May 12th. The Adventure Begins, Day 1.

Pat had a mechanical problem. Wheel axle came loose. We later found out that his rear drop out was cracked all the way through. He had to drive all the way to Washington DC where REI replaced the frame at no charge.

This is Kevin, he came all the way from Richmond to ride with us on our first day.

Me and Kevin at Historic yorktown.

Kevin woke up extra early to make us some musubi for lunch.

We met Pat and Virginia at the Victory Monument. A father and daughter team going all the way to Washington.

The River's Rest Marina. Our home for the night.

Lisa in front of the Victory Monument with our bikes. Notice the Hawaiian plates on mine. Thanks Brian and Deb.

The Victory Monument.

After I got far away enough that I thought it was safe, I took this picture of the two cars that scared the #$%* out of me.

Civil War canons at the battle ground near the Victory Monument visitor center.

This is part of the Colonial Parkway trail.

It was nice to ride with out worrying about cars.

Lisa in front of the fountain at the James Town Historical Museum. Each state is represented by a flag. Hawaii is to the far right.

Casually riding though Historical Yorktown near the campus of William and Mary Collage.

Fabian and Lisa trying to decide which way is west.

TransAm-Day1 May 12, 2009. 46.6 mi., 4:39:32. Yorktown to Charles City Va.

Aloha friends and family. Finally, after over a year of planning, saving, training and dreaming. The reality of it all is finally sinking in. We purposely planned a late start, because we hadn’t planned on a high mileage day. We knew that Yorktown and the surrounding area had much to offer in the way of history and lore. After all, it is the place that our country was formed. The three of us set out from the Travel Lodge at 9:00am sharp. It just happened to work out that way. After a brief stop at the 7-11 to pressurize Lisa’s tires, we headed to the Victory monument where the official coast to coast trek will begin. Within minutes, the excitement started. A late model black van traveling in the opposite direction stopped to make a left turn to yield to our crossing. A red sedan traveling at an excessive amount of speed, hit the brakes squealing and crashing into the stationary vehicle not more than 15 feet next to me. Talk about a rush, I was buzzing for the next hour at least. I don’t know what happened, but I know that the Lord was watching over me big time. It could have easily been a quick end to a long journey.

Once leaving the beach where Fabian dipped his rear tire in the Atlantic ocean, we made our way thought Old Colonial Yorktown to find a place to eat. Believe it or not, we scoured that place for at least 20 minutes, and the best we could find was the WaWa Market. A combination convenience store and deli. The whole explanation for this, and the lack of public restrooms in such a highly visited tourist destination is beyond me. I bought a sandwich and called it good. The Colonial Parkway is a really neat river rock and cement roadway that snakes its way along the James River. Light traffic along with breath taking scenery was worth twice the price of admission. It could not have been a more perfect day. The sun was out, blue skies, light winds, and the three of us soaking it all in. We met up with Kevin Kubota. A local boy from Mililani now a high school teacher in Richmond that I met on the internet through “Crazyguyonabike”. We have been corresponding for the past 7 or 8 months about our trans-continental bike ride. He himself hopes to some day do this same ride in the future. We stopped, exchanged greeting, and rode to Williamsburg together. Being a local to the general area, he gave us inside advice on safer, if not more enjoyable options to our route. The afternoon quickly gave way to early evening, when it was time for Kevin to part and say good bye. I presented him with a bag of Malulani coffee as a token of our friendship, and we continued on our way. Tonight we are staying at the “Rivers Rests Marina”. fishing resort on the banks of the Chickahomany river. It is said that this place is home of some of the best bass fishing is the country.

Thank you all for joining us on “The Adventures of Ted”.

May 11, Our last full day in Yorktown.

These things take forever!

With the anticipation of the big day tomorrow, Lisa needed a way to release all that energy.

Lisa and I with the good folks at "Back Alley Bikes". They were almost as excited as we were about our trip.

Since Krystal wouldn't be able to see us off in the morning, we said our good byes and took this parting shot. Thanks Krystal and Anthony for all the great help. You guys made things a lot easier.

