Foreword

Foreword

I wrote the article below for our Red Dirt Pedalers’ newsletter Wheel Issues in November of 2006. I had paid all the bucks, got my insurance, and was just about to get my Russian visa when, in early January, I suffered an episode of atrial fibrillation. In the process of taming it, the doc’s found that I had a large kidney stone. It wasn’t until April that they were able to dissolve the kidney stone. With it my plans to ride from St Petersburg, Russia, to Istanbul, Turkey, in the summer of 2007 also dissolved. I did not give up, so  jumped through the same hoops in 2008 . . . but the ride was cancelled. So I switched horses and rode down the Danube with ExperiencePlus instead.
This blog is an account of that ride.

Once in a Lifetime

     How many times have you said to yourself, “Just go for it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing . . . only to discover that it wasn’t? That you ended up doing whatever it was several times, and in some instances, it actually became a lifetime theme?

     Buying a bicycle was one of my many “once-in-a-life-times.” The first bike of my adult life was a Trek mountain bike I bought at Cooper’s Bicycle Center, Stillwater, OK. Though it cost only about $300, at the time I thought, “Whoa! Well, okay, gulp, this is the last bike I’ll buy in my lifetime. I can afford it.” I’ve bought four bikes since and am about to jump off and buy my fifth. For some reason each gets more expensive.

     Back in 1997, when I’d been biking casually around Stillwater for about 10 years but still didn’t know Presta from Schrader or toe clip from clipless, I decided to do a long (10-state, 1700-mile) ride down the Mississippi River with America by Bicycle. Wow. This is a life-altering, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I thought. Gotta do it. Once in a lifetime? No. I’ve now ridden the Mississippi River twice, and as a scheduled ride leader, will ride it for a third time next spring. Life altering? For sure.

     The Mississippi River ride more than anything else got me “into” bicycling. I borrowed big bucks (for me at the time) to pay for this tour, switched from a hybrid to a road bike, worked hard training to get my average speed up to 15 mph (which BTW I did not accomplish until on the ride), bought bike shorts (I had been wearing short nylon running shorts), bought bike shoes and clipless pedals (I had been wearing athletic shoes and toe clips), and off I went. 

     BAM! I had a head on collision with ride leader Mike Munk, a bike riding dynamo with jaw-dropping bike handling skills. My life altered, shifting several degrees off axis. My friendship with Mike would see me riding cross country on the staff of America by Bicycle 7 years later. Moi? On a professional bike touring staff? Riding cross country each year? Now that’s a once-in-a lifetime.

     Today I am preparing to sell my Litespeed and panniers, though I’m having a hard time taking the first step. I’ve a lot more invested in my trusty touring bike and gear than money. But, I need the money. Another once-in-a-lifetime bike ride is sending out the siren call: St. Petersburg, Russia, to Istanbul, Turkey, June 14-July 30, 2007.
     Yesterday I printed a copy of the itinerary for this ride. I perused the tour details, pulled maps, researched cities and countries. My mind thrilled when I contemplated riding through the ancient, less tourist trampled east European countries of Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, Romania (Transylvania), Bulgaria, and Turkey. (This would see a return visit to Turkey 45 years after an initial “once-in-a-lifetime” visit.) I would get to see the Winter Palace, stop in small medieval towns such as Vilnius, capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1200 until the late 1700s, spot birds in Poland’s famous Biebrza National Park wetlands, pedal along the Bay of Finland and the Gulf of Riga, cross the ancient Carpathian and Transylvanian Alps . . .
     Ironically, on that first Mississippi River Ride, a fellow rider and I vowed that we would never want to be on a bike touring staff: Lifting all that heavy luggage twice a day? Icing and lifting 10-gallon (nearly 100-lb) water jugs? Dealing with problem guests and guests’ problems? Nope. No. Not. Hadn’t we just demonstrated that we would pay big bucks to have someone else do all this?

    We also vowed that we would never want to camp on a bike tour. It would be too much work at the end of the day to have to set up a tent and prepare the evening meal. We loved our comfy motel beds too much (and usually fell into them exhausted by 8:30 PM).

     Never say never. Three years after the ‘97 Mississippi River Ride, I made another “once-in-a-lifetime” decision and geared up for a self-supported ride down the west coast with my daughter, Jessica. We happily camped in the hiker-biker areas of state parks along the way and loved it so much that two years later (2002) we took another self-supported camping tour, this time in Alaska. The kicker: Our West Coast ride may not have been a once-in-a-lifetime for me. ABB now has a west coast tour. Who knows? I may be asked to staff it sometime.

     For the 2000 West Coast ride, I needed a different type of bike. I fell in love with a Litespeed Blueridge touring bike. It cost three times as much as my first car. The racks, panniers, and gear for the trip cost more than my first year’s college tuition. But, well, this was a once-in-a-lifetime purchase wasn’t it? Just bite the bullet, Susan. I bit hard.

     It’s super spendy. My mind circles all of my usual rationalizations: “You only live once,” “Life is short,” “Just do it,” “You can’t take it with you.” “You’ve earned it.” “It’s just money.”

Yep, I decide, it’s a lot of money but it beats sitting home counting it. If I’m accepted (you have to apply), I’m going. Hey, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime. Gotta go for it. After all, it is just money and I’m not getting any younger.