Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the following people for the help they were to us on this trip. They touched our hearts by giving us things far more than an open door. They left kindness, generosity and love. Those are irreplaceable and can not be depleted as they are shared. 

Thank you to:

- Bob and Judy for the camping supplies they lent us and for not thinking we were crazy wanting to do this ride.

- Nate and Sherry for letting us crash at their house  even though they were moving the next morning.

- Pam and Richard for a place to stay, haircuts, sharing their campsite in Astoria and great day of tourist activities.

- Phil and Robin for giving us a place to stay and the reminder of how awesome it is to live on a farm.

- Doug for his superb auto maintenance expertise and his lovely wife Tammy for the harp concert.

- Spencer and Angela for the lodging, cousin time and the garden inspiration.

- Dave and Abby for the great rest after a long ride.

- Castle and Coleman Logging for the gallons of ice cold water on a hot day.

- Kathy and Henry for treating us to dinner.

- The Warner's for being our full-service hotel for weekend.

- The Chiropractor in Utah who adjusted my back and taught Stephen how to do it in the future. He didn't need to do this, I was surprised at how quickly a tear to my eye. -Stephen

- Cindy for taking pictures of us on the Golden Gate Bridge, taking us to dinner and all the gifts for our boys.

- Mike and Janet for letting us take a zero day at their home and for spoiling us.

- Brandon and Amy for a peaceful evening in a wonderful place.

- Sue and Craig for letting us celebrate the finish line at their home and for helping us start our journey back home.

Lessons Learned

Major lessons that we learned:

I'm sure many have wondered how we convinced our kids to do this ride with us and how we kept them motivated.  For starters, getting new bikes and seeing their Grandparents and cousins were initial sales points.  Once riding, things got more complicated, especially for Tan.  Bins was content to ride all day long, but for Tan it was an adjustment.  The first day was no problem.  On day 2, the doubts started creeping into his confidence.  "This is too hard.  I want to go home.  Why did we come on this trip anyway."  I answered all his questions, but it really boiled down to the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere at that moment, and we had to at least get to civilization before we could do anything about it.  By time we got to the campsite that night, he was happy as can be and thrilled to keep riding his bike.

The next day, and for about a week, same complaints.  I soon realized that part of the problem was hunger.  whenever he launched into his first complaint of the morning (usually around 10 or 11), I gave him a sandwich.  The biggest breakthrough came though when I told him, "We are going to see your Grandparents in a week.  Will you try this out until then?  After that, if you still don't want to ride, then we can send your bike home with them and buy you a trail-a-bike."  That worked wonders to give him a shorter-term goal, and when we met up with my parents in Astoria, he never once mentioned sending his bike back.  Good bye doubts, hello joyful riding.

This experience taught us a few important lessons.  Lesson #1:  Children are capable of far more than we give them credit.  Stephen and I would never have known our boys could do this if we didn't give them the opportunity.  I wonder what else they could accomplish if no one was holding them back?  Lesson #2: Inspire, not require.  This is actually a Thomas Jefferson Education Principle we use in Home Schooling, but it was applicable on the ride as well.  We didnt answer Tan's concerns with anger, frustration or telling him that he HAD to do this ride or else...  We encouraged, persuaded, rewarded and taught by example.  He saw that this wasn't something we were forcing him to do, but something we wanted to do as a family and we wanted him along with us.  We were not requiring something of him that we weren't willing to do ourselves.  In fact, we were willing to make it as easy as possible for him by carrying all the weight ourselves and making it as fun as possible.

I'm not going to lie; biking the Pacific Coast was physically hard.  We had to push ourselves to get stronger and to keep going even when our bodies ached.  In every other respect, this trip was absolutely wonderful.  We loved living outside for nearly 2 months, sleeping and arising with the sun.  We spent all day, every day together as a family working towards a goal and met inspiring, talented and generous people.  Even more than all of that, however are the innumerable times we knew that God was aware of us and that our happiness and success mattered to Him.  I'm not saying that completing this ride was some important part of our eternal destiny, but it was definitely spiritually strengthening.

We ran into friends at church who offered us a place to stay for the night.  We pulled into a campground in the rain and rented the first cabin that had been available in 4 months.  We crossed paths with The Thompson's who knew only that we were somewhere in the state of Oregon.  A stranger stopped to tell us about a nearby campsite (not on any maps) that we unexpectedly needed a short distance down the road.  These experiences and countless others confirmed to us that a loving God is not just concerned with the righteousness of His children, but with our comfort and joy as well.

