All of the revolutions of our pedals have been for a single cause, One Revolution at a time will have propelled us ~3,000 miles at the end of today! Shortly after 08:00 on Wednesday morning, we're squaring away our gear and cleaning up the house to be gone for a few days. We'll be striking out shortly for an 80 mile day of easy Florida pedaling to land at St. Augustine late this evening. Iz and I pedaled an easy forty miles yesterday from Fort White to Gainesville to be legit about our distance and had the pleasure of connecting with one of my best friends on the planet; Kenyon. After an easy day of riding and chatting with myriad cyclists in High Springs who were participating in Bike Florida we enjoyed a coffee at 8th Ave Coffee Bike Shop. While there, we borrowed a bike stand and cleaned our chains and gears to be spinning smooth and clean on our final push. Heather, another of my best friends on this side of the Sun, will join us for our final day to the Atlantic coast. Israel has been great; he's gotten stronger, lost weight, is really thinking on his feet, is slowly starting to be self motivated and I'm sure he's had many growing experiences..besides all that, with pedaling a bicycle 3,000 miles he must surely have learned much of perseverance and exercising strength of mind over strength of body. Overcast day so far, I'm hoping for glorious sunshine sometime shortly after we get rolling. Any way about it, I think my mind will be laden with reflecting today and I'm expecting mild melancholy from feeling the end draw nigh. Looking forward to playing with the smart phone though and letting it track our route so maybe I can learn how to backlog our entire trip and post a google map of our journey to inspire One Revolution.
It was great here in Gainesville to chat with Ms. Christian's students at Eastside High School and then some of them afterwards at the 'Of Mice and Men' party. You all are great students, I hope if you remember only one thing from Israel and I spending time there with you that it is something to inspire you to inspire others. Focus on your task at hand, take it one piece, one sentence, one step, One Revolution at a time...it'll make the task more bearable and before you know it: paradise! Do yourself a huge favor, don't count the pages of an assignment, just jump right into it and love what it is. Stay focused, shut off the tv, video games and phone sometimes and pick up a book, find an adventure. We're living on a beautiful planet at a wonderful time to be alive; go live!
May peace and meekness guide your heart. Love someone today, embrace them like you will never have the chance again.
One Love, One Heart, One Revolution!
Joshua and Israel
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Three states later...
We finally have access to a computer again. Coming out of Louisiana was a quick endeavor but crossing Mississippi was even quicker!
I have to talk a little more about New Orleans, and I'm sure I'll forget and omit many details; don't hang me for it. So, to put it out straight away, I'm very glad and my spirit rejuvenated to know that there are people in our world like Xavier, Claudia & Jesse, Rachel and Craig and these two couples' daughters! What a refreshing experience to find such open arms and acceptance among strangers. Many religious people could learn what its like to be Christ-like from these fine Louisiana folks. Iz and I were unabashedly invited into their homes, played board games with them, were adopted with all haste by their adorable little daughters...within hours of meeting them Iz and I both were rotating little girls onto our shoulders to catch beads at the St. Patrick's Day parade in New Orleans. I wish we could all remember to show the loving kindness and meekness of a child. We were welcomed so well with great conversation, food, entertainment and compassion...I hope I can put half as much into the world around me. Alas, on any journey, such things make parting difficult but the idea of completion drives us on. Pedaling out of Louisiana was the first state we both looked back on when crossing the state line.
Once we crossed that line though, our gears really started turning...
We screamed through Mississippi and on to Mobile Alabama in less than two days of pedaling from New Orleans. Once in Mobile it was time to find a bike shop again for wheel truing and a little food. By the time we got out of the bike shop, we had extra food, a shuttle to good camping and a promise of hot coffee then breakfast in the morning. Thanks again Jessica. While pedaling along the beach for those next couple days, we stopped and pushed two cars out of the sand, its a great thing to laugh about ladies! Like we agreed out there, its one of those to look back on, shake your head and laugh.
By Destin we were very keen on a quick stop for St. Paddy's...we found live music being played by an Irishman at McGuire's-the music made our hearts happy and light. We set up camp early on St. Patrick's day to prepare for a long Friday...it worked as we had our single longest day of pedaling at 152 miles! With that distance and the humidity of the eastern US though, I learned a very excruciating lesson: saddle sores can ruin not only your day but your whole psyche, your focus on just One Revolution, everything becomes focused down on two little points known as the sit bones. I squirm thinking about it. So, as I've heard a few times from a great mentor "Prudence is the better part of valor" and with this on my mind-vaguely through the haze of pain and suffering-I relented near Ichetuknee Springs and had Heather pick us up for a couple days of rest and healing before we go back to the same spot and finish the pedal into Gainesville Florida. It will be very nice to spend a few days here healing and refueling the body to be strong and feeling great to finish a huge trip that started with just One small Revolution. The acupuncture, qigong, massage, great food and epsom soaks probably won't hurt either :-D
Ok, more again later, time to crunch out a rough slideshow for some great high school students that I'll be meeting very soon!
One Revolution-One change in how you see one thing in the world can change your world. Smile with your heart.
