I dip my hat

Lyubomir and I in Portland!

So Lyubomir and I just arrived to the hostel in Seattle, and tonight is the last night of my many trips. Tomorrow I'll be flying back to Chicago for a few days before returning to Detroit to spend a little time reconnecting with family. It's funny, a few years back my wanderlust made me want to explore different countries around the world. I did that a bit, and then I found myself wanting to see the US, which I wouldn't have guessed before. And now, I'm looking forward to returning home to get in touch with my family and to get to know them better. A kind of slow introgression.

Anyways, I'll be posting photos from San Francisco, Portland, and (maybe) Seattle tomorrow when I'm at the airport. However, I want to post one photo at the moment-

During one of our days in San Francisco, Lyu and I went to the ocean. After roaming around for a bit, following gaggles of funny birds, I stopped to look at the ocean, and I realized, this is it, I found my moment of closure. Suddenly a sensation of pride, reckoning, and euphoria came over me, and I walked into the water, dipped my hat in, and threw it over my head, letting the salty water run down my face. I was no longer a part of the scene, rather the scene was now a part of my moment and me. My trip was complete.

The other end of the continent.

I MADE IT!! -my bike didn't:(

Cue the horn section, alert the fireworks brigade and the cheerleaders, rattle the rattle snakes, because

I'M IN SAN FRANCISCO!!!!

I want to send an enormous thanks to my family for their support, my friends for cheering me on, and all of the great people I met along the way (you guys were what truly made the trip memorable).

O yea, also:

(my bike got stolen)... haha. Yes. 64 miles from the finish line. While I was out getting the tire to fix it. So, since my big finish was stolen, I still don't quiet have closure. I will need to go and burn the new tire I got and pour it over the Golden Gate Bridge or the equivalent. Aside from the few valuables I lost, I haven't lost the trip (as cliche as it sounds). I made it to San Francisco! And tomorrow my long-awaited exploration of the city begins. As Lyubomir says, its just part of the journey, not a short end to it. And he's right, the trip has been like a fine wine with a dull finish.

With love from Andrew Leblanc's,

Miroslav

BlurbBits for this Entry w/Location

Hmm, what to do?

Hey all!

So yesterday I left for highways 89 and 88 that Rick suggested, and it was by far the most beautiful ride I've had this entire trip. I summitted Luther and Carson passes, and went through the Sierra Nevada's snow capped mountains, green valleys, deep blue lakes among mountains, jagged mountains, and down from ~8500 ft to sea level. Though I was expecting all downhill from Carson Pass on, it was more of downhill separated by uphill sections, 2 of which (Carson Spur and an unnamed hill) were similar to climbing Luther, though a bit shorter. I modified my route from what Rick suggested to take 88 all the way to Jackson , and then highway 12 pretty much to Vallejo, where I would catch the ferry into San Francisco.



Anyways, details aside, highway 88 ended up being very busy and practically shoulderless, so once it got dark, I just set up for the night in some woods across the street from a gas station (convenient wake up!). I set off this morning, descending into Calavera County, where California's landscape here hit me- dry lands, hilly, but with trees. Instead of green grass, dry wheatgrass. So you get yellow hills with green trees. It's really something- I've never been in a landscape like this. I heard it was in the 100s today, which makes sense, since I've never stopped so many times for ice, icecream, and cold drinks.

Here's where the twist happens. I was hoping to get as close to Vallejo as possible, a 100+ mile ride that I was up for. However, my tire gave up on me:/ While in Nevada, I wore through my original tire, and had to put on my spare, which was an older, used tire. Yesterday I started noticing a strange wobble. Today I realized that the sidewall of the tire was shredding away. By the end of the day I got a flat in Valley Springs. I tried to fix it twice, but then my tire gave a final explosion, and I was done for. So I walked for about 2 miles, 6 to go to the nearest motel, when an old Keiser stopped in front of me, and Phil, the driver offered a ride to Lodi. He headed home and came back with his old pick up and drove me over into town. And that's where I am.

Now I have to decide what to do. I can try to find a bike shop and get a new tire (costly, wouldn't get a great tire, not worth it). I can take apart my bike here and ship it home from Lodi and then either 1) try to find public transit to San Fran, or 2) call the friend I'm staying with to pick me up (but this is the least climactic way of finishing the trip!).

