'Gee, but it's great to be back home!'

the bridge over the Yaquina River, one mile to go
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What a bizarre feeling.  Packing things into my panniers.  I put things in different places today- after how organized I have been.  How strange to think that I'm doing this for the last time.  The sky was cloudy and the air damp at first, but the blue sky broke through pretty quickly.  I found myself trying to notice everything.  The cars flying by, and my comfort with their proximity to me, the wind in my face, the pulse of my muscles and the sound of the chain as it rolls around.  This was certainly something that I wanted to say I had done, but now that it comes down to it, I have enjoyed doing it and I will miss not doing it, I think.

the mighty Pacific Ocean
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I met up with my dad at a roadside rest area and he unloaded his bike to ride the last 35 miles to the beach with me.  Such lovely company.  Having someone to race up and down hills with and share my observations with.  To have someone see me is like having proof that it is real and that I have really done this thing.  My mother and various other close family members and friends waved and gave hugs as they passed on the road, all headed to the place where we'd meet up at the beach.  It was heart rending to see the joy at my return fill up all the concerned places on their faces- such relief and happiness and pride.  There was one pile of people in the parking lot to intercept me- and another little group down on the sand to form an arch for me to run through.  And I did run very hard out into the receding tide.

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Completion is overwhelming.  Success even more so.  All I can say now is that I have done this thing, not exactly what I set out to do, but this wonderful and absurd thing- done.  I am proud of this: that at 26 I had done very little planning, but was determined to go, at 26 and 1/4 I sent out my manifesto and started the trip with great hope, by 26 and 1/2 I was in DC with a broken leg and was not sure what to do with myself, by 26 and 3/4 I had hiked 3 weeks on the Appalachian Trail and had decided to buy a bike and at my 27th birthday I had ridden that bike all the way across the country.  On the hardest days I struggled with, 'how did I get here and how will I get there?' but all of the most glorious moments centered on, 'I am here- what a thing, to be here!'   Unlock your door.  Step out of the air-conditioning.  Don't wash your hands against it.  Breathe the air.  Touch the water.  Look at people.  Be open.  Be unafraid.  Wherever you are, be there.