End of the ride

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Reflections on the Journey

Wednesday, April 30 - Day 39

The end of the trip. I am here at the Atlantic Ocean in St. Augustine.

I can’t believe my trip has come to an end and I am sad about it. Tomorrow morning I will not be jumping on my bike. It has been an incredible journey seeing the country unfold in its ever changing terrain, landscape, different vegetation and color, and experiencing the kindness of the people along the way. Each state was different, and I was surprised how beautiful the Southern states were with lots of trees and wild flowers, and how friendly the people were.

Most of all I remember the people I met – from the woman in Texas who passed me on the road and turned her car around and offered me a bottle of water to the guy in Louisiana who told me of a much better road with wide shoulders paralleling the narrow, busy road he saw me attempting to bike. I am glad I followed his advice. People wishing me a good and safe journey and offering their help if I needed it whenever I talked to them. The trains passing me out in the country and the engineers greeting me with a short toot on the whistle when they saw me biking. Other bikers I met on the road. The Belgium couple biking from Florida to California, who had biked all over the world and said the best country to bike tour in was the U.S. because of the generousity and kindness of the American people, which they did not experience in any other country. The bikers who biked the route via the warm shower tour. They use a website www.warmshowers.org which lists people offering their hospitality to touring byciclists for a warm shower, a hot meal, a comfortable bed or simply a camping spot in their back yard. And one of my fellow bikers met Tom out there who was running across the states and one day he did 74 miles. Can you imagine – that is about 3 marathons on a single day.

I never had trouble with drivers on the road – they all were very courteous and gave me plenty of space. The only trouble I had was with dogs – dogs chasing me on country roads in Lousiana and Alabama, and it was frightening. Road conditions were not always optimal and Lousiana had the worst roads. The best riding conditions were in Florida. And biking through New Mexico and Texas I had very strong winds, at times strong head winds, which made it difficult to bike. The winds subsided once I got into Louisiana.

Doing the trip on a bike gave it a different dimension. In a car you pass things by much too quickly for them to sink in. On a bike, you travel slowly seeing things up close, smelling and hearing things – you live it! I can still smell the honeysuckle while biking through the Southern states.

Whould I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat! And I hope to be out there again with my bike exploring different regions.

And most of all, thank you for supporting this ride with your generous donations to the children at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The donations have now reached over $3000.00. THANK YOU!