Home again, home again

Greetings from Ashland, Oregon. I made it back safely (although my baggage and bike failed to arrive with me in Portland...perhaps they will arrive today?) and had a great visit with my parents and Rita Albrich. I think Cobi, my dog, is a bit disappointed to leave his grandparents behind!

I want to sincerely thank family, friends, the crew, my fellow PAC Tour cyclists, and colleagues for all of your support and understanding before, during, and (hopefully) after the trip. I look forward to sharing more about the journey with all of you in person.

Finally, thank you to all of you who made donations to the the Children's Hospital Foundation. At least $800 were raised to help with uncompensated care for children and their families in need. Remember, you don't have to let it end there: take an interest in joining the constructive conversation about how to provide access to quality health care to everyone in the United States.

Signing off,

Jay Reeck

Pac tour day 30 - Metter, GA to Tybee Island, GA

While riding a 20 mile stretch alone this morning, I noted feelings of anticipation (of the arrival at the Atlantic Ocean), giddiness (of achieving a goal of a difficult physical challenge), sadness (for the end of a strenuous, yet enriching journey), and affection (for the beautiful and drastically different parts of our country I just experienced firsthand...all within 30 days). I also noticed that I felt really strong on the bike, ignoring the fact that we had a tailwind and essentially no climbing at all (save the two bridges over waterways).

In fine form, the last 30 miles were shared with Greg "the finisher" Lester - a common companion of mine for the final 20-30 miles of rides with harsh conditions like headwinds. We worked our way through the streets of Savannah, often with streets lined with overhanging trees adorned with Spanish Moss. Finally, we came to a bridge over the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Atop the bridge we were rewarded with views over the wetlands. The miles quickly ticked off as we pushed up the pace to 25 mph for a fun finish at the Welcome to Tybee Island sign, where the entire group reconvened and then rode in the final few miles together in a double paceline with our PAC Tour jerseys proudly displayed.

A mile away from the hotel, I heard "Reecker!" and looked to the left to see Doug Walker in a car a few feet away with a video camera pointed at me. He filmed the peloton, and reappeared as we all rode our bikes under the hotel to the screams of our adoring crew, and then rode right up the wooden walkway to the beach. We ditched our shoes and went straight for the water...dipping our wheels in the water, took a swim in the bathwater-warm ocean, then shot a few more pictures.

Soon enough we were all taking our bikes apart and stuffing them in boxes to take home. The weather was kind to us today, treating us to sunshine and a few puffy clouds here and there...until we finished packing up our bikes. The skies then darkened and the rain hasn't let up yet, coming down in sheets, punctuated by lightning and its accompanying thunder.

Our closing banquet is in a half our, where we'll all join together a final time before we all head off in different directions: North, South, East, West, the UK, Australia, Canada, and perhaps continuing on the Eastern Mountains PAC Tour, from Atlanta, Georgia to Portland, Maine.

Pac tour day 29 - Perry, GA to Metter, GA

It was tough to get up an hour earlier today and know that I was missing all of my family and friends gathered on Mercer Island for Seafair today. Those thoughts drifted away as I shifted my attention to the graceful paceline of our entire group leaving the town and slowly picking up the pace on the way East, sans rain. We, of course, got doused with some showers on the quiet roads (Sunday in the South) before lunch.

The afternoon was a race to the hotel...trying to outrun the clouds full of impending doom, I mean rain. The hammerfest from the last sag wasn't in time, as the complete and utter downpour hit us with 6 miles to go. We literally were riding upstream into town, with inches of running water rushing over the roads as the sheets of rain dropped out of the sky. A brief detour into the wrong hotel area took us through multiple areas of about 10 inches of standing water...and then the lightning started...with thunder only a 2-4 seconds behind! Quite the exciting finish to our penultimate day.

Although tomorrow may indeed be cloudy and wet, I'm looking forward to seeing the East Coast (it's been quite a while) and seeing Doug, Melissa, and Will Walker, who happen to be in Hilton Head (right next to Tybee Island).

Day 28 - Eufaula, AL to Perry, GA

Guess what? No rain today!

