12 Hours

The bike is ready, my gear is packed, food has been purchased, but am I ready? It's really something I won't know until tomorrow and the heat is going to make it a worthy test. Tomorrow it looks like it might get up to 97. Ouch!! Good thing we are planning on getting up at 5:30am. Extended forcast says its going to cool down, maybe into the upper 70's.

We decided not to take two days to bike to the Jersey coast, so tomorrow we leave Lincoln Park, NJ and head West. We are pretty close to PA, so we should make it out of our first state in the first day. Than we plan to stay North, basically following route 6 through the state. I think its around 400 or so miles through PA.

PA Map: We will be following the orange route most likely. Route Y. Source: http://www.bikepa.com/

Last night Armin, Julie, and I went to a wedding of Armins friend from college. Ate so much good food that I was readyto burst. As most people are probably carbo loading a few days before an adventure of this magnitude, we were scarfing down the best food I've ever had at a wedding. Not to mention the multiple glasses of wine and bottles of beer. I'm actually looking forward to this amount of eating on the road as we will be burning up calories like crazy. I'm really looking forward to Chicago where we plan to take an extended break. That first drink of beer is going to taste oh so sweet!

Below is a picture of my face the day before the trip. I'm going to try and take a picture every day and see the changes as I cross the country. I expect to lose weight (I weight about 180 right now), get a really great farmers tan, and as long as it doesn't start bothering me I don't plan on shaving for the duration. So, after two or so months, I should look significantly different.

Only 12 hours and this trip will officially start. Stay tuned to find out how the 90+ degree weather and hitting the Appalachian Mountains on the first day turns out.

Side note for those bored at work:

• While exploring the northern coast of Florida in 1528, the members of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, found a Native American town which they transliterated as Apalachen. This name and its pronunciation were applied to the Apalachee Indians, as well as a nearby body of water, now spelled Apalachee Bay, to the Apalachicola River, Apalachicola Bay, and the Apalachicola Indians, and to the city known as Apalachicola, Florida. The word "Apalachen" was also applied to an inland mountain range, and through the course of time it became applied to the entire range and its spelling was changed.