Maine to North Dakota
(Originally Maine to Washington)
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A
New Beginning - I've been preparing by putting in a lot of riding time and respectable distances, my gear has been double checked. This time out I made the decision to purchase maps from Adventure Cycling, on the last trip only the western part of my route lined up with the Northern Tier Route, and since I am following the route almost exactly it made good sense to have a look at their maps, and I have to tell you, it was a great investment! Now I will actually know where campsites and services are located and I'll have bicycle specific information for my route... What a great advantage! So again the question arises, Why? Why finish the trip? the answer hasn't changed, not by much any way. If anything I have more of a reason to finish the trip this time because I came so close the first time... Everything in life happens for a reason and I'm convinced that finishing this trip now is how things were meant to be all along. From a philosophical standpoint my life has taken a few rather odd turns over the last 2 years, I traveled along a path (work related) that led once again to places that other people had created and dreamed of but where I could find no repose. Sometimes things just aren't meant to be, and sometimes we need to do what we feel inside. I met and got to work with some wonderful people but in the end I knew I belonged somewhere else. That's the only advantage of age, you finally figure out that life is to short to do things that aren't working for you. Many of you may have already noticed that the site has changed considerably in the last year, the Rolling Roads site is now being used for it's originally intended purpose as Rolling Roads Bicycle and Active Sports Vacations. If you haven't seen it yet please take a look! In late 2006 I teamed up with Best Selling Author Joe Kurmaskie and Rolling Roads is now a sister company to Joe's Camp Creative, an Arts & Bicycle Expedition based summer camp for kids!Because of these events an avenue has been created for me, the scope of which I hadn't previously envisioned, where by I am able to be an active bicycle proponent and share my passion for cycling and bicycle adventures. Over the next two months I'll be updating the site regularly, I'm leaving the existing site as-is since pages from the initial trip are still relevant to this phase of the adventure. The "Route" pages (whose menu is found at the top of each page) will receive most of the new and updated material but keep an eye on the equipment and Thoreau pages as I'll be adding info there as well. And once again, Gary Sr. (my dad) will be at the helm of the web site during my adventure. Also don't forget to visit my new Blog! So folks, the count down has begun, I will be setting off to complete my cross country adventure within the next 2 weeks! I wish you all well, Gary 2005 Trip
Conclusion - August 22nd, 2005 Regarding
the challenges of the trip. The mental
challenge is
hardest
during the first two weeks, I knew at the start that the first
10 days
would tell the tale, after day three I was on easy street, all the rain
and
cold I
experienced in The emotional
challenge
was
something of an unknown when I began the trip, I had no idea how much
or
little
contact I would have with other people but as it turned out loneliness
was a rare occurrence and in fact most of the time I drew
quite a lot
of attention. Many
people are
naturally
curious when they see a person on a loaded bike, not a day went by when
I didn't
make at least 3 new friends, there are a lot of wonderful people out
there! All good
things must
end. Someday I
will cycle
the remaining 1400 miles of my planned trip, as I said above I'm not
disappointed that
I didn't officially make it all the way across, I got much more out of
the trip than
I could ever have expected. It became apparent to me early on that the
feat of
cycling for weeks on end would in itself be an easy task. What does
disappoint
me is not getting to meet all of the great people who were still out
there
waiting for me to come along, and not getting to see all the new vistas
or
experience the uniqueness of each area. Those kind of things
end up as stories to tell in years
hence. Every persons life is a book of stories, I want my
book of
stories to be as voluminous as possible. So what
else did I learn from my
experience? Maybe I’ll tell you some day, we'll see... Stray well
and keep the rubber on
the road. Hello
and thanks for visiting my site, The Trip in a
nutshell: I'll be flying
to Bar Harbor ME from Illinois in late May to begin my journey, from
there I
will traverse the Northern US border through Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont,
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and then Wisconsin,
I’ll be
taking a few
days respite with friends in Duluth before I begin again and
head
Southwest
through Minnesota on my way to the Black Hills, from there
I’ll swing
back to
the Northwest and head for Yellowstone NP, then North onto Glacier NP
and then finally
West again to the coast. With a little luck and a lot of hard work I
should
reach the coast of The Reason in a
nutshell:
Once its all
said and done it is my hope to write a book, not a cycling vacation
book,
there are plenty of great adventure writers out there (like Joe
Kurmaskie!) I’d like to write a philosophical book about the
reasons
for my trip and what I learn from it. I have
always admired the works of Henry David Thoreau, as a youth his
“Walden” played
a major part in shaping my ideas and beliefs, and those ideas and
beliefs seem
to get stronger as I get older. This trip is my
“Walden” so
to speak, my way of answering the inner call of self discovery. As
Thoreau so eloquently stated “I went to the woods to live
deliberately,
to
front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn
what it
had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not
lived.” In
my case I'm riding across the country and spending the majority of my
nights in
a tent “to live deliberately, to front only the essential
facts of
life…” And it
is this catalyst that stirs the imagination to write such a book. I may
never
write that book, I’ve lived long enough to know that some
dreams are
simply
harder to accomplish than others, but one can dream… The
inspiration for fulfilling my “Walden” via bicycle
came after reading
Joe Kurmaskie’s book “The
Metal Cowboy” It helped me realize that it is still possible
to
temporarily escape
the rigid structure of working to live and living to work and
experience
something much like Henry David had at Walden, Thanks Joe, I owe you
one! I'll elaborate more on this subject on the "Why?" page. During
the trip I'll be checking in with my father, Gary
Sr. on a
fairly regular basis and he
will be
updating the site and answering email when and as he can, those who
correspond
with him will find him to be a very interesting, witty and pleasant
guy! (I had
to get that first copy of Walden from somewhere!) While planning the
trip I
talked with several people who have rode coast to coast on a bicycle
and
without exception they all said I will meet a lot of great people and
that many
of them will worry about me and want to know where I am and how I'm
doing. In
the past other riders have sent post cards to keep family and friends
(both old
and new) abreast of their trip but the Internet makes it possible to
keep in
touch with just a click, and hence the reason for this site. Happy
Trails! I learned this, at least, by
my experiment; |
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