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| I did it! I first started doing this at the end of my first AIDS Ride. Ever since, it's become my custom when I finish one of my multi-day rides. |
Done! Finished! Completed! Three years in the making.
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| Mission Completed. Dipping my front tire in the Atlantic sealed the deal. |
There's so much to tell, but I'm trying to decompress, so I'll finish this tomorrow. Just wanted to let you all know I didn't drown while dipping my front tire into the Atlantic. Pictures to follow.
Okay, I'm back. There's so much to say but I can't quite find all the words to express how I'm feeling. I started the day the way I ended it yesterday. I was running a fever and my throat was so sore my ears hurt. I think the combination of no real sleep over the past four days plus riding in the rain as often as we did just caught up with me. Still, there was no way I was not going to finish. It was just a matter of hearing the voice in my head reminding me to take it just one pedal stroke at a time. One hill at a time. One mile at a time.
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| The Class of 2015 Cross Country Challenge, riders and staff. |
The idea of finishing didn't hit me when I woke up this morning. It didn't hit me when Michelle and I, as did all the others, stop for coffee or tea a couple of miles before the staging site at a local Junior High School, where we would await our police escort to the beaches. And it didn't hit me while we were all congregating in the school parking lot.
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| Arriving at Wallis Sands Beach. |
It hit me when during our collective, escorted ride over the last three miles to the ocean. It actually hit me when we came over that last rise and I saw the blue/gray waters of the Atlantic in the distance. Holy cow. It's the Atlantic! I'm actually there! My heart started racing. But that was silly because I already knew I was going to finish this. Yet, I still felt a rush of excitement and a feeling of euphoria that produced this shit-eating grin on my face that I couldn't get off. The last half mile, along the beach road was filled with the hoops and hollers of my fellow riders as we all started to celebrate our success.
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| Michelle, Jane, Me and Gene. My buds for the past three years. Never have I met more dedicated and fun people to ride with and to be led on such an adventure. |
The next thing we knew, we were turning the corner into the Wallis Sands Beach parking lot and rode right up to the beach. We dismounted. We yelled and screamed. We hugged each other. We accepted the congratulations from both friends and family and curious onlookers. Then we all took off our bike shoes and socks and walked our bikes down to the ocean for the last step in completing our journey. We held our bikes over our heads in triumph. And we then dipped our front tires in the Atlantic. The final gesture that was the bookend to the very beginning of this trip.
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| Jane and I stopped talking by this point. We just looked at each other and tears started pouring out. It was a great ending to a great adventure. |
And, just like that, it was over. We hugged again. We shook hands again. Then we got our luggage and bikes and went our separate ways. Some were staying overnight for flights back to Europe or the States. Others were heading to the bike shop for shipping. Some took the extra eight-mile ride into Maine to add another notch on their bike belts of states in which they'd ridden.
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| Packing the bike up to head back home. Funny enough, it took the same amount of time to drive back to New York as it did to ride the 65 miles this morning. |
But we all left with a feeling of having done something extraordinary in our lives.
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| 3851+ miles. 47 days of riding. 13 States. Three years in the making. This map that was posted in each motel lobby when we arrived was signed by all the riders. |
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