This journal is here for two reasons. First, several of my friends read my journal from last Summer's ride from Pittsburgh to DC and asked me to give them updates on this year's ride. Personally, I just think they don't believe that I can make it this year and are eager to hear about my failures.
The real reason I'm writing this is for my own enjoyment later. Years from now, when my knees are blown, I'm ready for a hip replacement, my gut casts a shadow beyond my toes and I'm using a walker...lets call it 2014...I'll be able to look back on this ride and cry in my beer. Better still, make it a scotch.
The ride begins in about 5 weeks, July 29, 2012. My wife and I will drive down to Ashville with our daughter, spend the night before with my parents, then abandon the girl with Grandma and Papa Gene for the next 9 days while I poke my way north. Along the way I'll camp a few nights, stay in a few motels and try not to get run over by an RV or eaten by a bear.
