It’s now been about 72 hours since I was in Revere Beach dipping my front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean, and a lot of things have happened since then, and I have some final thoughts that I would like to share with you.
Today was the first day back to work after an extended vacation, and it wasn’t easy. I had a zillion emails and voicemails to go through, and I had been cleaning them up when I was on the trip. This work thing is hard, I am ready to go back and ride my bike some more. Anyway....
We dipped our wheels on Friday morning, and I had a huge group show up for the final event. It was very touching and I truly appreciated their support. After all of the hugs and pictures were completed, I brought my bike to the “box truck” for them to bring it to a local bike shop to get it packed up and ship back to Nashville. I probably won’t see it until next week, as it probably isn’t being packed until today, and Wednesday is the 4th. I am also leaving on the 5th to go visit my mother in Hilton Head, as the 9th is the second anniversary of my father’s passing, and Lynn and I are going to spend the weekend with her. So I won’t see my bike for a while.
After the symbolic goodbye to my bike, we walked about a mile down Revere Beach and had a lobster roll, sorry no pictures as they were gone quickly, with all of my family that had come to the beach. It was a great time to just sit and discuss the journey with them. They had a lot of questions, and some of them are ones that I have gotten from a lot of you and I will try to answer some of them here.
After the lunch, we all went our separate ways, as I still had a lot of loose ends that I needed to tie up on Friday afternoon, and we had a banquet that evening as well. I “won” an award, which is pretty funny, as it was presented as I was voted “Homecoming King” of the bike tour. I am not sure if that’s a compliment or not, haha. They assured me and Cathy, as she was voted “Homecoming Queen” that it most definitely was a compliment and that everyone agreed. In any case, thank you.
They also gave out “EFI” T-shirts to those that completed the whole tour, Every Foot and Inch, Every Fantastic Inch, Every F*#%ing Inch, and I know you know this, but, Yes I got a T Shirt. I think there are several folks that would kick my A$$ if I didn’t get a shirt, and had to sag. I didn’t sag! (Randy)
We had a great night on Friday and said our good byes to everyone. Some we may never see again, others I hope to see again and even do a ride with some in the future. It is amazing how strong of a friendship, relationship you can form in 6 weeks, when you see someone everyday and eat, and ride with them for almost every waking moment. Great friendships for sure. I made 2 great friendships with 2 people that only rode part way with us, and will continue those friendships as well. You may remember that one of them, Greg P. Gave me his tires when he left the tour as scheduled. And his front tire made it all the way to the beach.
Favorite Things
So what are some of your favorite things that you saw? There are so many things, and each day was different from the previous day. And there were so many different challenges as well. Some times the beauty of the west was awesome, but yet created challenges, like crossing the desert in the heat, to the climbs over the mountains. Or the beauty of relatively flat Kansas, but the winds were brutal, and never seemed to stop. And the Midwest, it seemed we would never stop seeing corn, soy, cattle, and farms every where, but with the lush green Midwest came the heat and humidity. It was all a challenge and beautiful. I loved it all.
I loved the climbs of the west, the rolling hills of the Midwest, and the climbs again in NY, VT, and NH. And I am not usually a “I like climbs guy”.
I loved the fact that I could eat anything I wanted, and I did, and still lost a little weight. I think I was built to eat. One of my friends said that they were getting bored with eating. That never happened to me, haha. I really couldn’t even image that. I only got bored with the wind in Kansas.
I also like the fact that I turned some negatives into a positives and one of them was one of the last challenges of the ride. The last long day, or last real day, Thursday we had a 93 mile ride in the pouring rain, and with a little help from a friend (Jerry F), I turned it into a positive and made it a century (100 mile ride) in the rain. I will never forget that century for several reasons, the rain, the last long ride of the tour, and just the fact that it was the last century of many in the last 6 weeks.
I made so many great friends over the last several weeks, and that is just amazing. I knew no one when I arrived in LA. I was the only one from TN. There were 2 from NC, 3 from FL, and 2 from TX, that’s it from anywhere close to where I live. We also had a lot of people from outside the US, and I made great friends with 2 from the UK (Wales and Scotland).
The support that I received from the “staff’ and the other fellow riders was awesome, we were all looking out for each other, and that helped to strengthen those new bonds as well.
The support that I received from each and everyone of you was humbling to say the least. I owe each and everyone of you a HUGE THANK YOU. There were days when I was a little down because of some obstacle that I had to endure and someone would send an email to me about something uplifting, and it was just miraculous that you knew, and sent some inspirational message. Some were about my father, some were friends just being silly and saying hello. Just know that they were all well received and appreciated.
The support and friendship that I received from those that came and spent time with me. My wife, Lynn, thanks for coming to the throbbing metropolis of Abilene, KS. Scotty H. For coming and spending 2 great days in 2 booming “villages of no where Missouri. And Dave T. For riding a day with me. We all appreciated having someone with “fresh legs” pull a little. To my high school friends, Grimes, Matt and Bill that showed up in Boston, and my family that came there as well. My sister, Lisa, her husband, Charlie, my mother, my uncle Alan, his wife Franny, and my son Grant. Each and everyone of them took time out of their busy schedule to cheer me on, and I say thank you.
$$$
So here is another funny story. When I went to talk to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital before the ride to discuss that I wanted to ride my bike across the country and raise some money for them, they kind of looked at me, like I was a little crazy, and they seemed to be a little skeptical. But being the good fund raisers that they are, they weren’t about to turn away any money, so they were willing to help, and give some support, but I think they thought we were talking a $1000 or maybe $2000. When they asked me how much I wanted to raise and I said a lot, and that my stretch goal was $50,000, trust me when I say this, “they definitely looked at me like there was no way that was happening”. But I am pleased to let you know that as of tonight, I believe that I am very close to $60,000. The reason why I am not exactly sure is I haven’t gotten a final count from Vanderbilt yet, and money is still coming in, and my company is going to match a portion of the money raised as well. The match is in Australian dollars, so the exchange rate changes daily, adding to the complexity. In any case WE are very close to $60k. We could not have done it with out all of you!! Thank you!! I will post the final number in several weeks both here and on facebook. Thanks again.
Final Thoughts
This ride started out as a “bucket list item” and it ended as a life changing event. I am extremely glad that I was able to do this challenge, journey, adventure and just enjoy life. Life is short, and sometimes we forget to stop and smell the roses. My father left this wonderful earth at a very young age of 75, almost 76. I am glad that I was able to complete this journey in his honor and raise as much money as I did for the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. There is no telling if I would be able to complete this in several years with my knee issues.
We all go through life, and we have a choice to be either happy or sad, it takes the same amount of energy. So it’s a choice we all make, and sometimes we forget that it’s ok to be happy. Enjoy life, and do the things that you want to do. Be with the people that you want to be with, and stop spending time with the ones that are negative. I chose to look at the positive and have fun. We all work hard, and we should pay hard as well. It is amazing how many happy people we saw along the way, and some didn’t have much to their name at all, and others were about to run us off of the road in their expensive pickup trucks or sports cars. Granted a lot of this was the part of the country we were in, but it was obvious who was happy and who was not.
Another amazing thing is the amount of people that “love” me and really took the time to follow, support, donate, and just commmunicate with me during this journey!! And I thank you for all of the support. I have heard from a lot of you saying, that they are “addicted” to my blog, and when am I going on another trip, as they love reading the blog. I don’t know, although it won’t be this year as I used all of my vacation plus some this year.
Again thanks for all of your support, and I will let you know some final numbers and anything else that I might have forgotten or want to share in the next couple of weeks, so check back every now and then. And yes the donation link is still active.
Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below. 100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa
As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay. Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.
