Cindy prefers to sit out this trip at home.

Sent Tuesday, June 12, 2001

If you are receiving this email, it is because you either specifically asked to be added to the bike diary list or because I thought you might get a kick out of reading it. If you are in the latter category but want to be removed from the bike diary list, let me know and I'll take you off.

If you have no idea what the bike diary list is then read on.

I seem to have figured out a scheme for remaining in email contact while I am riding my bicycle across the United States from Boston to Seattle this summer(*). I propose to use this facility to send a little report on a more or less daily basis (as cellular coverage permits) letting you know where I am and how things are going. It won't be great literature (I know my limits), but it might be fun to read especially for those of you prone to take this sort of adventure yourselves.

First bit of news: the departure date has been postponed a little from the original goal of hitting the road on June 15 to probably June 20. There's just too much to do before I go.

Chip

(*) For you nerds on the list, the mechanism involves a NEC MobilePro 700 handheld PC loaned to me by my brother-in-law (thanks, Ross) connected through a 3Com 3CXM756 Global GSM & Cellular Modem PC card (CSC, not CDPD) to my Nokia 6160 cellular telephone, thence via the AT&T digital one rate plan to a US Robotics Courier V.Everything external modem that hangs on frank, the Linux server in the Horowitz group. Power for all these accoutrements comes from the output of a Schmidt's hub dynamo on the bicycle, converted to DC and regulated by a circuit I built with alot of help from my advisor (thanks, Paul).

Sent Sunday, June 17, 2001

I've set a departure date for Saturday, June 23. This is a bit late in the season to get started, but better late than never. A few of the locals on the bike-diary list have expressed an interest in escorting me out of town on their bicycles. You are certainly welcome to, but be forewarned that this is going to be a slow ride (at least for me) since I'll be riding a loaded touring bike.

My plan is to leave my apartment (123 Highland Ave, Somerville) sometime around 7 AM on Saturday and roughly follow the route of the Boston Brevet Series 400k event as far as North New Salem and then head up to Erving State Park (which is probably alot farther than anybody who has to turn back to go home wants to go). You can get the cue sheets from

http://www.gis.net/~bbs/cue2000.html

It's very straightforward once you leave Concord: basically 119 to 101. I suppose I'll follow the canonical route to Hanscom Field where the cue sheet starts.

Chip

Sent Friday, June 22, 2001

Here is a list of major population centers along the Northern Tier route:

Rochester, NY
Niagara Falls, NY
Buffalo, NY
Cleveland, OH
Fort Wayne, IN
(not passing close to major population centers in IL)
Muscatine, IA
Winona, MN
Minneapolis, MN
Fargo, ND
Minot, ND
Williston, ND
Wolf Point, MT
Glasgow, MT
Havre, MT
Shelby, MT
Cut Bank, MT
East Glacier, MT
West Glacier, MT
Sandpoint, ID
Kettle Falls, WA
Seattle, WA

Those of you familiar with Amtrak's "Empire Builder" (or the Great Northern Railway train of the same name that preceeded it) should recognize the place names between Winona, MN and Sandpoint, ID where the Nothern Tier follows the railroad. It leaves the railroad in Sandpoint, ID to go north crossing the Casacade Range at Washington and Rainy passes (the railroad goes over Stevens pass).

Chip

Bicycle loaded and ready on the night before departure Friday June 22, 2001