Day 63 – May 1st – Our Final Day and Reflection

We did it. St Simon’s, Georgia to San Diego, California in 63 days of biking.

We woke up outside of Pine Valley and pulled our sore bodies out of the tent onto our bikes to begin a fun descent to the ocean.

We did all our climbing the day before and now had about 4,000 feet to cruise down over 45 miles to the beach.

It was beautiful going down into the city. We enjoyed the small resorty feel of Alpine and soon we were riding through busy bustling suburbs, missing the wide open space we have become accustomed to.

It felt like just another day of riding and it was surreal to think this was the final stretch of such a long journey.

I was laughing to myself while we rode down pathways I wanted to try but had never made time for in the six years I lived in San Diego. It was a good reminder of how easy it is to stop exploring the place you settle down in and I made a point of planning to build in exploration each day moving forward instead of just sticking to what I know.

We made it to Ocean Beach around 3pm and got into the ocean to complete the trek. There and back again. We did it!!!

Wading into the ocean was our final act on the trip. Ryan went in up to his chest and said the cold water felt good on his sore muscles. Riding across California in four days was hard work, but oh so rewarding.

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Getting back into San Diego was bittersweet. After being uprooted for the last six months it’s hard to know we have to leave a place that was home for so many years. It’s exciting though that the future holds so many unknowns and a lot of potential for good!

We also had such a refreshing time seeing familiar faces, but due to the coronavirus we had to admire them from at least six feet away.

Thank you SO much to Jennifer and Keith for letting us stay in your guest house. We had a blast seeing you, sharing meals, and getting to chat even with the social distance! We love you guys and every day see some way you have positively impacted our lives ❤️ Tessa, Flynn, and Elon, you three bring a smile to our faces every time we see you. You’re so creative, thoughtful, kind, and FUNNY! We love spending time with you can can’t wait to give real hugs when the coronavirus subsides. It was also great to meet the newest member of your family, Jasper, the sweet rescue dog who fits right in.

Thank you to Brianna Lewis for taking such good care of my car over the past six months. It was a relief to know it was in a safe place! I am also so thankful for having you to share my life with each day. Bri and I text each other three things we are thankful for every day and it has been a gift. You help keep me looking on the sunny side ❤️ It’s also so fun to hear about your day to day and keeping in touch was a great reminder of home while we were on the road.

Thank you to Scott and Brayden Johnston for having us over at social distance on your porch for delicious homemade lemonade! I have missed you both so much and felt at home instantly being around you. Brayden, I love your enthusiasm, curiosity, and humor. Thank you for showing us your HUGE Millennium Falcon LEGO set! Scott, it’s humbling to talk to someone who has had such varied, hard earned life experiences. Thank you for taking an interest in our lives and always making me feel important and interesting. I don’t know how you do it but I always leave feeling empowered after talking to you!

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What are some first impressions and lessons learned?

Sometimes it feels like you are going nowhere at all, but if you are pedaling, even against 40mph winds or up 7% grades, you are going somewhere and eventually you will get there.

I think this applies to any kind of hard work. If you are putting in the time day after day, it WILL add up to something. In our case, it got us across the entire United States of America… the long way!

Having a job is overrated, hard work isn’t.

Before this trip I felt that if I wasn’t working in a job, building a career, I was backsliding. I think now that it doesn’t matter so much what job I do, but it matters more that I am using my time to become someone I am proud to be. It feels good to get stronger, wiser, more determined and confident. I don’t need a typical job to feel these qualities, but I know I do need hard work and dedicated effort. This bike trip had plenty of opportunities for hard work and dedication.

Hard work doesn’t usually mean you are smashing the pedals, putting in mile after mile gritting your teeth… sometimes it just means choosing to smile instead of sulk. Sometimes it means being kind to the people you are with when you are in need of kindness too. Hard work doesn’t mean you beat yourself to a pulp, so tired you can’t move any more. It means getting back at it and taking good care of yourself so that you are strong and ready to take on a new challenge.

People are really good.

We met so many amazing people on our trip who helped us in subtle and not so subtle ways. It feels SO GOOD to know that everywhere we go, if we are holding ourselves and others with respect, we will be okay. There are communities of love all over our country, and I assume the world. We hope to test that theory soon!

There isn’t a correlation between how many things I own and my happiness.

On this trip we carried only the bare essentials.

For camping: A tent, tent footprint, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, thermal blanket (usually was used as a pillow), bag liner, a drop cloth to cover our bikes in the rain, a camping chair, flashlight, a Smith & Wesson EZ 380 and a small stove with cooking equipment.

