Final thoughts...

June 26

We drove home from Boston on Sat/Sun, and the transition from seeing the roads as a cyclist versus driving a car was a little bizarre. I was still assessing right of ways, traffic, terrain, etc for a while, and then, I became a driver again instead of a bike monk. I did clean my bike thoroughly on Sunday after unpacking, and I am slightly embarrassed that I rode Tues, Wed, and Thurs. This only bothers me a little because I know Raff and Bill both rode their bikes as well - leaving the life of a monk will be a process.  It felt good to be on familiar roads and back on two wheels. I also rode bikes with the grandkids, and then  we ate donuts in the pool. Funny after the experiences in Kansas that Dorothy had it right all along - there is no place like home. 

A few thoughts on the trip in retrospect...

• I keep getting asked what was the best part, biggest surprise, neatest state, etc. Superlatives are always dangerous... I am reluctant to answer because calling something the 'best' or the 'most' diminishes everything else, and a journey like this does not fit in simple categories for me. Every day was sensory overload, which explains why we were all mentally drained each day but in a good way. I am still amazed at how quickly your mind and your body adapts to doing something like this. A large surprise to me from the trip was the other riders on the trip: high quality human beings, and we quickly became a larger pack than the Griffin guys, and we all looked after each other - this was cool to see happen so naturally. I think God wired us this way.
• Cycling across the country and doing it daily made me appreciate the noise and sounds of the road and being fully exposed to all elements while on a bike. The bike also slows everything down because you can see what is coming long before you get there and appreciate what is right in front of you. This idea of slowing things down will stay with me as it allows you to be much more present; this is only a gift if you accept it. 
• A few movies/clips will remain in my head forever: first and foremost: riding hard and fast in a small group over terrible pavement very close to the wheel in front of you and just trusting the line of the rider while cars are barreling past us - this felt like cheating death many times; those rollers in Missouri and Ohio where we could ride side by side through farm country; that one day from hell in the Kansas winds, changing flat tires on The 40; the feeding troughs at breakfast; board meetings at 5:15 am in the hotel lobbies; the sketchy hotels and Cracker Barrels ad nauseum plus the numerous bars that we visited to have a beer/drink after each day's ride.
• I have so much respect for people that do a trip like this by themselves, but I am so thankful to have had a tight group of friends to do this trip together. I am also thankful for the folks that sent me text messages, music recommendations, LinkedIn messages, e-mails, humor, quotes, prayers, photos, etc....you will never know how much a quick reach out impacts people. 
• I have never blogged before, and I am glad that I did it; otherwise, all of the days would have run together. The idea of having a quote or a specific prayer in mind was a great exercise for me while on the bike when I needed to disassociate from riding. Listening to music, podcasts, or books has been great for me on the bike, but I will spend more time now listening to the sounds from the road.
• I have said it many times, but I am so grateful to have been able to do this trip. First of all, Gina is a rock star, and I married way over my head...if you know us, you know this. Secondly, to be able to do the trip with 3 good friends is another huge gift; yes, we fought, but we also forgot, and we would all do anything for each other. Third, this country is so beautiful and diverse, and being able to see a huge piece of it from a bike seat is hard to fully describe. Last, and not least, my love for the outdoors and riding a bike is the way that God made me, and I know that He loves us more than we can understand, and He wants us to have amazing and full lives. These are all priceless gifts.
• This leads me to my final quote from the trip, which is more redneck poetry/country music" God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy." I could have gone deep, but I chose to go shallow. 

One last giant thank you for following along on this journey and suffering through my ramblings. I hope that you enjoyed the trip and maybe even got inspired to do something strange outside. If you do, please let me know. Be well.

Day 41- Burlington, MA > Revere Beach, MA (19 miles)

June 21

Yep, we made it...what a journey! The coolest story on this is that Stuart convinced Bill, Raff, and I to start riding many years ago (30+), and none of us would have done this trip without each other. We are blessed to have long lasting friendships and a common love of cycling; plus, we can scream at each other and forget about it in 30 seconds...I wish that we had a few others from our group here!

