| Interesting Facts From Jerry, Himself |
| Jerry still looks exactly the same, HA! ...still has 30" waist and carries the same 155 lbs. on his bones, thanks to the fact of all his bike riding through out the years. Jerry rides his regular road bike 2 to 3 hundred miles a week, never stopping the rides, unless he takes a trip somewhere where it's not practical to take his bike along. Usually around April 1st. he gets his touring bike down, services it, and gets it loaded up for his particular tour that he is going to go on. There is an organization in Missoula, Montana called Adventure Cycling and they have scouted out several bike routes all over U.S. and parts of Canada. They publish some just for cyclists. These maps give you all the mileages and directions, going both ways, and tell you where the good eats and sound sleeps can be found. The majority of his ride will cover those marked trails. His bike weighs 25 pounds stripped down to just bike, by the time you add all the gear it weighs 120 pounds. Out of this 95 lbs, 65 lbs. are clothing and camping equipment... about 15 lbs. is specialty food and the rest is stuff like camera, first aid stuff, water and fuel bottles, pump, 2 spare tires, tubes and miscellaneous stuff. He rides his bike fully loaded a couple times a week to get used to the load. The whole thing including the bike, breaks down and fits into a 27x27x10" suitcase. Jerry's ride begins on June 5, 2001 and will end approximately on October 02, 2001. This of course depends a lot on the weather. Bad headwind and driving rain really slow you down, sometimes to the point where it's not worth getting on the bike. On the other hand when the wind Gods and the alluvial plains are in your favor, you can cover a couple hundred miles in a day and hardly turn the pedals. He prefers not to ride with any group when he goes on tours, as there are so many riders out there and he can join up with a different group everyday, if he wants to. This way he gets to meet a lot of different people. He is trying to put a small group together, for the first part of the tour, as the far Northern territories are fairly devoid of bike riders and there is something to be said for safety in numbers. He has decided to keep a journal on this ride and correlate photos with it as he goes. When he gets home, he will write a short story about one section and post photos along with it. It will take 4 or 5 weeks to post the whole ride doing one section at a time. This should keep everyone interested enough to at least turn on their puters. He would love to do this as he travels, but doesn't think it's possibe. He will send film home and his wife will have it processed and maybe post a few of them along with some short stories. He hopes to keep in touch with Denny Grossmand and Carol Muscorella Maitland along the way using public libraries, some business friends, and RVers to get email sent. He is very excited that we are all taking such an interest in his trip and wants to share it with all of the old gang. |
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