Big Ride Logistics:
Here is some logistical information to give you a better feel for what our life will be like on the Big Ride.
American Lung Association of Washington Event: The Big Ride is a bicycle ride organized by the American Lung Association of Washington (www.alaw.org). The ALAW is a non-profit organization that fights lung disease through healthcare programs, educational programs, governmental lobby, and research funding. As a non-profit organization, they rely on private donations to fund many of its programs. To raise money, the ALAW organizes a number of events, one of which is the Big Ride Across America. The ALAW has mapped the bicycle route, chosen the camp sites, and will be carrying our luggage on the trip. Each biker is responsible for biking, as well as raising a minimum of $5,500 for ALAW programs.
Start & Finish:
Start – on Monday, June 28th, we leave Seattle at 7am. We’ll be departing from the Stan Sayres Park, located at 3808 Lake Washington Blvd S, along Lake Washington.
Finish – on August 14th we roll into Washington DC. The finish will be near the Lincoln Memorial (not far from the intersection of 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue). We expect to roll in around 1pm.
Riders: Thirty to forty cyclists will be taking part in this year’s ride. We have not met any of them, but through a discussion list we have deducted that they are from all over the US, with the majority coming from Seattle or Washington DC. There seems to be a pretty even spit between men and women. We think we’ll be on the younger side of the age distribution. We’re curious to meet everyone.
Sleeping: We’ll be camping along the way. Hopefully it will not rain too much! ALAW was trying to arrange donated university dorm rooms for us once in a while, so we look forward to these treats!
Typical Riding Day: Each day the “route” to our next camp site will open at 6am and close at 6pm. I suppose that means that we’ll get up before 6 to eat and pack up, and get on our way as soon as possible to take advantage of the cooler weather in the morning. On our longer training rides we have noticed that there is a strong tension between the desire to cover distance quickly, and the desire to slow down to enjoy the surroundings… we’re curious where we’ll find the right balance on the ride.
Average Daily Mileage: 83 miles, 133 km.
Rest Days: As you can see from the map on our homepage, there are 8 rest days scattered throughout our trip. On these days we expect to recuperate, make a trip to a laundry mat, upload our updated website, and possibly meet up with any friends in the area. If you are near any of these places and would like to stop by let us know!
Friday, July 2 – Spokane, WA
Tuesday, July 6 - Missoula, MT
Sunday, July 11 – Billing, MT
Saturday, July 17 – Rapid City, SD
Saturday, July 24 – New Ulm, MN
Sunday, August 1 – La Porte, IN
Friday, August 6 – Burton, OH
Thursday, August 12 – Gettysburg, PA
Eating: We’ll eat breakfast and dinner at the campsite, and bring a packed lunch for the way. Supposedly we also take turns cooking dinner. I (Lucija) am a bit skeptical how this will all work, considering that people will probably be rolling in at different times in the afternoon… So stay tuned for updates.
Contact Information: For safety reasons we decided to take our cell phones with us. Lucija (215.833.5981) and Erwin (267.474-7753), so depending on cell phone coverage, we should be pretty easy to reach. Or, you can always send us an email… Lturcinov@yahoo.com or Erwin_Spolders@hotmail.com
Our Website: We’ll have our computer and digital camera with us on the trip, so we plan to make daily updates to our website content (the daily notes section). In reality we’ll probably get to upload our updates only once a week or so. If you want to send us website suggestions, shoot us an email: Lturcinov@yahoo.com or Erwin_Spolders@hotmail.com