Last route of the trip:

Gradient:

I need another day or so to put some thoughts into a final blog to wrap this up and will plan to do that as an epilogue in the next couple of days...For now, I do want to post a few photos from yesterday and today as we came into Boston and made the final ride to the beach today. The ride today was a lollipop - easy ride for 19 miles with zero stress.

Great photo (from Steve) as we were crossing into NH yesterday, and the fog was lifting.

Some of the descents and hills in the last of the Green Mountains.

New Hampshire state sign (probably my favorite state motto as well!)

Cool photo from one of the climbs yesterday.

I said I would get a photo of my bike before I was done, and here it is...I bought the bike last May and have put almost 10,000 miles on it. When I bought it, the idea was to have one bike to ride gravel and roads. The bike is a gravel bike, and I have a single chainring in the front, which was not ideal for climbing on this trip, but I have zero regrets on buying this bike and bringing it on a cross country trip. My bike shop (Senoia Bikes) was a huge help as I sorted out the right way to configure gearing and tubeless for this trip. It is amazing the abuse that all of our bikes took on this trip and held up remarkably well. I am looking forward to getting home and taking the bike apart and cleaning it properly and seeing what kind of triage is needed. Kudos to Specialized on the Diverge and Senoia Bikes for helping to tune it for me!

This was a solo photo after putting the front wheel in the Atlantic...hard to believe that a month and a half ago, I was putting that rear wheel in the Pacific.

This is Raff and I doing something that we have dreamed of for many years. So grateful to get to do it together.

We could not have done this trip without our wives...so glad they were here today.

I showed a picture of Steve's bike earlier in the trip and wanted to show the final version of his bike...Steve added a state flag as we came into each new state. You can see that his bike is old school with classic Brooks saddle, and the bike has to weigh north of 30 lbs. Steve was a huge bonus to us on this trip as a super friendly and chill guy, a great photographer, and a beast on the bike. 

This is Steve with the four Griffin boys after the ride today...he plans to come see us in Griffin, and I hope that he does it!

The quote for this last day comes from Tolkien and seems appropriate for the end of our journey. This was Frodo when things got really tough in Mordor..."I am glad you are here with me. Here, at the end of all things, Sam." Insert Stuart, Raff, and Bill for Sam...an amazing trip made more special by having three good friends with you. 

~3,440 miles and ~ 110k of climbing over 41 days of riding.

I'll have a couple of other final thoughts and a quote or two, so please check back in the next couple of days. A sincere thank you for following us, praying for us, and sending encouragement and humor throughout the trip...you rode with us. 

Day 40- Brattleboro, VT > Burlington, MA (91 miles)

 June 20

The route (note Los Angeles way over on the left):

Tighter view (for the lawyers):

Gradient:

I'll be brief today and will get a longer update in on Friday...the ride today was hot as blazes, but we had a great day overall. We crossed into New Hampshire almost immediately, and then we had the opportunity to climb for about 20-25 miles. We crossed into Massachusetts about 40 miles into the ride, and there is truth to term Massholes as it relates to their drivers. I had my first flat of the trip today, and we plugged it with no issue. Well, then we got to the SAG and decided to trim up the plug and the plug came out. Then, we had to put three more plugs in it to get it to seal. Lesson learned was to not try to trim the plug with crappy scissors and leave it alone if it is working. I would still HIGHLY recommend tubeless tires, and the proof is obvious in our group of 4...we had 30-35 flats total, and only one was on the tubeless tires. 

We rolled into the hotel in time to shower and clean up the rooms for our wives to arrive. We had the banquet tonight, and I'll talk more about today after we finish the ceremonial ride to the ocean in the morning. I have a bunch of photos that I'll post tomorrow...

