The Final Stretch (November 24th - December 22nd)

It's been an interesting December to say the least. On December 4th, my wife and I welcomed our son into the world. Fatherhood has been amazing, but it has also meant that The Imaginary Bike Ride has not exactly been my #1 priority. When December started, I was in Ritzville, WA and a few miles ahead of my target pace. That all changed with Tate's birth.

The first 22 days of December have now included 11 days when I did not ride at all. Previously, I had a similar stretch in September when there were 13 days that I did not ride. At that time, I saw my mileage surplus, that I had worked so hard to build during the summer, drop from about 150 miles to only 40. Since I was already treading so dangerously close to target pace when December started, this drought has been much more costly. On December 20th, I dropped down to 70 miles behind my target pace (my lowest point since March 8th).

So, what does this all mean? It means that I need to put in some serious effort over these last nine days of the year, or I will fall short of my goal. In a worst case scenario, The Imaginary Bike Ride will carry over a few days into 2016, but that's not the way that I want it to go. When I originally mapped out my ride, I somewhat arbitrarily chose the end point of a shop called Surf Ballard, which I went to one time when I was in Seattle. As of December 22nd, I am 140 miles from Surf Ballard. However, I am only 127 miles from the Seattle city line. Ideally, I would like to make it to my original target, but since it was somewhat arbitrary to begin with, I'd be happy just to arrive in Seattle by the end of the year. Still, I'll need over 14 miles per day to make it to Seattle, and over 15 miles per day to make it to Surf Ballard.

Stay tuned! Hopefully I will have one more exciting update to this blog!

Next Stop: Seattle (October 25th - November 23rd)

Well, not exactly the next stop. I still have 358 miles to go over the next 38 days, so there will be many stops before I reach Seattle, but I am now through Spokane, WA. That was the last location that I listed as a stop on my route before my final destination. Just a few days ago I crossed the border from Montana into Washington, which will likely be the last state that I ride through on my trip. I think that makes for a grand total of 13 states, which is actually fewer than I would have guessed I would pass through on a cross country trip.

The home stretch

Real Life: My pace has been touch and go, but I've tried to pretty much stick to a 10 mile per day average. I've lost a few miles from cushion, so I feel like I'm definitely in danger territory with a baby on the way any day now. It's also getting harder to motivate myself to just go for a ride on the weekend if I don't have an actual destination as it starts to get colder, but I'm not giving up! Mileage update: 3,276.9 miles down, 358.5 to go. 20 miles ahead of target pace.

100 More Miles (October 18th - October 24th)

When I last posted, I had started to see my mileage surplus dwindle a bit. I was down to 9.5 miles ahead of pace. This was the first time it had gone down to the single digits since June 4th. Anytime that I get down to single digits, I come into danger of falling behind pace with just one day that I don't ride. However, this past week was a week of redemption. Over the last seven days, I've ridden 99.6 miles. This allowed me to add another 30 miles or so to my cushion. As a reminder, my wife is due with our first child on December 2nd, so the surplus is becoming more and more important, because December might be a tough month to get out on my bike in real life.

In the imaginary world, I am now in Stevensville, MT. Stevensville was founded in the early 1800s by Jesuit missionaries. It was originally known as St. Mary's before the names was changed in the 1860s (the name change was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln himself). Huey Lewis may or may not own a home there. The imaginary ride has been mostly downhill for the last week or so, with a couple of big inclines as well. It's nice to be on the west side of the Rockies.

Real life: The highlight of this week's actual riding was Saturday, October 24th. After riding downto Cleo's Bar to meet friends to watch the Arsenal match, we then participated in the Half Acre Beer Co. Anniversary Hunt. Basically, this means that we rode around Chicago solving riddles in order to win a mystery prize. Our team did win The Hunt and a free case of beer as the prize, but the real prize went to all those who participated. We got to go to a secret party at their unfinished and unopened new brewery with free beer, food, and shuffleboard. It was a really great time and just a really cool event in general. Mileage update: 2,997.5 total miles, 39.4 miles ahead of target pace. 637.9 miles to go!

Big Sky Country (September 9th - October 17th)

In the 38 days, I've ridden about 260 miles. I haven't quite been keeping the pace that I'll need in order to get all the way across the country by the end of the year. My ride now places me in Wisdom, MT.

My ride has taken me from Yellowstone to Wisdom, MT in the last 38 days

Wisdom is named after the Wisdom River, which is much less exciting than I hoped that name origin would be. It is home to 98 whole people. With my visit, it almost broke 100!

Real life: 2,897.9 miles ridden. 9.5 miles ahead of target pace. 737.5 miles to go!

Yellowstone, A Haiku (August 31st - September 8th)

Another nine days
The middle of Yellowstone
Imaginary

I'm where that little gray dot is in the middle of Yellowstone

Real life: 2,634.3 miles ridden. 134.3 miles ahead of target pace. 1,001.1 miles to go!

Everything is Bigger in Wyoming (July 24th - August 30th)

It's been over a month since my last post, so I guess I've hit a bit of a slump. I spent the rest of July making my way through the western end of South Dakota. I spent three nights in Fairburn (population 85), and one night in Hermosa (population 398). Then I rode into Keystone (population 337), which was the longtime home of Carrie Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. Keystone was also a location from the movie North, starring Elijah Wood. I've never seen North, but it is the topic of one of my favorite Roger Ebert reviews:

I then spent three nights in Custer, which is supposedly home to the widest Main Street in the country. Apparently, its width was to allow a team of oxen pulling a wagon to turn completely around. Efficiency!

So wide!

I spent one night in Edgemont before crossing into Wyoming. I quickly learned that Wyoming was a lot different than any other state that I had passed through. Despite the fact that I consistently rode about 10 miles per day, I typically spent at least four straight nights in most of the towns or cities of Wyoming. I even had seven sleeps in a town called Ten Sleeps! As of August 30th, I am now in Basin, WY. I should be in Yellowstone National Park in about a week!

Making progress!

Real life: Since I last checked in, I've basically stayed exactly on my 10 mile per day pace. I have now ridden 2,530.5 miles, which is 120.2 miles ahead of my target pace. I took a three day break from riding in August, which is my longest rideless streak since early March.

South Dakota Nights (July 5th - July 23rd)

I spent nine more nights in Nebraska before crossing into South Dakota, home of the Geographic Center of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). I spent six nights in Martin, SD, despite the fact that I rode over 27 miles during that time. You would think that this means that Martin is a happening town with a lot to do. You would be wrong, but I did enjoy the HorseShoe Bar.

Real life: The good news is that despite taking a couple of days off from riding (mostly due to illness), I've still continued to build my mileage surplus. There were a couple of highlights during this stretch that had very little to do with riding a bike. Last week my wife and I found out that we are having a boy, which is super exciting. Then last weekend we celebrated my wife's 32nd birthday, which was a lot of fun despite a thunderstorm attempting to thwart our plans. I also got to witness this great Chicago sunset with thunderstorms across Lake Michigan.

https://instagram.com/p/5Qk7DmghcI/

Total annual mileage: 2151.2 miles (119.4 miles ahead of target pace).