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.

Bikes and equipment ready to ship.

This is just a short update to let you all know that the bikes and trailers are boxed and ready for the journey. They will be sent FedEx on May the first. It sure seems like a lot of stuff, I haven't weighed them yet cause I don't have a scale, but I'm guessing the three boxes are about 150 pounds total. And that's not counting our personal gear. We won't know for sure what the actual load we will be carrying till the day we leave Yorktown. Some of the stuff will get shipped back home once we get set up. Some tools, travel packs, and and what ever else we feel is not necessary. Since this is our first attempt at something like this, I'm sure we will find out with in a couple of weeks what works and what doesn't. So there's a chance that we will be sending back more stuff through the mail when the time comes.

My brother Ralph lent me this neat little net book. It runs Windows XP, so I was able to load all my GPS stuff along with the other programs I will be using that my other net book running Linux could not. I can't believe that something this small can do so much. Good stuff.

Thanks for checking in. Aloha, Ted.

Bikes and trailers, boxed and ready to go.

Pokahu, he watched as I packed. It's almost as if he knows I'll be leaving for a while. I wish I could take him.

Update for week 3 of April

From my secret spot I took this shot.
April 18, 2009

Aloha everybody,

Boy, time sure seems to fly, the closer we get to departure. It seems almost surreal. I find myself scrambling to take care of last minute details that just a few weeks ago seemed like I had all the time in the world to deal with. It's hard to believe, but we start packing our gear next week already. My family has been very supportive of this en devour. They actually took it upon themselves to hold a couple of sushi sale fund raisers on our behalf. The community has also been very supportive. Between Lisa and I, we have collected over $3000.00 from friends and family. We didn't ask for a penny of it, they just wanted to make sure that Molokai was well represented as we traveled. It really is nice. Now we can plan on a little more comfort when the need arises.

This past week saw some of the windiest weather yet. Riding in these high winds can be a little tricky, and toiling to say the least. You actually get more of a work out battling the winds than you normally would. The end of the week was easy as the wind subsided, bringing the temperatures up. I covered just under 130 miles cumulating in a 43 miler today. Once our bikes are shipped, I will concentrate mainly on road biking for fun.

My brother Ralph and his wife Carol took my mom on the Celebrity Millennium cruise last week. they went to Auckland New Zea land, and will island hop all the way back to Hawaii. It's a three week trip, and will be back on Molokai a few days before my departure. They are all old school, no e-mail, so I haven't been in touch with them since they left.

Things are slowly falling into place, and hopefully we will have a smooth transition. My daughter Krystal will meet Lisa and I at the Williams burg air port and spend the first day or two with us. She'll be vacationing in Virginia Beach. It'll be nice seeing her there and having a car to take in the scenery before hitting the road.

Thank you for your support, have a great week. Aloha, Ted.

Update week 2 of April

Lisa and I on kalua koi road

We take turns leading each other out.

Our camp site all set up and ready.

With thousands of miles ahead of us, we take it one mile at a time.

Hello everybody, sorry for the late update. Lisa and I were on another test over night ride this past weekend. It will be our last, since next week we will need to disassemble the bikes and equipment to get them ready for shipment. This is going to be a complicated process that will take a few days, and hopefully all of it will arrive at our destination as planned.

We were able to get the camping part done this time, and am pretty sure things will go well on the road. The weather was really nice, we stayed at Dixie Maru in the yard of one of the houses over there. I went for a 20 minute fishing trip and caught three fish. We ate them last night.

Sunday was also Lisa's birthday. She made 43, "Happy birthday Lisa!" We had brownies and ice cream along with a gut busting Mexican meal. We cheated, Fern and Terry made the meal while we kicked back after our ride.

Here is a short video of that day: