December 1st Day 86. Perry, Florida
Average Speed: 23.9Km/h
Days Distance: 115.20 Km
Total Distance: 4323.43Km
It's funny cause we are only now 3 days away from our one month vacation. We will have biked about 4600 kms in just under 3 months. That's just shy of the distance across Canada from east to west. But I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I am very excited about the holiday that we are about to take. I am beginning to miss home quite a bit. I am also becoming very tired of living always worried about where money is going to come from. But I want to keep going. It's actually quite tough mentally right now. I hope this holiday changes things up quite a bit.
Today we rode quite far and with the adjustment that I made on my seat this morning, I think I may have found the problem for the pain I have been having in my knees. My seat was maybe an inch to far back. I had very little pain today even though we were riding into the wind the whole way.
Not much else to tell other than we passed the German cyclists again today. Good luck getting to Key West guys!
December 2nd Day 87. Old Town, Florida
Average Speed: 26.0Km/h
Days Distance: 92.53 Km
Total Distance: 4415.96Km
Boring...
We are inland Florida now and it's really nice and all, but the stretch of highway we rode today was straight and flat which makes for a boring repetitive ride. My knees are feeling better and I am having very little pain now. I really think the seat adjustment is working well. We are still broke and I am wondering where the hell I am going to get the money to continue on this trip. That is the most important thing to me. Pj keeps telling me of the great time he wants to have on our break, and I am in 110%, but we have no money to party and the little we do have is already spent on the Dave Matthews concert we are going to. At least our accomodations in Florida are going to be free.
It's not fun to be the sole financeer on a trip for two with expensive travel habits....well it is when you can afford it!
I am now also toying with the idea of taking a ferry from South Florida to Cancun, Mexico. It's only $100/person and will put is in "el cheapo" land. That's only one of two great reasons I want to do it. The other is that I don't want to repeat the section of the Gulf that we have already done.
Dec 26th. Madeira Beach, Florida Final Entry
Merry Christmas!
Hello to all my family, friends, and to the silent readers of my journal entries. I have thought long and hard about what I want to write in my final words for the MeIsUs trip that has ended so shortly after it began. Yes, it is over.
What happened? Well...money was the determining factor I am sure. I always thought you could tell a person that you were going to pay for everything and that would be enough to keep them happy. Nope. I ignored the fact that Pj would not always be happy doing the things that made me happy. What I failed to realize was that when there is only a limited income, and after covering the basic needs of food, shelter and biking parts, that also covering the costly wants of keeping all present parties happy would become to much. And because of that a resentment towards each other would start to find a place in both of our hearts. But for too long it was unclear why.
I didn't realize that a delicate but important balance existed. Fun is not an option on this bike trip...I was trying to make it one due to my constant worries of no money. Why didn't we have any money?
We both made ignorant mistakes such as leaving when it was too cold. Neither of us could fight the battle after a days biking to get out of cold, wet sweaty clothes, then set up camp in the dwindling daylight, cook, eat and clean up all in the chilly night air, then get a good nights rest only to do it all again. We opted for the ease and warmth of more costly hotels and eating out. Night after night this mistake ate at our funds and my monthly income.
And that was the dreaded mistake that instigated the end of this trip in my mind. The $1000 - $1300 USD per month on hotels plus whatever it cost to eat out was our fun money...gone. So when Pj talked of doing anything fun, I would cringe right away...."but what about the trip?" The trip became unenjoyable for both of us. But I couldn't do anything about it.
I easily grew tired of Pj's not being happy and my not understanding why. In my mind he was being selfish. Afterall, I was being so generous by paying for the whole goddam unenjoyable trip, why couldn't he at least be thankful to me for that. Ahh....just cause I am paying for something doesn't make it enough....point well noted.
So time went on in this fashion until I could no longer stand it. Early in December, I awoke tired of not saying anything. If this trip was to continue, which I was not sure I wanted it to, things had to change. When I spoke to Pj informing him of my situation, he informed me that his quiet plans to go home were already in effect and he was waiting for the right time to tell me. Well, that was all I needed to know. The phone calls home began...the trip was over.
