My thank you's

So, the time has come for my thank you’s.

I went on a so called unsupported trip. I didn’t go in a group, I didn’t pay any travel agent. There was no leader, no team, no one to transport my things or provide me with a plan with maps and information. There was no SAG wagon with food and drinks and extra gear. But I did have support. And from more people than you have seen mentioned here so far.

Thank you…
• Ingegerd , for early on making sure I could have the time off work and still not be overloaded with it the time I got back
• Harriet and Lena, for making sure I’d have means throughout the summer to buy all the maple syrup and reeses pieces I wanted
• Lilian, for surprising me with more maple syrup and reeses pieces when I got back to work
• Beata, for putting up with my thousand questions I need a reply to yesterday just because I didn't get back until the students had already hit the class rooms
• All my other colleagues who showed an amazing interest before and during my trip, and who still seems to think it is interesting hearing about it
• Everyone who posted comments on my blog – you have no idea how much this meant to me, honestly
• Leo, for making me consider the US as a country worth visiting (it SO was), and for informing me about coffee cakes and reeses pieces
• San Fransisco Cyclery, for making my Surly perfect for me for this trip and the bike repair shop in Culpeper for making it stay perfect throughout
• All my hosts, and everyone else helping out while I was on the road (I know at least a couple of you might actually read this)
• William and his family and friends, who hosted me in New York but also helped out with practical matters concerning the bike and thereby making sure I could have a really good time in the city
• John, for encouraging words making me want to do better
• All other bicyclists on the road, for information and advice and sometimes company
• All bicyclists on the Swedish web page Utsidan, also for information and advice, especially Anders Forselius, who spent more than an hour on the phone prior to my trip calming me down when I was worried about snakes and spiders and scorpions and black bears, and also Johan and Filip, whose blog helped me pack better and warmer for the mountains to come
• My neighbors, for looking after my flat and watering my plants

And last but certainly not least, a really big thank you to my sister and her family, for taking care of my cat and for making sure I could go and not worry about anything, and also to Ola, for taking care of the same cat so that my sister and her family could go on holiday too.

***THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU***

And now, I final picture of me and also my Surly and my panniers (however packed up), ready to fly home to Sweden. (Look, I am wearing jeans and no helmet!)




















And that’s all, folks!

If you want to explore the States

…why not rent a car? a friend asked. I kind of like cycling, I responded. So why not just use the spinning bike at the gym? my friend continued.

And he is not the only one to maybe not quite understand. I am OK with that. Everyone cannot understand everything about everyone’s every choice made. But I will even so elaborate on this matter.

The cycling means nothing and the cycling means everything.

I have met quite a few other long distance bicyclists on the road, who just loves bicycling. They might run a bicycle shop, they might repair bikes for a living, they might own six or seven different bicycles because they sometimes want to race, sometimes ride off road in the woods and sometimes commute to work and so on. They might collect bicycles. Old bicycles, new bicycles, tandem bicycles, recumbent bicycles, bicycles from different countries – or bicycles they have made themselves. And they might indeed do spinning too.

I am not one of those people. For me, a bicycle is a mean of transportation. I could also walk, do cross country skiing or even use my roller blades. In that way, the cycling means nothing. I didn't go on this trip so that I could cycle. I just wanted to be on the road again.

But going by car was never an option for me. I need to move, I enjoy being active, I wanted the physical challenge – and also the mental challenges that come with it.

As for this trip, bicycling was my only reasonable choice. You look at the terrain you want to cross and the time you have got. Walking takes much longer (too long in this case), and it is difficult to bring camping gear and clothes for both freezing cold mountains and hot and hostile deserts. For cross country skiing, you need snow, and as for the roller blades… Well, I must admit I am still a bit anxious from an unfortunate fall a couple of years ago.

But I am not unhappy about this at all. Cycling is fun. I most certainly enjoy riding a bike. It is also very practical with all the panniers. And another thing is – and I am sure that the other long distance bicyclists I have met this summer would agree with me – that the slower pace of a bicycle (in comparison to a motorized vehicle), in combination with the special interest locals as well as other travelers show in bicyclists, gave us great opportunities to meet people and get sights of, and insights about, the country traveled. In this way, the cycling means everything. The trip would not have been the same with a different type of vehicle.

And I did have the holiday of my life.

I had to struggle some. I didn’t always feel safe. Maybe there are one or two things that I would have done differently knowing what I know now. But seen in retrospect, it was still all good. It has been a learning experience and so I wouldn’t want it any other way. I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to do this.