Delayed Reaction

I usually react to bigger life events a few days, weeks, or perhaps years after the fact. After college, I went to live in London. The fact that I was moving to London didn't become real until I sat in the airport, not a moment before. When I left everything behind to join the Peace Corps, it didn't hit me until I meet my new Cape Verdean family for the first time. That night I came to the realization that I was living in Cape Verde for the next two years. And so, as I pack, box t-shirts I shan't see again, and say goodbye to friends, animals, and city views that I might not see for a long time again, it still doesn't register that I’m not just going on a noodle bike ride. Nor am I flying to a country to bike tour for a specific time period. Nor am I going a bike tour and returning to my current life. Like others who have absconded to the lure and magic of bike touring for life, I will leave one life behind, and hope to find another in the wind, the small streams I bike by, the looming mountains, the rainy days, the long straight roads that don't end, the ups, the downs, the feeling of life pumping through my constantly churning legs. So I imagine that this realization really wont happen for a few weeks, somewhere near Michigan.

I am excited. I am nervous. I am sad to leave friends I have made and others I have continued. I'm sad to have had struggled through a hardcore Vermont winter and not reap the beautiful summer rewards. Oh well. That's life.

For four months, I'll be biking solo through the north west part of the US, searching out the amazing landscape that has been slowly shaping this land. I'll pass through some towns, maybe some cities. I'll see other bikers, maybe ride with some, or leave some behind. I'll camp, I'll stay with people. I will be at the mercy of the planet, the people, the animals, my own body. I have never, nor will I ever, discover anything that is as magical, inspiring, teaching as the bicycle. And when I meet with Chris in Portland, Oregon, not only with the education continue, but I'll have a companion to learn with and from, and to share, making a new adventure.

The openness of the adventure, of life, of the road all beckons. And I can't wait.

The first week will take me through New York State, at times following the Erie Canal through Amsterdam, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester into Niagara, NY. From there, its across the Rainbow bridge into Canada where I will hug the northern shores of Lake Erie towards Michigan. Not sure how long that will take, probably about another week, so I should hit the US again in mid May. In Michigan I hope to start my National Park tour by visiting Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore on my way towards the northern peninsula. Of course, I'll be trying my dangdest to write as much as I can, but a little foreshadowing at this stage is ok.

For now, maybe one more ride in Vermont, a vegan bar b q, and then a wave goodbye. My first day out will have me leave Vermont, amongst other things, behind. The picture at the start of this entry is my bike with a draft version of my packing, with the trailer and panniers all on there. I already know that I have packed poorly and too much, and realize that the first week will be lugging too much stuff and then I will spend a few days trying to convince myself that even though I think I packed the bare necessities, I didn’t and that I will have to dump some stuff. But all in good time. Once I hit a big mountain, I'll reconsider.