Conclusion

This ride has been an incredible experience for me and my brother. I had hoped to write a grand conclusion post, but I’m finding it a bit difficult to sum it all up.. there were just so many meaningful experiences in this 51 day journey, and so many different aspects to it. As such, this post will probably be more of a collection of thoughts than a proper summary.

I suppose I have always enjoyed travelling and seeing new places, and I love bicycling, so bicycle touring was a natural fit for me. A couple years ago when I moved to Vancouver, I drove across the country – part of it with Dan (curiously, he also met me in Colorado on this trip). We really enjoyed travelling the countryside and seeing some parts of our amazing country which were new to us. I think we were keen to see a little more and have a little adventure.. and, well, I guess you know the rest. 

Touring with my brother was wonderful – as expected, and I will take back with me countless beautiful visions from our journey.. the rugged beauty of Idaho and Montana, the red rock of Wyoming, the mountains of Colorado, the plains in Kansas, the rolling hils and the Ozarks in Missouri, the fields and hills of Kentucky, and the Appalachians and lowlands in Virginia. Dan and I have been on plenty of crazy adventures together, and this one certainly will rank up there.

One somewhat underanticipated aspect of this tour was our countless uplifting interactions with all kinds of people met along the way.  I have always believed that people are basically good, and this trip has very much bolstered this faith. Although we had a couple of bad experiences with nasty drivers, nearly everyone we met was helpful and encouraging. In fact, the number of people we met who were willing to go well out of their way to help us was simply overwhelming.

Back on Day 27 when Dan and I stayed at Dan and Elaines’ bicyclist-only B&B (Bazine, Kansas), Elaine mentioned that when she was creating this B&B, some of her friends were very suspicious of the cyclists – and warned her that the bicyclists would likely rob them or worse. I giggled when I heard this, since I know the type of person who bicycles across the country, and it is pretty hard for me to imagine a cross-country-bicyclist/robber. On the flip side, I think some of the people following me were worried that some random back-country type person would run me down for the fun of it – and I think this too is extremely unlikely (though not impossible). The more you meet different types of people from different walks of life, the more you recognize that our similarities run much deeper than our differences.

Perhaps the most unexpectedly positive aspect of this trip was the fun of writing this blog. This started as little more than a way to keep my parents up to date as to my wherabouts, but grew into much more. After time, many people were reading about our trip, and I found this online interaction incredibly supportive. There were some tough days out riding in the sun, and knowing that my friends and familiy were following me along certainly helped me through. Thanks so much to everyone for your support.. this really wouldn’t have happened without it.