Jacob Friend
YAYYY!!!! DAY 0!!!! After months of preparation and excitement, today is finally the day we get to set out on our adventure. Before I dive into the details about our long travel day, I want to give a bit more information about why I decided to embark on this journey.
My first exposure to camping trips was at Camp Don Lee. Since about second grade (2011), every summer I went to this overnight sailing camp on the Neuse River where I met lifelong friends and engaged in lots of tomfoolery. Summers spent at camp are a large part of what has sparked my interest to explore the outdoors.
Friend, age 9(?), sailing at Camp Don Lee.
Since sailing was a fun outlet for me, going into college I thought it would be a great idea to try out for the NC State sailing team. That’s where I met Jacob Usher. We instantly became best friends and ended up being roommates from sophomore to senior year of college. Usher and I both studied computer science and we ended up sharing a few classes with Michael where we all became close friends very quickly. Sophomore year (2023) Michael and Usher took me on my very first backpacking trip at Smokey Mountain National Park and we’ve been going on trips together ever since.
Friend, Michael, Usher, and friend backpacking in the Smokies.
When Michael brought up the idea of joining Brian on the Bike Tour as a fun graduation trip, I was a little skeptical. I hadn’t owned a bike since middle school and I’ve never been on a camping trip longer than 3 nights. Fast forward to Day 0 and I still barely know how to take the wheels off my bike, but we’re here and I couldn’t be more stoked.
Enough about me… Day 0!!! We all spent the night in Chapel Hill and got to RDU airport at 4:40am. Since we shipped our bikes and most of our gear in bike boxes last Saturday (Day -7), there wasn’t much we had to carry with us other than one pannier each and our helmets. Our first flight departed at 6am to our layover in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From there, we landed at Portland, Oregon around 11:30am PDT.
Brian doing some last minute route planning in the Minneapolis airport
Michael has a friend that lives in Portland named Varun who was kind enough to pick us up from the airport, drive us to Florence, and camp with us for the first night! I’ve only known Varun for a day and I already love the guy. Huge shoutout to him for helping Day 0 run super smoothly!
We shipped our bikes to Florence Motorsports and that’s where we retrieved them around 4:00pm. Our bike boxes were banged up a little more than we hoped for, but all of the damages we discovered have been fairly minor so far. After assembling our bikes for over an hour, it really started to hit us that we are biking across the country. We’ve all been smiling pretty big today 😄
Once our ducks were in a row, we biked to the nearest grocery store, then to a nearby campsite to end a nearly 22 hour day of traveling. It’s only Day 0 and the level of support we’ve received from our friends and family is unreal. Thank you to everyone who has sent us words of encouragement and helped us get here! Can’t wait to get on the saddle tomorrow!!