The Quest - 50 States, 50 Centuries

One hundred miles.  You’ll commonly hear cyclists asking each other whether they’ve ever ridden “a century”, a lofty goal that for cyclists is the rough equivalent of running a marathon.  Yes, some people are able to go further, but for most, once they’ve gotten to 100 there’s no need to prove themselves further, except perhaps to go find another century to do that’s more epic in one way or another.

Once Beth and I realized in the early 2000s that our 40+ -year old knees, hips, and other moving body parts were not going to withstand decades of additional long-distance running, we started looking for another way to punish ourselves.  We discovered cycling, and before long both of us were able to complete a 100-mile ride.  We then started searching for challenging rides and events to do around the country.

One of our adventures took us to Virginia in 2012, where there was a six-day ride with a longest day of 80 miles.  Beth pointed out that if we just logged 20 miles before everyone else woke up that we could end the day with 100.  “Furthermore”, she said, “wouldn’t it be neat if we were able to do a 100-mile ride in every State?”.   Although originally skeptical, John ultimately embraced the idea when he realized that this would give him something to talk about at dinner parties for many years to come.  We rode 100 miles that day, bringing our total to 10 States, and then over the next seven years added another 23, so that we’ve now done 100-mile rides in 33 States, most of them in the east and south but a few (such as Oregon and Alaska) much further out there.

It has been a great adventure so far, but the pace of our quest has slowed as we’ve had to travel further and further afield to States that are still on the “to do” list.  During a 2019 adventure planning session last fall with our Rand McNally Road Atlas, we realized that with our 60^th birthdays approaching that we’d best get on our horses and get this thing done or we’d be doing it in wheelchairs.  We then set out to develop an itinerary that would take us through the balance of the States in the continental U.S. in as efficient a manner as possible.  On Saturday, May 18, we hop in our loaded Dodge Caravan with two single bikes, a tandem, and a whole lot of stuff necessary to execute the plan. 

If all goes well, we’ll be doing 100 mile rides on the following schedule, plus or minus a day or two:

·         5/19       Yellow Springs, Ohio

·         5/21       Tell City, Indiana

·         5/23       Dixon Springs, Illinois

·         5/27       Winona, Missouri

·         5/29       Franklin, Nebraska

·         5/30       Stockton, Kansas

·         6/3         Boise City, Oklahoma

·         6/5         Taos, New Mexico

·         6/11       Laramie, Wyoming

·         6/13       Jackson, Wyoming (into Idaho)

·         6/15       West Glacier, Montana

·         6/19       Colville, Washington

·         6/25       Kulm, North Dakota

·         6/28       Sisseton, South Dakota

·         7/1         Brainerd, Minnesota

·         7/3         Cable, Wisconsin

·         7/5         Grand Marais, Michigan

·         7/10       HOME!

If it goes as planned, this little stunt will bring the total number of States where we’ve completed centuries to 49.  We’ll celebrate by topping things off with Hawaii in January 2020. 

 

What could possibly go wrong?  We can’t think of a thing.