Epilogue

It's hard to believe that (1) in just two months, it will be a year since I completed this trip; (2) in all that time, I never summarized all the statistics (old obsessive-compulsive me!); (3) my life has changed dramatically since the trip; and (4) I regained every last one of the pounds I lost.  Plus two more.

I began 2007 not only as a slightly more substantial person than in September 2006, but also as a retiree.  In the third round of layoffs over the past two years, it was finally determined that I, too, am "redundant".  Redundant is not as bad as it sounds, provided it comes with an "early retirement" benefit package.  It did.

The photo here was taken in May on my first vacation as retiree, a car camping trip through the southwest (here at Mesa Verde National Park).  The destination was a square dance convention in Denver, but there was a lot of hiking and touring before and after.

 

Statistics

But before I reminisce, pontificate, and reveal the secrets I learned on this trip, I would like to address the really interesting part.

Begin & end date: June 10, 2006 - September 12, 2006
Elapsed time: 95 days, comprised of 81 cycling days and 14 rest days

Total distance cycled: 4,729.3 miles (7,611.1 kilometers)
Distance from Paris to Caracas (France-Venezuela): 4,736 miles (7,622 km)
Distance from Berlin to Calcutta (Germany-India): 4,368 miles (7,030 km)
Max distance in one day: 92.5 miles (148.9 kilometers) [in an all out effort to reach air conditioning in Fargo, ND!]
Average distance per day: 53.7 miles (86.4 kilometers)
Approximate total pedal revolutions to travel full distance: 1,998,000

Average speed for entire trip: 11.4 mph (18.3 km/hr)
Slowest average speed on one day: 7.9 mph (12.7 km/hr) [battling headwinds on the North Dakota plains]
Highest average speed on one day: 15.1 mph (24.3 km/hr) benefiting from slight tailwinds in central Minnesota
Highest speed attained: 47.9 mph (77.1 km/hr) on the 14% descent from Kinsman Notch towards Lincoln, NH

Average amount of elevation gain (climbing) per day: 1,841 feet (561 m)
Maximum elevation gain in one day: 5,891 feet (1,796 m) climbing Rainy Pass and Washington Pass on day four
Total elevation gain for entire trip: 189,813 feet, or 36 miles (57,855 m)
Maximum elevation reached: 6,646 feet (2,026 m) Logan Pass (Continental Divide), Glacier National Park, MT

Total number of hours spent cycling: 544.4 hours (22.68 24-hour days)
Average length of cycling day: 6 hours 38 minutes
Longest cycling day: 10 hours climbing Rainy Pass and Washington Pass

Total number of nights sleeping in a tent: 17
Total number of nights in a hostel: 3
Total number of nights in a private home: 20
Total number of nights in a motel: 55

Total amount spent maintaining bicycle: $423.14
Total amount spent on incidental items (batteries, postcards, toilettries, etc.): $414.51
Total amount spent on food: $2,276.56
Total amount spent on lodgings: $3,705.79 ($193.69 on camp sites, the rest shamefully and self-indulgently)
Total amount spent while on the road: $7,486.36
Total amount spent prior to trip for every type of camping and bicycling gear known to man (and then some): don't ask!

I have struggled for many months, trying to find something to say to summarize the trip, my life, your life, or the entire meaning of life.  The trip was a big deal for me, and I feel I should have something important and noteworthy to say in honor of its conclusion.  Alas, I do not.

Unfortunately someone already beat me to the punch in offering the best advice about how to live life, and that was 2,000 years ago: "carpe diem".  It's not a motto that I have personally lived by (I'm way too conservative), but the few times I have been frustrated enough, or desperate enough, or unhappy enough, to say "to hell with this" and tried something new, it has always turned out for the best. 

Of course, that's not exactly the case with the TransAm trip, because there was really no element of frustration or unhappiness behind the decision, unlike other turning points in my life.  This particular decision to "seize the day" arose from a deeper understanding (as opposed to mere intellectual acknowledgement) that the number of days to be seized is  diminishing.  Although I wouldn't recommend not saving for retirement or not paying the mortgage, I think it's probably a good idea to incorporate as much "carpe diem" into life as early as possible.  But I also believe that for those people whose  biggest dream in life is to live in Buddhist monastery in Nepal, chucking the retirement plan and the mortgage may well be the best decision they could make and one that they will never regret.

As for myself, I wish I had seized the day a bit more often over the decades, but I'm also pleased that I now have a pension plan that will pay for a lot of new bicycle tires.  While I can't quite stand up and sing "Non, je ne regrette rien", I don't regret too much either.  That's the way it is for me; maybe that's the way it is for most people.

As for summarizing the bike trip, rather than looking for the meaning of it all, I'll begin with just one overly general observation: when it comes right down to it, all we truly process is our own experience.  Over the past six years or so, collectively our biggest experience of the US comes from the media which serve as our virtual eyes and ears.  Based on that experience, there's a lot not to like about the country, and a few things to be outright ashamed about.

On the other hand, for three months I practically never read a newspaper, so the experiences I accumulated were very personal and direct.  First of all, I can say with great conviction that America is an indescribably beautiful country.  The closest I could come to describing it was in the photographs I took, which don't do it justice.  

The other overwhelming impression I had is that Americans are friendly, outgoing, helpful, trusting, and generous.  There are still people who don't lock their doors, and tell you to go in and help yourself to something to eat and drink if they aren't home yet.  Complete strangers will strike up a conversation, tell you the good and the bad things about their little corner of the world, and crack a few jokes with you.  Some small towns offer free campgrounds or hostels, just to be hospitable.  You get invited to dinner by people you've known for ten minutes.  I can't say whether the 50-100 people whom I met are representative of all the other millions of Americans along the route, but they are definitely the kind of people you'd want to have for your fellow countrymen.

So, as epilogue and conclusion, I'll finally shut up after saying "carpe diem" --- go bicycle across the United States!

P.S.  The above picture is San Francisco, San Francisco Bay, the Pacific Ocean, and the Marin headlands --- taken from the seat of a bicycle about a month ago (June 2007).