For food the staples were: oats, protein powder, dried fruit, nuts, ramen, dehydrated potatoes, peanut butter, pop tarts, granola bars, crackers, chocolate, sugar, instant coffee, flavored drink mixes, fiber, olive oil, hot sauce, and whatever water we needed for the day.

We wore one pair of shoes, a pair of pants for biking, thermal pants for cold, and shorts for laundry time. I also packed two pair of bike shorts to wear under my long pants which provided sun protection. We had two long sleeve shirts and a couple T shirts, sunglasses, Ryan’s glasses and case, helmets, baseball caps, a sun hat, sun sleeves, gloves, a balaclava, rain jackets, fleece jackets, beanies, plenty of underwear, and a few pair of socks. We also packed a small towel for showering and the occasional coffee spill in the tent.

For personal hygiene: Sunscreen, deodorant, toothpaste, tooth brushes, fingernail clippers, a razor, a small bottle of Head and Shoulders, a roll of TP, a comb, ear plugs, chapstick, moisturizer, bug spray, and a few moist towelettes.

A tool set for fixing our bikes on the go including two crescent wrenches, two come wrenches, needle nose pliers, wire brush, rag, a multi tool with tweezers and toothpick (useful for setting bearings), two spare chains and chain breaker, a spare axel, a few assorted axel spacers, a spoke wrench, a crank puller, a flat head screw driver, extra cables and cable end caps, freewheel removal tools, extra bearings, grease, chain lube, and plenty of tubes and patches. We also carried two bike locks.

Art supplies: paper, a pencil, two markers, an eraser, a paint brush, red, yellow, and blue paint, and a palate for mixing.

Two books plus a huge selection of audiobooks and podcasts on our phones.

Our wallets, phones, headphones, two portable batteries, and wall chargers.

We also had some miscellaneous and just in case items like our passports, matches, rope, a compass, deck of cards, a harmonica, backup glasses, a sewing kit and a sleeping pad/tent patch kit.

San Diego really does have the best weather.

There are so many beautiful places in the southern United States. There was a lot of wilderness, millions of acres of ranches, and generally, the weather was pleasant. It was still amazing though to ride into San Diego after being in the inferno that was the Imperial Valley of California. Over the mountains along the coast, there is a paradise. We assume, if it wasn’t for the mountains holding in the ocean’s moisture and cool temperatures, San Diego would be a dry, fiery and unforgiving place. Instead it is temperate, lush, and kind. We missed you San Diego!

Having the right gear makes a difference… but creativity goes even further.

While it’s great to have nice gear and sometimes essential to have the right gear, you can make do with surprisingly little if you are willing to put in the effort it takes to find a solution. It seems that while specialized equipment can make a difference in comfort and performance, it isn’t necessary to get the job done. An example is Ryan’s single pair of pants. They were made for hiking, not biking, but he wore them every day and put in literally thousands of miles with them. I have fallen into the trap of thinking I can’t perform an activity until I have an expensive article of clothing built for it. If you’ve got something good enough, it’s better to just get going than to wait until you have the “right” stuff.

Ryan was able to get us out of tough mechanical situations several times with this mindset. He made do with what we had and found creative solutions that kept us going when I would have assumed defeat.

Daily exercise feels great!

Putting in hours of exercise every day felt extremely healthy for our body and mind. It was surprising how much we could do and wake up feeling refreshed, ready to go again the next day. Even on our rest days we usually biked or hiked enough to count as a short workout. We both want to keep up the physical activity it seems our bodies have been made to do.

I can’t escape myself, and I can’t escape reality, but I can work with it.

Before we set off, I had visions of being in nature in constant awe and blissful peace. This was very rarely the case and instead I often found myself running a lot of the same thoughts and emotions I had sitting at a desk in an office. What this trip did do was give me time to watch myself. I can see more clearly now how much of my mood depends on how full my stomach is! I can also see the impact of choosing to stop running negative thoughts and of choosing to smile or relax a little bit. To be fair, I think I was a lot less stressed in general biking every day in the great outdoors, but I still had to deal with the natural fears that come from being.

Thankfully I think I can say I am a little wiser and more level headed. I feel better equipped to handle difficult situations without falling into feelings of despair and defeat. I also see a lot of room for growth that I didn’t have as clear a picture of six months ago when I left my job. This is humbling, but exciting because I see a direction to aim.

I’m curious to see what nuggets of wisdom continue to reveal themselves to me after I’ve had time to process this trip.

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A HUGE thank you to everyone who read our blog and followed our trip. You have kept us going in so many ways and we love you ❤️ our lives would be so much less beautiful without you and we can’t wait to see all of you again!

Signing off for now…

Morgan and Ryan