So today was my last day of riding on this wonderful journey. Tomorrow I don't get up and pack the bike, air the tires and roll out, and I already kind of miss it. Was it worth it? Heck, yeah! Would it have been better with someone along to share the experience? Yes, it would have better to share it with someone. but I am so glad I did it anyway, even by myself. It was definitely worth it and I am so glad I did not postpone the trip. There are some advantages being alone. I can stop any time I want and shoot a picture and I shoot eighty to a hundred pictures each day. It was a tremendous experience. It was fun, it was a challenge, it was an accomplishment, and it was so beautiful so much of the time.
So, what did I learn? What did I observe? Now that I have done the west coast and part of the east coast, how would I compare each coast? I, of course, learned that I am independent and self sufficient enough to accomplish a challenge like this by myself. I acknowledge and am thankful that God has blessed me with health, strength and stamina enough to do this at my elderly age :-) I also found out that I am a bit more social than I thought. When Jim, Bill and I did the west coast, with Dennie and her mom driving SAG (support and gear in the car), we saw a number of other cyclists doing the west coast also. I expected to see the same number on the east coast. But that was not the case. In the little over the three weeks I was cycling from Maine to Philadelphia, I saw two other couples and two other singles touring. I chatted with three of them and one of the singles went zooming by, going north, and never even slowed down. So, I thought there was a possibility I would occasionally ride with other touring cyclists and that never came close to happening. So occasionally, when I was not pedaling, I would get a bit lonely. I really appreciated it when Tony and Barbara, friends from Albuquerque visiting New York/New Jersey, found me en route and took me out to dinner. I also used to find it a bit awkward to go into a restaurant and have a meal by myself. That is no longer a problem. I just walk in, smile at the hostess and say, "One for dinner, thank you".
Somewhat related to being alone on the road, I very much appreciated being connected to my virtual and global circle of friends all over the USA, in Belize, in Malaysia, in the Philippines, in Guatemala, in the UK, in Switzerland, and in Georgia. Oh, I guess Georgia is part of the USA. I really enjoyed what I was getting to see and experience. I would take a picture and sometimes only roll forty feet and stop again because I like the angle better. I could take a hundred pictures in a day, but I would limit my self to only posting about sixteen of them in FaceBook or my blog. And I very, very much appreciated the likes and comments I received. It was fun having everyone along with me on the ride. Your comments were my company while I was in my room by myself at night.
Another big learning was lodging. Maybe lodging was easier on the west coast because we had a car, but I don't think that was it. We always seemed to be able to pick a target destination and there was always reasonable lodging (with the exception of Big Sur) at that target destination. On this trip, once I got out of Maine, lodging was always a problem. It either did not exist or the cost was prohibitive. My next days riding distance was not a function of how far I wanted to ride, it was usually a function of where I could find a room. So sometimes I found myself riding sixty, or once even seventy miles, when I would have been happy to ride forty. Also, staying in a motel every night and not splitting the costs gets very expensive. So now I am beginning to wonder if camping could be an option. It is much easier to find a place to pitch a tent than find an affordable room. Prior to this trip I had convinced myself that I could not recover enough for the next days ride by sleeping on the ground, plus the penalty of extra weight, but now I am reconsidering. I tried warmshowers.com once, unsuccessfully, and did not try again.
What are some of my observations? These are general observations with exceptions, but I observed that SUV's and compacts usually went over the yellow line and gave me a lot of room when they passed me from behind. Also, four out five large trucks and eighteen wheelers would go over the middle line and give me a lot of room when they passed, but that fifth one that passed me close made me forget the other four. Pickup trucks going or returning from a job site, especially if they had ladders on a roof rack, seemed to always pass me close; maybe it was envy. The distance a large sedan passed me seemed to be inversely proportional to the the age of the driver unless the first digit in their age was a '1'. There was no predicting how close a minivan would pass be. That might have been a function of what was going on inside the minivan and what mom might have been dealing with.
Also, in one of my blogs, when I crossed the border between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, I wrote about my pretty poor opinion of Massachusetts drivers. I need to correct that observation. The drivers on Highway 3A at 4PM are terrible. The rest of my experience with Massachusetts drivers was pretty good, sometimes even exceptional.
I observed the predominant road kill in Maine was porcupine. In New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut it was opossum. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania it was squirrel. I did not see enough road kill in Rhode Island to make a statistical observation. Just in case you wanted to know.
I learned that riding shorts are much better than bibs when you need to make a quick roadside stop. Also, I brought three riding changes but was able to manage my washes such that I only used two. I also brought protein powder for a recovery drink after my ride and only used it twice; that was unnecessary weight.
Today I learned that I can ride in sustained rain. Two days ago I learned I cannot ride in a severe deluge. The pictures in this blog are from today's rain ride.
My next blog will probably be about my gear, most of which I was very happy about.
No comments:
Post a Comment