So that's where I am! Lodi, less than 100 miles from the end. Bike finished, haha:/ O well, lesson learned- keep a NEW spare tire. One way or another, I'll be in San Francisco tomorrow:)

EDIT: There's a bike shop in town. Screw it, I'm buying a tire and finishing strong. San Fran or Bust!!!

BlurbBits for this Entry w/Location


-Miroslav

In California! -Lake Tahoe Fortune

Today I crossed over Spooner Pass, the first of the Sierras into Californian(!!) and the Lake Tahoe area. Lake Tahoe truly is a beautiful place. On my way through South Lake Tahoe, I stopped at a beach easily accessible from highway 50. This whole summer I've been missing the beach and feeling kind of sorry that I wouldn't get too much time to spend on the water. So once I took my shoes off and stepped into the sand and the waters of Lake Tahoe, I was compelled to stick around (and Marianna's suggestion from Facebook "to make sure you take time to enjoy Lake Tahoe" kept echoing in my head). I decided I would just hang out all day on the beach and sleep there as well, though it's technically not allowed. I thought I'd make up the mileage (40 or so extra miles) to Sacramento tomorrow.

In order to get to the beach, you need to walk down a flight of stairs from the main street. So I left my bike at the top and went down to enjoy the lake. As I was sitting around on the beach, working on fixing my crazy stark biker tan (think farmers tan, plus gloves), I heard someone upstairs asking someone else whether they were on a bike tour. The man acknowledged that he was and that he was from Germany. I had a slight suspicion that there must have been some confusion about my bike and who it belonged too, but I looked up and saw someone with a bike, so I ignored it. Then my curiosity peaked, and I decided I would go up to my bike to make sure no one would be pretending it's theirs, and then ride off with it. I also wanted to get my maps to replan my route for tomorrow. As I got up there, the person wondering who was doing the touring realized they made a mistake and that I was the real person that was on a bike tour. The German man had to awkwardly acknowledge that my bike actually wasn't his... lol.

Rick Gunn, the man wondering who my bike belonged to, offered for me to stay at his place if I needed without hesitation. He said he had done touring in the past and needed to make up Karma for other people's hospitality. It turns out, Rick recently toured across the world, covering 33 countries in 3 years. We ran into each other as Rick was returning home to cook dinner for his friend's 60th birthday- so, with Rick's wonderful benevolence, I got a place to stay for the night, good food, and great company from lots of fellow bike tourers (one of Rick's friends just returned from biking across the country taking the southern route, and another is planning a tour in Maui with Rick).

Rick's story is pretty fascinating in terms of both the immensity of the journey, and the implications of doing something like this around the world. You can check out his website, including his great photo galleries, at (soulcycler.com). For various reasons, Rick decided he wanted to make sure he followed through on his dreams before it was too late, so he, a photographer for newspapers, decided he would follow through with his ambition to bike across the world. In the process, while transitioning between Europe's first world countries on eastward, he was overwhelmed by a sense of guilt for being a meer passerby through a plethora of dramatically impoverished and historically ravished areas. So he says he went through a period of transformation where he felt that his trip needed to have greater meaning beyond his personal, ego-oriented goals. A photographer, Rick documented his trip along the way and did a few news stories for newspapers back home while volunteering wherever he could. And thus he built up a collection of experiences and stories that he is still carrying and being shaped by today. Currently he organizes viewings and does talks on his experience, trying to expose people in the US to various issues, people, and places that he encountered on his journey. He says his goal is to make others aware of problems around the world. He hopes people's gaining a greater sense of a worldwide community may do something to alleviate the many problems he encountered. He may also have a book and a documentary coming soon.

I watched a part of his photo slideshow, and a really interesting person he met stands out to me. Rick volunteered with an organization in (Laos?) that worked to remove many of the leftover mines from US bombings during Vietnam in the region. He says communities are confined and cannot expand their farming as they grow because people get maimed by left over mines. There is a German ex-soldier who left the army to take on finding and removing these mines. I would love to hear what inspired that man to do what he does.

When Rick facebook friended me, it turns out we have a mutual friend- a biking-community friend that Jim Long, who I met in Wyoming and who took the great photos of my biking up Morton Pass, suggested to me. What's more, Rick personally knows Tim and Cindie Travis, the couple that's famous for planning to bike the world for the rest of their lives. They have the most visited touring site on the net, and I relied on it when I first started planning my trip (http://downtheroad.org/). So, as I come to an end on this trip, things seem to be coming full circle as well. What a great run-in to end the trip.


