Big Ride Alaska – July 4th – 5th

A little catch-up is in order.

This has certainly been a different Big Ride experience from the very beginning. In the past the rides have always left out of Seattle, so the preparation of the bike and packing has been easy. Throw the bike on the car carrier, stuff the gear bags and drive up to Seattle. This time the ride left out of Fairbanks, so the logistics were just a touch more complicated. Flew up to Seattle on the 4^th of July and stayed with Courtney and Chuck. Courtney is riding this year's Big Ride, and has ridden all the other Big Rides with me as well.

Saturday morning we were off to the airport to catch our flight to Fairbanks. After a missed connection in Fairbanks (wasn't there a time when the airlines would hold a flight for a couple of minutes?) we made it to the hotel in Fairbanks. The rest of the afternoon was spent reassembling bikes and making a few laps around the parking lot to make sure nothing fell off.

Later that afternoon we ended up meeting some other Big Riders in the hotel bar (what a surprise) and later that evening had an orientation meeting for those of us doing the ride on behalf of the American Lung Association of Washington.

One of the other unique features of this ride is that we're a mix of people that paid to come on the ride (the 'retail' customers as I call them), and those of us who groveled for the charity (the 'unwashed'). So far the retail and the unwashed are mixing well; once you're stuffed into spandex we're all the same.