No Name Tour: Highlights

Even before I finished my ride this summer, people were asking me, “What was the best part?” It may seem strange to say this but until I reviewed my blog posts last week, I had forgotten much of the ride! I suppose this was because I was so focused on the present that the past was of little importance.

And now that I have reviewed the posts, I still don’t have an answer. There were plenty of highlights.

• Lincoln’s tomb (and the comic graves nearby) in Springfield, Illinois.
• The Burma Shave signs on the Route 66 bike path in Illinois.
• The many trail angels that showed me kindness, especially Jesse, the retired chef in a white pickup truck in Saint Louis. I am not exaggerating when I say that he saved my life. (I’ll never forget how he vacillated between saying “I love you” and cussing like Samuel L. Jackson.)
• The Buddhist monk in the cowboy hat walking on the side of the road in Missouri. I am still kicking myself that I didn’t take his picture but he seemed completely at peace, gliding down the shoulder of the road with a serene smile across his face.
• Taking a dive in the pool at the city park in Ash Grove, Missouri at the end of a hot and frustrating day. Fifteen minutes of bliss.
• Meeting and riding with Mark and Corey from Ash Grove to Pueblo, Colorado.
• The Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. I could have spent hours and hours in that place.
• The epic flooding in eastern Kansas.
• The medicinal effects of marijuana edibles, an order of magnitude more effective and long lasting than ibuprofen for the pain in my left knee and hip.
• Mo at the Courtyard Country Inn in Westcliffe, Colorado for getting me a room after one of my most exhausting days on a bike.
• Making it to the top of Monarch Pass. And flying down the other side for ten miles.
• San Miguel Canyon in Colorado. I went off route to avoid Lizard Head Pass and rode through a breathtaking canyon. Pure serendipity.
• The Hogback in Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument.
• All the bike tourists I met on the side of the road. The French sisters and Dan Hurwitz are still riding. The sisters are on Instagram and Dan has a blog.
• Bryce Canyon. Egads, it’s amazing.
• Red Canyon, the little known canyon to the west of Bryce.
• The ride from Cedar Breaks National Monument to Cedar City, Utah, a loss of 5,000 feet in 20 miles.
• My Warmshowers hosts in Hutchinson, Carson City, and Sacramento. And Jesse and Mike in San Francisco.
• Mushroom Swiss burgers in Nevada. Everybody I met was raving about them for good reason.
• The sign guys who helped me find a place (and drove me to dinner) after I climbed Carson Pass in California.
• The bike mechanics in Pueblo, Salida, Ridgeway, and Carson City who dropped everything to help me.
• Most of my days seemed to be in survival mode on this tour. Still I had hours and hours of meditative solitude.