the other side. Also it avoids the cold descent in the early morning.

I am sure you already know this, but typed it in case some may not have thought of it.

Here too:
stop the hate

What 'hate'? This has been a pretty civil discourse.

Camel's recent posts were dripping with sarcasm, but that isn't so unusual here. The Historian is the Historian, but bear in mind that he was instrumental in getting some panniers to Ryan.

I think most of the rest of us wish Ryan well.

Ryan is headed (unless he posts something) to Miami Arizona!

He is going to have so much fun. I know I have done it. Oak trees, elevation, and the ensuing flats.
Happy Trails

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.