some final thoughts about the journey

Some final thoughts about the journey
It is going to take me a while to process this. It certainly was a physical challenge at least to start, but once we got in reasonable shape (got our legs under us) and especially after we got the car and were not loaded down that was not the hardest part. Physically we were able to do it. Mountain passes were hard but they were also expected and you could get in a groove and just do it. Rolling hills were a little more difficult because they were unexpected and we couldn't always get our momentum going to get a good pace going up the hill.

I think the hard part was just the day to day of being on the road for that length of time. We were kind of like a slow train coming. We tried to keep the costs down, and found ourselves at McDonald's a lot because we knew they had free wifi and value meals. Every second or third day we sought out a place for a shower, a YMCA, community pool, campground/RV park, usually fit the bill. We tried to stay as cheaply as possible.  I think we had about 8 or 10 motel nights, about 15 nights with family or friends (I didn't realize it was that much until I added it in my head) about half of those were in Vancouver, WA with Marcee's Brother's family or in Ann Arbor at my Mom's house.

As much as I enjoy eating out we both longed for a break from it, especially fast food because of the "value meals" they offer. I know that I ate way too many french fries and ice cream and even Snickers bars. I maintained my weight because I usually biked about 3-4 hours a day but I know that I will have to watch what I eat a little closer.

I think that our favorite roads to ride were the ones with little traffic, good surfaces, and wide shoulders. Little traffic and wide shoulders don't usually go together, you get one or the other usually. The toughest conditions were small shoulders and heavier traffic. That is what made the first part of the journey tough because Highway 30 in Oregon seemed that way. Also, riding Adventure Cycling Routes (ACA) in the west may require riding on Interstate shoulders. Some people do not mind that because you have almost a full lane to yourself we chose to avoid or skip those sections. We found ourselves asking a lot of folks about road conditions and traffic especially when we made our own route which was most of ND, parts of MI, Eastern NY, all of VT, NH and ME. You have to judge for yourself though and we tended to weigh the opinion of bike shop employees a little more than other folks.

Technologically I never really got an efficient system down and I apologize that I never posted pictures for some days that I said I would. Please forgive me.  It was great to have the free use of wifi at McDonalds but my computer is slow and it took a while for the pictures to load.  That is one thing I would want to research further if ever doing something like this again.  The ACA maps were helpful, having a GPS or smart phone with a GPS would have been useful.

It seems like forever since we were dropping off our cats in Utah and loading up our bikes for a test run a couple of days before we drove out to Vancouver, Washington to start our trip at Seaside. The first time we did that our rear panniers and B.O.B trailers were fully loaded and we could barely even balance the bikes. It is comical to look back at! We took another day to prep and got rid of an "apple" box" worth of stuff.

It was fun and invigorating to talk to other touring cyclists on the road. We saw a lot through Montana. After that I remember seeing a couple on the same day in Michigan (within 5 minutes of each other), one in Minnesota, one in Vermont and one on our last day as we were entering Bar Harbor. That is what I remember there were probably more.

One thing I learned pretty quickly is the value of having a business card, especially when you are fund raising. Since most conversations and contacts with people were short it gave people something tangible to have so they could look up our blog or the Life Outreach ministry online if they wanted to. After getting the cards in North Dakota (sent to Diane's parent's house!) we did start getting some cash donations on the spot. If you would like to explore other touring cyclists journals I would encourage you to check out http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/.

I did learn something important about giving that God touched my heart with and that is the importance of cheerful giving (2 Corinthians 9:7). About a month ago we started putting $1 a day in an envelope to give to the Water for Life ministry. Each time I did that I said to myself that I wanted to bless someone or give someone fresh clean water. That was usually about it. It blessed me in doing that! It certainly would be easier to give $30 once a month, but the discipline of doing that allowed me to pray and bless someone 30 times and tangibly care in my giving 30 times rather than just once. Being intentional is important to me. God Loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).

