Hey all,
If anyone happened to be checking back in on the blog, you may be interested to know that videos from the trip are now up on YouTube. A total of 56 videos can be seen on a playlist at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BE9C096484954355
Thanks for checking in, and I hope you are well.
A month and a half after my return, I have finally finished writing about the journey. For those who enjoyed it along the way, thank you for reading. Just as the strength from people at home and along our path kept us pedaling, the support from readers who told me they really enjoyed the blog kept me writing. I did spend a lot of time to try to make the writing entertaining to read, realizing at times 8 hours of bike riding can be somewhat mundane. Thanks to those who noticed.
I must say it occasionally felt a bit selfish to continually write about me me me, but I know that for many people the blog helped them feel as if they were experiencing the trip with us. In truth, I’m glad people enjoyed it as much as they did, because it kept me on top of my diary/journal. Years from now, we’ll be able to relive some memories that may have otherwise faded.
The trip was certainly life changing. Biking for 6-9 hours 6 days out the week leaves a lot of time for thinking. Paul and I each saw one another and ourselves in all ranges of emotion, though overwhelmingly positive, eager, and adventurous. At times the physical challenges were intimidating, however Paul and I would both say that the mental trials far outweighed the physical. Biking for days into seemingly endless winds, not seeing the sun for a week, seeing the same person every minute of every day for 4 months, and figuring out safe, efficient routes and places to eat and sleep every day in new territory often wore on us. Yet in the grand scheme of things, these are but mere inconveniences, which helped us gain a perspective and appreciation of how fortunate we are for all that we have. Still, these trying times instilled a toughness, a newfound confidence, and a mind-over-matter mentality in me that further assures me and hopefully others how some truly amazing things are attainable when one follows a passion by which he is driven.
Along the way, we saw, tasted, felt, heard, and smelled some amazing things; but in the end, it was the great people that we met who left the biggest impact on us. The hospitality and generosity that was ingrained in the fiber of so many of the people we met along the way was reason enough for such a lengthy trip.
Since having returned, I have been unable to put the bike down. After navigating some long-stretching desolate land, I have also gained a new appreciation of living in a place in which everything you need is within a few miles. I hope to never need a car again.
For fun, I’ve compiled a few stats and anecdotes to quantify and conceptualize highlights of the trip after the fact. Here goes:
We biked…
a total of 6013 miles from Key West to Seattle to San Diego.
equivalent to 381 million inches
for over 460 hours, 1.67 million seconds, or 19 ¼ days of straight riding
This required roughly…
2.2 million revolutions of the pedals
4.66 million revolutions of the wheel (more for the front)
I burned… (we’ll use me since it sounds more impressive because Paul is much lighter)
on average about 6,000 calories a riding day (therefore ate that much daily as well)
and a total of 5.4 million calories from biking alone.
I drank…
a loooot of water. Don’t have any reasonable stats on that, but a gallon on a riding day is not out of the question. It depended a lot on the air and weather.
a ton of chocolate milk (maybe literally)
a lot of dessert things from Sonic
some Fat Tires
I ate…
countless peanut butter sandwiches.
bunch of Clif Bars towards the end.
so many other amazing things that I wrote about in each and every blog
We went through…
6 tubes each
2 tires each
one bike that held up very well for both of us
I took…
roughly 5,000 pictures which equates to nearly 1 a mile. In reality I took many more, but many were really really bad.
Shortest day – about 30 miles
Longest day – about 130 miles
My very hesitant favorite place – Boulder, Colorado (close 2nd = 30 places in California)
Paul and I…
snorkled in the Florida Keys
biked through the everglades (nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes)
saw roadkill alligator
spelunked in Florida caves
each fell a couple times (my last one embarrassingly late in Fort Collins, Colorado)
stayed in about 25 separate homes
went to both Disney parks
almost barfed from too much sweet tea
recited nearly all of dumb and dumber chronologically one morning ride
had a beer on bourbon st. in New Orleans
crossed 3 time zones
crossed the Mississippi in Mississippi
hijacked 1 fire station
narrowly averted 1 (almost 2) tornadoes
passed a billion …cows…horses…haystacks…other cropfields
went cliff jumping in Pueblo, Colorado
went white water rafting in Colorado
went over the royal gorge
saw the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
got pulled over on the highway and got back on when the cops left
went to a water park in Denver
went to the art museum in Denver
went rafting in rapids in Boulder
drove up the flatirons in Boulder
went to red rocks outside of Denver
went to New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins
went to 4th of July fireworks in Fort Collins
biked over the highest continuously paved highway in the United States (12,183 ft.)
