Epilogue

It is only logical to ask me if it was worth it: the pain, surgery, scars.  I live my life with the unwavering belief that when I am in fact living my life as I choose then I have no reason for regret.  I count myself lucky to have taken a risk and seen it through.  My scar will never stop making me smile.

Geoff and I rode a total of 1800 miles on this trip.  We stayed with 15 hosts and at 2 churches.  We crossed through 8 states (Geoff made it through quite a few more).  In one trip, my perception of an entire nation, a people was fundamentally altered.  I set out to see the US and I believe I succeeded in seeing what is great in it. It is easy to lose track of the things that bind us when faced with a constant barrage of partisanship.  Yet, everywhere I went I found people happy to help me carry out this dream.  I encountered people proud of their lives, their communities, their families.  Our accommodation ranged between a luxurious apartment in Saint Louis and a tent pitched behind a church where two roads met somewhere in Kentucky, but the hosts were fundamentally the same; these people were happy with their lot and open to share their lives with us.  A few folks in Kansas didn't know where Philadelphia even was, had never heard of it, which made us as good as aliens to them and yet they treated us as cordially as if we were from their town.

But the human side of things was only part of what made me fall in love with this country.  There is the 'country' itself with its geographical diversity.  I should have kept a tally of the number of times I heard the expression 'beautiful country.'  It was without fail that any town we came to, the folks there would talk about the beautiful country we had just come through.  If you spend the least of efforts, you can see the beauty contained everywhere.  The this scale of what lies out there to explore makes me glad I am here, able to take advantage.  This country is huge, even after biking to the geographical center, I can not comprehend the enormity.  For a man with wanderlust unrestrained, I can be assured a life lived here in the US will never leave me wanting.

'When the wind is blowing in your face, you know you're going the right way.' Paul from Eggleston, VA