I just wanted to say a Big big big thank you first and foremost to everyone who has supported us along this trip. From my parents, to my close friends, to everyone who followed the IG, or the first half of the trip via my blogs (sorry for ending them early), or those who chatted with us on the phone along the way, you guys are 100% appreciated. You kept us sane and motivated along the way. Thank you.
Secondly, big thanks to Chris Koch as he was a main inspiration for this trip. And also big thanks to my friend Julian for introducing me to Chris. When I first met Chris I didn't know I was even physically capable of riding across the country. I didn't know he was either because I didn't learn he'd ridden across the country until a few days after meeting him. When I learned he'd done this I called him and asked him an absolutely annoying amount of questions about how he had went about such a trip. He was more than happy to answer all the questions I had. And the rest is history from there. I will say that meeting a person who had completed this journey himself was truly inspiring. It was inspiring in that this whole idea was merely a figment of my imagination prior to meeting Chris. But that imagination had become material once I met someone who had already done it. My mindset shifted from "this is a nearly impossible feat" to "no, I can also do this." Chris explicitly walked me through how to do it. I have Chris to thank for that switch in mindset.
Special thanks to Jeremy for helping us set up this entire website and blog. He was the one who helped convince me to even bring up the idea of doing it for charity to the guys. He offered his time and energy if we did agree to raise money for charity, which helped convince us to give it a shot. So in that sense, because of him we biked for Jed and we all raised over $5,000- an amazing achievement reached by everyone's collective effort.
Can't forget the amazing hosts we've had along the trip, as well as campground owner's who always seemed to be giving us a break in some way or another. People like this made our trip much easier and took some pressure off in much needed moments. Thank you. The debt is surely there to be repaid.
And lastly, a weird thank you that came to me while I was riding today. I got honked at for no good reason (as per usual) at some point. It was one of those "I'm annoyed at you" honks. Not one of the happy ones. You can always tell by the body language of the vehicle when it drives by. If they're speeding by leaving you to breathe in all the exhaust, nearly hitting you in the process. Or going by slowly and with plenty of room between you and the vehicle. So I was riding today and got one of the angry honks. And I usually just get so confused, like do you think I want to be riding in a lane of traffic on a bicycle? Do you think I like increasing my chances of being hit? Short answer is no. And if the drivers just looked beyond me a little bit, they would see and understand that the shoulder is simply nonexistent for this stretch of road. And ahhhhh well, that would explain everything. They'd understand that I do not have a choice other than to ride where I am riding. But regardless, I was thinking after this person rushed by. And I was thankful... So my last thanks goes out to the probably tens of thousands of vehicle drivers who passed us during our journey, and laid on the horn, flipped us off, yelled obscenities out their windows, etc. Thank you. Thank you for doing that instead of hitting us. I recently reframed my way of thinking about people honking or doing any of these "negative" actions as a good thing, because it means 1. They clearly SEE me and 2. I'm still hearing them honk which must mean they haven't HIT me. We made it through the trip with no injuries or serious setbacks or anything of the sorts. And that is because 100% of the however many thousands of drivers that passed us didn't hit us. So thank you drivers.
I could start thanking all the cattle we passed for Mooing hello to us or all the mountains for sharing their beauty with us, or all the pets of the warmshowers hosts for lettting us pet them, but I won't get into all the little thanks because it'd never end. I'll just keep it to the important thanks.
So, signing off for now. Thank you everyone again.
- mike
amazing work brotha 👏🏽👏🏽