biked over rabbit ears pass into Steamboat Springs
saw lots of snow in the summer
went to Rocky Mountain, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Sequoia, Grand Canyon national parks
went in hot springs in Oregon and Steamboat Springs
played frisbee golf in Steamboat and Santa Cruz
slept in a diner (just Paul on this one)
crossed the continental divide like 10 times
saw bison, bears, elk, and many deer
made many fewer fires than we should have
were met by the late, great Marky Mark Celgarski for a wonderful week
received $125 fine at GNP and consequently a warrant for my arrest in Montana (shhh)
saw an amazing Native American pow wow
went to Gonzaga
went to Pike’s Market and got fish thrown in Seattle
rode most of the pacific coast
met Meghan and other friends in Oregon
saw Prefontaine’s old stomping grounds
went to the bar that Moe’s from the Simpsons is modeled after
saw Manny get traded to the Dodgers on TV
watched the olympics begin the night we got into California
saw redwoods and sequoias
stayed in someone’s apartment who never met us when they weren’t there
ate in-n-out burger
rode over the Golden Gate Bridge
went to visit Google campus in Mountain View (not Paul… he chose to shower)
Ghirardelli, BYOB comedy, watched Sea Lions in San Francisco
got kicked off “a division 1 football field” in Fresno
saw the biggest tree in the world in Sequoia National Park the General Sherman
rode through Big Sur
saw California Condors
went out on State St. in Santa Barbara
camped in Malibu
went to a Dodgers game where Manny didn’t homer (the amazing part)
went down Rodeo drove, and west Hollywood
conquered muscle beach
rolled through the O.C. …. Huntington and Laguna beaches
sailed in San Diego
did nearly all of Balboa Park in San Diego, including the Zoo (this was just me)
caught a ride from San Diego to Phoenix using Craigslist
hiked in Sedona
hiked 6 miles into the Grand Canyon
road through nearly all climates and terrains
continually joked as if girls were hitting on us because of our cool bikes
sarcastically mocked bad advice to keep us sane
had the times of our lives.
biked through 14 states, and finished in the 15th in Arizona in car
A special thanks goes out to:
all of the people that hosted us
those that supported us from home
those that called to see how things were going, commented on the blog, or just read and enjoyed hearing about us
Marky Mark Ceglarski for fueling us at just the right time
Mark Addesso for meeting us in Arizona, and also for the super complex code for the tracking system
I would strongly recommend bike touring to anyone who has any amount of time to dedicate to traveling. We have seen people of all shapes (some quite heavy) and ages (65 and one over 70) touring. It truly is the best way to experience the feel of a place, and people are very helpful and generous to a traveling biker. One piece of advice would be to maybe try a shorter tour at first in case you don’t like it. We were fortunate.
Finally, a huge thanks to my partner in crime (literally at times) Paul Yovino, who showed up at my going away party, and decided he was coming along the next day. I cannot imagine the trip without you brother, and I couldn’t have been blessed with a better partner.
Life was and is great.
Excited to be home, I woke at 3:50 and couldn’t sleep. After absorbing jesting ridicule and mockery from me on the subject, Mark would later suggest that maybe there was some energy at the vortex in Sedona and that it was the reason for my early rise. There may have been other reasons, but it’s best to keep an open mind. At any rate, I made it down to the lobby well before breakfast, which made the lobby guy a bit uneasy. They had a TV and I watched news about the 6th worst day in stock market history while I wrote on my laptop.
When breakfast time rolled around, I had first pick at the wide assortment of two different kinds of muffins they had. Yum.
I returned to the room around 7:00 and roused the troops. We gathered our stuff, and headed out for the last time. They picked up some food as we checked out of the hotel, and we were off. Paul wanted to get a shirt to wear since most of his clothes were ruined, and Mark needed a coffee so we stopped on our way out of town. It only took Paul about half an hour to choose a t-shirt to wear. It was then that I realized that the shorts I got for the trip, were still drying outside at the hotel. It wasn’t far to turn back for them, but they were all but completely stained and destroyed anyway, so I scrapped them. Goodbye still somewhat gray generic shorts, you have served me well. I will cherish the times we shared. After the mourning, we got back in the car, and were off to Phoenix.
We arrived in less than two hours with hardly any traffic of significance. When we dropped off the car, I made sure we got a final picture. 
When we walked out to our terminals, I had to take a separate tram so I said goodbye to my brothers. For Mark, it wasn’t so weird, I hadn’t seen him in a while, and I would see him again in a week. For Paul, the person I had spent nearly every waking moment with for the last 4 months exactly, it was a bit odd to say the least. I would see him again soon as well, but I’m sure for a while things would feel a little different. Mark and I were returning home, while Paul was visiting a friend in Salt Lake City before he made the eventual re-entry.
When I got on my tram I began speaking with a woman who was also flying to Salt Lake City. We got to talking, and guess where her husband was from. Monroe, CT, the same place Paul is from. What are the chances? It never ceases to amaze me.
