Saturday, July 30, 2011

Storm

Las Cruces, NM

CRRRAAACK! The thunder rumbled through the nearby valleys for many seconds after the initial burst of sound that woke me up. It must be pretty late in the night, I thought.

I glanced at my phone - 9:30pm. Maybe not so late after all.  I guess it was still three hours since I'd fallen asleep.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Maps

Reminder for anyone who wants to: You can update my map here and add places you think I should go. I expect to not hear a single "Why didn't you go to ____?" when I get back from this trip, unless it was on the map but I just couldn't get to it.

And if you want to see my current progress, you can check out this map for a general route of where I've been, but the only way I could get it to show the whole trip all at once is by turning off "snap to roads." I'm working on a way to show the entire map all at once and also show which roads I actually took, but for now this will have to do.

Back Home

Las Vegas, NV

After a weekend back in the Midwest, I'm now back in Vegas, back with the bike (with everything still in one piece), and ready to get back on the road. I'm stopping at Starbucks down the road from where the bike was parked to figure out my next few weeks, and figure out where I'm going today. And honestly, to just relax for a bit before getting back on the road after a busy weekend.

I spent some time this weekend thinking about home, and what it means. I went back and visited family in Rockford where I grew up, I went to a waterpark that I'd been to every year as a kid, and I visited friends in Peoria and slept at my old apartment. And they all, in their own way, felt like home.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Radio Silence Lifted

Peoria, IL

Sorry about the delay in posting. Some of you knew why ahead of time, some probably didn't, but I probably should have tossed something up in between to let people know what I was up to and why I hadn't posted for a while. Be warned: long break in posting means a lot happened, which means this post will be rather long.

Since Thursday, I've been back in the Midwest visiting family and friends. This trip back was a planned break at about the midway point, in large part because of a family vacation that my mom's family was planning on taking. So while the last week and a half before getting to Vegas was rough, part of what made it tolerable was knowing that I had a break on the way. Granted, that break has so far included 700 miles of driving with another about 200 on the way - but 900 miles in five days is still less than what I usually do on the bike in that period (by about 100 miles).