Getting Home

A long train ride

Although reaching Mexico was the culmination of the bike trip, it was in no way the end of the road for us.  When we got back to the United States, we rode 11 miles to Coronado Island to stay with friends for the weekend.  Saturday we enjoyed some R&R in San Diego Bay on kayaks and a paddle board.  We did laundry, went grocery shopping and packed to get ready for the next part of our journey.

When we talked to Amtrak a week ago, we found out that there was track maintenance this weekend.  If we wanted to go all the way to Seattle on the train, we either had to leave on Friday morning or Monday morning.  We didn't finish our ride until Friday evening, so Monday was the best option.

On Sunday we rode our bikes to church, then continued on bike to the Amtrack Station in San Diego to drop off our luggage.  We had to dismantle the bikes and put them in boxes to load on the train.  We removed the wheels and handle off each bike trailer, and they were checked as suitcases.  Our friend Sue picked us up at the station to take us back to her home.

At 5am Monday morning, we were back in the car heading to the Amtrak Station.  By 6:30 we were on the train, and then the waiting began.  It was fun to pass some of the campsites that we stayed at our last few days on the ride.  We were on the train all day Monday, slept in our seats Monday night, then stayed on the train all day Tuesday.  The boys decided that train travel is far better than airplane.  It takes longer (obviously), but it's more comfortable, you can walk around whenever you want and you never have to wear a seat belt.  At 8:45pm on Tuesday, we rolled into the Seattle Amtrak station.  Sigh...that leg of the journey complete.

We retrieved and reassembled our bikes, then rode a couple blocks to the light rail station.  We boarded another train and headed for SeaTac airport, then rode 1 mile to our hotel.  Ahh...a bed! In the morning Stephen took a shuttle to the airport, then another shuttle to the rental car lot to rent a car.  He picked us up at the hotel and we drove 2 hours north to the border where we left our van before starting this whole adventure.  We had to jump the battery on the van and transfer all of our bike tour belongings from the rental car trunk.  2 more hours south to drop off the rental car and pick up the bikes that we left at the hotel.

Currently, we are traveling south at 70 mph.  We finally feel like this journey is complete and we are heading in the direction of home.  In 3 days time we will be sleeping in our own beds.  It will be nice to have fluffy towels, a refrigerator and the ability to do laundry whenever we please.

Debriefing

Here are a few statistics from our trip.

Days:
Riding - 45
Rest - 6
Using Butt'r - 2

Nights in a hotel - 1
Nights in a home - 5
Nights camping - 45
Riding in the rain - 2

Miles:
Canada to Mexico - 1875
Average per day (45) - 41.7
Average per day (51) - 36.7
Max day - 67 (twice)
Min day (excluding rest days) - 18 (our first day riding)
Addition miles ridden by the boys at campsites - Unknown, but many

Flat tires:
Stephen - 7
Annette - 1
Bins - 0 (A point of pride for him)
Tan - 2
Trailers - 2

Max Speeds:
Stephen - 48 mph
Annette - 41.7 mph
Bins - 38.4 mph
Tan - 36.8 mph

Books listened to:
Stephen - 4 (Good portions of his time were focused on navigating)

Annette - 3 (Half way through the trip we had an MP3 stolen and I gave up my phone so each of the boys could still listen)

Bins - 15 (Listed below)
Pathfinder, Ruins and The Gate Thief, all by Orson Scott Card
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Eragon, Eldest, Brissinger and Inheritance, all by Christopher Paulini
All 7 of the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

Tan - 8 (Although he re-listened to Pathfinder at least 3 times)
Pathfinder and Ruins, by Orson Scott Card
Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger and Inheritance, all by Christopher Poulini
2 of the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

Items lost or left behind:
2 pair of bike gloves
2 pair of sunglasses
1 bike lock (we had 2 with us)
1 bike computer
1 mp3 player (stolen, actually)
1 water backpack

Favorite part of the trip:
Stephen - The kindness and generosity of the people we met and who served us, expecting nothing in return.

Annette - Manzanitas to Florence, OR was my faviorite place to ride.  The best part of the trip was the simplicity of what we needed and what we needed to do every day.

Bins - "Listening to audio books, playing at the beach, and the triumph of going really fast down a hill."

Tan - Swinging on the giant rings near Santa Monica Pier.

Day 51 - Success!

