(Day 49) Friday, 24-June-2022

Well, I can cross “ride my bicycle across America” off my bucket list. After dipping our tires in the Atlantic this morning, (still can’t believe I just typed that), we traveled back to the hotel, had a pizza party for lunch, and shared some final stories/laughs/hugs with our fellow riders/families/friends. Truly a bittersweet time. Then, I took a good, long, guilt-free nap this afternoon. It’s going to take a little time to process all that’s gone on these last 7 weeks, but just a few quick thoughts:

1) I think the most memorable parts of your life happen at the edge of your comfort zone. And I can promise you, I was certainly out of my comfort zone at several times throughout the trip. For example, I’d never done a desert crossing on a bicycle, and we did two of them. Unless you live near a desert, how does someone train for that?

2) I know for me, (and I’m pretty certain I speak for others as well), I think we have a habit of underestimating ourselves. We are all much more capable than what we think we are. I went into this adventure with the philosophy of: when faced with a big project, you break it down to smaller pieces. It’s the old “how do you eat an elephant” scenario. (One bite at a time.)

3) And I think victory is sweeter when you’ve had to overcome some challenges. We had to navigate around the forest fires in New Mexico, we came upon road construction that was not anticipated, we had aches and pains in the legs/feet/knees/back/shoulders, and if I may state the obvious… the posterior. We had extremely long days with strong headwinds, spitting rain, and terrible road surface, all of which tested our metal strength. But we persevered and kept going.

I’ve got a lot more thoughts to share, but we’ll get to that in the coming days. For now, I’ve got to do some packing for the flight home to Atlanta where I can begin to acclimate back to “normal” life. And… start planning the next adventure!!

Thanks to all of you following along and sending me words of encouragement. I didn’t let on, but this old geezer had a few tough days, and reading your comments has been very special to me. I appreciate every one of you, and y’all traveling along with me has made this a much richer experience.