Thanks so much for blowing up my phone today with well wishes...talk tomorrow!

Day 39- Troy, NY > Brattleboro, VT (81 miles)

 June 19

I was able to have a couple of beers with an old friend from high school last night...Bryan B and his wife have a place at Lake George, and he drove down last night so we could catch up. Bryan was a seriously good soccer player with the rest of us flunkies at Walton High School. We had a great time last night, and I appreciate him coming to the bizarre town of Troy.

Bryan and I showing off all of our gray hairs...hard to believe that we graduated high school almost 40 years ago. You can see that sunscreen is not enough for my nose on this trip!

The route for today:

Gradient:

I forgot the quote of the day yesterday, and it was specifically chosen based on what awaited us today. John Muir: "The mountains are calling, and I must go..." We climbed in the Green Mountains of Vermont today, and they are truly beautiful. We participated in a running relay up here many years ago and remembered how long and steep some of the climbs are here. We had a great day in spite of the heat. You can see on the gradient chart that we were climbing over 5k feet and 1/3 of that was on the 9.5 mile climb you see around mile 32. The great news was we had some huge descents that were a little scary and hard not to go fast. I topped out today at 43.4 mph, which I hope to never do again; I think Bill was close to 50 mph for perspective.

Photos from the day:

We hit the Vermont state line around mile 27 and had a group shot to commemorate it.

Cool shot taken today of our group.

I would call this a 'big arse' chair. See the chair in the chair? It is a regular size chair.

This was a great descent, and you can see what we had in front of us...

We followed this river for about 25 miles.

Easy to see why they are called the Green Mountains.

Today's quote is another from The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese: "when it's all done, when life is almost over, what do you want to remember?" Yep, this one is also timely as this trip has been so full of scenery, laughter, challenges, and memories that describing each day is difficult. I feel like we are figuratively eating a buffet of stuff every day, and it will be interesting to see what survives the filter of time. 

Tomorrow is the last real day of riding...we have 91 miles to Burlington, MA; the ride to the beach on Friday is ceremonial (19 miles). Talk tomorrow!

Day 38- Utica, NY > Troy, NY (102 miles)

June 18 

Proof that orange is a bad color...(Florida's orange, Tennessee's orange, Clemson's orange, and Auburn's orange); once a Dawg always a Dawg. We have been so fortunate this entire trip with the weather, and if we have to deal with heat, we can handle it.

The route:

Gradient:

I was a little worried about the day because we are all a little tired, ready to be in Boston, and 100+ miles in serious heat is tough. We actually had a great day. It was a hot, thick air day, but we left at 6:45 to beat the heat, and we had 20 miles at the end that was on a path with pretty good shade. The only wrinkle was a flat tire about 5 miles in, so we spent the next 30 miles slowly catching back up to larger group. The route today was excellent as far as good right of ways to ride in and a flat course for the most part; we did a 14% climb on the bike path that was a surprise and a little ugly after 85 miles. We rode along the Mohawk River for much of the ride today, and it is a great river to ride alongside because it does not rise or fall much, which makes for flat pedaling most of the day.  A few photos from the day below:

I tried to be artistic and include my bike and kind of failed. This was a beautiful view from mile 56 at one of the SAGs. I'll get a proper picture of my bike before the trip is done...amazing how the bikes have held up on this trip because you really beat the crap out of them.

If you are ever in Troy, NY, go to Dinasaur BBQ...wow is all I can say. We ate there immediately upon arrival. Top photo is their artwork inside, and the bottom one has the bridge in the background as you come into Troy.

One of the guys in our group (Rich) posted this photo of the sticker on his top tube, which is classic:

A great photo of the larger group at SAG # 2 today:

This photo is along the Mohawk River that we rode next to at the end of the route...photo pirated from Tanny:

We have 2 tough days in the hills/mountains, and then, we are done...hard to fathom. The math says that we have less than day 1 of the SGI ride left. We will go one day at a time...thanks for the texts today and prayers. Talk tomorrow!

