lickety jackblog

Dudes!

After much hemming and hawing, I recently committed to joining our Polish Jackass friend out west in a cross-country bicycle trip. I'm flying out on June the 18th, and spending perhaps a day to carouse with the locals before we embark. The trip will make use of one of three general routes from the west coast to Chicago or further south, and it may continue on to New York (Greg has to be in NYC by around August 18th to prepare for legally supporting the demonstrators at the Republican National Convention).

To make the trip slightly more productive, and to focus what minimal energies we'll have after riding between 60 and 100 miles a day, we've decided (in part due to a suggestion from the Cold Cowboy) to interview people along the way and to get their opinions on the upcoming election, the state of the union, and to generally feel for the pulse of the U.S. of Type A.

However, the trip is very soon, and in some ways I feel ill-prepared-- at least with regard to the journalistic portion of the trip. There is no doubt in my mind that we will have an easy time talking to people. I've talked to others who have done similar trips in the past, and in many of the Podunk towns we pass thru, we will be big news. Two stupid kids trying to ride their bikes across the country are certain to raise eyebrows, and to get people prying. But I wanted to solicit some feedback about how we can best capitalize on the interest of the locals. How can we best engage them? What sorts of questions should we ask, and how should we try to focus this as an actual project?

I'd like to find out a little history about each of the towns we pass through, and include tidbits when I write about the whole thing, and I'm hoping that that in itself will help focus what bent it'll have. But I wanted to ask you dudes for any advice you're willing to give in that arena.

Also, I'm not sure she's definitely committed yet, but our own Penttilatron may be flying out to meet us mid-trip. We've booked a ticket with an airline which will drop her-- girl, bike and parachute-- out of a plane so that Greg and I needn't even slow our pace. She'll come in at roughly 60 mph, and hit the rode with a lot of momentum. But her fancy orange mountain bike has got great suspension, so none of us is worried about her ability to continue the trip unscathed. My 1982 Schwinn Traveller (which I bought for $30 bucks from a friend who bought it from a guy at the scrapyard) isn't built for such Spyhunter-inspired showmanship.

Let me know what you dudes think.

posted by Little Gordie @ 5:52 PM