I woke up the first time about 4 in the morning. I thought someone was shining headlights on the tent, but when I unzipped the rain fly to check it out, it was only the moon, as full and bright as it gets. I woke up again when Calvin packed up around 6. He had told me that he likes to start early so he can make plenty of coffee stops along the way. I finally gave up on sleep around 7, when Hanna started her morning person giggling. Besides, I was planning to ride all the way to Samuel P. Taylor State Park, on the threshold of the Bay Area, a solid 70-mile effort.

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Hi All,

I’ve been doing several things, none of which involve keeping my blog up to date, and I apologize for that.

The first is that I needed some recovery time in two ways. It turns out that it’s pretty hard to transition from the mental state that lets me get up and pedal all day to the one that involves real life, and taking care of all the things that happen in real life. Along the way, people frequently said something along the lines of, “You’re so lucky to have the time for this.” In a way, riding a bicycle over long distances is a a good thing simply because it reduces your life to: ride, eat, sleep. All the myriad responsibilities fall away to reveal the core. The second is that I got a checkup in Ventura. It was aimed at my heart, which thankfully was doing fine, but we ended up talking more about my hands, which had gone numb before San Francisco and had never really recovered. The doctor made a big point about taking time off the bike to give my hands some relief before the numbness became permanent. Here I am, three weeks off the bike and while my right hand has just about come back, the left is still quite numb in three digits, so I guess I pushed it about as far as I should have.

The second piece is that I have been pursuing a number of options to set up the rest of the ride, and it turns out that it’s a big job. If I were a smart man, I would have done all this before I ever set out in the first place. The thing is, until I actually had a serious ride under my belt, there is not a potential sponsor in the world who would believe that I could do a cross country ride with a 400-plus pound load. In all honesty, I couldn’t blame them. I had my own questions. Part of me believed without question that I could do it, but other parts, quite noisy parts, were telling me that I wouldn’t make three days. That annoying voice popped up quite often along the way, telling me that I couldn’t do it, and I spent a good amount of time stuffing that crazy devil back into his cage.

So, I need to finish the story of the Pacific Coast, and in many ways, it was the toughest part. I also spent time with some great new friends, and they need their piece in the story. Very soon, that story will appear. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this ride work and to those who will make it work again. Let’s all take a little time to remember what it all about. We’re all, in one way or another, riding for the cure.