From Lake Tahoe! CALIFORNIA! Sacramento tomorrow (Rick and his buddies convinced me to take the more mountainous, but beautiful route to Sacramento through Luther Pass on highways 89 and 88).

If you're reading this Rick, thank you for your wonderful hospitality and your inspiration. I couldn't imagine a better end to my trip that both plants a seed for future adventures, and leaves me with fodder for thinking beyond this trip.

-Miroslav

BlurbBits for this Entry w/Location

Bike Fixed, Recharging, Work Day

Last night I stayed up until 4 in the morning watching Dave and Cody surviving in 3 episodes of environments, downloaded Bear Grylls for the first time to top things off, and chatted it up on Facebook. This morning I decided to take the day off, get my bike sorted out, and do some work.

I found the hallowed bike shop I've been anticipating, and I enjoyed the find. It's run by a great guy named Dan, who, in my opinion, sounds like he's carrying Carson City's biking spirit. Entering bike shops is like entering safe-zones for me now. I hung around chatting with the owner about the biking in the area, chopped-off fingers in chain rings, and the economy in Reno and Carson City. Dan, if you're reading this, I got the simple, but much-needed tube in and I'm ready to roll with my morale high in that new Sugino Cap and with the momento spoke card, haha. It was a pleasure to meet you, and a highlight of the trip. After the bike shop, I stopped at one of the city's many thrift shops and got some new pants, since my favorite pair was torn up by now (I had one fall on this trip, when my shoe lace wrapped around my crankarm and caused me to fall over onto the gravel road- luckily no cars around).

I'm at the public library right now, about to snack on the last of the snack bars I got from the Motel continental breakfast, and do some work. Tomorrow, rested, I'll head over the mountains into California for the last leg of the trip.

I've figured out a place to stay, my Amtrak tickets to Portland and Seattle are purchased, as well as my return flight home- So I'll be around the coast and home soon! Hopefully more joy rides await;)

-Miroslav

Crossing Paths, breaking down at the Navy Base

Today, I'm writing from Carson City, NV! I crossed paths with lots of people, and this is how it happened:

I solved Nevada's headwind problem by riding at night the last 2 days. I figured out that the headwind dies down completely at sunset the night of my last post, and I ended up having a nice ride to a campground 26 miles from Austin (though I had a run in with 2 asshole drivers, one tried to claim his territory and my supposed wrong doing being there by flying by me honking, as though he owns the highway, and when I flicked him off, the guy behind him, some young kid, went out of his way, turned around, and tried to cut me off at an intersection. He just looked stupid doing it, because he did it too far away from me to be intimidating). All in all the ride was great, and even my tire cooperated. I only had to pump it up once on the ride! Yesterday morning I crossed over the largest mountain passes along highway 50 in central Nevada (by walking up the 2 peaks for about 2 to 3 hours), and rode into Austin. There I couldn't find the bike shop I was potentially promised. It turns out it was closed a while ago. So I ate lunch and hung around the town in the afternoon waiting out the wind for the evening. I picked up a book (I don't even remember the name now, by Cussler, part of the NUMA Files series) at a KOA campground book swap, that I read. It's not great, it's like a bad action movie about glaciers, some guy in a plane, monsters in Scotland- the confusing plot is still developing.

Anyways, I started the 111 mile bike ride from Austin to Fallon last night, thinking I might be able to do most of the ride at night. The catch about riding at night here is that it gets very very cold (low 40s). It was so cold I had to put on all of my winter clothes (winter coat, pants, neck gaiter) to stay warm while biking. I ended up caving in and setting up camp behind some thorny bushes at midnight 45 miles into the ride (I could feel my heart was getting tired). After a chilly night I rode on to Fallon.

That gets me to my day of meeting people:

10 miles into the ride, I ran into my first touring biker on the road this entire trip. This biker was headed from Reno to Ely on his first ever bike tour. We chatted for about 45 minutes on the side of the highway, excited by one another's presence. He gave me a detailed account of what to expect from all of the roads around Lake Tahoe that cross through the mountain range into California. It was great talking with another biker kindred spirit. He decided to do the trip after getting laid off and collecting the gear to do the trip over the last few years. He also recommended I stop at the next Pony Express stop at Middlegate to get lunch, but run out if the bar tender whips out his guitar, because he got stuck there the other night and then the next day with a huge hangover, haha. So I did that heeding his words, and had a great burger.