I arrived in my terminal with plenty of extra time, and was able to upload the last of the photos on my camera. The trip was over and I, a changed man for sure, was flying home to see family and friends for the first time in months.
And so the journey ends….
Life was good.
p.s. Maybe some trip stats and whatnot to come.
Mark got up at about 4:30, and headed out to watch the sunrise and grab some food. He had felt a lot better after the Tylenol and plenty of sleep. When Mark returned, I got up. We decided that we would head back to Sedona for the day since we had seen the canyon, and needed to head back towards Phoenix for our flights the following day. Paul and I snacked on some of the remaining food from the day before, and we packed up and left the Grand Canyon.
We came in from the south, so we decided to take the eastern exit to leave the canyon. We stopped at a cool vista point to take a departure picture [PICTURE] before leaving the park. In fact, Mark stopped at virtually every single pull off there was exiting the park. Paul and I began throwing rocks at one of the stops. 
Man was that fun; there is nowhere better to throw rocks than the Grand Canyon… or so we thought.
When we finally got out of the park, we drove for a bit and came upon two separate Native American booths. Mark of course bought something from each 
place as he was in uber tourist mode. The second reservation (not sure if that’s the right name), bordered the Little Colorado River Canyon. Paul and I, infused with the desire to throw more rocks, found a nice spot at the edge of the canyon and began tossing. It was difficult to follow, but on just the right toss, we could see the rocks hit the Little Colorado River. Among hundreds of throws, it only happened a handful of times, but when it did it was worth it.
We left the Little Colorado and headed back towards Flagstaff. It was about the right time for lunch, so we stopped back at the Mexican restaurant Ai Caramba for some foodski. We met the wife, of the man (the owners) who had served us the first time. She was as pleasant as he.
Before we ate, I returned a phone call from Bank of America about potential fraudulent use of my card. Upon returning the call, it unfortunately wasn’t fraudulent use, and were all of my actual transactions. I found it really funny that on the day before the end of the trip, after having traveled the country constantly spending money in different states, it was only then they found suspicious activity. Apparently it was because I made a few small, consecutive purchases at one place, which identity thiefs will do to “test” a card. Oh well, nice that they are watching.
When we finished eating, we headed towards Sedona. We missed our turn at one point, and had to continue on missing a rock slide that we were considering going to. Instead we saw beautiful yellow meadows. 
When we got near Sedona, we stopped at a visitor’s center to make sure we picked the best hike. We decided on a hike up to Cathedral Rock, a fairly well known place in Sedona. As Mark had told me, and the people at the visitor’s center had reinforced, Sedona is regarded as a very spiritual place. People claim and even map out where these “vortexes” or particularly strong spiritual areas where you can feel the energy exist. Sure enough, there was said to be a powerful one at the top of Cathedral Rock. Here we go.
Much of the path was a nice stroll, but the last quarter mile or more was a fairly vertical ascent 
. Mark, a new man from his rest and drugs, and Paul with his sandals had no trouble. When we made it to the top, we stayed for a while. We investigated all of the rock, and relaxed enjoying the breeze. Mark left his mark (pun intended)
look closely
atop the cathedral as the rest of us enjoyed the views. { 
I began vibing off the energy from the vortex 
, while Danielson 
and Mark 
posed for pictures before heading back down.
We had to hurry down, because Mark wanted to get a nice shot of the red rocks glow as the sun was setting. We made it in time, and he did not disappoint. 
We got back in the car, and headed for downtown Sedona for a place to stay and eat. After a little searching, we ended up in a Super 8 motel. We went to a restaurant down the street, and filled up. All this hiking, and only trail mix to snack on made for some big appetites.
After dinner, we headed back to the motel. We went swimming briefly in the pool, where we met some Canadians who were doing a summer tour. They were cool eh, but so was the pool, so we didn’t last long before heading back to the room.
As we settled in, so did the feeling of the end of the trip. We finished up the Jamie Foxx standup on my computer for Mark, and then followed it up with the movie “Grandma’s Boy”. I couldn’t believe that tomorrow night I would be back on the east coast returning to normal life. A bit sad that this tremendous journey was coming to a close, but more excited to see family and friends again, I played an all too familiar role of falling asleep to the movie.
Home awaited the following day.
Life was good.
…. stay tuned for the completely anti-climactic and more or less boring flight home the following day…
Mark and I got up at 6:00 to make it down the road to the Bright Angel Lodge. We had placed ourselves on a waiting list for the Phantom Ranch, which is a hotel on the canyon floor. Mark felt the need to, and I quote, “freshen up” before we left, so we used the bathroom. When we got over to the Bright Angel Lodge, it was approaching 6:30, which was when they started calling names on the waiting list. We didn’t park in the right spot, and weren’t quite sure of its location so we got out to look around. Time was ticking, so we split up. I assume we both figured out where it was about the same time, and we both ended up running. I heard my name called from right outside the door as I barged into the room. It was destiny!! Or not… they only had one vacancy, meaning like one cot. Damn.
