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Days 50 - 53

As the trip winds down, it becomes increasingly hard to find anything of interest to say except to marvel at how nice and supportive everyone has been. Good example is Ester at LBK who gave us a nice dinner party and everyone at the condo was encouraging. Many thought that I was done. Still have a few days to go but at this point I think I could walk it if I had to. Some are more ready to quit than others - the RV refrigerator stopped working, saying it had had enough. "No more opening and closing. Leave me alone." The day off in LBK was so civilized that I almost thought I was done too.

Beach at LBK

Dinner at Esther's

We are at Kathie’s in Parkland, FL tonight then on to the Keys for the last two days, so you will be subjected to only one more blog from me. Marjie promises only one more as well.

Kathie's house and stables

So far FL has been flat (expected) and cooler than SD (not expected) Torrential rains with lots of thunder and lightening. I've gotten pretty good at predicting if I can outrun the storms. If I come back with a scar down my face like Capt. Ahab in Moby Dick, you'll know I was not as good as I thought.

Typical sights while riding in central FL include miles and miles of citrus groves, lots of cattle grazing, endless fields of sugar cane. Question: what's with the boiled peanuts? I didn’t dare try them as Kathie says they're terrible.

Fixed up Kathie's bike so the three of us biked around her neighborhood. Horse country, so no friendly chit chat with the local animals.

One of the 16 horses

Marjie writes:
Notes from inside the RV- Entry #5

My sister joined me inside the RV for the daily ride. It was interesting to observe another person's adjustment to this private domain. Being a fast, proactive and efficient person, she passed through those stages – denial, anger, depression and acceptance – all in a whirlwind of one day. We were hysterical most of the time – laughing. After a 51 day lock up, not only do you think you sound exactly like multiple accomplished singers (Bob is still my main man), but you think you are also wildly funny. I was a good hostess. I did make her listen to all 339 ipod selections and harmonize when appropriate. That's normal right?

The nature of our RV cuisine drastically changed with Kathie's arrival. My style was nonstop grazing on whatever - fruit, crackers, sandwiches, cereal, salads in no particular order or quality control. Favorite compulsively consumed snacks – orange slice candy (nauseating bags purchased at any gas station stop), boxes of wheat thins and then the piece de resistance – CHEETOS. A CHEETO DAY added variety to the usual regime. On those days, I filled a cup with those orange curls, sat it in the cup holder accessible to the driver and ate one at a time on an as needed basis during all my waking hours. If you try this, be careful. The Cheeto day must be planned NOT spontaneous or the potential for descending into immediate self-loathing following consumption of the last cheeto is inevitable. Complete cheeto detox for a week or two thereafter is mandatory.

My sister thought it was important to have a well-balanced snack or meal for John at breaks with attention to presentation. She challenged me to a Bobby Flay style throwdown – check out the pictures- I don't see the difference. Anyhow, so we ate...

Can you guess which one belongs to which sister?

Cheeto day even offers an evening activity - washing off the orange stuff

John and I traveled together from Fairbanks Alaska to Key West Florida, but we had very different journeys. He experienced an endorphin fest of physical activity that left him in excellent physical and mental shape. I clearly need an intensive rehabilitation regime to regain my former mediocre heath and fitness status.

But maybe this has been an emotional growth experience for me – working through trust issues with TomTom girl, making new friends along the way (Watson, Al the moose mounty and Nebraska), working as a team with my spouse as his support and living in a tiny space together, simplifying life (drastic reduction of clothing, food, entertainment choices), indulging in endless hours of internal dialogue and personal reflection.

I'm thinking now this RV experience should be a required college course, an integral part of marriage counseling, a hallmark of Buddhist practice or behaviorist therapy. Maybe, sold as a franchise fantasy vacation or one of those YMCA field trip offerings advertised as, "One week RV lock-up – find yourself in a small space". Maybe I could get the copyright to using it as a more humane alternative to waterboarding.

My head is swirling with the possibilities. All I need is a physical trainer/weight loss coach, a couple of sessions with a psychiatrist and maybe a life coach consultation and I will be right back on track.

I will continue to ponder the therapeutic value of this experience

FINAL BLOG: Days 54 - 55

The final two days from Parkland to Key West were actually some of the hardest. Maybe I just was anxious to finish. I know the RV was tired because in addition to the broken refrig., we lost our air-conditioning. After a short debate, we stayed at a motel instead of the RV. The Florida DOT trotted out all the road construction in our honor, so I can't honestly say how much of the Keys I saw. I did have the pleasure(?) of riding on a bike path, which took me 1/2 way across 7 mile bridge and then ended. So back I went to bike the real bridge. Seems like they could at least put up a sign telling you "This Bridge Goes NOWHERE". Key West was a cute town, filled with tourists on scooters, and lots of tour guides to Hemmingway's house.

Bridge to Nowhere

As I rode along the last few days I did some mental calculations and came up with a few stats I though were interesting. All are approximate but pretty close:

End of ride

5500 miles covered
55 days on the rode. 50 riding. 5 days off
11 states and 4 provinces covered
30 days with temp over 90, 4 days over 100, 5 days under 50
40.1 degrees change in latitude. 66.1 degrees change in longitude
Avg. speed: 17.2mph. Fastest daily speed 22.2mph. Slowest daily speed 13.8mph
Each tire made 725,000 revolutions
Each pedal was pushed 1 million times, for a total of 2 million pushes
825 liters water consumed while riding... unknown amounts of liquid rest of day
# of beers and wine - none of your business
275,000 calories consumed

So now it's done and I'll take a few days to return to reality and join the real world. It's been a real hoot but it may be a while before I ride 100 miles again. Thanks for following along.

The Ride Begins...

...FINISHED

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