Introduction

Over the past 13 years I have ridden an annual 500 mile - 7 day charity fund raiser for a charity in Trenton, NJ, that is a home for runaway and abused children, called the Anchor House Foundation. Since I have now retired, I thought it was time to "kick it up a notch", and I am training for a cross country ride from Los Angeles, California to Boston, Mass. During the course of this ride I will increase my solicitations on behalf of Anchor House, and I encourage you to check out the web site of this worthy cause to see if, in fact, you might be inclined to lend your financial support; see http://www.anchorhouseride.org/. At the AnchorHouse web site you will see more about that ride, and find links to the major web site for the Anchor House Foundation.



Here's a picture of me on the left with a couple of fellow riders from one of the Anchor House rides past. I've somehow managed to loose a number of pounds (over 20) for this XC ride over the past year, in anticipation of having to lug that extra weigh over the 3,400 miles in 43 days of riding as opposed to the 500 miles over 7 days of the Anchor House ride. As a slight aside: Last year during the Anchor House Ride my roommate for the 13 years of the ride talked me into shaving my beard and hair. I said I would if the other riders would "kick in" some money to see me do it. So in mid-week we raised $685 from the other riders, and we donated it to the Anchor House for the kids. I've kept the hair off because it I was virtually bald anyhow, and it is much cooler while riding (but, admittedly, not as pleasant in the winter). I lost an hour of sleep the night I committed to doing the shaving because it took an hour to do the shaving in stages, which include a little help from my roomie to get the back of my head. Fortunately, I got the hang of shaving what I couldn't see, and he did not have to leave his wife and move in with me and my wife.


I will be doing the cross country (XC) ride with a fellow geriatric (Bob Fuller) who has his own blog (http://www.bykruslatoboston.blogspot.com/). We will be doing the ride with approx. 18 other riders (paying customers), and are supported by CrossRoads Cycling Adventures, which has its own web site at http://www.crossroadscycling.com/ We also had both been raised in the midwest (Ohio and Michigan respectively), both been in the military and served in Viet Nam, and coincidentally, both worked for the same company for a combined 60 years. (And you thought that I was kidding about the geriatric comment). And, we both have been riding the annual fund raiser for Anchor House for a number of years. Hopefully, I won't be too tired to add to this blog over the course of the XC ride. See ya............