Cycling in and out for a few days

Between now and the Sunday the 18th, I'm going to be out of town, but with the assistance of the redoubtable Shawn I'll still be able to post. So please stop by regularly while I'm away--I plan to be gone but not forgotten.

Where am I going, you ask? Here, actually, with my esteemed colleague and traveling companion, the game-as-they-come Gary.

Why are we doing this, you ask? Tricky. A little of it was captured last spring, in a NYTimes article (now available online as pay-per-view only, I'm afraid) by Christopher McDougall with the ominous title "The Now or Never Athlete," about people Of a Certain Age who decide, without having spent a lifetime in training, to go after a difficult physical accomplishment. It portrays people who are a tad more extreme than your humble narrator, but it gives a little of the drift:

This is not a conventional midlife crisis, [psychiatrist and ultramarathoner] Dr. Lovy said. It is more a midlife convergence of heightened confidence, disposable income and a taste for travel.

The article also offers some encouraging case studies, such as this one:

Broc Bebout, a 57-year-old retired engineer from Indiana who had undergone bypass surgery, died of a heart attack last month after his ride of a lifetime, a six-week bicycling trek across the United States. "We all have a list of things we like to say we did," his widow told The Associated Press. "That was right up there at the top."

Relax, folks. I'll be back. Not only isn't this trip crossing the entire United States, it isn't even crossing the whole state of Oregon. So stay tuned.