Day 54 [St. Augustine, FL] & The End

And just like that biking across America turns from something I'm trying to accomplish into something I've done.  It feels so good to proclaim this, now and for the rest of my life: I did it!  2,780 miles and exactly two months later I've pedaled my way into the Atlantic Ocean.  This final addition to my biking blog will consist of two parts; a quantitative analysis (the stats), and a qualitative one (the sentimental crap).  So, to avoid writing the emotional part of this entry for a little while longer I'm going to begin with some statistics from the trip.

------------------------------------------------By the Numbers-------------------------------------------------

Total days................................................................62

Pedaling days...........................................................54

Days w/ a sore ass.....................................................62

Consecutive days wearing one pair of shorts.................62

Total Miles...........................................................2,780

Avg. Miles per day................................................51.48

Total time spent pedaling..................................258 hours

Avg. Miles per hour.................................................10.8

Flat Tires..................................................................16

Rest days....................................................................5

Rain/Snow days..........................................................3

Body weight lost..................................................18 lbs.

Calories burned...........................who knows (~150,000?)

Percentage of nights spent camping..........................52%

Percentage of nights spent in a motel........................32%

Percentage of nights spent at a friend's......................16%

-----------------------------------------------Closing Thoughts------------------------------------------------

This trip has been everything I'd hoped for and much, much more.  At times I even got to enjoy far more than I ever bargained for, but it will always have a piece of my heart because for two straight months I gave it everything I had.  Going into this, I figured biking across America was just a series of long bike rides.  Purely a physical challenge, an endurance race.  I quickly discovered that it's just as much a mental battle as anything else.  The will to self-motivate yourself - to wake up, pack all your gear up, and climb back into that saddle every morning.  It's tough, it really is.  The legs tend to get with the program fairly early on, but the mental struggle continues throughout the entire adventure.

With this all being said, it has also been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding events of my life thus far.  I've traveled the back roads of America at dismally slow speeds...I've seen some things that's for sure, and some stuff.  I've met people from all across the Southern portion of America.  From the swamp rats in Louisiana (sorry), to the cattle ranchers in west Texas.  Through all the differences I took note of that separate my culture from theirs, the overarching realization is that people are pretty much the same regardless of their home state.  I also enjoyed an incredible change of scenery across the country as I went from the mountainous west, to super dry desert, the swamp-lands, and finally to the tall pines of Florida.  There is so much beauty in this section of the country that was all just there waiting for me to see.

I've doubtlessly learned much about myself along the trip, too.  What better way is their towards self-discovery and growth than a two month solo vacation?  Out of an extensive list of improvements I made I will name a few that are currently on the top my head.  For one thing, I know I greatly improved my patience and level of self-reliance for unexpected incidents.  Flat tires, wrong turns, and other such setbacks can be extremely aggravating, but eventually I got tired of hearing myself bitch and just started righting these things without protest.  I also suspect I'm more outgoing, as I spoke with hundreds of people throughout the journey.  It also became easier to ask others for a little bit of help when I needed it, and in fact got pretty good at doing so.  Most importantly, that mental battle that I mentioned, well I figure fighting it for 2 months and coming out successful has to be a positive as well.

The friends I saw along the way, old and new, were all awesome.  I met at least 20 other cyclists out on the road accomplishing the same thing I was.  I spoke to nearly all of them and they were some unique and interesting people.  I made new friends and opened up connections for myself all over country.  The random acts of kindness I received from various strangers was a great reminder that most people have good hearts.  A special thank you to all the people that helped me out on this tour.  In addition, I'd also like to thank my friends and family members that kept in touch while I was on the road.  Phone calls and Skype calls from home got me through many otherwise boring nights in the tent.  You guys rock.  Finally, thanks to all of you who took the time to read my blog and share my adventure with me!

As I slip back into "normal life", I'll always carry the memories of this trip with me and am looking forward to reliving them on some shorter weekend tours.  Maybe I'll even wear my Yankees shorts that I wore every single day of this tour to make it more authentic.  Like all great things this adventure has come to an end.  Who knows, maybe one day down the road I'll do something crazy enough to be deserving of a blog again.  Until then, I'll see you all around.

Day 53 [Palatka, FL]

Reppin' the Hokies across America!

All five of our touring machines.

The Gainesville visit ended up being pretty epic.  The trio I met back in Louisiana picked up a stray and became a foursome.  We have kept in touch, and realized that we'd all be in the same place tonight.  An awesome hostel resides in this town, and we went Real World style and all shared one big room for the night.  For dinner we went to a pretty good Mexican restaurant and hung out there for a few hours.  A real good group of future doctors here.  Their pour souls have already been through eight years of college and medical school, but they still know how to have some fun.  The next morning we stopped by a unique place that sells coffee and muffins while at the same time is a bike shop.  The owner took an interest in our trip and we ended up hanging here for quite a while this morning.  A bunch of photos were taken of us that may or may not end up being hung up in the establishment.  After breakfast, we all rode together for awhile until the group decided they wanted to camp for their final night, whereas I preferred a lush motel to rest up for victory lane.  However, we will all rejoice together tomorrow in St. Augustine!  As I type this, I sit in utter disbelief that this entire adventure will end in one more little bike ride.

