By Able Rae - Amelia Islander August 2006
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gallons of Gatorade, consumed some 70 hot fudge sundaes, burned around 5,000 calories per day, and lost 20 pounds. Jay-Paul said most of the women were disappointed when they actually gained weight, but . . . doesn't muscle weigh more than fat?
Typically, breakfast included fruit, oatmeal, hot chocolate, cold cereal, coffee, and pastries. Lunch was made at breakfast-time and packed to eat on the road. It included cold cuts or peanut butter and jelly. Who would have thought that group mediation skills would be needed over sandwiches? But compromises had to be made: crunchy or smooth? grape or raspberry? with or without seeds? Dinners included spaghetti, rice and beans, curry, and even an occasional cookout. The whole group gathered around and it turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip. Only twice in seven months did people resort to fast food meals.
Sightseeing was factored into the schedule. Five days in Yellowstone yielded sightings of seven bears including a mother with two cubs. And, although it wasn't planned, Katrina visited New Orleans barely a month and a half before the 'Bikers rode through and saw first hand the grim aftermath.
Nine thousand three hundred and one miles after starting this adventure, Jay-Paul rolled into St. Augustine where he, as is the custom, dipped his bike's front wheel into the Atlantic. Since he's been back, he's put together a website of the trip, www.southerntier-2005.com, and is organizing himself for his next adventure: re-entering the job market.
After having the guts, determination, and fortitude to bicycle all the way around the United States, developing friendships with fellow bikers from Denmark, Ireland, Australia, The Netherlands and Canada, certainly his resume is much improved.
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So what does a Gen-Xer do when he is at loose ends after selling his dot-com business? He gets on his bicycle and rides around the United States.
For the past six years, Jay-Paul Thibault had been doing the entrepreneurial thing behind a computer in Atlanta, exercising only his brain and fingers. When he sold his business, he put his worldly belongings into storage, threw his cats in the car and headed to his father's place on Amelia. His father, Paul Thibault, had moved here in 1997 from Maine. You can recognize him anywhere. He's the one in shorts while the rest of us are wrapped in polartec. And he was good enough to cat-sit while his son spent seven months on the road.
In the late 80's, Jay-Paul Thibault had taken another bike trip, Seattle to Bar Harbor, a mere 4,600 miles, and he had, in college, spent time hiking around Kenya. Adventure outings requiring mental and physical stamina were nothing new.
This trip was divided into three legs: East/West, from Virginia to Seattle; North/South, from Seattle to San Diego; and West/East, from San Diego to St. Augustine. A total of 200
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days biking, with fewer than 20 days total spent under a roof the rest of the time he slept in a tent carried on his fully loaded touring bike. Bike and gear weighed about 80 pounds. The trip average was 50 miles per day, bur one extraordinary day began a solo trip at 5 a.m. in Scott City, Kansas, and ended 220 miles later in Pueblo, Colorado, around 2:30 a.m.
Each leg of the trip was different. The East/West leg had 16 people and everyone took turns cooking, so that Jay-Paul and a partner only cooked every eight days. Usually the group camped within a five-mile radius of a grocery store. The food budget was $10 per day, per person, so $160 would feed sixteen people three meals a day and they saved money. Jay-Paul estimates that he ate 20 pounds of oatmeal (dry weight), drank 100
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