1 month, 1 week, and 1 day, 6539 miles, 2 rear tires, 94 gas station stops, amazingly only 3 rain days and 2 of those less than 1 hour, one snow day, too many cold days, is what it took to ride a Vespa across America and back. Was it worth it? Absolutely !!! Any regrets? No. The return leg, after getting sick, became a scooter ride and not as much an adventure, but I loved every minute of it.
Some people said that the trip to California seemed awful fast. Well, look at it this way. It takes you 3 days to cross the country in your car and what do you see? It took me 21 days and I was literally in the scene the whole way. It was all around me. At what I estimate to be an average speed of about 40mph, you see a lot. Going over a 10,000 foot mountain at 20 mph for 1 hour or so, you even see more. Crossing the flat lands with 40 mph headwinds, you see a lot. No, I did not go to all the tourist places along the way. Most of them I have seen and my trips are not to see those, but the people and land around them. To keep from getting long winded, many, many people and places were not in the blog. Breakfast with Mennonites, conversations in cafes, chat's at the gas stations. If there was not a picture, I did not write about and a lot of these encounters I felt that camera would change the event. Maybe I should write about and I have in the past, but at the end of the day, it was to much to put in a blog for me. Those are memories to be shared in the future.
What is the story here? The story is that this is a vast, beautiful and wonderful country. Just as important is that is full of wonderful caring people. Not one person was anything other than helpful and friendly. (Ok, there was the cop, but he was not ugly, just not cooperative.) This is what I have found not only in the U.S., but every where I have traveled in the world. So, I encourage you to set out to see something new. Get out of your comfort zone, you will probably be surprised how good it feels and what new experiences you may have.
The James Dean Byrd Foundation
The fund raiser for the foundation was an after thought for this cross country trip. I never knew it would be so successful. To date we have raised $6,425!!! Almost all from small internet donations. THANK YOU!
For you to give to such a worthy cause is heart warming. I try not use the heart tugging scenes you see on TV to raise funding, but we have many of them. Here are a few.
- One mother was interviewed and asked what she likes about the Escuela Bilingue los Algarrobos. Her answer was that she can neither read or write, but everyday after school her 1st grade daughter comes home and child teaches her everything that she learned in school that day. She to is learning to read and write.
- Another family was interviewed and the child said what she liked best about school is that she good food, as there was none or very little at home.
I invite you all to come down and visit the school. Canoa is a nice little town. There are no Hilton's or even Motel 6's, but there are clean, safe accommodations and a wonderful beach. Ecuador is a compact country and you can go from the Amazon to the beach in one day, offering you a lot of new opportunities to see a different world.