Today was our last full day here in Yorktown. We finally made it to a bike shop where we were able to get the last of our needed items for the start of our journey. It rained most of the day, and the temperature dipped into the 50's, so Lisa and I did not get a chance to ride into old colonial Yorktown to check out where we would start like we had planned. We did take advantage of the situation and got a lot of organizing and packing done, including shipment of stuff that we didn't think we needed. I think we still ended up with way too much stuff, but since we have no clue about bike touring, we're going to see how it goes, and take it from there.

Tomorrow we meet Kevin Kubota. A local boy from Mililani who now is a school teacher in Richmond about 50 or so miles from here. We have been communicating via e-mail for the last few months about our trip. We became friends, and there is a good chance that his grand father and my father knew each other years ago in Lahaina......... He and his son will be riding with us part way tomorrow. Since it'll be the first time meeting him, I thought it would be nice to give him something from Molokai to share with his family. What would be better than good ole Molokai coffee.

Aloha everyone, we miss you already. Ted.

May 10, 2009. The preperation complete.

"SHOPPING!'

Our home and stagging post.

Lisa, Ted, and Fabian. We met Fabian this morning. He saw us putting together our bikes and came over to chat. Come to find out, He is also doing the Trans-Am. We were very excited and invited him to join us. He is from Oregon and writes programs for a satellite imaging company that supplies Google Earth with data. He also is pulling a trailer.

Ted, Krystal, and Anthony. Krystal and Anthony were a great help in helping us get around. We wouldn't know what to do with out their help.

The bike all set up and ready to roll.

This interesting character popped up on my bed just as I was ready to call it a night. Cute little bugger.

Lisa busy updating her blog. Go Lisa!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! And to all you other mother's out there also. Today Krystal and Anthony came back to help shuttle us around to shop for more needed items. We went to Walmart and picked up food and a small cooler for ice and stuff. We had lunch at a great Chinese place that had not only good food, but the price was even better. We will have the left overs for dinner. After a full day of running around, it was back to the Travel Lodge to finish setting up the bikes. We are now ready, and will have the whole day tomorrow to relax and do some sight seeing before the big day Tuesday. The manager at the Travel Loldge was one of the necest guys you could ever meet. He just about bent over backwards to make sure that all of our needs were met. He earned himself a bag of Molokia Coffee. So far, everything is going as planned, and we see no problem as of yet. Thank you all for your prayers, they are deeply appreciated. We love you all.

Aloha, Ted.

May 9th, 2009, We're finally here.

We made the 6000 mile journey in one piece. We ended up making 4 change overs to get here. My daughter Krystal who is vacationing here from South Dakota met us at the sir port. She and a friend of her's spent the rest of the day with us, helping us get settled in with some needed preparation such as checking into the hotel, setting up a cell phone line for me, getting lunch and stuff like that. In all the excitement, I forgot to take pictures. I'll remember to take more shots.

Our bikes and equipment were already here at the travel lodge waiting for us in very, very good condition. I was very pleased with t he shape they showed up in.Tomorrow I will begin putting the bikes together, and maybe take it for a short test ride to see how everything feels.

I was surprised by how busy the roads are around here. And the fact that there are no shoulders. I later found out though, that the bike paths are actually separate from the roads, and look like side walks. Pretty neat.

More to come tomorrow, gotta finish unpacking. Aloha Ted.

Update for May 6, 2009.

Aloha on this beautiful Wednesday morning. How good it is to be alive. The bikes are on their way. Liz from FedEx came and got them yesterday morning, and they should be halfway there by the end of the day. I'm almost as scared as I am excited. It's all too real.

Yesterday Lisa and I gave a presentation up at the Molokai Middle School. Thhe "Uplink" program headed by Lynn Bonk and her assistand Rily(I hope I spelt that right) Domingo kindly asked us a few weeks ago if we wouldn't mind sharing our idea with the class. At first I was apprehensive, because I wouldn't know what to tell them. Then I had a phone message from a nice lady named Anna who told me that she had done that crossing a few years earlier going the other way. I called her up, we talked, and to my delight, she had pictures, and was more than willing to join us for this presentation. Now this was exciting, I had my camera with me, but was so thrilled I forgot to take pictures. I wanted this more than the kids. Needless to say, the presentation went well, and believe it or not, the kids were actually paying attention. I guess it's true. A picture is worth a thousand words.

