Friday, September 24, 2010

Thanks to you

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Sorry for any spelling issues but doing this on a Droid can be cumbersome.

Thanks to Tammy for the transportation to Pittsburgh and then home from DC.

Thanks to Mike for letting me tag along on this journey.

Thanks to my beautiful wife for supporting me on all the crazy things I do.


Thanks to my kids for their support and love during the past year.


And the Biggest Thanks goes to my Lord and Savior for watching over me during this trip and keeping me safe.

Go after your dreams and don't let anyone stop you.

Recap and final thoughts

It has been over a month since I finished this trip. I have had some time to reflect back on my experience and am happy to say that the sore knees and the aversion of any seat that sits on a pole has escaped my mind.

Many people have asked 'would you do it again?'. The Answer is no. Some parts of the trail I would not hesitate to do again and I might just do that. However, the whole trip I would not. Once is enough. I have experienced it and happy that I survived the trip.

Some random thoughts:
Do not be afraid to try something outside of your comfort zone. This was way outside of mine and it was a good experience.
Give bicyclists along the road some room when sharing the road with them. They are pursuing a goal and they also have families that want to see them alive at the end of the day.
People along the trail we for the most part very friendly. However, the closer we got to DC, the kindness sorta disappeared. Do not take life too seriously that you miss the true meaning of life.
One place I will not spend the night at again is the campground at Ohiopyle. The campground was very nice and the people running it were very nice, but the so called quarter mile uphill climb after a long day of biking was almost a killer. I would rather bike ten more miles to the next campground.
If I do any other trips like this I will have Sherry follow me in the RV so I have a comfortable place to sleep. The tent camping in the high heat and humidity sucked.
At the end of a long day, you do not know how much a cold soda means to you until you cannot first d one. Thanks to the family that gave us a couple of sodas one day when the machine would not work.
When focused on getting somewhere, do not forget to take the time to enjoy the journey.