I started riding recreationally when I was in high school. I don’t remember why. I just loved being out on the road and cranking out the miles. In 1998, I rode my first organized ride, a two-day MS 150 Bike Tour in California. The next year I did my first century (100 miles in one day).
When we moved the family back to our home state of North Carolina, I formed a friends and family team for for Bike MS: Historic New Bern, and it’s been an annual traditional since 2000.
Along the way, I took a stab at self-supported bike touring and loved it! That’s when I put a cross-country bike ride on my bucket list. For more than twenty years, it’s been the only thing on my bucket list.
This is the year I check it off my list! I’ll be riding from Bar Harbor, Maine to Anacortes, Washington. I’ll miss training with the Missing Spokes this year, but I’ll be riding with them in spirit on September 9 and 10, just one day before I complete my ride and dip my front tire in the Pacific Ocean. That’s why I’m calling this two-wheel adventure my longest Bike MS training ride ever!
It’s going to be an epic ride!