Cardiff, CA to Tijuana, Mexico - 43 miles

We made it!  It's over!  We biked all the way from Canada to Mexico!  The actual crossing of the border was anti-climactic because it was so crowded with people.  Where we crossed, there was no "Welcome to Mexico" sign where we could get a good picture, so we had to settle for pictures of us walking our bikes down a ramp and waiting in line.  When we entered the border patrol building, we got our passports stamped for the sake of memorabilia.  When asked how long we planed to stay in Mexico, we said, "Maybe 5 minutes."

50 days ago when we crossed into Canada it took all of 5 minutes in and another 5 minutes to get back to the United States.  We knew that Mexico would take longer.  We hoped for 1 hour, maybe 2.  We were not expecting FOUR HOURS!  I don't know which was more amazing: that our boys rode the length of our country on their bikes for 7 weeks or that they were absolute angels in line at the border for 4 hours.  We were blessed to wait in line next to a gentleman who held our bikes and our place in line when we had to find a restroom for the boys.  Thank you, Jimmy!

As we waited in line, I kept remembering a line from one of my favorite movies.  "She would go all the way to Italy just to get a stamp in her passport.  I don't know if that amounts to insanity or just being really, really...likeable."   Hmm...maybe we'll bike Italy next.  :)  I know we could have avoided the whole border business and taken pictures on the US side, but we really wanted those stamps.

By time we made it back to the United States, it was dark and we still had 11 miles to ride.  We plan to stay the weekend with friends we met on this trip who live in Coronado.  Monday morning, Amtrak will take us back up to Washington State where we left our car.  Thanks for following us on this incredible adventure!

Day 50 - Taste for adventure

Dana Point, CA to Cardiff, CA - 45 miles

 

We realized halfway through our ride yesterday that we left one of the water backpacks in El Segundo.  Good riddance.  Here's another  consumer reports analysis.  The knock-off brand water backpack is a pain in the neck to close!  The bite valve is so stiff that it makes your jaw tired and the whole contraption leaks down your back if you didn't fill it perfectly.  Maybe there are decent ones out there, but the inexpensive brand we bought at Big 5 doesn't even compare to our Camel Back.  Spring for the name brand and it will make your water consuming adventure much more enjoyable.

We've crossed paths a few times now with 2 British brothers named Rob and Andrew.  Check out their blog at abrothersjourneyaroundtheworld.co.uk.  These 2 adventurers left England 15 months ago and rode their bikes to Singapore.  They then rode through Australia and New Zealand before flying to Vancouver to start the last leg of their journey.  Their final destination is Argentina.  They plan for the trip to take 2 years and cover 27,000 miles.  So far they have completed 20,000.  They shared a few funny stories with us that I'll repeat here for your enjoyment.

In China, they went to a restaurant and ordered chicken.  Since they don't speak any Mandarin, they ordered the meal by flapping their elbows like chicken wings.  When they were brought only the head and feet of a chicken to eat, they decided to fill-up on rice instead.  In Vietnam, they wanted to get out of the heat for a while, so they stopped at a theater to watch The Secret Life if Walter Mitty.  After the movie they were commenting on how adventurous the main character was.  Then they looked at each other and one said, "Aren't we cycling around the world?"

These brothers will soon be leaving the United States and entering Mexico.  They mentioned that they were studying Spanish in the evenings trying to learn a bit before crossing the border.  I thought maybe we should offer to leave them Stephen's cell number in case they ever need help with translation.   I decided against it when I realized that if they made it across the entire continent of Asia, then they could certainly hold their own in Spanish.

Meeting these two, I couldn't help but think of my own sons 18 years from now.  Have we given them a taste for adventure that will fuel them in the future?  Time will tell.

Day 49 - Found on Facebook

El Segundo, CA to Dana Point, CA - 63 miles

We left El Segundo and rode The Strand to Redondo Beach. From there we were on surface streets until just past LA harbour. Luckily, we timed it right. From 9 until 10:30 am we missed morning commuter traffic and school carpools and we also beat the lunch hour. It was perfect. In Long Beach we were back on the beach path.

Riding through Newport Beach a car drove up beside us and a woman asked from the passenger window, "Are you the family riding your bikes 1400 miles?" I told her we were riding from Canada to Mexico, but I didn't ask where she had heard about us. I got the chance to ask a few blocks later when she pulled over to take our picture.

Apparently, she is Facebook following the gal running the length of California (Cheryl). Cheryl mentioned us in a post when we passed her the first time. We have seen her two other times since then, and it looks like we will be finishing our ride the same day she finishes her run. It's hard to believe that a woman driving in Newport Beach picked us out from a Facebook post, but I guess it confirms my previous assertion. 4 bikes and 2 bright yellow trailers are quite conspicuous.