We answered the what if question for ourselves.  "What if we bicycled across country?"  The way we did it with a car, taking turns riding and driving and skipping a few miles by driving worked for us.  It made the trip doable, given our inexperience as cyclists.  Physically it was a lot easier because we were usually doing about half the miles you would do by yourself.  We figured out the driving thing so that it was not so tedious.

Once again, thank you to everyone who helped us along the way, God, family, friends, strangers, bike shop employees/mechanics, Life Outreach International...  Your encouragement, kindness and support were much needed and very much appreciated!  Thank you for all of your donations to water for life, if makes a difference in people's lives!

Larry and Marcee Reitbauer

We plan to wrap up the blog in th next week with some final thoughts.

September 16 - day 83 Friday

September 16 - day 83 Friday
Start - Ellsworth, Maine
End - Bar Harbor, Maine
Miles - 22 (Larry 22.5, Marcee 22.6)
Total approximate miles for the trip - 4006 (Larry 2306, Marcee 1706)
Start time - 930am
End time - 100pm
Miles driven not ridden - none

We made it!  Bar Harbor!  Wow!  Thank you Jesus for your word, guidance and protection!  Thank you to everyone who supported us, family, friends, strangers, bike shop owners/mechanics, fellow touring cyclists.  Your words of encouragement, help with logistics, support meant a lot to us and made it possible for us to complete this journey!  Here are some photos from "touch down" in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.

Geared up in Ellsworth, ready for the final run to Bar Harbor!

The road down to the Town Pier and beach!

We made it! 

With Mom at Bar Harbor

From the park in front of the harbor

Photos from Acadia National Park including sunrise on Cadillac Mountain on September 17.

September 15 - day 82 Thursday

September 15 - day 82 Thursday

This ended up being a rest day.  The weather was foggy to start out the day and rain was in the forecast for the afternoon with sunshine in the forecast for Friday.  We decided to take it easy and sightsee.  We drove around the Winter Harbor area and the Schootic Peninsula during the day and then got to visit with Debbie and Max Merrill.  They treated us to dinner at Pat's Pizza in Ellsworth, about 22 miles west of Bar Harbor.  Thank you Debbie and Max and it was great to visit with you!

Dinner with Debbie and Max Merrill

Marcee took this picture out the window as we were sightseeing

We are taking a rest day today will finish tomorrow (Friday)

September 14 - day 81 Wednesday

September 14 - day 81 WednesdayStart - Carmel, Maine
End - Ellsworth, Maine
Miles - 28.92 (Larry 28.92, Marcee 21.6 we rode together the last part of the day)
Start time - 1000am
End time - 420pm

One more day, 19.5 miles and we will be in Bar Harbor!  Mom flew into Bangor today so that we could ride together for the last two days.  Thank you Mom!  We are spending tonight at the Vacationland Inn in Brewer, Maine just outside of Bangor.  Yesterday we stopped in to ask questions and shared our card.  Our card made its way to the local radio station and I had the opportunity to do a radio interview and share about our journey and raising money through Life Outreach International to drill water wells.

Not many pictures today, more tomorrow.

September 13 - day 80 Tuesday

September 13 - day 80 Tuesday
Start - Farmington, Maine
End - Carmel, Maine
Miles - 62 (Larry 31.24, Marcee 30.94)
Start time - 1025am
End time - 608pm
Miles driven not ridden about 8

A good day of riding after a good night's rest at the Mount Blue Motel in Farmington. Good folks to chat with along the way today. Thank you for your interest it is encouraging!

Today we did ot take many breaks, just short ones and a short lunch. The day was beautiful in the high 70s, low 80s with the humidity it was hot though. We continued on route 2 through towns like New Sharon, Skowhagen, Palmyra, and Newport. Traffic was steady but the shoulders were mostly wide so it was fine. The shoulder east of Newport was thin but so was traffic as the route paralleled interstate 95.

Marcee got bit by some kind of bug on her forehead. She thought it was a bee at first but probably wasn't. It was scary as she threw her helmet off and drifted into the lane fortunately nothing was coming.

Tomorrow my Mom is flying into Bangor and she was drive the car with us to Bar Harbor so we can both ride into Bar Harbor probably Thursday morning!

Photos from the day: