99 Day Trek To Tucson: Se Acabó

 We were talking with the front desk clerk in our hotel on Day 99 when another couple, about our age, walked in rich with exhaustion and a sense of accomplishment. They had been on a very long car trip and were so glad to be here. A bit of convo ensued; they had driven 5 days from Montana.

Three months ago I think we would have deemed a 5-day car trip a long one, too. But after 99 days, 12,400 miles, 50 different beds, at age 65 in a mini van with a bike in the back, well I guess we have redefined "a long car trip" at least from our perspective.

It's been a grand ride: returned to places near and dear; seen new places that have been on our "we gotta go there someday" list;  visited friends we haven't seen in 20, 30, 40, 50 years, and others who we just said good-bye to 6 months ago who moved from our good friend, Chicago.

Kirk still has his 20-year perfect attendance at Rotary making up meetings weekly along the way; his Bally Fitness membership allowed him to go to the gym at least once a week; and despite breaking my foot and being off the bike for 5-1/2 weeks I still rode 1,600 miles and rode in 8 new states.

I think one of the ingredients to a successful odyssey such as this is to know what your anchors are that keep you spiritually, physically, socially, and emotionally healthy and then figure out a way to make that happen on the journey.

Certainly having the benefit of an electronic world made keeping up with the administrative end of household life pretty easy: electronic banking, being able to drop ship "stuff" up the road, faxing from hotel lobbies, GPS on the iPhone, etc.

Kirk has never been fond of my Nissan Quest, said it ran like a truck, had a wide turning radius, and wasn't impressive when it came to fuel economy. All of that is true. But, he has a new respect for our now only car (first time we've been a one car family since 1974) that gave us not a wink of worry for those 12,400 miles and still looks like new.

It's time to land, to set some new roots, for sure. We are all roamed out. Ready to see some clothes other than the 3 pairs of shorts and 5 T-shirts we've seen for 100 days. Ready to have our reusable Trade Joe Grocery Sacks we carry from hotel to hotel full of items beyond apples, cereal, and microwaveables that don't require refrigeration. Ready to build some more lasting relationships in Rotary, church, the neighborhood beyond those at the local convenient store where we bought our daily paper.

We're feeling deep fondness and gratitude to the friends and family who welcomed us along the way, the professionals who have become friends--Nelson, who helped us find our townhouse in February, 2010 and who shepherded us all along the way; Ginny, who managed our property as a rental unit until September 30, 2011 when we took possession; Liz who took the empty shell of a unit designed a place of color, hospitality, and comfort. Next week she will be orchestrating the make-over artists who will, hopefully, be finished by October 10th when our furniture, that has been in storage since June 24th, will arrive.

And so, we say thank you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your support. This will be the last blog entry for the 99 Day Trek To Tucson. Se acabó. Do let us know if you'll be coming our way. We'd love to welcome you to Tucson with the same warmth (LOL) as we have been welcomed.

Bentwanderings is a good place to continue following my cycling journey.

Saguaro on the hillside

No Room In The Inn

Kirk and the Cactus at Chase Field: Phoenix

The Inn was full in Tucson the weekend of September 23rd--U of A was at home and would lose handedly to Oregon. (Hard for us to know who to cheer for with a Duck son in Eugene and a Wildcat son in Tucson.) So, we weekended in Phoenix: a visit to the Heard Museum of Indian Art, a visit with a dear friend from Mt Prospect who has a home in Surprise, and a revisiting of some good route friends from when we were here two years ago for a family reunion with Bryan, Daniel, Katie, and their families as well as Kirk's Mom. Even took in a D-Back game the day after they clinched a berth in the post-season.

Java Coffee in Cave Creek for Bikers All

Greeters in Carefree

The Average Age Is Death

View from our balcony

So it is my friend, Phil, described the social demo of Palm Springs. Oh, I'd been there a couple of times for Betty Ford Treatment Center events, but never to stay, to engage, to get to know the bike routes, the flora, the beauty, and the stop-of-life-on-the-streets after 9:00 p.m.

Palm Springs turned out to be a delightful, sort of languid week. Our time-share accommodations allowed for a two-bedroom suite with a full kitchen--room to breathe, unpack and not disturb each other for late-night to bed or early morning to rise for one or the other of us. Most of the busy-busy of re-fi-ing the mortgage was done and we literally had time to read, ride, and appreciate the beauty of the area.

Kirk took two guided tours of the Indian Canyons, we visited the Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Living Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, and of course I rode, and rode, and rode. But, most of those miles needed to be in the books before 10:00 a.m. cuz the temp was pretty intense after that--still in the 107 neighborhood most days. We even caught the movie, 7 Days in Utopia; not a bad coming of age flick. I appreciate how Robert Duvall and Clint Eastwood are finding ways to create messages of wisdom, integration of learnings from life, and are comfortable with a gentleness that they were not ready to portray in earlier years.

As much as we enjoyed PS, we're oh so glad to be moving to Tucson where the average age is much younger than death, the University energy is vivid, the streets are alive with the sound of music, and pluralism abounds.

Kirk in the Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree in the National Park

From Solstice to Equinox, almost

After 40 years in Chicago, we left Chicago just 5 days after the Summer Solstice.

The Townsend Restaurant in Provincetown

Four days later we lunched in Provincetown, just about as far north and east as you can go in the contiguous US and 10 days before the autumnal equinox we said good-night to September 13th, about as far south and west as you can go.

It's been a long trek, loved every day of it, but after 82 days out of a duffel bag we're looking forward to landing for real in Tucson very soon.

