After much thought my decision was made for me

11/16/09

So I originially I wanted to cycle to Washington D.C.  After cycling through 30 miles of heavy traffic to get to Virginia Beach I decided that I'll drive through D.C. On my way home.  The Cross country Journey part ended with the ceremonial dipping of the front tire on VA Beach.  Since I was supposed to be here a few days ago but was delayed by a huricane or "Nor'Easter," I thought I might just rent a car from the beach area and drive back, but here's the deal, since all the crazzzy weather just came through here not a single car at any of the rentacar places is left...not even one....hmmm ok, that option was crossed off for me, I guess I'll just cycle up the coast a ways to Ocean city which should take three days ride and there is supposed to be three days of sunny weather, so that sounded good to me, cause I'm really sick of riding in crazy weather and rains and G-force winds.

I found a cheaper hotel, for 50 bucks that had a much better view of the coast.  It was on atlantic and 33rd street.  They put me on the 3rd floor in room 33.  It was a very trinitarian spot : ) and very beautiful.  I got up the next morning to try and catch the sun rise as I really really wanted to see the sunrise on the eastern sea board.  And I did.  Just as I thought there it might me a little cloudy on the horizion as it was hard to tell, there it was, just a little speck of sun.  for the next 3 min. I didn't care weather or not looking at the sun was bad for your eyes.  I just watched almost memorized by the majestic sight.  I looked down the beach and every hundred yards or so I saw someone else just standing looking, being the first ones in the country to see the sun today.  And with this experience, my trip was complete.  The main goal was to cycle across North America but the bonus would be catching a sunset in the west and a sunrise in the East.

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.

 

James "River" Bridge- Yorktown to Churchtown

11/13/09 Friday the 13^th.  Yorktown to Chesapeake super 8

How strange it is to look at the final stretch of 26 miles.  I’ve came thousands of miles over great stretches of desert and over many mountain passes and tomorrow is it.

Today started out kinda fun and different.  I got to know cole a bit more.  He is a pretty cool guy who is the head sheff at the Duke hotel in Yorktown.  The power was out all morning and it was pretty blustery outside.  They call this a Nor-Easter and it did a heck of of a lot of damage, just as much as a hurricane might have.  Cole and I went to 7-11 and got some breakfast.  Everyone comes together a lot more when the electricity is down.  Life really revolves around electricity.  I only had 10% left on my computer so I looked up directions on google and quickly wrote them down as I modified them off of hwy 17 as much as I could. 

The wind wasn’t as bad today as it was yesterday but I enjoyed reading the newspapers about all the damage that was done yesterday.   I biked through it and it almost blew me over a few times.  I also learned today that when I set out on 17 from Yorktown yesterday, that I went the wrong way, so It was a good thing that I decided to go back to town and stay there.

The highlight of today was going over the james river bridge.  I don’t know why they call it a river because it is clearly a bay.  It was about 5 miles long.  Leading up to it I wondered how it was going to be, if there was going to be a path on the side for bikes.  Going up to it there was a sidewalk but then the sidewalk disappeared, I continued, annoyed but then I saw that the bridge was still closed.  I don’t know why the bridge was still closed as the water doesn’t come up.  I thought about turning around, but then I had no Idea how I would get across as there ar no ferries and I just didn’t want to deal with the mess that would come with trying to figure out a different way across, plus, the road is closed which means no traffic!  Sweet!  Not to mention I had a Nor-Easter to my back.  I decided to go over it.  I saw a car  go a ways a head of me with white flashing lights.  I figured I would get busted as I’m sure plenty of people saw me, but I cycled 25mph over it and figured if I just did it really fast that that single patrol car might not circle back in time.  Luckily I was right.  About 2 miles after the bridge I saw a patrol car going the other direction.  I’m betting he got a call about a cyclist on the bridge, but he didn’t catch me on it so I was home free.

The Rain Hit me pretty good for a while in the late afternoon and I did get caught in the dark but at least I had some pretty bright LEDs working for me, and an Orange reflective bike.  Eventually I did end up at a Super 8, so it’s nice to be dry.  Oh how I long for those days that I wasn’t constantly biking in rain and I would just find a shelter verses a hotel room.  I’m glad that people supported me on my ride more than I needed cause I’ve been using it lately.

"Historic" storm surges??? I almost got blown to Oz today...I thought it was almost done???

11/12/09

I’m in my hotel room in Yorktown and my computer is the only light in the room now as the power has blown out.  I’m about100 feet from the ocean as it has come up the beach.  My entire wall is a window.  This is pretty sweet room for 50 bucks.  They docked the price pretty good for me.  I probably just looked so pathetic when I came in absolutely drenched asking about their rates.  I figured it may be well over a hundred dollars so fifty was a pleasant surprise.  I set out from Williamsburg today and I had everything well prepped and ready to ride in some crazy weather.   I didn’t think it would get as crazy as it did though.  The rain cam at you so fast it would sting my face as it came crossways as I road.  The wind blowing so strong that I would lean sideways up against it as I road at times and at times when it really gusted I thought “what the hell am I doing out here”  there were a few times when I got a bit scared thinking that this wind would blow me right off my bicycle off the road.  I tried to take a few pictures today but I was really trying to get to Yorktown as fast as I could because then I knew I could start going inland a bit as I had been just cycling along the bay ocean front.  Most XC cyclists stop here but I want to go to the very ocean coast, on Virginia beach, which is now having “Historic” 8 foot surges off the ocean according to the lady on the news.  I was looking at the storm cell and it just seems to be sitting over south east Virginia right now….right where I am.  As I was  getting closer to Yorktown I saw the trees leaning towards the road bent over a bit from all the wind they have endured over the years, but then I thought of that analogy that those trees that have endured winds and storms have deep roots and don’t get blown over easily and thought it was a good metaphor for me on this journey.  Some folks I talk to say they would have packed up and went home with the first big obstacle, the bike getting stolen.   If only that had been the biggest thing that went wrong.  I was talking to someone yesterday in the hotel who was coming back from Yorktown and finishing his ride.  I told him a bit about my story and they said that they had heard about me on the road from someone, so I thought that was kind of funny.

