EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS BICYCLE TRIP … AND MORE!! Complete timetable – 7/5/14 Flew to San Francisco, CA (dipped back tire in Pacific Ocean) 7/6/14 Visited with my friend John (no riding … got bike ready to go) 7/7/14 Modesto, CA 92 miles 7/8/14 Madera, CA 76 miles 7/9/14 Visalia, CA 92 miles 7/10/14 Bakersfield, CA 92 miles 7/11/14 Lake Isabella, CA 60 miles 7/12/14 Crestridge, CA 59 miles 7/13/14 Boron, CA 54 miles 7/14/14 Ludlow, CA 88 miles 7/14/14 Kingman, AZ (hitched a ride to Kingman, AZ) 7/15/14 KIngman, AZ (day off because of flooding) 7/16/14 Seligman, AZ 79 miles 7/17/14 Flagstaff, AZ 77 miles 7/18/14 Holbrook, AZ 99 miles 7/19/14 Gallup, NM 102 miles 7/20/14 Grants, NM 71 miles 7/21/14 Albuquerque, NM 95 miles 7/22/14 Santa Rosa, NM 111 miles 7/23/14 Logan, NM 84 miles 7/24/14 Guymon, OK 145 miles (via TX) 7/25/14 Bucklin, KS 125 miles 7/26/14 Goddard, KS 118 miles 7/27/14 Eureka, KS 82 miles 7/28/14 Fort Scott, KS 94 miles 7/29/14 Clinton, MO 92 miles 7/30/14 Boonville, MO 74 miles 7/31/14 Mokane, MO 72 miles 8/1/14 Weldon Springs, MO 74 miles 8/2/14 St. Louis, MO 10 miles (day off with Sandra & Eli) 8/3/14 Litchfield, IL 87 miles 8/4/14 Urbana, IL 129 miles 8/5/14 Urbana, IL (day off for R&R with family) 8/6/14 Urbana, IL (day off for R&R with family) 8/7/14 Urbana, IL (day off for R&R with family) 8/8/14 Oakwood, IL (hitched a ride with Sandra to the cabin) 8/9/14 Crawfordsville, IN 65 miles 8/10/14 Greenfield, IN 73 miles 8/11/14 Springfield, OH 114 miles 8/12/14 Zanesville, OH 107 miles 8/13/14 Steubenville, OH 96 miles (to Wierton, WV, & back to Steubenville) 8/14/14 Monroeville, PA 56 miles (via WV) 8/15/14 Duncanville, PA 82 miles 8/16/14 Mifflintown, PA 99 miles (to Thompsontown & back to Mifflintown) 8/17/14 Lebanon, PA 79 miles 8/18/14 Easton, PA 77 miles (+ hitched a ride for a few miles with state trooper) 8/19/14 Manhattan, NY 97 miles (via NJ) 8/20/14 Brooklyn, NY 28 miles (dipped front tire in East River/Atlantic Ocean) “Post-Ride” riding: 8/21/14 Harlem, NY 12 miles (vacation with Sandra) 8/22/14 Hagerstown, MD (no riding, vacation with Sandra) 8/23/14 Parkersburg, WV 28 miles (Morgantown, Decker Creek Trail, with Sandra) 8/24/14 Urbana, IL (no riding, back home) Days from departure from SF to arrival in NYC – 45 Days of actual biking from SF to NYC – 39 Total days of trip – 51 Days biking (including vacation, etc.) – 42 Total miles SF to NYC – 3406 Total miles (including vacation, etc.) – 3446 States traveled through during bike trip – 14 (CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, KS, MO, IL, IN, OH, WV, PA, NJ & NY) Additional state during return car trip – 1 (MD) Money spent – About $6000 Bicycle shops (recommended) – Warm Planet Bicycles (San Francisco), The Bike Coop (Albuquerque), Kohlmann’s Bike Shop/Peter Kohlmann – (Champaign) Flat tires – 7 (6 before Albuquerque, then 1 on the last day, in New Jersey) Days riding in the rain – 7 Rides hitched – 3 (with Mike, the Vietnam vet, from Ludlow, CA, to Kingman, AZ; with Sandra, from Urbana, IL, to Oakwood, IL; & with the Pennsylvania state trooper, to Easton, PA, from just outside Easton, PA) Law enforcement encounters – 1 (Mandatory ride hitched with the state trooper outside of Easton, PA) Hotels that were “Norwegian Owned” – 1 (The Stagecoach Inn, in Seligman, AZ) Times that I littered – ZERO Injuries – ZERO Weight lost – About 15 to 20 pounds Top speed I attained – About 40 mph, coasting down mountains (I often braked, though) Top elevation – About 7400 feet Mountain ranges crossed – Sierra Nevada (CA), San Francisco (AZ), Rockies (NM) & Appalachians (PA) Rivers crossed (a few of them … probably forgot