Awaking my Senses a Year Ago Today

One year ago today Scott Herringer and I searched  all over Bellingham Washington looking for a place to return the bike carrier I used to fly my bike to Seattle via FEDEX. Sunday morning, nothing was open and we could not start out on my coast to coast 4200-mile climate bike ride till the matter was resolved. It took Holly at Office Depot to bend some rules on my behalf and then another 30 minutes to fix Scott’s flat tire to get going around noon. The frustration melted away and I finally began my long bike journey.  I willed my body to keep pedaling the last 10 miles of the first day 64 mile bike ride with 2800 feet of climbing into a campground in Rockport, Washington because I was not in shape yet. I was fully prepared though to start my adventure and pushing my body hard was going to be one aspect..

I left knowing little of what was to come on my journey and I knew I was in the right place. So why was I challenging myself with a trip full of difficult endeavors? Many people asked me why would I do something like this?

The answer that I most often expressed was as a cure to my ADD (Adventure Deficit Disorder), a condition  I coined that describes being ready for a change. In his book “To shake the Sleeping Self”, Jedidiah Jenkins puts into words what I was feeling.

His concept is when you are a child everything is new. You notice everything because you need to. Your brain is paying attention to everything. As we grow older things become familiar and we know the patterns of life and they become predictable. We no longer need to notice everything and the brain rests because it reliably knows what is next. We no longer need to notice everything and time slips by. 

Travel and adventure have a way of shaking the brain awake again as we again have to notice things because they are new and we once again no longer know what is next. 

This rang true for me as I have vivid memories of steep hills and mountains that caused my muscles to scream, excellent meals, interactions with people, camping sites, fatigue and body soreness, amazing vistas, the exhilaration of the wind in my face descending steel hills, long stretches of road. I can remember so  many details from every single day of the trip. I had awakened my senses. 

I’m not done telling stories of my trip and I hope to have new adventures and new stories to tell. Stay tuned. I’ve added some highlight pictures here as well.