5,000 miles for the Anchor House kids- riding out tomorrow

It's hard to believe, but this will be my 10th year pedaling my bicycle in the Anchor House Ride for the Runaways. At 500 miles per event, that makes 5000 miles by the end of this ride -when strung together that's easily a cross U.S. trip (which I am planning to do in 2021). I am humbled by the generous support of my amazing friends, family and colleagues who have helped me raise over $30,000 over the years for Anchor House and its mission to provide at-risk children with shelter, support, and guidance. I've raised $6,600 so far this year- if you haven't had a chance to contribute and would like to see this Link. If you're not interested in contributing, no worries and enjoy the blog!

Pennsyl Hill Ya!

This year's ride will take me to some new bicycling territory - western Maryland up to western PA and across the state from Altoona in the Appalachian Mountains to State College to West Hazelton. From Hazelton we're on to more familiar territory as we head up and over the Poconos to Bethlehem and then on to Trenton NJ. This will be the first Anchor House where I have lived in every state we ride through and where three of our family were born (Adam in Md, Sabina in Pa, and KC in NJ).

Speaking of Adam, after riding three Anchor Houses in a row, he's sitting this one out for a good reason- he's getting married in less than a month. So no rooming with my boy this year, but the good news is that I'm back with my original room mate for my first five Anchor House rides, the awesome Jack Hayon. Who said I don't know Jack! (BTW, no Pan Mass Challenge for me this year as it's the same weekend as Adam's wedding- easy decision but I will miss the PMC).

Adam, Ken, Gabe Hayon, Jack, and Ben Hayon

I got some bad news one week before the ride from the mechanic who was checking over my beloved Serotta Ottott. He found a crack in my frame! A crack in your frame is never a good thing and this one is in a titanium lug that joins the seat stay to the chain stay, a part of the bike that gets a lot of torque. There's no way I can ride the bike. This should not happen to a well made bike, even one with over 20,000 miles on it, definitely a manufacturing defect. 

My bike is not what it's cracked up to be

So what to do? Within two hours of emails and phone calls I found a long term solution - a custom bike shop in Mass (Geekhouse) that will fix my bike in a few weeks. And a short term solution - a bike for the ride. My good friend Pete Garnich, who owns Knapps Cyclery in Trenton NJ, and who sold me my Serotta, offered to me without hesitation to borrow his Serotta Ottrott for the week (he's a mountain biker and doesn't ride the Serotta much). Wow! I went from desperation and not knowing what I would ride for 500 miles to having the perfect replacement bike. And even better, Pete is the roving mechanic for the Anchor House ride. I am one fortunate guy!!   

My savior - Pete Garnich and the awesome Henry Garnich

On Thursday evening we loaded up our bikes on a tractor trailer  truck with the help of a couple of suspect bike loaders and the able guidance of Pete Garnich.

140 bikes on the truck!

I stayed locally in NJ with my lovely friends Silvia and Clive who offered to throw a little potluck dinner Friday night for local friends of Ken- fun evening! On Saturday all the riders converged on

Our gang

Waterfront Park in Trenton where we loaded ourselves on buses and drove out to McHenry, Md. Tomorrow we ride- 65 mile day with 4790 feet of climbing. Sounds perfect to me! And it's all for the kids! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for reports from Day 1. 

Footnote- a special shout out of support to my brother Keith who was badly injured yesterday in a freak accident while working out in his gym. This ride's for you brother!!