Day 56 and thereafter - the ride has just begun

Day 56 (28 Sep 09) The Days After - Final Thoughts

From Len:

As I walk through JFK airport to catch a flight to Oakland, CA I am in cultural shock. All these people, all these handbags on sale, all this activity. The ride was a gift. It is a good way to see the US and a good way to see yourself. Lots of small towns, lots of variation (except for the incessant blather of Fox “News” in hotel breakfast areas).

How did two and then three 60+ year old men get along in close quarters all this time? I am sure we all had our own quirks and habits, but we knew that we had to ride. Ride we did. Averaged 80 miles a day through thick and thin. I am thankful for traveling with Jim; for his thoughtfulness and solid as a rock riding and planning. I am thankful for Toby coming and putting up with our drive born of a prior 3,000 miles of riding, and adding his element to the mix. I wished that more of our riding friends could have joined us and experienced such a ride.

I am thankful to my family for supporting and allowing me to take the time.

Now I have to re-learn how NOT to eat when ever I see food.

From Jim:

The transition from the intense microcosm of the ride to a more normal routine has been eased by staying in New Hampshire on a beautiful little lake and no need to interact with modern civilization. Tomorrow I will engage former medical school classmates at a 40^th reunion of Dartmouth Medical School. What will that be like? I have come to that reunion by a unique route: a cross country bike ride starting on the Pacific coast on the Olympic Peninsula of the state of Washington and ending in Bar Harbor Maine. I made the trip with a close friend with whom I have been riding for many years. We ride at the same pace and have compatible personal habits, both requirements for a trip that would last 55 days. Len has been a great riding companion; there a very few others, if any, with whom I would attempt such a two person adventure.

We began planning the trip about two years ago. This particular time was chosen to coincide with my retirement from the practice of pathology and because we were both still in excellent physical condition. In addition, for me, it was an opportunity to plan and prepare for a complex trip, thereby “easing” into retirement.

There were many challenges related mainly to weather and mechanical bicycle problems - the later requiring a call to Len’s bike mechanic in California to tell us how to adjust my rear wheel so I could continue to ride safely after breaking a spoke that we couldn‘t replace without a special tool. The nearest bike shop was 150 miles away. Just one of the things we take for granted at home and that just aren’t available in the middle of North Dakota or as it turned out in much of the country through which we traveled.

I hadn’t previously seen most of the country through which we have ridden and much of it has been spectacular. Your view from a bicycle cannot be duplicated by any other mode of travel. The people we have encountered along the way have been interesting and always friendly. Dan, President of the Clam Lake WI ATV club and self-appointed mayor of Clam Lake has been the most colorful and Truman Johnson of Bay City MI a close second. I will not forget them. We have religiously maintained a blog telling of our experiences along the way and the entire photo album is annotated thus, reinforcing the memories. My wife, Bev has been incredibly supportive despite the long separation. Boundless is my gratitude to Len and to Toby for making this a life-shaping experience. It has been an incredible journey.

From Toby:

My last memory of Maine turned out to be a demonstration of the truth a new friend, Gerry, expressed about Maine a couple of days earlier. During the first part of the ride on the last day, I saw various people returning from church to pound anti-gay marriage signs into their lawns. However, as I was grinding up a very steep hill outside of Bucksport in a vigorous rain, a woman in an old beater of a car rolled down her window as I was crossing (blocking?) the intersection where she was stopped and asked, "Would you like some hot soup." While I declined, the point was made - like most Americans, many people in Maine have dislikes of various groups in the abstract, but when they encounter someone in adversity, they have no hesitation in stepping up and helping if they can. While some think America is changing for the worse, I would offer that DeToqueville, in chronicling his travels in America in the 1830's, offered exactly the same observation of the Americans he encountered in his day. What I thus took from the last day of our ride, was that for all of its faults, what a great country this is.