Saturday, June 30, 2007

Last Supper (in Fair Lawn)

It's the night before we leave. We've decided to leave at 5am instead of 6. Better to be safe. The last thing we need is to miss the ferry in VT.

Schwimmer and I just went out to dinner with my parents. Big Italian meal was obviously a great idea before the trip. I am full and will get a solid night of sleep.

I just finished my final packing and everything is waiting in front of the door in the living room to be packed into the van. Earlier in the day we set up the bike rack on Mitch's mom's van while Mitch was partying at a wedding.

As of right now 9:40pm the night before, I am pumped. This is going to be one heck of a trip.

I was looking around the Internet for bike jokes and this is the best I could find. I give it a 6 out of 10...

http://www.jokesnjokes.net/funny.jokes.amusing.humor.laughs/Transportation/transportation.bicycle.cycling.001.htm

Border Crossing

A man on a bike, carrying two sacks on his shoulders, was stopped by a guard while crossing the US-Mexican border.

"What's in the bags?" asked the guard.

"Sand," the cyclist replied.

"Get them off. We need to take a look."

The guard emptied the bags and found out they contained nothing but sand. The man reloaded his bags and continued across the border. A week later, the same man was crossing again with two more bags. The guard demanded to see them, and again they contained nothing but sand. This continued every week for six months, until one day the cyclist failed to appear. A few days later, that same guard ran into the cyclist in the city.

"Hey, where have you been?" the guard asked. "You sure had us wondering! We knew you were smuggling something across the border. So tell me and I won't say a word. What was it?"

The man smiled and told him the truth. "Bicycles!"

Friday, June 29, 2007

36 Hours to go

I am getting extremely psyched for this trip now the countdown is on. I went on a geared up ride today and joined the Team Fair Lawn shaved head club. (See picture) Put in 25 miles with around 20 lbs. on the bike. It was a good ride and something that needed to be accomplished before we left. I just finished packing about 95% of my stuff only a couple odds and ends to through in early Sunday before we leave. All that stands between me and Vermont is Danielle's wedding and that should be a shocker to everyone when I show up with a shaved head. Next time I post it will be from the road. Hope everyone continues to follow us.

Shaved Head!


Shaved Head!
Originally uploaded by mjschwimmer
As promised

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Damn I look goooooood

I was only half kidding when I kept telling everyone I would shave my head for the bike trip and triathlon this summer. I think even my co-workers were a little doubtful I would follow through. Well you better believe on my lunch break today I shaved my head much to the dismay of my favorite east side Barber shop (Sutton Classic Cuts on 53rd and 3rd.) The barber had to be told at least 5 times that I am not joking and I want my head shaved!

I will be aerodynamic (Jesse Lubin style) on the trip now and can probably go days without shampoo living in the wilderness in Vermont. Picture to come soon. Due to bluetooth complications I can't get the camera phone picture from my co-workers phone so I'll have to wait until I get home tonight.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Jesse's First Geared Ride


Yesterday, I dedcided to take my first ride with all of my gear packed on the bike. Justin and Howard joined me. Justin and I left my house on our way to Howard's and I noticed that my trip computer was not working. I messed around with it for a few minutes and had determined it was broken. I then decided to go to Amber Bike Shop in FL to buy a new one which I did and figured I would install it later. We then proceeded to Howard's house.

We rode approximately 15 miles from my house to Saddle Brook and back. The ride was fairly uneventful until I received a call from my mom telling me an insurance adjuster from my Grandma's carrier was on his way over to look at some water damage she sustained. We had to turn around early because I thought I was going to have to make an emergency stop at my Grandma's to lend a hand with my expertise.

The ride was definitely not as hard as I thought it would be. I did notice that when I stop it takes longer to brake and I am not used the weight on the sides. I am not sure if I had the saddle bags packed evenly. The ride did not have too many hills and I'm sure those will be a little more difficult. Ok, maybe a lot more difficult.

I Hate GNC

I do love blogging though this thing is getting addicting...I was finally getting ready to do some last errand running so i can pack Friday night, and after getting some great deals at sports authority i decided to hit GNC and get some Clifs Bars and Gel Packs. I went up to the salesperson and asked what he recommended, and thats when the fun began. He said that he didn't believe in that stuff and there was a long pause until i told him what i was doing and he said well you can get them if you want but i don't recommend them. I said thanks for the great help and walked out. As I was walking back to my car I remembered the guy that Mike, Jesse, Mel, and I met at the Coffee Shop a couple weeks back that Jesse blogged about, and I think that I met his brother. This kid was the one that you loved to hate in school, the gym rat who only cared about lifting and taking creatin and power shakes. I ran into this guy and I can tell you if you knew him in high school he hasn't changed. Other than that it was a productive day, I got my bike back and plan on waking up to do an early ride before work tomorrow. Hopefully I can force myself to go.