From there I passed a famous big tree here on highway 50 that stands out (since there are no trees around) and because it's covered in shoes people have thrown on it. I was daydreaming and I almost missed it had it not been for a nice Harley parked in front of it. I ended up having a nice chat with the biker, Wayne, who also recently got laid off like the touring biker I met earlier, so he's been biking around the US from place to place for the last 2 months. Wayne was from Colorado, originally from New Hampshire, if I remember right. He's always owned motorcycles more than cars. Wayne also did a lot of cycling in Colorado until recently. He took some pictures of me by the tree and his bike, which he promised to send me if he gets around to a computer. He also gave me an "I survived Highway 50" pin he picked up in Austin, saying I deserved it more, haha. I left him with a RUB (Rich Urban Biker, as he told me they're called) that he just finished down talking (he passed through Sturgis as well, though he said he came early, to avoid the crowds and the RUBs). It was painful seeing the 50-something guy come up to him after our conversation about RUBs, saying "I just bought a Harley, I haven't picked it up yet though, it's still in the shop" and the guys wife asking "Now, before you go, do the Harley's come sounding the way they do, or do you do something" as I rode off, haha. Sorry Wayne.

Then I rode through Nevada's Navy training grounds, where I watched jets doing laps and blowing things up (well at least I heard it). It was nice going slow, as opposed to the 70mph cars, because I could see the jet coming back over and over again. But then, after all of my struggles with the tube, the end came.

My rear tire finally wore out to its last thread. So I had to change it to my spare tire. However, that didn't bode well for my leaking valve. It didn't like the new tire, and wouldn't hold air. So I started trying to fix it again, and went to plan C: Do surgery on the tube. I cut a slit in the tube, since the slime I bought can't go into a presta valve, and pumped up the tire with the sealant, hoping it would seal the valve leak. However, I couldn't get the patches to stay on top of the slit I had to cut (about 2mm). That's when I gave up after 2 hours, and was about to start thumbing for a ride, but luckily, I survived the tire problem thanks to a wonderful couple and their kids traveling from Salt Lake City to Sacramento. Both Curtis and Melissa are nurses in Salt Lake City, and they were headed to see Curtis's family in Sacramento. Curtis used to live in the San Francisco area when he attended college there. He used to race and he was a bike messenger in both San Francisco and Sacramento (he says he's been hit by cars 4 times). I had a great ride with them. If you guys are checking out this blog, I really appreciate you stopping and offering the ride, you really helped me out, and I had a great time talking (even with Tommy screaming! haha) Thanks so much!

So tomorrow, I'll be crossing over into CALIFORNIA if all goes well!! For now it's time to shower, because it's been days. Then making up that motel day with snacks that never came until now;)

BlurbBits for this Entry w/Location

Ok, Nostalgia over

I had a bad day today. I only rode 40 miles yesterday since I started so late, and because I only slept a little the night before working. As a result, I was short on water today, had a horrible head wind, and then got a leak from a tear on my tube's valve. I tried fixing it with my spare used tube, but the valve head on that tube ripped off because of my stupid pump. So I improvised a patch for the original tube's valve, which didn't work well (as expected, valve tears are the end of a tube). I had to repump the tire every few miles... There are no bike shops anywhere in Nevada. Let alone on the loneliest highway in America (which is a gimmick, this is the busiest lonely highway I've been on). Hardware stores don't have my tube size. I haven't seen a bike store since Nebraska. Luckily I found some tire slime stuff at a hardware store, so maybe that will work. Otherwise I'll have to ride and pump every few miles for the next 200 when I hit Carson. I was nostalgic about being done, but now I actually want to be done -_-. But in other news that makes my day, for those of you that have heard about Ivan, it seems that he will be released on Monday! I am so extremely happy about that. I shed a tear here sitting in the parking lot when I saw the news on Facebook. Ivan will finally have the ability to live a normal life as a documented citizen if all works out. I can't believe that.

I think I'll try to either bike the majority of the 70 miles to Austin right now, or camp out and start riding at midnight. It says online that the 25 mile an hour winds with 50 mile an hour gusts that I have been facing today will die down to 10 miles per hour after midnight...

And I ride on:/

(Eureka, NV)

Edit: I just found out the slime is only made to fit Schraeder valves, not Presta. Siiigh...