I Made it!!! Pacific Ocean to Atlantic Ocean ride Complete!!!!

I sit in my hotel room on the fourth floor.  I opened the sliding door to my deck so I can hear the Atlantic waves crashing against the Eastern shore here on Virginia Beach.  Today was a little bit of a hectic ride finding my way through all the busy roads out to the coast, but it was worth it. 

I started out today not suited up in my rain gear because it was just supposed to be cloudy.  Unfortunately for me  it was cloudy with a side of drizzle most of the day.  I passed many yards that were under water due to all the flooding that came with the hurricane.  The storybook ending would have finished in sun shine with birds singing along the way, but with everything that has happened in this story, this is a fitting ending.  After all, what kind of stories to you get when things go perfectly.  You get a story when you finish in a hurricane. 

Once I got to the city of Virginia Beach I took a picture at the sign, but it was on the other side of the four lanes of traffic., and even if I crossed, there was no one to take my picture.  I told myself, “ah, who cares, the beach is where you want the pictures.”  But I did want a picture at that sign and just as I was getting back on my bike a mini van pulled over and people jumped out with cameras.  I thought, they might be a bit of a traffic hazard but who cares, I scurried quickly across the four lanes so I could catch them before they took their pictures.  It turns out  these two parents and their young boy, who was adorned with at least 24 burger king hats on his head and arms were on a scavenger hunt.  I said to them “I’ll take your picture if you take mine.”  Then they replied, “No, we want you in our picture.  We get more points for finding strangers.”  I just thought that was a great coincidence that as I pulled into my final City on the way to the East Coast that someone else pulled over to take a picture too.  I forgot to take a picture of them with my camera, but then I bumped into them again a few miles down the road taking a picture of a fake dolphin.  I chased them down to get a picture of them, so I’d  remember them for the book.  My pictures are how I remember stories, so I was glad I saw them again.  As I left she said maybe we’ll see you at the beach.”  It would be about an hour I replied.  It’s just 15 miles she said….People that are not cyclists are goofy.  They have no concept of how long it may take on a bike while pulling a trailer.  15 miles is at least an hour, probably an hour and 10 min pulling this rig.

I was following the directions on my GPS as I had to abandon my paper directions when a bridge on the route didn’t work out.  I didn’t go all the way up to the bridge because I heard it was a tunnel and those don’t fare well for cyclists, so I ended up finding another way across.  That has been a big frustration several times on my ride.  I try to google whether the bridges are passable on bike and I just can’t find the info.  I just got lucky with the james river bridge. 

I thought about how I might react when I arrived at the coast and I wasn’t sure.  When I got about 2.5 miles out and I saw the water on my GPS, I got a little emotional.  I wondered if I might just cry when I finally got there.  It has been such a long journey on so many different levels since I started this thing and through the Cancer I knew I had to come back and finish this ride and here I am.  When I got to a half mile out I couldn’t tell if it was water or clouds in the distance as they blended together on this windy overcast day.  At least the drizzle had stopped.  As I saw that beautiful coast, I didn’t shed tears but it was emotional.  I was so happy to have made it.  I thought about all the experiences I’ve gotten from this tour.  All the people, places and different terrains from the oceans to the desserts, from the plains to the different mountain ranges.  Scenes just flashed through my mind and here I had arrived.  I cycled down the handicap ramp right into the sand, unclipped and with a leg on each side just pressed forward pushing my heavy bike through the sand.  Usually you avoid sand as a cyclist, but I didn’t care right now, I was at the Atlantic ocean.  I pushed my bike right up into the water for the cerimonial tire tipping.  Most cross country cyclist dip their rear tire in the pacific and their front in the Atlantic.    Well I got hit by a pretty good wave when I dipped in thePacific and I dipped my whole bike (tires) in the Atlantic. 

Then I went to the waters edge with my canister of water, water that had traveled thousands of miles  I opened the little jar and poured it into the Atlantic.  And I took another container, a ride Virginia bike bottle, that was given to me by the ELCA Lutherans I met at a Presbyterian church and I filled it with Atlantic Ocean water.  I walked around the beach picking up Sea Shells and putting them in this bottle and I will put it on a shelf at home in Wisconsin to commemorate my dream I chased down.

I might not of had anyone to celebrate with but as usual there was someone there and this guy who took my picture was so excited for my.  “Gosh Man, That’s Awesome”  He Shook my hand, just amazed at my journeys end.  He took a few pictures.  He had a little boy with him named Noah.  He was 2 and liked to run off into the water so we had to keep a close eye on him, so playful.  I talked a little more to Robert (the guy who took my pic)  and in just another burst of  excitement for me he gives me a big hug and just enthusiastically says congratulations!  So I did get to share my excitement with a stranger God provided for me : )  And I guess the very first thing I did do when I got to the beach before I pushed my bike in and before I collected water, rocks and shells was to thank God for making it here.  I thanked Him for my recovery and all the blessings along the journey as I know he had my back on this long solo trip.

Since the Huricane made cycling a little slower than planned, I think I will call my journey good at Ocean to Ocean.  I was thinking about cycling up and Ending in D.C. but this trip wasn’t about that.  It was the trip of the beaches, Laguna beach to Frisco to Virginia beach.  Now if only I had my surf board.