We had missed one opportunity, but our other option would be to camp in the canyon. The back country camping place didn’t open until 8:00, so we got some breakfast in the meantime. We also both got our first glimpse of the canyon. What a magnificent hole! It was truly majestic, and can never be expressed in words.
Breakfast was good.
After breakfast, Mark drove over to the back country permit place and I walked. He beat me there, and I knew when I walked in that things weren’t looking good. There was a large line and people had numbers well ahead of us. It turned out that there were no additional permits going out for that day, let alone the 13 we would have needed to be included. We were S.O.L.
We hastily headed back to the campsite as we would need to do all of the hiking in one day. To trump that thought, I came up with the brilliant idea of “stealth camping”, (not sure if I used that term before) or camping where you’re not supposed to, in the canyon. Paul was still sleeping off an illness he seemed to have picked up in the prior few days, but it was not a democratic descion; he was in. Mark was hesitant to the idea at best, but nevertheless, we packed all we would need to do such a thing, and headed out. We would need food that would last us two days, as the only way to get food in the canyon is through a reservation at the Phantom Ranch. We stopped at the market that was closed the night before and stocked up on all sorts of Clif bars and trail mixes.
We renewed our campsite in case it didn’t work out, and so we had a place to keep the car, and we got in the bus to head over to the Bright Angel trail. We chose it because it had water, and would take us all the way down. Due to delays with the bus, and all the stuff we tried to do in the morning, we didn’t start until about 10:00. It was Paul’s first time seeing the Grand Canyon as we began our hike down. 
By the way, the always prepared Paul was wearing sandals.
The tour guide told us the first 1.5 miles of hiking is the vertical difference of the Sears Tower. It didn’t seem that bad, as we all felt good at our first rest stop 1.5 miles in. By the time we got to our next stop however, 3 miles in, Mark was feeling sick. He took some pictures of me 
and decided he couldn’t go any farther. Stealth camping was off. Damnit.
After a bit of deliberation, Paul and I decided that we would snag the camera and hike down to Plateau Point, a spot 6 miles into the canyon. We agreed, and went our separate ways. Knowing we would return, and the fact that no one would want to carry extra weight, I left all of our stuff, minus the camera, in the 3 mile rest station. Good move.
With no weight, and Paul in his sandals, we virtually flew down the path to the next few stops. Along the way we saw the donkey riders 
, again more vegetation than expected 
, and the Colorado River, which we hadn’t seen yet. 
When we got down to Plateau point, we met a stoner who was waiting about 5 hours to watch the sunset, and asked us if we were doing the same. Probably not buddy. I did one of my favorite poses of the trip { 
, and we hung out for a while enjoying the views. 
Time was not on our side however, and the sun went down shortly after 6:00, so we quickly headed back up the canyon.
We stopped to pick up the bag in the 3 mile marker and noticed a rather tame fury friend. Have you ever seen a squirrel so tame? 
The rest of the walk up was pretty quick, and quit similar to the walk down. We had fun looking ahead for people and trying to catch up to them. Another memorable thing was the amount of donkey (I hope) waste 
, and the lovely aroma that came with it. Yummy.
We marched out of the top of the canyon 
with time to spare. We were quite sweaty, and fairly tired though. It was nice to see the bus stop, and we parked it on the benches, and waited for it to arrive. The bus came and quickly dropped us back off at the campground. Mark had gotten back in his sleeping bag and was resting when we got back. He was not feeling too hot at all. On the contrary, when I felt his head, it was burning up. On the contrary, it wasn’t literally burning, but merely above average in temperature.
We set up the tent for Mark to get in as he wasn’t going anywhere. Paul and I went to go get food at the deli in the market, and Mark asked for some Tylenol. We went to the market, and got some food. It was good. Then we perused the gift shops for a while. I ended up getting a 24 pack of postcards to send to all the people we had brought us into their homes. I didn’t do the exact counting on the spot, but figured to play it safe. When I got home, and eventually filled them all out, it turned out not to be enough. Crazy isn’t it? Anyway, we also got some wood and a lighter to build a fire.
When we returned we began building the fire. I was only able to find a big bottle of Tylenol, so I didn’t get it. Mark really needed though, so I went back and picked just that up. He popped the Tylenol and was out again. Yikes, and I have to sleep in the tent with these two sickos.
When we got the fire to a good blaze, we played burn the receipt game. Paul’s wallet was about as thick as a Christmas Ham, and it sure as shit wasn’t from money, as he ran out I think in Florida. For some reason, he had stock piled receipts from much of the trip. We spent a long time going through them one by one remembering where we were and what we were doing. It was a warm, reflective moment around the campfire that gave us some laughs, and maybe even a tear (…what, Paul… not me obviously). The farthest back receipt he had saved was from a motel in Louisiana. Ha, how lame… back in our motel days.
