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We finished our bike tour after 70 days of riding, 3,600 miles on our tires and we saw but a fraction of what lies out there. Spending the majority of our miles on county and state roads I noticed how federal interstates deprive drivers of what really lies off an exit. Next time you use Google maps or similar software, take US-highways and state routes so that you will see forgotten towns like Ash Grove, Missouri and Walden, Colorado.
Thanks goes out to everyone who donated sub money, read the blog, gave us shelter from the weather, without you we probably would not have finished!
Enjoy the holiday season and stay tuned as Project Wanderlust heads South of the equator to Argentina for the winter months. More pictures and stories to come from Aconcagua and Patagonia!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Dispatch from America: Observations and Happenstance
As we enter Virginia, I am back to the lighter side of our bike trip. Abby likened Eastern Kentucky to places in Peru she had seen, third world where sanitation and garbage are concerned. The past two days brought back a PSA that aired when I was in college(See the YouTube link below). Keep in mind that while the PSA was meant to be over the top, we have seen areas that are worse!
We have had ideal camps on the ridges of the Appalachians. Catching the waning daylight and waking to the intense orange dawn light that warms the tent. There are often turkeys calling and hound dogs baying in the early morning hours. As we ride up and over the steep hills of Appalachia you can not help but take in the immense poverty that has strangled this area since people fled the crowded East Coast more than a century ago.
Coal is King and everyone has "Friends in Low Places" as dictated by their truck decals that depict a miner crawling through a shaft. The shoulder is the white line; often with sharp pieces of gravel and coal strewn about near mountain top removal sites. The convenient aspect of loud or lacking exhaust on vehicles is that you can hear them coming and move over. People are mostly indifferent to the foreign bikers, occasionally a member from the "Greatest Generation" will wave and talk with you. There ought to be more of that spirit. You get the random, "dumb ass" or other incomprehensible mutterings of a passenger car as they fly by you at 60+ mph. None of those people say anything when you see them at the next gas station; with looks of," their here already?", lacking the stones to confront you.
I look forward to crossing the Appalachian Trail outside Damascus, VA where this time 3 years ago I walked these very mountains. Then we are onto Boone, NC where I went to college and have not visited for 5 years. Finally we ride out of the Appalachians and into the sand hills of NC and head for the ocean to finish our bike tour.
We have had ideal camps on the ridges of the Appalachians. Catching the waning daylight and waking to the intense orange dawn light that warms the tent. There are often turkeys calling and hound dogs baying in the early morning hours. As we ride up and over the steep hills of Appalachia you can not help but take in the immense poverty that has strangled this area since people fled the crowded East Coast more than a century ago.
Coal is King and everyone has "Friends in Low Places" as dictated by their truck decals that depict a miner crawling through a shaft. The shoulder is the white line; often with sharp pieces of gravel and coal strewn about near mountain top removal sites. The convenient aspect of loud or lacking exhaust on vehicles is that you can hear them coming and move over. People are mostly indifferent to the foreign bikers, occasionally a member from the "Greatest Generation" will wave and talk with you. There ought to be more of that spirit. You get the random, "dumb ass" or other incomprehensible mutterings of a passenger car as they fly by you at 60+ mph. None of those people say anything when you see them at the next gas station; with looks of," their here already?", lacking the stones to confront you.
I look forward to crossing the Appalachian Trail outside Damascus, VA where this time 3 years ago I walked these very mountains. Then we are onto Boone, NC where I went to college and have not visited for 5 years. Finally we ride out of the Appalachians and into the sand hills of NC and head for the ocean to finish our bike tour.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Dispatch from America: People who litter and their Corporate Accomplices
I was too hard on Missouri upon rolling through it's steep Western hills. The Ozarks, while short in distance were quite stunning. Everyone warned us about the heeling dogs of MO and KY, turns out that all you have to say is "NO" with some force and they do an about face. We are sitting in Berea, KY, the gateway into the Appalachian Mountains. Back to the topic at hand.
There has been an exponentially growing trend that I have noticed along the roadsides of our country . . . LITTER. Now this has very little to do with an environmental concern, more a socio-economic observation. I do not have to be a statistician to make the following statement, all I had to do was ride 6-8 hours a day, 3000 miles across the country. By riding a bike at an average of 8 mph one sees the amount of trash easier then at 60 mph.
There is no doubt that the amount of litter increases in rural areas within this country. Call it the lack of volunteers for road side cleanup, I'll give you that. Never the less, this McDonald's trash is not just wrappers and cups. Imagine if you will, the next time you eat on the run; that when you finish your meal, place the wrappers in the bag and simply roll down the window and chuck it. A complete disregard for your community and neighbors. There is an understood truth that animals do not defecate where they sleep, well you would think that this is not much different.
With all the options of today's mega-gas stations and fast food chains, the most numerous items found along America's byways are McDonald's, Pepsi/Coke products, Miller/Coors/Anheuser-Busch products, and cigarette/smokeless tobacco items. You do not see traditional grocery items frequently unless some slack jawed yokel has tossed out an entire bag of house-hold waste. The bulk of road-side trash are items bought primarily at fast food and gas stations, consumed within close proximity to their point of purchase, and from a small amount of manufactures when considering the amount of companies that produce the offending items.
This is not to stereotype individuals that use the mentioned products, but to point out who's company they are in and thus represented by and associated with. The answer? Signs warning of fines and jail time will continue to be mocked and blasted with buck shot unless strict and just punishment is policed. More roadside disposal containers,it worked in British Columbia, even in the most rural and desolate sections one can find a trash can. "Who's to empty the cans", you ask? How about the offenders?
In closing, throw your trash away in a proper receptacle, do not dump your old furniture into streams, and have some respect for where you and others live. If you find that you just can not wrap your troglodyte mind around this concept, chamber a round and place it in your mouth!
There has been an exponentially growing trend that I have noticed along the roadsides of our country . . . LITTER. Now this has very little to do with an environmental concern, more a socio-economic observation. I do not have to be a statistician to make the following statement, all I had to do was ride 6-8 hours a day, 3000 miles across the country. By riding a bike at an average of 8 mph one sees the amount of trash easier then at 60 mph.
There is no doubt that the amount of litter increases in rural areas within this country. Call it the lack of volunteers for road side cleanup, I'll give you that. Never the less, this McDonald's trash is not just wrappers and cups. Imagine if you will, the next time you eat on the run; that when you finish your meal, place the wrappers in the bag and simply roll down the window and chuck it. A complete disregard for your community and neighbors. There is an understood truth that animals do not defecate where they sleep, well you would think that this is not much different.
With all the options of today's mega-gas stations and fast food chains, the most numerous items found along America's byways are McDonald's, Pepsi/Coke products, Miller/Coors/Anheuser-Busch products, and cigarette/smokeless tobacco items. You do not see traditional grocery items frequently unless some slack jawed yokel has tossed out an entire bag of house-hold waste. The bulk of road-side trash are items bought primarily at fast food and gas stations, consumed within close proximity to their point of purchase, and from a small amount of manufactures when considering the amount of companies that produce the offending items.
This is not to stereotype individuals that use the mentioned products, but to point out who's company they are in and thus represented by and associated with. The answer? Signs warning of fines and jail time will continue to be mocked and blasted with buck shot unless strict and just punishment is policed. More roadside disposal containers,it worked in British Columbia, even in the most rural and desolate sections one can find a trash can. "Who's to empty the cans", you ask? How about the offenders?
In closing, throw your trash away in a proper receptacle, do not dump your old furniture into streams, and have some respect for where you and others live. If you find that you just can not wrap your troglodyte mind around this concept, chamber a round and place it in your mouth!
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