some) – Rio Grande (NM), Arkansas (KS), Missouri (MO), Mississippi (MO to IL), Wabash (IN), Ohio (OH to WV), Allegheny (PA), Monongahela (PA) [& (WV) on the drive home], Delaware (PA to NJ), Hudson (NJ to NY), & East (Manhattan to Brooklyn) Books completed – 10 (I’ll just list the authors: James Michener, Margaret Atwood, Michael Crichton, Isabel Allende, Stieg Larsson, Stephen King, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman … & Ken Jennings!) Songs stuck in my head – Take It Easy (The Eagles/Jackson Browne), Willin’ (Little Feat), Everybody’s Talkin’ (Fred Neil/Harry Nilsson), Rider in the Rain (Randy Newman), Homeward Bound (Simon & Garfunkel), Riders on the Storm (The Doors), Whoomp! There It Is! (Tag Team), Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head (Bachrach & David/B.J. Thomas), & New York, New York (Kander & Ebb/Frank Sinatra) … & on the drive home – Bird on a Wire (Leonard Cohen), Early Mornin’ Rain (Gordon Lightfoot), Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver), & Morning Morgantown (Joni Mitchell) … &, finally, groups alluded to sans specific songs – Barenaked Ladies, Mötley Crüe, AND … Spoon! Silverware, etc. – 25 pieces (15 spoons, 8 knives, & 2 forks) … plus 1 dish Notable live critters – Lizards, tortoises, turtles, snakes, frogs, hawks, herons, geese, ducks, bobwhites, egrets, turkeys, turkey vultures, woodpeckers, finches, cardinals, blue jays, indigo buntings, gulls, pheasants, scissor-tailed flycatchers, squirrels, rabbits, jackrabbits, deer, coyotes, foxes, chipmunks, prairie dogs, groundhogs, & a katydid Notable dead critters – Many armadillos, a porcupine, & an unknown skeleton (in mint condition) Events of note – Severe drought in California (while there were downpours in Illinois); a wildfire near Walker’s Pass through the Sierra Nevada; flash-flooding in Kingman, AZ; the murders of two homeless men, & subsequent arrest of the teenage murderers, the day before I arrived in Albuquerque (the murderers & the victims were regulars on Central Avenue, the route I took the entire way through town); outracing a monsoon on the way to Santa Rosa, NM; Eli choking on a grape & responding to Sandra’s quick application of the Heimlich maneuver in Weldon Springs, MO, near St. Louis; getting rained out of the super moon in Greenfield, IN (a non-event); & getting a rash of sad news in Ohio, with the deaths of my friend Alex Martirano, Robin Williams (who seemed to feel like a friend to everyone), & the shooting victim Michael Brown, in Ferguson, MO, a week after we spent the weekend in St. Louis. A few of the interesting people I met – Byron (a Pleasanton, CA, cyclist, who rode with me for 30 miles); Dave (another CA cyclist, from around Yosemite, who directed me through the California desert); Mike (the Vietnam vet who was nice, a little crazy, & who gave me a ride all the way to Kingman, AZ, when I stuck my thumb out in Ludlow, CA); the anonymous guy who mysteriously appeared on the highway in CA (who I subsequently called the ghost of the desert); the woman who was hitchhiking while I was taking a picture of the mountains in Kingman, AZ, who considered charging me for the picture, but instead moseyed on; the fellow in Holbrook, AZ, with the Studebaker truck, who offered me a house to stay in; the Mexican man & the Navajo man in Gallup, NM, who outdid each other in generosity, sharing cold water & fruit, & even insisting on giving me some cash; another Mike, in Hebron, OH, who told me to call him if I needed anything at all, even from New York; the elderly woman, along with her husband, who stopped on the highway near Zanesville, OH, to ask if I needed anything, offering to buy