After that we let our limited supply of wood burn down, and we went to bed. Mark must have been having a dream he was a chainsaw, because he was doing a hell of an impersonation in his sleep. He also conveniently turned our tight 3 man tent, into a one person dictatorship all while we were sitting around the fire. Oh well, no worries, the poor guy needed some R and R to get back to an enjoyable vacation. I really felt bad for him, and hoped that the next day would be a more enjoyable one.
I must say that the Grand Canyon is everything it’s cracked up to be and more. I wasn’t able to do it this trip, but I do plan to do a rim to rim hike and stay in the Phantom Ranch at some point, to get the full effect of the grandeur that is the Grand Canyon. But for the present, I was quite happy with what we had seen and done. 
Life was good.
We got up at 7:00, Mark showered up, and we hit the road. The parking that we were promised was free the night before, was not, so we and by we I mean Mark, paid and we left. We were heading towards some ruins, and possibly Sedona on the way to the Grand Canyon, where we would make it that night.
After a lot of searching, we finally happened upon an Old County Buffet for breakfast. Perfect. We were all really hungry, and there seemed to be nothing for miles. We feasted like bike in the old days when we biked across the country. It was good just what we needed for the long day of car riding ahead of us.
We left the OCB and headed for the first set of ruins Mark had researched. They didn’t exist. He printed out the directions, and we followed them, but there was nothing there. There were a few more that he had “researched” that were now called into question. We were able to stop at a visitor’s center on our way towards Sedona to ask for some local advice. There we got some maps, and such, but the lady we spoke to was unaware of any Indian ruins.
With her directions we headed towards Sedona, coming over a beautiful pass with a long reaching view of a large valley. 
Like so many others, this picture doesn’t nearly due justice to the richness of the colors that can be seen first hand. On the other side of the mountain was a small town by the name of Jerome. It was built into the side of the mountain, likely for some protection many years ago, and was a tourist haven. The road was lined with cars occupying every single parking spot available.
We continued down the mountain, and stopped at gas station to get some drinks for the rest of the day as well as some more advice from people with maps in a little booth out front of the store. They instructed us to check out the Indian ruins that were in Sedona. So we did. We missed the turn for them and ended up stopping in one last tourist center in Sedona. We righted the ship, and were heading towards the Pulatki cliff dwellings. It took a while to get there, since once we got off the main road, it was a pretty bumpy ride suitable for a jeep, not the compact Mark got.
On our way into the dwellings we spotted some Prickly Pear cacti. 
They were not nearly as sweet at their milkshake form, so our stop didn’t last long. 
We got to the dwellings which were actually pretty neat. 
The cliff side apparently acted as a nice safe haven in terms of weather, which helped preserve the ruins as water virtually never reach the area to erode anything. 
There was also a lot of art on the walls that was interpreted by the local rangers to the best of their ability. Some ideas seemed logical while others, an absolute guess.
It was a nifty stop. Our next was in Sedona. Sedona is apparently known for their turquoise, so he wanted to get some for his wife. The store was a bit of a bust, but feeling the need to shop like most women, Mark bought a book instead.
We left there and headed for Flagstaff on our way to the Canyon. On our way to Flagstaff, we drove through the Oak Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful place with actual running water, and it was really heavily forested. 
A bit out of place compared to its surroundings.
When we got to Flagstaff, we stopped at a Mexican joint. The service was second to none at the restaurant, and the food was delicious too. Good people.
After that, we headed to the Canyon. I took over behind the wheel, since Mark was sick of driving. The sun began going down as we drove towards the canyon. We again drove through some forests, well the paved part at least, and enjoyed the twilight scenery. 
When we pulled into the Grand Canyon, we quickly navigated to our campground. Much to our chagrin, the Canyon walls were not lit at night by artificial lighting, a true crime to humanity. Some crap about preserving nature meant we would have to wait until the stupid sun rose to actually see anything. On our way to our campsite we passed a market which we planned on returning to after setting up the tent.
Paul wasn’t feeling too hot, so he decided to call it a night early while Mark and I headed down to the market. When we got there, the market had closed. There was a restaurant still opened, where Mark and I got a beer. It was a nice way to finish the day after an energy depleting day of sitting down. It wasn’t the end of Mark’s day however, when he noticed a gift shop was still open. Unable to resist his urge to splurge (just thought of that), he went and bought something for all of the members of his immediate family. I loved giving him a hard time, and then he pointed out that I’m cheap so it all works.
After that, we headed back and tried to get to bed early. We had to get up for 6:00 to figure out where we would be sleeping in the canyon the following night. We were right near the edge of this massive hole, but couldn’t see it as it was nearly completely dark. The Grand Canyon lay ahead the next day. Lovely.
