A Cross-Country Bike Ride from Florida to California

This tour is dedicated to my brother, Mike, and everyone else out there who is fighting cancer.





I've been dreaming about riding across the country since the early 2000s.  But it kept getting put on the back burner for some reason.   But I'm finally doing it, or at least attempting to do it.  When I first thought of this I never dreamed I wouldn't get around to it until I was 65 years old, but here we are.

 I will start riding in St. Augustine, Florida, on September 12th, 2018, and finish in San Diego.  The route is about 3,000 miles long.  It starts at sea level, tops out at 8,828 feet elevation at Emory Pass in New Mexico, and ends back at sea level.  My goal is to make it back to Sacramento in time to spend Thanksgiving with my family. 


June 2011, Near Tulelake, California


This tour was supposed to begin on February 15th.  But a few weeks before departure my big brother, Mike, was diagnosed with cancer and needed immediate surgery.  I put the tour on hold so I could help out with his post surgical recovery over the next few months.  After some very tough times and a lot of effort, Mike is now doing a lot better.  A few months ago he could barely walk, but now he's back out on the golf course and the bike trail.  I am so incredibly thankful for this.    

Cancer has had a big impact on my family.  Mike is fighting bladder cancer.  My brother-in-law, Dan, lost his battle with Multiple Myeloma last year.  My sister Kathy, Dan's wife, is a two-time cancer survivor.  My father was a colon cancer survivor.  I lost two cousins to cancer.  They were siblings and died in their 40s just three weeks apart from each other.  I have friends with cancer.  And I had a bout with cancer too, but it was just a low-risk basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) on my shoulder.



My Big Bro, Mike

I have looked up to Mike all of my life.  Without probably even knowing it, he's driven me to do more and work harder just to try and keep up with him, which I haven't quite found possible.

It started with him being a math wiz when we were kids.  Meanwhile, math made very little sense to me.  I mean, how can x=3 one minute and then it equals 5 in the next problem?  I felt lied to and betrayed by math.

But when I finally got around to going to college (in my 30s) I remembered Mike and math, and resolved myself to learn it.  And I did, getting all A's (except for one B) all the way through Algebra, Geometry, Trig, Calculus, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra.

That never would have happened if Mike hadn't unknowingly driven me to it.  So thank you, Mike.  You made me prove to myself that I wasn't a dummy, and I will always be grateful for that.





Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 10, 2018 at 11:44 PM

    That's awesome, Gary! I love this post dedicating your ride! You will do us all proud! This family sticks together through thick and thin! Love you, Katie

    ReplyDelete

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