Four miles into the ride, I was pleased to see a sign for the Chattahoochee River (in part because of Alan Jackson's song, in part because it's darned purdy, and in part because it marked our entry into Georgia.) I did notice that the water wasn't that muddy, though. I also liked the sign saying "We're glad Georgia is on your mind."

This morning (and in fact all day) was a blast, flying through the Georgia countryside under overcast skies, cruising down and up huge rollers, and, for a while, hammering along with Alan Stokes and Greg Lester.

We had lunch on the grounds of the Andersonville Civil War Prison and Prisoner of War Museum. The beautiful forest and rolling lawns make it incredibly difficult to fathom the atrocities which occurred there.

Camp Sumter, commonly called Andersonville, was one of the largest military prisons established by the Confederacy during the Civil War. In existence for 14 months, over 45,000 Union soldiers were confined at the prison. Of these, almost 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, and exposure to the elements. The largest number held in the 26½-acre stockade at any one time was more than 32,000, during August of 1864. Today the beauty of the prison site belies the suffering that once took place inside the stockade.

John Lloyd managed to miss this prison and tried to meet us for lunch at the Macon State Prison up the road. Apparently, he couldn't make it past security to the "visitor center."

Melissa, who fell a few days ago and was given crutches, rode her bike just shy of 90 miles today, noting that she feels better on the bike than off it - a common sentiment among PacTour riders, I've found. It actually reminded me of the tough-as-nails and generally upbeat approach of the riders on our tour. A few days ago when we slogged for over 8 hours in complete tropical downpours, I honestly didn't hear a single complaint from anybody. If anything, I saw more smiles and heard more laughs than I had in a while. Nice.

The skies gradually cleared up, and Jason and I rolled into the town of Perry, Georgia. The 111 mile ride took 6 hours today.

Well, we're in the Eastern Time Zone, and about 204 miles from our destination - Tybee Island, Georgia.

Day 27 - to Greenville, AL to Eufaula, AL

We awoke to thunder, lightning, and a complete deluge, which cleared up right as we finished with breakfast. Today proved to be another day of riding through small rolling hills lined with soybeans, churches, chicken farms ("Disease free"), and almost-defunct towns. The chicken-trucks were out in force today, blasting us with their characteristic smell - which gives me flashbacks to research I did with pigs in college (the pigs were the subjects, not colleagues).

We rode through the town of Honoraville, Alabama, and took pictures in honor of Honora, the hammer. Honoraville may be a secret source of rusted out Mustang cars from every single year of production.

The rains arrived in force at mile 70, but disappeared within about 10 minutes, just in time for a tasty lunch of toasted cheese sandwich and ground beef. The afternoon ride in proved heavenly, with rollers that you could roll over, a bit of a tailwind, and a threatening storm for inspiration. I motored along at 22-27 mph in these conditions, and was picked up a few miles from the hotel by Doug and Jeanine, who were hammering to avoid the storm. I hopped on the train for the 29-35 mph race into the hotel, where we rapidly cleaned and lubed the bikes before another downpour replete with thunder and lightning arrived.

A notable sign today: Wilson's Welding and Erection Co.

Infinite wisdom

Pac tour day 26

Finally, we left a hotel in the morning without the company of rain. The motoring commenced with Jonathan Page at the helm, piloting about 12 of us along at about 22 miles per hour essentially until the first sag wagon. Upon arrival at the stop, we all were completely drenched in persperation - and I mean soaked...it looked more like we got out of a pool than off of a bike.

The rest of the ride through Alabama was very pleasant today, highlighted by a peaceful crossing of the Alabama river. My favorite church sign today was, "God gets knee mail." My most pathetic sign award goes to the Governor-endorsed Alabama public television sign for "Progress thru Education." The assasination of English grammar and spelling continues.

The storms arrived this afternoon to give us cover from the suddenly unbearable heat, and drench us for several minutes. The showers let up as we arrived in Pine Apple, Alabama - a very small town with a post office...and I think that's about it. The ride to the hotel from Pine Apple was made possible by Jonathan Page and Elanore for letting me tag along, seeing as though my mental motivation checked out and left.

On the subject of church signs, I think there is a book of "punny" sayings for pastors...or maybe a web site. Some others I recall: "Forbidden fruit creates bad jams," "The best supplement for a Christian is B1," and "Seven days without prayer makes 1 weak."