The fenders are on, tested and reinforced! lol Not as cool looking now but there'll be no mud stripes in my future. Took on the 920' rise of Roberts Rd. this AM but neither Dave nor I must have been fully recovered from Tuesday; we could see our end point but that last uphill was just too daunting! The 2 mile downhill coast is always fun! A driver stopped to say Dave's gray backpack and light blue denins made him almost invisible on the narrow one lane each way hill country road. We'll need to do something. My purple/yellow/blue windbreaker works reasonably.

The rear fender was too flexible so this PM I reinforced it. Perfect now. Then I went through the bike, focusing on shifting hesitation and chain sticking. I found the whole drive train needed a thorough cleaning and a minor front sprocket adjustment. It pedals sweetly now! I put a halogen bike light on it for oncoming safety. I need to find a good LED flasher for the rear traffic. Unfortunately the wheel fork sending unit for a wireless bike computer I acquired is not working; darn. I had hopes to track miles, speed, etc; something to do while you're pedaling, pedaling, pedaling. Finished the day splitting wood, mowing the yard and preparing for the next rain onslaught. It's an Advil evening. :-)

We made the $1,000 goal yesterday! Yesss!! Thank you, all my sponsors! I didn't expect so much generousity so soon! We still have a bit more than 2 weeks to the ride! So then today Brianne said I was a Wuss, and said I had to raise the goal. So now it's $2,000! And we are already $1,353 toward that! I'm thrilled!

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are rain days, and it's time I tested my inexpensive rain gear. More on that later.

By the way, my apologies for the requirement on this blog site to have a membership to Google, Yahoo, or AIM to follow the blog. I was told that was not the case. Sorry.

Paul

Next level! Today I rode 16 miles to Graton and returned to our starting spot, then rode 13 miles home; 29 miles! Head wind for the 13 miles; oh may I have a tail wind for Ride Ataxia!

On the way home I bought a set of fenders; that rain is sounding real! lol

Thank you to all my sponsors! I am at 90% of goal already! I know, "ye of little faith" Konanz you'll be calling me! Hugs to you all!

Paul

Just got back from the Ford dealership with a pile of schematics! On the way home with the light rain I thought wistfully of trying out my rain gear; oh well.

Correction to the mileage estimate from yesterday. I used MapQuest which did the shortest route. Duh! We bikers will not be on the interstate freeways, so there's 30 more miles! 192 miles is almost the 200 miles I first estimated.
Day 1: 57.4 miles
Day 2: 42 miles
Day 3: 62.7 miles
Day 4: 29 miles
Total is 192 miles!

Gotta go do the van!

After 3pm; missed my "next level" ride Saturday to work on Brianne's van battery systems. Still not fixed. Sigh, oh for the right repair manual! lol "Next level" was to be riding with "only" one day of rest. Today it's raining cats and dogs; no, that's NOT my "next level".

Today I got a more detailed itinerary. Starting at Portland:
Monday after 48 miles: Kelso
Tuesday after 37 miles: Chehalis
Wednesday after 53 miles: Puyallup
Thursday after 24 miles: Seattle!

Piece of cake: the 200 miles is now "only" 162 miles! I've already gone 38 miles! Sort of.

For Portland-local folk that might like to be at the sendoff, we gather at 7am earliest and leave the OHSU Center for Health and Healing, 3303 SW Bond Ave. at 9am.

Regards,

Installed my toe clips at 8am; took off with full biking cold weather regalia at 9am! I am close to being ready (except for not being in shape. lol)! Kit (riding shorts and zipup shirt), arm/leg/shoe/head warmers, sippy-tube water system, cool elevated handle bars, sweats, and windbreaker. Tested everything this morning in the 40 - 45 degree weather; worked great! One leg warmer initially kept sliding down my leg but once I started sweating it stuck nicely. I swapped the elevated handle bars side to side because my hands didn't like the angle they gripped the bars at. Now the elevated bars are right over the lower hand grips. Perfect!

To finish my prep I'll buy a better looking pair of sweat pants and see if I can make the speedometer/odometer module I have work. Weeks ahead and I'll be ready to go! Now to line up some more sponsors to make this even more worthwhile!

Paul

Hooo-Haa! (from Scent of a Woman; what a rascal that colonel was!) pretty well sums up where I'm at and where I'm goin'! This is my new blog and I have a new Ride Ataxia fundraising site (see above), lots of optimism and we're keeping the thermastat low at home to help me acclimate for the coming ride! lol

Thank you for coming to this blog site and for being interested in Ride Ataxia and my small part in it. If you choose to help sponsor me in this ride I thank you [it's tax deductible ;-) ], and if you choose not to I hope you have somewhere else you are sharing some of yourself with your community.

3 years ago a young man with late onset Friedreich's Ataxia (FA) rode a recumbent trike 2400 miles from San Diego, CA to Memphis, TN to bring visibility to FA. His family went with him and he gained supporters as he rode accross the country. Last year he and more supporters rode almost 700 miles from Sacramento to Las Vegas. Because of his effort FA researchers were given about $350,000 over the 2 years! Now about 50 or more riders in the 3rd annual Ride Ataxia ride from Portland to Seattle where the 2009 NAF Conference will be held; 500+ ataxia-interested people gathering to learn, talk and network about ataxia.

Why am I riding? Easy; here's my reason. If my daughter Brianne can continue living life abundantly
after 22 years with FA I can certainly ride 4 days in the cold and rain! (I am praying for sunshine though!)

So, how am I doing??

- Last year I rode two 50-mile Ride Ataxia legs separated by 11 days; my buns had recovered by the second leg and the new seat (I wore the fabric off the nose of the first seat -ouch!) worked well. Temperatures ranged from 60 - 75 degrees. Since my preparation consisted of pulling the bike out of the garage and filling the tires with air I considered my 10mph average and lots of good conversation a real success!

- This year the 4 days in a row plus cold/rain/headwind have me a little nervous; so the FreeCycle mountain bike has been out of the garage for awhile.

* Averaged one 16 mile ride a week -Hey! That's good!

* Knobby tires replaced with road "slicks"

* Another new seat with a groove toward the front! ;-)

* My hands were going numb after an hour so my bro-in-law Mike (thank you Mike!!) welded extension hand grips atop my extender bars so I can sit higher. I know, I can't reach the brakes! No problem; I'm not stopping anyhow! lol

* Replaced my acquarium tube sucker straw with a new one;

black stuff growing in it; yecht. Who needs a Camelbak?!

* Yesterday bought a rain suit! Just in case.

* My lovely Susan sewed arm and leg warmers, plus foot warmers with the scraps!

So, I'm just about ready! Susan will drive the truck as part of the support crew and I will keep her number on my cell speed dial. Between now and our departure for Portland I will post a few more times to keep y'all up to date on my "intensive" training regimen. Tomorrow Dave Wait and I again take on Robert's Road and Sonoma Mountain. 920 feet elevation increase in 1.5 miles; we may not go far but we bust our buns doing it! lol Don't forget my other website: http://www.active.com/donate/rideataxia/PKonanz ! ;-) God bless, and have an adventuous day!