Entry 0

The point of this blog is so that my friends and family can keep track of me as I make my way from New Jersey all the way to California on my bike. I know that there are a few of you that are worried about me and a few that don't expect that I can do it, but let me tell you that ya'll gona look real stupid when I do make it and now I'm half doing this ill advised journey just to spite you at this point (you know who you are). and for the rest of you that couldn't care less and are actually interested in my trek across the continent, kudos to you and I hope you enjoy the ride along with me. 

Let me layout my general game plan for my journey. As an FYI, I'm going to be using the ACA maps for most of my trip.

First I will take a train from NJ to Washington DC and then ride my bike to a train station in Virginia (like 10 miles away) and then catch a second train to Jacksonville Florida where which will be the true start of my tour. I am going to follow the Southern Tier Route (the orange line) to Houston where I will catch a train to El Paso. I know that's a bit of a cop-out to circumvent most of Texas by using Amtrak but I'm giving myself 3-4 months to do this journey and I rather not waste a month of it in Texas (I got my reasons). After that, I will continue on the STR to Phoenix Arizona where I will break off onto the Grand Canyon Connector route (the red line) up to either Flagstaff or Tuba City Arizona where I will make my way to Monument Valley. My secret objective is to visit Monument Valley because I love old John Ford movies and he shot his best movies there. After I visit Monument Valley, I plan on back tracking my way to Williams Arizona via the Grand Canyon Connector so that I can break off onto Bicycle Route 66 (the dark blue line). I will travel along Route 66 to Los Angeles California where I will hopefully spend a few days to relax (only if I'm on/ahead of my loose schedule) and then I will follow the Pacific Coast Route (the green line) to San Francisco which will mark the end of my tour. 

Will I make it all the way or will I retire partway thru? Who knows? Will it be fun? Will it be a taxing, grueling ordeal? Who's to say (but probably), I do know that its gona be long, I got the wanderlust something bad and I want to go on a real adventure while I'm still relatively young.