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| Yorktown beach, with Bonnie |
And so it begins...with a dip of the rear wheel into the Atlantic waters on the Yorktown, Virginia beach on May 14, 2016.
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| Traditional east starting point, Revolutionary War Battle of Yorktown Memorial |
This year is the 40th anniversary of the first developed cross-US bike route, created in 1976 as Bikecentennial when 4,100 bicyclists rode part of the route and slightly more than 2,000 completed the entire route from Astoria, OR to Yorktown, VA. Most groups started from the west, but some began at Yorktown as I am doing. Forty years ago few thought about spending the summer riding 4,000 to 5,000 miles across a country. This is a celebratory ride for me, to honor the inspiration of a handful of individuals who pursued a dream of seeing many bicycle coast to coast...Greg Siple who had the original idea, June Siple who named it, Dan Burden who gave organizational skills, and Lys Burden who took a job to support the young organization initially based out of the Burden apartment in Missoula, MT.