Day 37- Syracuse, NY > Utica, NY (58 miles)

June 17

The heat has found us and will be with us until Boston; my Garmin shows avg heat on the ride at 90. The good news is that we are used to heat and were sort of forged in it by riding to SGI so many times. We did not start until 9:30 today and rolled into Utica around 1. The 4 of us ate a couple of pizzas immediately and rehydrated with 2 beers per biker (also immediately). The ride was social through 33 miles and the first SAG, and then the group broke apart, and the Griffin guys rode together into Utica.

The route:

Gradient:

Check out a couple of photos from the ride supplied by some of the folks from our group:

Oneida, NY claims the world's smallest church - this is pretty cool.

A beautiful church in one of the small towns that we rode through on the way. Yes, the town has a name, and I am being lazy.

As I said the other day, upstate NY is very nice.

We rode along other parts of the Erie Canal today; it is impressive, but I would hate to have to seine it.

Since we did not leave until much later this morning, I was reading and came across a quote from F Scott Fitzgerald that I've read multiple times over the years. This kind of follows the hobgoblin of little minds from a couple of weeks ago, but I like it anyway: ""The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." Think about this one the next time someone wants to talk politics and fight the hobgoblins.

Tomorrow will be a tough one because it will be blazing, and we have 102 miles. Pray for safe passage, good roads, and strong legs. Talk tomorrow...

Day 36- Victor, NY > Syracuse, NY (86 miles)

 June 16

Happy Father's Day!

Thinking about my Dad and my Father-in-law on the bike today. Miss these two...

The route:

Gradient chart:

Today was another great day on the bike - scenery, companions, weather, etc. Olaf and John P pulled us 30 miles to the first SAG...it was nice! Stuart and I have been talking about how we are ready to be home, yet we don't want the trip to end. This makes sense in a weird way. As we try to get as much as possible out of each day left on the trip, I thought about a lesson I learned from a mentor and good friend at work, Richard Dicks. His lesson was to live your life fully, and if you knew RD, he did this without any doubt! Psalm 90:12 says "Teach us to number our days...". One Republic has a great song call 'I Lived', and their lyric says "Hope that you spend your days, but they all add up." I challenge you to listen to this song and not have it in your head: "I lived" 

We saw one of the Finger Lakes today, and I think it was the thumb, possibly the forefinger...too tired to look it up - just trust me, there was water and boats. Since I am in Kathan Country, maybe he can enlighten me/us in the comments...We also saw the bridge from 'It's A Wonderful Life', and we heard a bell ring while we were there - no joke. We saw the Erie Canal, and it was pretty impressive - I can imagine it having bugs to rival the Okefenokee. 

Proof of the bridge:

A photo from the Erie Canal...yep, that song from grade school is in my head also:

Bill established an office at the canal today to conduct business or something:

Griffin boys riding near the thumb finger lake:

I have talked with a few folks that were curious about the other folks in our group, so I thought I'd give you an idea what the group is like: ~ 25 people riding the trip; many endurance athletes (Ironman, marathons, centuries, etc); 7 or 8 females and the balance are neanderthals; most people are late 50's to mid 60's; most are retired or winding it down (one retired the day before we started); the crew from Griffin and one from Florida are the only ones from the south - several from California and a couple more from West coast (Washington and Arizona), a contingent from Ohio and other places in the middle (Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois), and few folks from the NE (Boston, Maryland, Delaware, NJ); a common thread amongst the group is tight families, great senses of humor, type A personality disorder, and super athletes;  You normally have a weirdo or an a**hole on these kinds of trips, but we have not identified one of these yet. Truly good, quality people. I hope that we can stay in contact and see these folks again on bikes or on our collective travels. 

Tomorrow is a short day at 58 miles to Utica...Thanks for following along and for your prayers and texts.