As I sit and write this, reflecting back on my stay here in Rhode Island for the past week, I can’t help but smile. The entire visit was fantastic, full of fun activities and great company. More than having a comfortable place to sleep and almost more food than I could eat thanks to uncle Bill and aunt Kathy, I was constantly surrounded by family, which is not something I am accustomed to, but something I thoroughly enjoy. It is a bit weird for me, though, to have so many people constantly know what I am doing, have already done, and am going to do at every moment, but I genuinely appreciate the love that it indicates.
While here I have been kept busy with many activities, including: walking the cliffs at Newport, eating seafood and watching great live music at a Seafood Festival, witnessing the mesmerizing beauty that is Waterfire in Providence, playing tennis and Wii and swimming with my cousins, and, of course, the reason for this whole trip in the first place, spending some quality time with my grandparents. Ninety years old and surprisingly independent (although not always for the best), they have been married for over sixty years now and are truly an inspiration to me. I am grateful to know them and have their love. I only hope they keep kicking for a while longer so I can visit them again next time around. They are amazing, and amazingly stubborn, people. But I think that’s part of what has kept them around for so long. They are troopers.

Also during my stay here, I took care of some necessary measures to continue on this journey. I made a small fix to my shifter mount, a wooden dowel attached to my seat post with a hose clamp, as it was starting to break. Thanks to uncle Bill, I now have some real waterproof rain gear. No more joking around with this stuff. I also was able to fit in a doctor’s visit, with a lyme test, a physical, and a tetanus booster shot. Well, the lyme test came back negative, which is comforting to a degree. I know, however, that those tests are not completely accurate and that lyme disease can show up later. For now, I have done what I can. The physical was thoroughly disappointing. I had prepared myself for a complete checkup, full of poking and prodding, and this and that. Eighty percent of what they did, I could have done myself or wasn’t really necessary. I know my blood pressure is fine. I know how tall I am and how much I weigh (145, by the way- a few pounds more than I weighed in Virginia Beach, which I think is due to the abundance of food at Bill and Kathy’s house). I know my eyes are okay and that my glands aren’t too swollen. No hernia check, no mention of the fact that on my chart I indicated I thought I had hemorrhoids, no testing of reflexes. In my opinion, the whole thing was not worth half of what it cost. Oh well. I feel healthy and ready for the next leg. I just wanted that little bit more peace of mind that a thorough doctor’s exam would give. Actually, I don’t feel entirely healthy and ready for the next leg. I think it is just the aftermath of the tetanus shot, but today I have been exhausted, a bit out of it, and had a really sore and swollen shoulder. The shoulder is obvious, but the tiredness and general feeling of poor health is not so straightforward. I’m just hoping that some good sleep tonight will leave me well-rested and ready for departure tomorrow. I’m not going to push it, however, and if I don’t feel at least 90% tomorrow morning, I won’t hesitate to wait another day and rest up more. I have a long ways to go, and taking a day to make sure I’m completely fit is not a big deal.

So, health and weather permitting, tomorrow shall mark the beginning of the next leg of my journey. The driving force behind this next section happens to be family as well. Tentatively I will be making stops in Chicago, Minneapolis, Great Falls, Denver, Las Vegas, and San Diego, hitting up all my family on my dad’s side as I make my way to the west coast. Then I will head north to Los Angeles to visit all my friends there, and then perhaps further north to Portland, Oregon, as a possible settling point. As of now, I don’t know my full route, how far I will go, how long it will take, or what I will do when I get there. I’m just going to try to take it one day at a time. And I can only hope that I am as blessed on this next venture as I have been on my journey here.

For now I have my sights set on Niagara Falls as my first major destination. While lacking family or friends there, I look forward to magnificent beauty and hopefully a smooth border crossing, unlike my barely successful attempts last year (see last year’s adventure link). I’m trying to not set any kind of deadline for the journey at hand, although the possibility of snow in the Rockies as early as late August/early September looms constantly in my mind. No matter what, though, I’m going to do my best to stay positive and have faith that everything is going to turn out okay. That’s really all I can do anyway, isn’t it. This is going to be a tough trip and a true test of my will and perseverance, but I look forward to it with great anticipation. I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing right now. Speaking of that, everyone asks me why ride my bike. ‘Why not fly or drive? Why make this long excursion?’ I don’t know; it just makes sense to me. Aside from the rewards that come from this mode of travel- the beauty, the self-confidence, the encounters with humanity -it just seems like the right thing for me to be doing with my life at this juncture. If something changes and it no longer feels right, well, then, I guess I’ll do something else. For now, as I said before, health and weather permitting, tomorrow sees the resumption of the journey, back on the bike, out on the road, one pedal stroke at a time.

I’m hoping for the best.

Pictures to come soon…