Pj, I am sorry for the things I was too ignorant to see. I hope that you know and believe if I had more money, we would have done every fun thing that not only I wanted to do, but you wanted to do as well. I now see why you were becoming angry with me and I think I have a better understanding of it. I am sorry for that. Truly sorry.
I wish you the best of luck and hope to be able to sit down for a few cocktails with you when I come home from my adventures so we can drown the shit that we went through with some Crown Gingee's.
My experiences on this trip.
I want to start by saying that I am truly dissapointed that I did not accomplish my goal, yet enlightened by the lessons that I will take with me.
I left on September 7th, 2002 with a fire burning in my soul that would rage until the trip was coming to it's last kilometers somewhere in the jungles of Argentina. That was what was important to me. Anyone who talked to me would attest to the truth of me saying the only thing that could bring me home and end this trip prematurely would be a death in the family. I was ready to bike. I was gullible.
It wasn't to be able to say that I had biked 25,000 km's or that I had taken a two year vacation or anything of such empty greatness. My only reason for getting on my bike was to explore the world that I live in but am so nieve about. I wanted to learn. I wanted to immerse myself in another world where people look, talk, and act differently than what I am accustomed to. I wanted to go to sleep every night scared, excited and wondering what tomorrow was going to bring, what problems, what gifts, what adventures. I wanted to absorb other cultures, ways of life and the problems that many North Americans don't have but so much of the other parts of the world live with and the simple joys in life that other worlds can take so much happiness out of but I have learned to expect.
Instead, I find myself sitting in a beautiful little beach house, surrounded by the commercialisms of hotels, condos, fast food stores, and comfortable vacation style living that I already knew before I left on this trip and I am saddened by the thought that I will not be bicycling any further. I will be shipping myself, my bike, and my equipment back home without even scratching the surface of my desires. I am surrouned by new beauty, but my heart is left full of desire to see more.
The ride through the small part of Canada and the almost 4000 km's of the USA have lasted three months. It was not at all like I had expected it to be. I never was expecting anything worthy out of biking through 5000kms of varied similarities and subtle differences of my surroundings and lifestyle as compared to the past 25 years of my life. I was actually chalking the whole distance from Edmonton to the border of Mexico up to getting in shape and learning how to be efficient on my bike.
But surprisingly to myself, in that time I have learned volumes about the way that others view me. But more importantly, I have learned how I view myself. I can differentiate between what other people think is going on in my head, what really is and understand the incredible gap that exists. I am not like most people. I also learned that I have the attitude and skill set to be more free than most people will ever be. I can dream, and I can live out my dreams. I have the time, the money and now the courage to do so....it's only a matter of taking that first real step towards doing it.
So with that, I am satisfied in the unexpected experiences I have gained from the distances I have travelled. I am at peace that I am no longer going to continue this particular bike trip. I have new plans for the next few months of my life, and more plans for the months to come after those few. I know I will do what I say this time as I have finally felt what it feels like to say you are going to do something, and do it....well kinda!.
My holidays in Florida were great and I got the opportunity to start a new relationship with a new friend. Thanks Mike. I think this will be a lifelong friendship that will bring many laughs and smiles to both of us.
I will see one of my two best friends, Joe Scharf, in only two more days. We will celebrate the coming of a new year together in the grandest of fashions. I will also fly with Joe back to a town where I once lived, Thunder Bay, Ontario. There I will rejoin a band that I once played in who, in my abscence, have recorded two albums and started what could turn out to be a successful career in music.
If things don't work out there, my plans are to go back home, make some money, and hop back on my bike to satisfy the fire that will burn in my soul until it is quenched by the waters that reside on the coasts of southern Argentina!
Bon Voyage all! My journey down this path has come to a fork in the road, I am not stopping, only changing directions!
I will keep you posted!
Ian Herculson
