My Mom’s friend, Anita Grice, sent an email to my Mom with several questions. I thought others following my pilgrimage might enjoy seeing my answers to her questions which are below:
“When is this young man coming home?”
Should be back in Atlanta in March or April which would be just about a year on the road. The provision being – as long as the body, will and $ hold up – so far so good!
“Or maybe he will relocate, he has certainly fallen in love with our country.”
Will initially return to Atlanta but not sure where I will end up. So many of the places I have been so far are appealing – often on the trip “wherever I am is where I want to be”. It helps that I am there – not working, in very nice areas and often experiencing the best time of year weather-wise. We shall see.
We certainly have a beautiful country with many diverse landscapes and places. Strangely enough I love big cities – was just in San Francisco and loved walking around and experiencing all the energy and activity of the city. Also love small towns that have a town square where you get the sense that everyone knows each other.
“How does his body hold up?”
It certainly helps that I am once again in an area of the country where I have friends so am able to visit and rest.
When not visiting friends I have tried to take one rest day a week which helps. It has also been important to listen to my body – there have been a couple of occasions where I have just been worn out.
For instance when I was crossing the Northern Cascade Mountains in Washington state I was eager to get to the coast to see friends but realized I did not have the strength/energy to climb the final pass the next day – after having done pretty good climbs the four previous days – so I holed up in Mazama, WA for a rest day.
“How does he not get lonely?”
Occasionally I do get lonely but for the most part I am somewhat introverted and content with the solitude of the bike.
I also have had the good fortune of having friends, friends of friends and family of friends all over the country who I have been able to visit and who have shown me wonderful kindness and hospitality.
Even though I am something of an introvert – 6…7…8 or so hours on a bike can bring out the extrovert in me and at the end of the day I can just about talk to a wall.
It is great that my loaded down bike makes a great conversation starter. People always want to know where I am going, where I started, how long has it taken me, why am I doing it, am I raising money for a cause, etc. The people who ask are often very interesting themselves so I feel like I have met strangers who are now friends and several are now following my trip like yourself – there was a grandmother I met at a Drug Store Lunch Counter in Pennsylvania, the guy at the bike shop in Saratoga Springs, the family of four I met in South Dakota who were from Brooklyn, the 70+ year old biker I met in Montana and the adventurer/financial advisor I just met in Petaluma.
Actually, that is one of the great unknowns of each day – who will I meet and how long will I spend talking to them and will it make me lake getting to a planned destination.
Finally, this has been a pilgrimage and when I used the word “solitude” above I used it in the sense of being away from people but never apart from GOD. I try to use time on the bike to talk to GOD (Pray) and sometimes even try to listen. One of the great desires of this trip was to grow closer to GOD and there are many ways that GOD has met me on the trip – beauty of creation, experiencing care and kindness of GOD’s people to me and to others, GOD’s care as I have had great weather for the most part and in general just a sense of GOD’s presence as I have travelled.
“Does he ever feel afraid??”
Sometimes but surprisingly not often – having a deer run next to and above me on an embankment not sure if it is going to turn toward me and run into me – it did not, accidentally ended up on the Pulaski Skyway outside of NYC a two-lane elevated highway with no shoulder where the exit was a left-lane exit, in Rhode Island flying down hill during bumper to bumper traffic when someone decided to be nice and let a car in from a driveway and I thought I was going to hit the car and go flying over the roof, staying in a rustic campground in Montana where there was only one other couple camping and lots of animal noises, encountering long horn sheep grazing road-side and not knowing if my handlebars might be mistaken for horns and I might be deemed a challenger to be charged and finally descending a mountain pass in Washington when trying to give a car behind me room to pass my speed and momentum took me a little closer to the guard rail than I would have liked considering the drop on the other side.
Never really been afraid of people and only rarely have I had cars pass me where I felt they were going too fast to be so close to me.
“He seems to have it mapped out so well, but I am thinking what happens if he doesn’t get to his camp ground before dark and so on?”
My Dad has done a great job of providing route planning support. Often he will provide me with several campground options at different distances. This has been invaluable as I can go shorter if tired and travel is hard or I can go further if I feel good and am making good time. On occasion I do have to travel at night if I am running late to a destination – the latest was in Portland, ME when I had friend’s parent’s condo to stay at – I arrived at 11:30pm after traveling 113 miles.
I do not like to ride at night but I do have a headlight and a taillight that are self-powered by a dynamo hub in my front wheel. Also, have a bright yellow fluorescent triangle on the back of my bike along with reflectors on my panniers so I am pretty visible.
I did just miss hitting a tire that was laying on the right-hand side of the shoulder when riding at night recently because it was not very visible.
On a few occasions I have set out in the morning not knowing where I was going to camp but GOD has always provided. One night I even stopped at a Christian camp where I was told that I could not camp there due to insurance concerns and was then told where I could find a spot to camp on the camp property. This is one of those areas where I have felt GOD’s care for me through the provision of places to stay especially on those days where I do not start with a planned destination.
“Fill me in with some details.”
Hope the above helps and is not too many details.
