A hard truth I have learned on this deployment is that being stranded on a boat for months and months is not a good place to be for a cyclist.  Now that I think of it, it’s not really a good place to be for anyone, but if you like to ride bikes on big open roads, there’s really not much for you.

I’m a big fan of a cycling blog called Fat Cyclist, and if you are a cyclist, you should be too.  For the third year in a row, Fatty has put on a cycling event called the 100 Miles to Nowhere, where you ride your bike on a trainer or around a ridiculously short course for 100 miles. 

Admittedly, when I had first heard about the “100 Miles to Nowhere” I thought it was a horrible idea.  I admired the “bullheaded” nature of the effort, but who in their right mind rides 100 miles on a trainer or around their cul-de-sac?  Fast forward 2 years and here I am, 111 days into a deployment at sea on an amphibious carrier.  That’s 111 days without a single stop in port.  The only option to keep bike fitness from withering away is to ride the spinners in the ship’s gym.  Thankfully, I have a friend and co-worker out here with me who shares my love of cycling and keeps me motivated to get on the trainers.  We are both fans of Fatty, and when the ride was announced this year, we thought what better place to do it, than stuck on a hunk of steel floating in the Gulf of Aden?

With a flight schedule to contend with and the unreliability of mail out here, we figured the chances of receiving our ride kit on time and having the day of the ride as a free day were pretty slim.  However, the moons aligned and our kits arrived with a few days to spare and the ship even scheduled a rare “day off” to celebrate our half-way point on the deployment.  You have to understand that our ship, the USS NASSAU is over 30 years old, and I doubt the spinners in the gym are much younger than that.  We are Marines, so we are used to making due with less than perfect equipment.  Adapt and overcome, right?  It took a little maintenance and TLC to get the spinners up to speed for the ride, including gerry-rigging a cyclocomputer on the bike and sewing some homemade straps for the toe clips.  Shannon even mailed me my saddle and some of my cycling gear from home to make the ride a little more enjoyable.

John (the other rider) came through with the “support” equipment too.  In order to keep our heads in the game and break up the monotony, we plugged his laptop into the TV in the gym so we could watch some old cycling races.  It made the ride a lot more fun and enjoyable.  We had a great deal of support from our friends and co-workers during the ride, including manning the feed zone and taking pictures.  We even had our own domestique who brought us ice-filled water bottles and even rode the last 40 miles with us.

We completed the ride in 4:50, with only a few “comfort breaks”.  Including our breaks, our total time was under 5:10.  All things considered, the ride went by much faster than we had expected and I dare say it was even fun.  Our only regret from the day was having to do it all inside.  We had grand plans to ride the last hour on the flight deck or one of the catwalks on the ship.  Due to some logistical issues, we couldn’t make that happen.  All in all it was a huge success though.

Seeing as there is zero opportunity to ride a bike out here, it was the closest either of us had to a real day of cycling (we even busted out legit cycling kit, despite the opinion of lycra among most Marines).  So we would like to thank Fatty (and his hairbrained ideas) for giving us the opportunity to “escape” for a day.  There was a Navy photographer there to document the event, so we wound up with a ton of cool pictures.  If you care to see more, check out the gallery here.

USS Nassau with the 24th MEU

It appears Jason’s ship and the entire 24th MEU left Haiti on February 7th and are headed back toward the Mediterranean where they were originally scheduled to go.  There is an article here that talks about the impact Jason’s MEU has had on the relief effort in Haiti, and their current travel plans.

Some of the contributions made by the 24th MEU include treating more than 100 victims of the devastating earth quake, constructing a 250-bed interim aftercare medical facility in Port-au-Prince, conducting 82 lifesaving medical evacuations, and delivering hundreds of boxes including food and water.

I will keep updating the blog when I find media updates on Jason’s unit.

While Jason can’t access Facebook, he has set up notifications to let him know when someone writes on his wall or sends him a message.  You can also find updates about the 24th MEU by becoming “a fan” of them on Facebook.  You have to love the technology!

Jason and I are still able to email regularly, which is a wonderful treat, but I do miss his voice.  This is definitely different than his last vacation deployment to Japan.  Back then, we could eat meals together with the help of Skype and he could watch and talk with Faye while she played in front of the computer screen.  This is definitely not a hardship compared to the lives of many other marines and those who came before email.  Time seems to be passing quickly enough and we are still making lots of plans to keep the calendar exciting.  All in all, the Rubin family are all happy and well.

Jason took the above picture while riding in an Osprey.  I am sure he will have a ton of great photos to share when this is all said and done.

Interesting story with a happy ending.  Read about the baby found on Jason’s ship here.

Here is a recent news article on the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Jason is a part of.  Still no word on how long they will be in Haiti.

Read more here.

I just found another article which gives a better idea of how Jason’s MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit), and more specifically his ship expects to help in the relief efforts in Haiti beginning this weekend.  According to the article, his ship has one of the largest ship-borne hospitals in the US Navy and is expected to act as a hospital providing beds for many victims.  According to Wiki, the USS Nassau has a 300 bed hospital, 4 medical operating rooms and 3 dental operating rooms.  Read more here.