I also wanted to let all of you know that the sushi fund raiser went really well. Maricel at "Take's Variety Store" went way beyond the call. I understand from Carol that she was up at 3:30AM the morning of the sale preparing. Garrick, you are one lucky man. I would trade my best bike for one like that.

Until next time, Aloha, Ted.

Update for week 1 of May.

Today is Monday, I was so busy yesterday that I forgot all about up my weekly update. Being that it's so close to leaving, there are other things that come up that you just don't think about. It's hard to explain, and I'm not sure if anyone is even interested. Not bad things, just more things. Anyway, the past week only saw about 75 miles of bike miles. I try real hard to make time, but it's hard. One thing that most of you reading this might not realize, is that an advanced cyclist like myself takes longer to prepare for a ride. The pre-ride bike check, suiting up (Bibs, sun block, gloves, helmet, clipless cycling shoes, water, energy supplements & road tools, etc.). This ritual alone can take up to a half hour. Then there's the post ride ritual ( cleaning of the bike, re lube, adjust whatever to make sure the thing is ready for next time, hand washing cycling cloths, shower, etc), can take and additional 30 to 40 minutes. Sometimes the ritual is as long as the rides. So if the ride is less than an hour (about 20 miles), I usually just don't go. It just doesn't make sense.

Today is our "Pedal For Hope" Sushi sale at "Take's Variety Store" Lisa and I will be there handing out the sushi and thanking people for supporting us to help the local community with the fundraiser. Many, many thanks again to Maricel for all her hard work. This is truly an amazing person. My nephew is one lucky man.

Some of my class mates gave me a send off up in Ranch Camp. Since it was a spur of the moment thing, only a few were able to make it. The impotent, I mean important ones were there. We had "Choke grinds!" Thanks guys, I'll be thinking about all of you on my journey.

Tomorrow the bikes and trailers go out. There was a change in plans. We decided to upgrade to 3-day air instead of ground. This upgrade was strongly recommended by someone who knows, and has seen the condition bike boxes are in by the time they reach their destination. Thanks for that bit of information dude. Don't worry, I won't say who you are. By the way, how's Liz?

Well, this will be the last update while still on Molokai unless something comes up that needs to be relayed. Thank you all for being a part of this dream of ours. Lisa and I feel very blessed with friends and family like you.

Aloha kakou till next time, Ted.

Update, Week 4 of April.

This has truly been a hectic week. The time is now flying faster than I can keep up. The bikes and trailers are awaiting transport. They should be on their way later this week. The three boxes totaled 149 pounds. We will take the rest of the stuff with us. For me it'll be a back pack, my camera, and the duffel bag that came with the trailer. Lisa was thinking about sending some of her stuff through the mail so that she won't have to deal with any baggage en route. Now all that's left is some yard work, storing stuff away, and a little house cleaning. The later includes emptying out the fridge and freezer. Fern is going to keep an eye on things here and take care of Pokahu. I hope he doesn't miss me too much. He looks so sad every time I go somewhere without him.

I only rode 85 miles this week. I needed to go shopping and box hunting, it also rained pretty good for a couple of days. And since our trip is coming upon us real soon, I didn't want to take the chance of catching a cold. It was all good though, cause I got in a couple of long rides in on my road bike. I'm going to miss those two guys, they are soooo much fun to ride. I invested in the SRAM-RED group up grade from the existing Shimano-Dura-Ace group that was on my Giant-TCR Carbon. Normally a $2000.00 up grade, but since the bike shop partially sponsors me, I only paid $1200.00. So far this bike cost me over $8000.00. Sounds crazy I know, but the thing is light, and it is fast! The SRAM-RED group is hands down the lightest and most precise of anything out there. It makes you want to go even faster. I can do 40 miles in less that 2 hours. Without the tail light, the mirror, and the pedals. It weighed in at a mere 13.5 pounds. Less than half that of most bikes.

Ted's 2007 Team "ONCE" Tour de France dream bike.