I have to talk a little more about New Orleans, and I'm sure I'll forget and omit many details; don't hang me for it. So, to put it out straight away, I'm very glad and my spirit rejuvenated to know that there are people in our world like Xavier, Claudia & Jesse, Rachel and Craig and these two couples' daughters! What a refreshing experience to find such open arms and acceptance among strangers. Many religious people could learn what its like to be Christ-like from these fine Louisiana folks. Iz and I were unabashedly invited into their homes, played board games with them, were adopted with all haste by their adorable little daughters...within hours of meeting them Iz and I both were rotating little girls onto our shoulders to catch beads at the St. Patrick's Day parade in New Orleans. I wish we could all remember to show the loving kindness and meekness of a child. We were welcomed so well with great conversation, food, entertainment and compassion...I hope I can put half as much into the world around me. Alas, on any journey, such things make parting difficult but the idea of completion drives us on. Pedaling out of Louisiana was the first state we both looked back on when crossing the state line.
Once we crossed that line though, our gears really started turning...
We screamed through Mississippi and on to Mobile Alabama in less than two days of pedaling from New Orleans. Once in Mobile it was time to find a bike shop again for wheel truing and a little food. By the time we got out of the bike shop, we had extra food, a shuttle to good camping and a promise of hot coffee then breakfast in the morning. Thanks again Jessica. While pedaling along the beach for those next couple days, we stopped and pushed two cars out of the sand, its a great thing to laugh about ladies! Like we agreed out there, its one of those to look back on, shake your head and laugh.
By Destin we were very keen on a quick stop for St. Paddy's...we found live music being played by an Irishman at McGuire's-the music made our hearts happy and light. We set up camp early on St. Patrick's day to prepare for a long Friday...it worked as we had our single longest day of pedaling at 152 miles! With that distance and the humidity of the eastern US though, I learned a very excruciating lesson: saddle sores can ruin not only your day but your whole psyche, your focus on just One Revolution, everything becomes focused down on two little points known as the sit bones. I squirm thinking about it. So, as I've heard a few times from a great mentor "Prudence is the better part of valor" and with this on my mind-vaguely through the haze of pain and suffering-I relented near Ichetuknee Springs and had Heather pick us up for a couple days of rest and healing before we go back to the same spot and finish the pedal into Gainesville Florida. It will be very nice to spend a few days here healing and refueling the body to be strong and feeling great to finish a huge trip that started with just One small Revolution. The acupuncture, qigong, massage, great food and epsom soaks probably won't hurt either :-D
Ok, more again later, time to crunch out a rough slideshow for some great high school students that I'll be meeting very soon!
One Revolution-One change in how you see one thing in the world can change your world. Smile with your heart.
Friday, March 11, 2011
short and sweet update
We finally made it to New Orleans today after staying in Lafayette for Mardi Gras. It was great to be there. Dad got to cross paths with us and spend a couple days there too. Besides being wonderful to see dad and get to talk with him awhile, it was nice to offload a lot of stuff we didn't need. After leaving Lafayette I had six flats in two days hence the late arrival to New Orleans. My tires are worn out! Was trying to make it to the coast with them but I guess nearly 7,000 miles was enough. Bought new tires and more tubes to get on the road tomorrow. It was such an amazing feeling to ferry across the Mississippi River; felt definitively like progress has been made and like its all down hill from here. Invited home by a Frenchman living here teaching French, we had warm showers and now a warm, dry place to sleep. Up early tomorrow to change the tires, off to Cafe du Monde for coffee and beighnets then onward to Mississippi!
Mardi Gras, btw, was nothing of what you hear about; I saw no flashing or crazy debauchery...mostly families lined up to watch a parade and catch beads as they're thrown from passing floats. There was also great live music all weekend and I'm now hooked on Zydeco music...
...alright, more later. must sleep.
Mardi Gras, btw, was nothing of what you hear about; I saw no flashing or crazy debauchery...mostly families lined up to watch a parade and catch beads as they're thrown from passing floats. There was also great live music all weekend and I'm now hooked on Zydeco music...
...alright, more later. must sleep.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The great thing about eastern Texas...and how our conversations sound on the road :-D
Knowing you're almost out of Texas! Nah, not really. Texas was great. The people are incredibly friendly and getting down to the gulf coast was glorious. The terrain in Texas was very psychologically challenging because it was such flat and straight road for miles and miles CAR BACK and miles and miles and miles. And miles. Besides that, Iz and I both have been battling some kind of sickness for the last three days. As a final send off out of Texas, we had two flats within the first three miles this morning! It was bad enough last night for Iz [from being sick] that we discussed postponing CAR BACK the trip or him going home and finishing later. Just thinking about not finishing the trip together put a small wave of depression on us both. For some reason today though, even with being sick, we're both feeling much better and anxious to push onward to New Orleans for Mardi Gras this weekend. Loosely I think we'll make Gainesville FL by the ides of March. I'm sure we'll take some time off there and then take a leisure couple days to pedal on to the Atlantic coast. CAR BACK. We're now over 1800 miles into the trip. The news article in Victoria was great, they misread my odometer and posted online that I had clocked 57,112 miles-Oops, they missed the decimal. It was 5,711.2 miles...I'm five miles away from 6,000 on my touring bike though.