Life was good.
We got up early so that we were ready for Kelly. Paul told me he woke up earlier, at about 2:00 when Saul was pumping his tire in our room. Somehow I didn’t wake up, but found it funny that Paul did. This guy was an avid biker. Good for him. I did wake up a little before 5:00 when a friend on the east coast was not sensitive to the time difference, and gave a call on the way to work. Sometimes Connor can be a little absent minded.
We ate the remaining cereal, and packed up our few remaining goods. Kelly called (thank god), and arrived to pick us up a few minutes later. Paul informed me that apparently Kelly was an attractive woman. I took him for his word, since I clearly did not have an opinion.
I smoothed over the “axe murder” situation quickly, and she told me that she tried to text back, and thought it was funny. Quite the relief.
I sat in the back before our first stop because I figured Paul the aggressive guy that he is, would probably be hitting on her. Within minutes, we were already in the desert. It would have been a pretty tough ride, as the temperature soared well into the 90’s, and the hills leaving San Diego were not pleasant. I think we made the right choice.
After about two hours into the trip, we were approaching Arizona. We stopped very briefly at a rest stop where we got water, and used the bathrooms. When we got back in, I sat up front. I saw a sign for Dateland, AZ with “world famous” (yeah, I’m sure) milkshakes. It seemed like a good place to stop for hunger, time, and gas purposes. As we approached Arizona, we dipped down close enough to Mexico to see the border fence, a stark black wall amidst rolling sandy desert. 
We crossed a bridge, and entered “The Grand Canyon State” 
, my last state before returning home. Dateland was another 45 minutes over the border. It was a lot of the same stuff… desert.
When we got there, it basically consisted of this one restaurant and a gas station. All we needed. We ate our food, while reading these books that were sold at the restaurant that were intended to be comedy. I think it was a local author, and remember how unfunny they were. It was really bad. However, after the meal, it was desert dessert time. You like how I did that? They had traditional milkshakes, as well as prickly pear cactus shake, and I believe a pomegranate-date shake. Both were good, and although I may have liked a vanilla better, I figured when in Rome… and got the prickly pear cactus shake. Yum.
We left Dateland with about two hours to left to Scottsdale, right outside of Phoenix. Mark would be arriving in Phoenix around midnight, and us about 3:00 in the afternoon. With all the extra time, Kelly invited us to hang out with her at the Hyatt, the hotel at which she was considering working. Sounds like a plan. Kelly had lived in San Diego for a while and was working at a Hyatt there, and was thinking about moving. She had lived in many places throughout the states, but had never been to Phoenix. Oddly enough, Kelly was originally from Falmouth, Mass on the Cape, a place where Meghan has family, and I had been to in the last year or so. Nifty, I’m not going to say small word again…. …. ….. tiny world?
When we arrived at the hotel, we were in awe. I think the best word to describe it would be ballin’ (I can’t wait to look back at this 20 years from now and realize how stupid that sounds). It had a massive pool that wrapped around much of the backside of the hotel. 
The pool had a beach section where the floor was filled with sand. There were several hot tubs. It was incredible. We dropped our stuff in her room and went down the pool.
When we settled up, Kelly only asked for $20 between the two of us. She assured me that it was fine, so I didn’t fit it. For most of the rest of the day we hung out by the pool, oh yeah that I forgot to mention had a water slide too! We had a few drinks, and relaxed in the beautiful Arizona air. 
We were saddened by how early the sun was going down now that it was mid September. When it was getting dark, we headed back to the room. Kelly was able to get us a discount at another Hyatt right near the airport. She considered letting us take her car there while she went out, but we thought it would just complicate things for the next day, so we decided against it.
Kelly got ready to go out since she was meeting some friends. Before she left, we went down to the bar to have a drink with her before we said goodbye. At this point, my camera, again, stopped functioning. Are you kidding me, right before the Grand Canyon. Ahhhh!
There was a nice band playing some music down by the bar, and rich people filled the room while Paul and I set in mesh shorts and t-shirts 
carrying around our remaining panniers in hand. Kelly left (awaiting on pictures from her), and we sat and listened to the band.
Figuring a cab ride would likely run us about $50, we decided to wait for Mark to arrive and pick us up in his rental car. Sorry Mark, but you know I’m cheap. Paul reminded me that Mark’s original plan was to pick us up wherever we were, so the next town over wasn’t so bad relatively speaking.
Mark gave us a call and there he was out front. I was glad he had made it… a man of his word from about 6 months prior. We GPSed our way to the other Hyatt, and made our way up to our room. It must have felt like 3:30 am for Mark, but he didn’t show signs of it. Instead of going straight to bed like I expected us all to do, we stayed up for a while, and watched a stand up Jamie Foxx performance, that Paul and I had become quite familiar with over the past month or so. Mark, who had not known of Foxx’s comedic career before his big time acting, enjoyed it thoroughly.
