Well, some time has passed since my last posting, so now I need to get serious about filling you in on what's been going on. In less than two months, we'll be starting our Ride Across America. It's pretty exciting! I've been doing lots of riding to prepare. In the past twelve months, I've ridden over 5,600 miles. That includes: 6 century rides (including the Death Ride which was 129 miles, and over 15,000 vertical feet in one day), a ride along the entire Oregon coast, rides between home and work (approx. 8.5 miles each way), and lots of local rides. I'm blessed to be in a place where I can ride year 'round, although there are many mornings when it's pretty cold (except by Midwest standards--midwesterners wouldn't consider 30 degrees to be all that cold). Where we live, I can ride on the level if I want or do some serious hill climbing. One of the rides I regularly take includes 8 miles of 10 percent slope. The elevation gain is 4,500 feet in about 37 miles. Over spring break my wife and in-laws accompanied me on a trip to Oregon. They rode in an RV (my SAG wagon) while I rode ahead on my bike. It was pretty wet and cool but still a lot of fun. I completely wore through a chain on the trip due to wet weather and road grime and had quite a few flat tires. I learned my lesson about using cheaper tires. The more expensive tires I had before rarely had flats. I've gone back to them and will use them on the big ride. The pictures you see are ones from the Oregon trip I took the last week in March. There is also a picture from the top of the hill on Orr Springs which is the 10% grade road. It starts about 7 miles from my house and climbs for about 7 miles. I go to the back side of the hill then turn around and come back. It takes me a little less than 3 hours to ride the 37 miles. If you'd like to see more pictures from my Oregon bike trip, click on the following link: http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/nn159/wordwarrior1/?albumview=slideshow