Day 1 - Kansas City to Orlando to Poinciana

Morning came early.  Made it to the airport without any problems.  Event the TSA people were very nice, and did a fantastic job of repacking and retaping my bike box together.  That made me feel a little more comfortable.

The flight was uneventful, I got all my luggage without problems and began to assemble my bike on the curb at the airport.  Several funny looks, but no real hassles.

From 2010-03-17 Day 1

 I cut down the cardboard boxes and placed them behind a trashcan.  I needed to stop by the local bike shop for a couple of last minute items, so I had to get out of the airport.  Just inside the automatic doors was a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing.  I asked him, "What is the easiest way to ____ street?".  He answered, "get on that bus right there, the teal one".  I responded, "No, I have my bicycle".  He looked at me and said, "no problems, there is a rack on the front".  He didn't get it.  I wanted to ride out.  I asked him if I could ride out and he just shrugged his shoulders.

So, I rode through the gates, and into amazingly scary traffic.  It went almost instantly to a highway, with traffic merging from both the right and the left.  Welcome to cycle touring, Chris.  I darted all the way to the right, and looked for somewhere less intimidating.  As I was riding, a big pickup screamed by me, and proceeded to pull off into the grass ahead of me.  I thought, "oh, great, one mile in and some crazy guy wants to beat me up".  As I pulled past him, he was just sitting there.  I asked him, "do you know the easiest way to a non-highway?"  He had no idea.  Of course not.  He was lost getting out of the airport too.

About 1 mile further down the road, I made it to the end of the highway and onto a regular city street.  As I was crossing the last merging on ramp, I heard a horrible 'wham' and then some dragging. Stopping immediately, I looked back and found my first technical mishap of the trip.  I had only finger tightened the bolts on my back rack, and the upper half just slid right out.  Whoops.  Surely there will be lots of rookie mistakes on this trip.

The bike shop was easy to find, and soon enough I was on my way.  Progress was cruising right along, but the traffic in Orlando isn't great.  Even on a bike, there was an amazing amount of stop and go.  Eventually, I got out into less dense areas, and enjoyed the weather and the riding.

From 2010-03-17 Day 1

I made it to Poincianna, where I had two very awesome hosts put me up for the night.  They cooked me a fantastic dinner, told me about their 12 month global bike ride, and loaded me up with tons of great advice.

Day 1 - 40 miles.  

Trip to date - 40 miles.

And so it begins.