Louisiana today! Finally!! Its amazing how quickly the culinary fare has CAR BACK changed with the departure from Texas. Already a strong Cajun/creole influence and I love it! I'm really looking forward to eating crawfish, frog legs and alligator!
Finally got some real hazing late yesterday evening. I'm a little surprised that more hasn't happened but grateful that CAR BACK we're still traveling safely. First, a huge, typical redneck [compensating for something] truck rolled by going the opposite direction and we got a redneck yell "Get off tha rOad!" Not uncommon. Second, I watched a low rider make a u-turn and as they passed the passenger pegged me with a 1 ounce souffle [little plastic cup] of ketchup. I guess if they got a laugh or smile from it my day and life were a success for having been able to CAR BACK provide a moment of laughter to a simple mind. If I could have convinced them to stop however, I would have offered a meal and/or a drink too. Maybe some french fries. Like the saying goes "If life gives you ketchup, fry up some taters." Oh wait, isn't it something about lemons...? Oh well.
So, we were just informed of the only known pink bottlenose dolphin that lives in the Cameron Parish area, hope we spot it while pedaling along the coast.
Oh, a little story: The day after we left San Antonio, one of our tent pole cords broke. I re-laced it with some p-cord but that didn't hold well or function properly to keep the pole taut. Finally, yesterday we found a store that had a tent shock cord replacement kit. Getting into wetlands were mosquitoes come in large black clouds, its very nice to have a smooth functioning tent. Literally, even with being expedient we must have had 76 sanguine seeking suckers in the tent last night. Buying bug spray today!
It has become fun to watch people's mouths drop when they nonchalantly ask something like "so how far you guys pedaled?" and we respond with "oh, 1800 miles" or maybe "where you guys riding to?", "ah, St. Augustine Florida." "WHat!?!" "Yep, Florida...pretty easy really. Just one pedal stroke at a time." Then something like, "dang! I couldn't ride my bike around the block." "Sure you can, just one revolution at a time. Anybody can, you just have to make a choice." "Well where do you stay at night?" "Any where that we can find dry ground to pitch our tent." In fact, tonight I think we'll be camping on the beach, listening to waves crash. I'm sure I'll have to live near an ocean at some point in life. CAR BACK.
Alright, enough rambling for now. Hopefully another CAR BACK update with the impending Mardi Gras!
Just One Revolution! Blog on the philosophy of our trip coming soon.
"Bike On!" -quote from a guy working on his car on the side of the road- I loved it :-D
Louisiana today! Finally!! Its amazing how quickly the culinary fare has CAR BACK changed with the departure from Texas. Already a strong Cajun/creole influence and I love it! I'm really looking forward to eating crawfish, frog legs and alligator!
Finally got some real hazing late yesterday evening. I'm a little surprised that more hasn't happened but grateful that CAR BACK we're still traveling safely. First, a huge, typical redneck [compensating for something] truck rolled by going the opposite direction and we got a redneck yell "Get off tha rOad!" Not uncommon. Second, I watched a low rider make a u-turn and as they passed the passenger pegged me with a 1 ounce souffle [little plastic cup] of ketchup. I guess if they got a laugh or smile from it my day and life were a success for having been able to CAR BACK provide a moment of laughter to a simple mind. If I could have convinced them to stop however, I would have offered a meal and/or a drink too. Maybe some french fries. Like the saying goes "If life gives you ketchup, fry up some taters." Oh wait, isn't it something about lemons...? Oh well.
So, we were just informed of the only known pink bottlenose dolphin that lives in the Cameron Parish area, hope we spot it while pedaling along the coast.
Oh, a little story: The day after we left San Antonio, one of our tent pole cords broke. I re-laced it with some p-cord but that didn't hold well or function properly to keep the pole taut. Finally, yesterday we found a store that had a tent shock cord replacement kit. Getting into wetlands were mosquitoes come in large black clouds, its very nice to have a smooth functioning tent. Literally, even with being expedient we must have had 76 sanguine seeking suckers in the tent last night. Buying bug spray today!
It has become fun to watch people's mouths drop when they nonchalantly ask something like "so how far you guys pedaled?" and we respond with "oh, 1800 miles" or maybe "where you guys riding to?", "ah, St. Augustine Florida." "WHat!?!" "Yep, Florida...pretty easy really. Just one pedal stroke at a time." Then something like, "dang! I couldn't ride my bike around the block." "Sure you can, just one revolution at a time. Anybody can, you just have to make a choice." "Well where do you stay at night?" "Any where that we can find dry ground to pitch our tent." In fact, tonight I think we'll be camping on the beach, listening to waves crash. I'm sure I'll have to live near an ocean at some point in life. CAR BACK.
Alright, enough rambling for now. Hopefully another CAR BACK update with the impending Mardi Gras!
Just One Revolution! Blog on the philosophy of our trip coming soon.
"Bike On!" -quote from a guy working on his car on the side of the road- I loved it :-D
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