Final Thoughts

Thank you very much for following my journey across the United States.  I received a lot of positive comments on the blog and by email.  It was very nice for me to know that people were out there watching and perhaps being entertained by my travels.  I was comforted, entertained and inspired by your messages.  I would like to make sure you get what Paul Harvey would have referred to as “the rest of the story.”

First of all is the tale of the tape.  For the journey, I traveled 3153 miles, ascended 92,874 feet and averaged 11.8 miles per hour.  I crossed 8 states and had 11 flat tires.  The extra calorie burn from the ride was 169,378.  I lost about 12 pounds during the ride.

We started with 10 days over 100 degrees and had one day of freezing.  I saw the sun every day during the 65 day adventure.  The only thing that I brought with me that I did not use was my rain gear.  We had one rain shower on a layover day.  I feel I must mention that the day after the ride, the St Augustine/Jacksonville area experienced winds of 80 miles per hour and extremely heavy rain showers and had a high of 50 degrees.

We had 15 people start the ride, 12 made it the whole way, and one missed a portion, so we had a total of 13 people arrive in St Augustine.  I am very happy to say that the group that finished, nearly 40,000 combined miles, did not have a major injury or illness.  I have not said a lot about the other riders, but assure you that they were excellent cyclists, interesting people and the group dynamic added a lot to the trek.

I would like to thank Julie for not only supporting this journey but encouraging me the entire way.  I consider myself a very lucky person to have had this opportunity.

My motivation for doing this trip was not very complicated.  I love cycling, travel, history, physical challenges, adventure and to have a goal.  As my cousin Karen and sister Judy added eloquently to the blog, our family has thankfully prized experiences over possessions.  I have been fortunate to have a lot of fine adventures with my education; career and family travel, but was unable to take that epic adventure because of actual or perceived constraints.  I really don’t consider this a “bucket list item” but just part of the way I would like to live my life.

I was confident that with the exception of illness, injury or family crisis, that I would complete the ride.  My biggest concern was whether I would enjoy the event that I had planned for an anticipated for so long.  The answer is an overwhelming YES.

The breadth and beauty of this country is astounding.  It is even more apparent when you get off the interstate and see it at 11 miles per hour.  The people are friendly, interested and interesting.  I meet many interesting characters over the expanse of this country.  There were my co-riders, other riders on the journey we met and people that would engage you in conversation at any stop in any town.

However, for me, the best part of the trip was the riding.  While the blog only captured a microcosm of the beauty in pictures, I experienced the sights, smell and feeling of the countryside for hours at a time.  

While those of you who do not cycle may think that you have too much time or would get bored being on a bicycle for 6 hours a day, I feel that just the opposite is true.  Your mind is alert, but involved in the sensing of your bike, the road, your body and environment.  Before you know it, you are 30 miles down the road.  It is not like being in a car and not remembering the route.  You are very aware, but just relaxed and having benefited from the experience.  There are moments of stress and physical difficulty, but those are eclipsed many times over by those of sheer serenity.

I would like to leave you all with the one lesson that I learned everyday on the trip.  I am sure it is not a new lesson for anyone.  What is important is the journey.  The destination was St Augustine and to cross a country, but the objective was to see the country.  I feel that was accomplished by getting up looking forward to what each day would bring.  It might be a big climb, a plain stretch of desert or just a long ride, but it was all new and interesting.

As for what is next for me, I am not exactly sure.  I know I enjoyed this enough to do it again.  I would probably go with a smaller group or more independently.  I would like to see other routes across the country and perhaps cycle in other countries and continents.  All I know is that as I look out my window at the snow and look at the thermometer at 12 degrees, I have a long winter and ski season to contemplate that question.  What I do know is that I am going to do my very best to enjoy each and every one of those days until I get back in the saddle.