Day 52 [Gainesville, FL]

I had a very interesting, albeit disturbing start to my long ride to Gainesville today.  Sometime after midnight I was awoken by a knock on the door of my crack-motel.  I decided not to get out of bed, and just to let the meandering drunk go away on his own.  I heard him knock on the surrounding doors, and then he/she was gone.  It took me a little while to get back to sleep while I was wondering if it was going to come back and meet my canister of bear mace.  After an iffy night of rest, I woke up around 5am to get an early start on the 80 mile day in an effort to try and avoid some of this Florida heat.  As I was wheeling my bike out the door, a woman drunker than all hell stumbled up cussing at an invisible person.  When she saw me, her mood temporarily changed as she put on a more pleasant face and asked if she could come into my "crib".  Apparently, to degenerates, no doesn't mean no because she decided to try and enter my room anyway.  I grabbed her by the shirt and stopped her as she was at the doorway.  I told her she better leave before I have her arrested.  She then stumbled off into the night, this time cussing at me instead of the invisible friend.  Groggy and tired, I set off into the night and rode the first 10 miles in darkness.  It was kind of relaxing in a way, but at the same time I could hardly see the road hazards that I was running over.  When the sun came up, I rode through another 10 or so miles of fog before the sun was able to burn it away.  Oh yea, I found a Chipotle here in Gainesville.  What better way to get those calories back?

Day 51 [Live Oak, FL]

Another day on the lovely route 90 brought me 65 miles closer to St. Augustine.  Sweat just pours out of you in this accurately depicted "Sunshine State".  Today it was 94 degrees w/ humidity, just a total freaking swamp.  Getting off the bike anywhere but a town is miserable because a million gnats instantly swarm on you.  I've never had a bug in both eyes at the same time before riding through Florida.  Sweating by the gallon has turned me into a somewhat of a wuss about camping.  Motels here are only 35-40 dollars, and allow for much better sleep.  It doesn't get below 75 degrees here until around midnight, and I can't sleep when I'm hot.  I may as well climb a little further into debt before the trip is over anyway, right?  I passed another cyclist today whom was just starting out and heading west.  I have a feeling he'll be regretting setting out this late in the season fairly soon.  Also, I saw a baby miniature horse today...pretty darn cute.  Tomorrow I'll be in Gator-land (Gainesville, FL).  

Day 50 [Monticello, FL]

Tallahassee was beautiful, especially the Seminole's campus which Edo drove me around this afternoon.  Quite a pretty college, I'd say almost as pretty as Virginia Tech...but hey, I'm a bit biased there.  He took me to a local legend pizza place that served slices nearly equivalent to the size of an entire pizza.  The line was out the door, but totally worth the wait.  By the time my tour of the town was complete, including a drive by the infamously inappropriate Capitol building, it was nearly five o'clock.  To keep to schedule, I may or may not have received a little bit of vehicular assistance to arrive 40 miles down the road this evening.  All together, another cool city visited with kindness exhibited from an old friend.   

Day 49 [Tallahassee, FL]

I made it to the Capital of Florida today, and to my host's house.  Edo is busy tonight with final exams and his girlfriend's graduation, but still was nice enough to let me hang out at his apartment.  He'll be showing me around town tomorrow morning before I head out.  This will likely lead to a late start and I may be riding well into the evening tomorrow.  Maybe it'll be time for my first "night biking" of the trip.  St. Augustine is fast approaching!  The miles are melting away and I believe I'm somewhere around 300 miles from my finish line.  In other news I managed to fall off my bike for the first time today.  I was pulling into a gas station and what looked like a light dusting of sand turned out to be about three inches of it.  Took it at an angle and this brought the whole ship down with my elbow taking all of the impact.  I think my pride was hurt more than my arm, as I wasn't too happy about how many saw the accident.  I proceeded to have an adult temper-tantrum, throwing my helmet to the ground and kicking it the rest of the way to the storefront.  Oh well, at least I made it back into the Eastern Timezone.  

Day 48 [Marianna, FL]

My love affair with US-90 continued today, as it will for the next couple of days.  The views you get are pretty much consistent with what you see above.  Miles and miles of grass and pine trees, with your occasional river or creek.  Moderate sized towns are sprinkled in about every 10 miles, too.  Throughout Florida route 90 has graciously given me a nice four foot wide shoulder to work with.  I wish all the roads I've been on were this bike-friendly!  I'll be spending my last night in Central Time tonight, and breaking into EST will be the second to last major milestone of my trip (the final being the Atlantic Ocean, of course).  I'm excited to reach the finish line, but at the same time can foresee a quick onset of nostalgia upon completion.  At least I'll always be able to look back at this blog and relive it from time to time.  It makes me extremely happy that I chronicled it all like this.  Tomorrow night I get another free place to stay, this time in Tallahassee - right near Florida State's campus.