me dinner; yet another Michael, who kept Sandra company while she waited for me to arrive in Central Park, at the end of the journey, who was charismatic & a little worse for wear, & was exceedingly impressed that I had ridden from San Francisco, a place where he knew someone, a dancer in the SF Ballet; & finally, the unknown young European woman who was next to me on a bench in Central Park, who (through the magic of photography) appeared to be eaten by me, along with my pita bread! Friends & family I met up with – John (in San Francisco); Jeanette & Eric (in Flagstaff, AZ); Sandra & Eli (in Clinton, MO); Erin (my sis) & Jim (in Boonville, MO); Kyle, Farron, Lucas & Eli (in Crawfordsville, IN); Ellen, Michael & Landric (in Monroeville, PA, outside of Pittsburgh); Jim (in Manhattan, in the East Village); & Beth in (Manhattan, in Soho) Stuff to check out – Check out the article written by Jim Rossow in the News Gazette mid-trip – news-gazette/news/local/2014-08-03/top-morning-aug-3-2014.html Check out the website for our counseling business, Elliott Counseling Group – kevinelliottcounseling/ Check out the Facebook page for our counseling business, Elliott Counseling Group (Facebook) – https://facebook/kevin.elliott.counseling Check out the website for Soona Songs, the record label for my last CD, It’s a Circus Here, Dolores, & also my upcoming (as yet unnamed) CD – soonasongs/store_ke1.php Check out the website for Rupert Wates, who will be playing a house concert (as will I), hosted by Sandra & me, on September 18 … I’ll be sending out invitations with much more detail very soon – rupertwatesmusic/ Check out the website for Sarah McQuaid, who will also be playing a house concert (as will I), hosted by Sandra & me, on September 24 … I’ll also be sending out invitations for this concert with much more detail very soon – sarahmcquaid/ FINALLY … Here are a few “keepers” from the trip – 1. Things will not go according to plan, & this is good … it makes room for what I wouldn’t otherwise imagine. 2. It is important to be open to help, not only because I will need it, but also in order to give others a chance to demonstrate their goodness. 3. Most people are pretty good people & will appreciate a chance to show it. 4. Of course, there is the occasional sociopath, so heads up. 5. Sharing the experience greatly increases the value … not only with folks along the road, but these Facebook posts became an important part of the trip (& kept me less crazy too). 6. There is limited currency in our culture for assigning value, though, & it usually pertains to money … so, for example, by normal reckoning, this trip would fall almost entirely in the loss column, which is SO not the case. 7. I (& we) really need each other … as great an experience as this was, I won’t do anything like it again for a while, because I missed everyone too much … I need my peeps. 8. I’m grateful for being able to do this; it took the contributions of many, to lead up to it being possible … especially my wife & partner Sandra, who not only accepted my disappearing for so long, but was willing to take care of our home, business & family in my absence. 9. Speaking of making things possible, just about anything is possible … things that I tend to call impossible are usually just hard, or I don’t really want to do them (or I’m afraid to). 10. Finally, I was reminded over & over again how beautiful the world is, & the country, & the people, & my life … all worth appreciating & preserving, whatever effort is required. THANKS FOR SHARING THIS TRIP WITH ME!!
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 05:53:47 +0000
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