So now I’m here wishing that the electricity would come back on, but I suppose I wouldn’t have written this down had I kept my power.  I was happily eating my Pizza that I had delivered and watching Becker paying no attention to the craziness outside my window.  People are still driving on the road witch is covered with water.  It’s been raining up to a half inch every hour  and is pretty flooded.  Salt water can’t possibly be good for your car.

Hurricane remnants delay finish

Ok, So here's the thing.  I looked out my window this morning from my Day's Inn room where I was happily warm and dry and it was raining pretty good.  It had been raining all night.  My power went out and it wasn't light outside yet so I grabbed my headlamp and got around and went to my continental breakfast.  It wasn't a very good one but I had three bagels and a banana.  I went back to my room and the power was back so I could charge up my computer and cameras.  I looked out my window and thought to myself, "I don't have any more gigs, my D.C. one isn't going to work out, so I'm just going to stay in my williamsburg room today."  It was very nice.  I was able to contemplate my route. print off some paper directions, and take several naps.  I ordered a pizza and it continued to rain and blow all day long.  I depressingly looked up the weather for the next couple of days and it only looks like it might get worse tomorrow, but I'm going to lay out my outfit tonight along with the heavy rain gear, shoe booties and plastic baggies to line the inside of them and I will just set out in the weather because I'm rested and I don't have that much money so even though this room isn't that expensive I'm not just going to sit around tomorrow.  I wish it would have been nice out today so I could have explored williamsburg a bit which is one of our nations first cities.  I won't make the 75 miles tomorrow through urban area in the the wind gusts and rain tomorrow, but I'll make it to another hotel or hostel so I can dry out what will inevitably be my soaking wet rain gear despite my best efforts to stay dry.

The good news is that though it will rain tomorrow and the next day, I'll camp on the coast and the next morning this storm will have passed and I will be able to see the sun rise on the Eastern Seaboard which is the thing I want to do on the coast, besides splash around in celebration of my long journey.

I remember the beautiful sunsets on the west coast over the Pacific Ocean, so I'll be looking forward to the equally beautiful sunrises of the East.  

Peace be the journey,

Joe

Tomorrow I finish it

So today was a good day.  The weather was supposed to get me wet but it held out until I got to Williamsburg, VA.  Tomorrow it is supposed to rain too, so I just might check this big adventure of lifes to do list in the rain.  Either way, I'm going to cycle up to the ocean, dip my wheel and jump in the water and splash around in celebration.  I'll get some random bystander to take a picture or two.  It would be better if I had someone to celebrate the accomplishment but it will feel good just to know that I didn't just talk about my dreams, that even though there were crazy things that went wrong in the process.  My trailer broke down, My bike was stolen, thieves stole my video equipment, I had to ditch my trailer when it proved to be insufficient, and of coarse worst of all was diagnosed with Cancer.  But every time something bad happened God would bless me with some blessing.  I got a new trailer and two days later a stranger would give me money that covered the cost, I was given a new bike and I came back after surviving brain cancer.  So there has been many stories that have come about since I started this journey which will make for a good book that I will start putting together outlines and plans as soon as I get home.  The greatest Irony is that I started this ride, riding for cancer and was diagnosed after having to quit the ride in the geographical center of the country when I fell ill.

So Tomorrow is Virginia Beach.  The ride started in Orange counties Laguna Beach going up to San Francisco, Then going across to Great Bend (went home to deal with illness) came back right after Chemo going from Great Bend to Virginia Beach and then I'll ride up to D.C. before I go home.

It's been my greatest adventure and the project of turning it into a book will be the good next challenge.  I hope to have made good progress before I go to Norway, which is my next thing that I've always wanted to do that I've never had time to do.  I'd like to ski the Birkie over there but I have a feeling that tickets will be hard to come by.

Anyways, have a good night.  Tomorrow, I finish it.  Coast to Coast.

Joe

Civil war areas around Mechanicsville, VA

So I left the Haars this morning  and went down a pretty steep hill.  They thought I'd crash if I attempted this hill so of coarse I had to give it a try.  I didn't crash but there was a brief moment where I thought I'd have too much speed and hit there fence across the driveway, but I handled it (without hitting the fence).

Food was good today.  I was spoiled with waffles and scrambled eggs with cheese and peppers this morning.  I found a little family run hoagie joint that had some great sandwiches.  But tonight I'm just going to have some Chocolate milk and candy bars.

There were a lot of battle fields that I cycled by today from the civil war which I learned people down south don't refer to it as the 'civil' war.  They might call it the 'war of northern oppression.'  I'm sure african americans would have said they were even more oppressed by the south.

I was going to camp behind a baptist church but then I saw there was a cyclist camping spot at a church up the road.  Since it's always better to camp legally, I pressed on for the 60 mile day.  In my conversation with God earlier today I said it would be nice to find somewhere warm, inside with electricity and internet...which is usually a stretch.  But once I get to the camping spot there was even better than a shelter.  There was a building with electricity, tv, fridge, and internet!  So that worked out pretty well.  Since I didn't call ahead I lucked out because there was a meeting tonight so someone let me in, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten to be inside.

Ok, That's all I feel like blogging about tonight.  

Joe