"It would be pleasant to be able to say of my travels with Charley, "I went out to find the truth about my country and found it." And then it would be such a simple matter to set down my findings and lean back comfortably with a fine sense of having discovered truths and taught them to my readers. I wish it were that easy. But what I carried in my head and deeper in my perceptions was a barrel of worms. I discovered long ago in collecting and classifying marine animals that what I found was closely intermeshed with how I felt at the moment. External reality has a way of being not so external after all."

John Steinbeck
Travels With Charley


So,

Off I go, from Anacortes, Washington to Lubec, Maine.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

People

(TAKE NOTE:  TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY.  READ POST BELOW!)

Hey:  My brother Ed has joined me for the ride across new York!!!  More on this in a later post.

WONDERFUL PEOPLE

Ok, so here's my rant:  Everyone, everyone, should take a cross country bike ride and meet the wonderful people who inhabit this world.  I have told stories of the people that I have met in earlier blogs.  Here are some more:

I met and spoke with Chandra at a campground in Lake George, Minnesota.  The next morning when I woke up, on my picnic table was a bag full of good things to eat and a note from Chandra and here sons Jeremy and Keith wishing me fair travels.

At a campground in Port Huron I met Ed and Cindy Puddock who invited me to their campsite for the night for some refreshments and an evening of conversation.

"The gang of ten".  There is a group of ten cyclists riding together across the country together.  A wonderful group of people with whom I have been hop-schoking with and riding with different members.

Charlie, who is doing "the four corners".  What are the "four corners"?  how about a single bike ride from California to Washington State, to Maine to Florida to California?  He's riding to raise awareness of climate change.

Charlie and I ready to stop for the night.

And then, and then there are Karen and Jean-Michel Patten who adopted me as soon as I arrive in the campground in Lewiston, New York.  They fed me supper, plied me with wine and cigars until the wee hours of the night, took me to Buffalo the next day to pick up Ed, and provided me a million laughs.  Thanks guys, see you in Maine.

Karen, Jean-Michel, and I.

How about Jean-Claud, a Frenchman, no?, out for a ride, who accompanied me for 40 miles as we chatted and laughed?

Yesterday, as we huddled away from the rain in a cafe in Brockport, New York, we met Eril who gladly checked the forecast for us on his tablet and offered us and our gear a ride to our next destination.  (An offer, as tempting as it was in the middle of a rainy day with rain forecast for the rest of the day, we declined.)


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2 comments:

  1. Myron L Meters The Water Quality ExpertsJuly 31, 2014 at 7:43 PM

    Nice. You ride around on your bike like a ten-year-old all over the country, taking free food and drink from everyone you see, ignoring the "Beach CLOSED" signs, and complaining about the quality of tea. Sounds to me like you're one of life's takers. Your type really makes me sick.

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  2. PatrickBAugust 6, 2014 at 1:21 PM

    John, sounds like you want to turn around in New Hampshire and start all over again!!! Does sound great. Be safe and keep sending the pics.

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