It was fun to enjoy it with him, but did get us all to bed quite late, and we would be up early the next morning so as not to waste Arizona.
What else can I say on this broken record of a blog, but again things worked out. Thanks to Kelly, who was fun to ride with and evidently quite affordable as well. We were excited to end the trip with what would likely be the most spectacular sight we would have seen. Time would tell.
Life was good.
The day had finally come. No, not quite the end of the trip, but it WAS time to send the bikes home. After well over 6,000 miles of riding, it was time to send ol’ bessy back to the east coast. She had done good by me over the past four months.
Paul wasn’t feeling so hot, so he slept in a bit. When he got up, we took that last fateful ride down to a bike shop that was right down the street. 
It ended up being nearly as much of a production to disassemble the bikes, as it had been to assemble them, way back in mid May. I had to switch my box twice, once because the first was ripped, and the second one wasn’t big enough. There were a few casualties from the trip, namely the effect of Paul smashing into the back of me, braking my rack. 
If you look closely, you can see the bungee cords that I left on the broken rack that we threw away. Damnit By box 3, about an hour after Paul was done, I was ready to say goodbye to the bike.
We carried the heavy, awkward boxes over a block and a half to a shipping business. My bike cost another $45 to ship than did Paul’s due to an oversize charge. Great. As we were down the street walking away, I realized I hadn’t taken a picture of the fully packaged bikes. I ran back and quickly snapped this picture 
which caused a worker there to look at me with an odd look on his face.
After the bikes were out of our hands, we went to the beach. Paul grabbed some Subway on the way, and we hung out by the beach while he ate it. A homeless guy approached Paul ,while we were sitting there and he had eaten half of his sandwich, asking for the remainder. Paul offered his cookies instead since he wanted to finish the sandwich, and the guy refused. I couldn’t believe it. A bum with a selective appetite. He must really have it tough. We had good material from that interaction for the next few days.
Beautiful beach isn’t it? 
After that unpleasant scene a littler earlier, my friend Paul and I…. walked along the beach like the romantic couple we were. There is a spot in north OB where you step out of San Diego and land in heaven. It’s called dog beach, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. 
We spent the next hour or so watching all these dogs playing together with balls and charging out into the ocean against waves that were much taller than they. Man, what a great spot.
When many of the pooches made their way home, we did too. We scooped up some cereal that would double for dinner that night and breakfast the following morning before we left for Phoenix. I got a text message from the woman, Kelly who was driving us the next day asking our full names. I was assuming that it was for security purposes since she had never met us. I responded with humor maybe a bit too son, as I have so many times in the past when it was not necessarily tactful if you will… a lesson I seem incapable of learning. It went something along the lines of “my name is Chris Russo, and his Paul Yovino. If you google Paul Yovino, you may find an axe murderer by that name. Don’t worry… it’s a different guy” Kelly unfortunately never responded to that one, which was a bit disconcerting as we needed to be in Phoenix the following night. I sent another nonsense message that was just sort of confirming that we were still on, and I never heard back. We kept our fingers crossed.
We got back, had our gourmet dinner, and again watched some movies. The movies Meghan had brought to Oregon on my hard drive had finally paid off, as we watched 4 in the past two nights. The featured films of the night were a not well known, but a gem comedy “Wet Hot American Summer”, followed by “Madagascar”, the animated movie. Both good selections. I don’t remember as I write now, but if history serves correct, I likely fell asleep to the second one.
So the next day we would be saying bye to California. We had been in the state for over a month, and had loved every minute of it. If you haven’t been, go!!!! You are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t. Better yet, bike there. Okay I’ll stop.
Arizona Ahoy!
Life was good.
After the late night, I got up a little later than I had hoped. I had to get my money’s worth, so I rode back down to Balboa Park. I started with the Natural History Museum 
. They had a big water theme to many of their exhibits. San Diego is basically in the desert, hence the reason I assume. The exhibit was very informative on water consumption, the cycle, future threats of not enough fresh water, and potential solutions to this soon to be problem. 
There were some other cool exhibits 
that I went to before catching an hour long Planet Earth special on the big screen. It was great. Who doesn’t love planet earth? Well I supposed American automobile manufacturers. Baaaazing.
After the show, I headed over to the Zoo. I have been before, but the amazing diversity of animals they have there I’m sure will never cease to amaze me. I saw lions 
, and tigers 
, and bears 
… good golly…. ha, not what you expected eh? I even timed it well, as the zoo was experimenting with new, exciting, more natural feeding methods for the tigers. 
The San Diego Zoo is quite large, and requires more than 3 sentences to cover on foot, but that’s the beauty of imagination. Use it.