Oh the Knees

I figured that going into this bike tour I should be fresh and ready to climb all those steep hills and be able to keep up with the other two more experienced riders, and then i went to my baseball game last night and all hell broke loose. I had tickets for the Mets game last night and I thought I would be a good teammate and give our starting catcher a break since he's caught most of the games, so I didn't go to the Mets game and took one for the team. Needless to say, after 6 innings and somewhere around 200 pitches my knees are not feeling all that great today. Looks like it will be a lot of rest for the next 3 days in preparation for departure. I'm going to the bike shop to pick up my bicycle tonight after I took it in for some fine tuning before our big departure. I am planning on riding the 10 miles or so from Westwood back to Fair Lawn tonight, and hopefully the knees hold up.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Homestretch (continued...)

On Saturday I loaded up my bike with all of the gear I plan to take on our trip and rode from Hoboken, NJ to Ridgewood, NJ (~30 miles.) The ride was definitely harder than I expected; the huge hills and insane wind along the Hudson River didn't help much! I mapped out a route using the GMAP Pedometer site. The hardest part was climbing the hills on the border of Edgewater and Fort Lee along River Road (just south of the George Washington Bridge.) Somehow I missed a turn in Hackensack and went a few miles out of my way but all in all it was a great experience. For better or worse that was the last training I'm planning on doing before our trip begins on Sunday.

Check out the Google Map we created of our route. The map will show all of our stops and eventually will include pictures and videos along the route.

The Homestretch

Well here we sit less than a week away from our expedition, and I'm still trying to iron out some issues with my bike. Last night, I decided to try and install my touring rack and a speedometer/odometer I was able to complete half of my intended project. I was able to get the touring rack all set up, and it looks good on the bike the only problem is that it isn't level or so the level says. From an eyeball view it looks good enough and sturdy enough to work. Putting on the speedometer/odometer was a whole different beast as I broke the straps when trying to tighten it so it needs to be returned to Sports Authority along with the 3 bike rack we bought since we were given a free one. On this trip anything free is better than spending more money!! Tomorrow I'm taking the bike in for a final tuneup and adjustment and to make sure I haven't done anything to mess it up in the past 3 weeks. I also need to ride with all my gear on to get a feel of how it will be on the road. I'll update on that adventure later in the week.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Mobile Blogging


Mobile Blogging
Originally uploaded by
mjschwimmer
I set up a mobile blog through Flickr so we can upload pictures along with our daily updates from our cell phones. Since I don't have any other pics on my cell phone memory card yet you'll have to deal with this picture of Yankee Stadium taken from the bleachers during Game 3 of the 2005 divisional series playoffs vs the Angels for now.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

10 days to go and my bike is ready to rock!

The countdown has reached 10 days before we embark on our journey around Vermont. We bought all of the necessary camping and bike gear over the past week. Last night I got motivated to install the bike rack and saddlebags so I could verify that my camping gear, clothing, first aid kit, beef jerky, cliff bars, spare tubes etc...would actually fit comfortably on my bike.

Check out this masterpiece:

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

How Did I Get Here??

It all began with an innocent question from Mike..."You want to come to Vermont with me and Jesse on a bike trip?" That started what will be my memorable trip to Vermont. After a little time thinking I decided that I would go on this trip consisting of upwards of 400 miles over 6 days in the summer. You might be thinking that I was a road warrior on the bike, however my fondest memories of riding a bike consisted of me crashing into a parked car while my cousin was trying to teach me how to ride when I was around 5 and having my bike stolen on my birthday when I was 12...some things you just don't forget. I haven't done much riding since leaving those middle school days. The last time I was on a bike was last summer in Byron Bay, Australia when I was riding around town with some buddies checking out the sites. Needless to say I had a lot of work to do to get ready for this trip. I have now purchased a road bike, accessories, and even tried to install the rack tonight however that didn't go over so well, the only thing between now and Vermont is two weeks of training and a trip to the bicycle shop to have them fix whatever I messed up trying to put the touring rack aka Y Bar (yep i've learned some terminology too) on the bike. If the trip is anything the great time we had shopping for this trip over 2 days it should be a fun next couple of weeks and the memories will definitley last a lifetime. Stay tuned to see what interesting situations we get ourselves into and to make sure I get home alive...

Happy Hour at Paragon

So its still 11 days before we leave on the trip. Last night we were in the city buying the last few items we need for the trip at Paragon Sports. We also went to the Coffee Shop for dinner in Union Square. Mike made a new friend who was pretty annoyed at the fact that we had all bought 5 spare bike tubes. I hope that we won't have to use them but who knows. I imagine that Mitch will go through a few just attempting to change a flat.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Fair Lawn Jewish Center to Vermont Bike Trip 2007!

Who would have thought that the three of us kids, who met at nursery school at the Fair Lawn Jewish Center in 1984 at the age of 3, would be crazy enough at the age of 26 to embark on a 7 day-400 mile bike ride around Vermont?

From July 1st-July 7th we will be biking through and camping out in Vermont, Quebec and New Hampshire. This blog was created to document the entire week that will no doubt be a lifelong great memory.

Check back for more updates soon!

We are biking The Green Mountains Loop; a route mapped out by Adventure Cycling Assocation.

Vermont Bike Trip Details