After I finished with the zoo, I walked back to the museums to go to visit the last one I would go to in Balboa. It was a science museum, so I was pretty excited, but a bit disappointed overall. I do remember having a little fun 
as there was a machine made tornado that was in the open air that people could disrupt and watch it reform.
I left the science museum and was feeling a little tired. There was an outdoor amphitheater with some benches that I rode over to. I laid out on one of the beaches in the nice warm sun and rested for a little while. Yep… I was an official bum. It felt great!
Once I was restored from the rest and vitamin D, I biked back to Saul’s. We had made plans to have lobster tacos down at a restaurant near this farmer’s market. I got back first, and then Saul returned from work on his bike. No shower required (my kind of guy), and we were off. 
The restaurant was right down the street. The lobster tacos were very good.
After the tacos we walked around the farmer’s market. There was a lot of good stuff, from food to crafts. I guess that would make it more than a farmer’s market. Anyway, there were tons of people out, which made it fun to pretend we were thinking about buying stuff.
We went back to Saul’s place after and relaxed. Saul was early to bed, as he had to get up at some ungodly hour for work in the morning. We put on some movies on my computer since he didn’t have a tv there. We started with Donnie Darko, a personal favorite, and ended with Boiler room… which I didn’t quite make it to the en….
Life was good
I got up at a decent hour to make it out to Balboa Park, a large park a little northeast of downtown San Diego that is home to 15 museums, a bunch of cool gardens, and the San Diego Zoo. We had the time, so I figured I would check it out. Paul wasn’t interested in going, so he stayed at Luke’s and I biked down to the park.
When I got there 
, I was told that I would need at least a couple days to see everything that the Balboa passport would get me into. I would have to come back the next day to finish up. It dawned on me that I forgot the bike lock that Paul had, so I spent most of the day asking to park the bike in the lobby, or praying for the best leaving it out front of the museums unlocked. It ended up fine of course.
My first stop was the Museum of Man 
. I was pretty engaged in this one show about breaking ancient Mayan code. It’s amazing how many different things really smart people in this world dedicate their lives to. Quite entertaining.
I spent the rest of the day hopping around from museum to museum taking in as much as I could as fast as I could. After the Museum of Man, I visited the sports 
, automotive 
, model railroad 
, art 
, photography (irony?)
, Air and Space 
, San Diego history, and Mingei International museums. It was a bit tiring, but I saw a lot of pretty neat stuff
(a good amount of lame stuff too) 
….come on.
Around 5:00, when most of the museums were closing, I headed back to Luke’s place to see what Paul was up to. On my way back, I stopped at the crest of a large hill exiting the park. The hill was probably within half a mile from the airport’s runway, and was good for some up close views of planes flying overhead. 
When I grew bored of that, I headed back. When I got back Paul and Cody were there. They had gone to the beach for most of the day while I was gone. I received a text from a friend Laura who used to work with me in Westport, CT. She had packed up, knowing no one, and moved to San Diego just after New Years. She invited us to come meet her out at the bar she worked at in Pacific Beach, just a bit north of where we were. We had also arranged to stay with someone else for the next few nights, as we were spending 5 days in San Diego, and didn’t want to occupy one person’s couch for all of that time. We said goodbye to Luke and friends 
, thanks for everything guys, and headed a mile down the street to our new friend Saul’s place.
When we got there we chatted with Saul for a while. We invited him to come to the bar with us, but he was meeting some friends for dinner, so after we got settled in, we went our separate ways. Since we were going to be doing some night riding to the bar, I spent a while trying to mount a light I had onto the back of my seat. It was a pretty ridiculous setup, but it would be legal for the time being.
We took off en route the bar on the bicycles. We stopped at a point about halfway to grab some pizza. It was a bit sub par, but would do the trick for the night. We rolled another few miles to her place, which was called Tavern on the Beach. There was definitely a stark difference in the feel of PB and OB. It was a much younger, wild, party atmosphere. The bar was filled with college kids on a Tuesday night. I didn’t bring my camera, so I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures with Laura who was certainly working the scene. She was zipping around the room, getting drink orders by the score. She kept bringing us rounds of stuff nearly every time she came back. She showed us a good time, and I was even happier when she came back with a bill that was about 1/3 of what it should have been. We made sure to take care of her on the tip end. We ended up staying past close, sobering up a bit before our ride back home. As it was a Tuesday night, the streets were virtually empty, but we talked to some of her coworkers for a while about the amazing thing we had just accomplished.
Afterwards, we made our way back to Saul’s house. It was pretty late and I had intended on getting up to finish of Balboa Park, which would still take me most of the day since I hadn’t even gone to the Zoo yet. It was nice to catch up with Laura, and something tells me she won’t be moving back to the east coast any time soon. Thanks again Laura. Beddy bye.
Life was good.