My little drill, when coming to a new town, is to visit one or more bike shops to get a bead on a preferred route for a ride. Both Yuma bike shops had the same idea but before I could get the bike out of the car this most amazing sand and dust storm blew through pinging any exposed skin. I could totally imagine how sand blasting could carve features desired or not! Postponed my ride till the next morning and then thought I'd try to find Mexico. On the way I found citrus!! Never saw these in Chicago!

Bike in the car and off to San Diego by way of El Centro, the destination of PAC Tour's Day 1 of this year's Southern Transcon and also my 2006 Southern Transcon. PAC had passed through El Centro just 2 days before!

We have stayed in some real dog-memorable hotels on this soon-to-be-99-day-trek. But tonight in San Diego we'd make a big splash on all the corporate guests staying in the Sheraton Suites. Tonight we'd be in the heart of downtown San Diego, with even an indoor parking garage the kind where you have to negotiate this cochlea-styled parking garage all the way to the 11th floor, then take the elevator to the 12th floor to access your room on the 24th floor. I gotta tell you our $68 motels where you park your car right in front of your room sure beats the big hike + elevator lifts. Add to that to our uncustomary appearance upon entry: I in bike robe and Kirk carrying his cardbord box of toiletries (we're hoping it can make it just two more weeks. It's been a real champ), and each of us carrying our own Trader Joe reusable grocery sacks full of foodstuffs.

Wednesday Kirk dropped me off at Mission Beach for the beginning of my glorious ride north through much of Camp Pendleton, lunch in Oceanside, and a memory lane stroll on the Oceanside Pier where RAAM launches its 3,000+ mile Race Across America. 2007 I helped crew for a 4-man crew, Team 60 Going Hard.

Oceanside Pier

Move That Tassle!!

Before arriving in Tucson for a tease week, we overnighted in Amarillo with dinner at the Big Texan, quite a contrast to the sublime of Oklahoma City and its reverence; then a night in downtown El Paso. I had visions of El Paso being akin to Tijuana--oppressive crowds of assaulting hucksters, drinking holes omnipresent. Downtown was quite not that. There were a number of boarded up places, and many that were still going concerns but were steel barred after closing. But, Kirk walked the streets in search of a McDonald's Frappe and a visit to the Art Museum while I rode a most pleasant route feeling as safe as at home in Chicago before we watched Oregon lose summarily to LSU 27:40.

Sunday, September 4th we pulled into Tucson, our new home.

We won't take possession of our townhouse till October 1st (when the tenant's lease is up), but we had compiled a seemingly endless to-do list of new-to-town things to do, top on the list was working with Liz Ryan, our designer/decorator.

A week later we had spent 7 hours with Liz, identified where our furniture would be placed when it arrives October 10th; picked out oodles of new furniture to create space for sharing time with each other, adult kids, grandkids, friends, and groups for fellowship and study; chose 8 colors capturing the desert beauty; and, thanks to Liz, contracted with the electricians, painters, closet people, woodworkers, and landscape architect to do a 7-day make-over of the place between October 1-8.

In between Liz times we chose a church (Catalina United Methodist), a Rotary Club, rode 275 glorious AZ miles, and plugged into several cycling groups: Arizona Randonneurs, GABA, Tucson Recumbents. Then there were all the other little things, like finding a bank, a library, exploring refinancing the mortgage, transferring utilities into our name, transferring auto-withdrawals from our new bank, making new keys, and, and, and it was ALL great.

The landmark moment came, though, as we left Tucson today for two more weeks on the road before returning to Tucson for keeps. The gas pump wanted our zipcode before accepting our credit card: 60091 didn't work!! 85718 did, though.

It was a like that defining graduation moment of moving your tassel.

 

OK City Sets The Bar

A theme seems to have been emerging over the course of our Trek: individuals and a nation willing to declare its values and its willingness to sacrifice life itself to uphold those beliefs.

We walked Andersonville, GA, the Confederate POW Prison Camp; 

Turn You To The Stronghold of Hope Ye Prisoners Of Hope: Zechariah 9:12

Yorkville, Jamestown, and Williamsburg from the perspective of both the white colonists and the African-American enslaved, the Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA,

Kirk participated in the Chautauqua Week themed on the Civil War,











We walked the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Il;

We walked prayerfully and humbly through the Oklahoma Museum and Memorial. There was no way to be prepared for the impact of experiencing the remembrance and renewal at the site of the 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The inscription at the reflection pool captured the essential essence of the Oklahoma People:

"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope, and serenity."

 168 chairs made of bronze and glass represent the lives taken on April 19, 1995. They stand in nine rows to represent each floor of the building, and each chair bears the name of someone killed on that floor. Nineteen smaller chairs stand for the children. The field is located on the footprint of the Murrah Building.

The Reflection Pool capturing the visage of all who dare to pause, their lives changed forever

Gates of Time

Monumental twin gates frame the moment of destruction – 9:02 a.m. – and mark the formal entrances to the Memorial. The East Gate represents 9:01 a.m. on April 19, and the innocence of the city before the attack. The West Gate represents 9:03 a.m., the moment we were changed forever, and the hope that came from the horror in the moments and days following the bombing.

Make it a point to visit Oklahoma City. You can not help but leave filled with gratitude, hope, and knowledge that resilience is possible within community.

A week later we attended the 9/11 remembrance/renewal at the University of Arizona where the Tucson Chamber Artists in partnership with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra performed Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus and Requiem and Stephen Paulus' World Premiere of Prayers and Remembrances.

As we sit on the precipice of fully entering retirement these events we have shared with courageous Americans, known and unknown, challenge us to choose how we can make a difference these next years using all the gifts God has so richly bestowed upon us. 

Heading West, Fianlly

Paul Bunyan in Atlanta, IL

June 26th we left home after 40 years in ChicagoLand to retire to Tucson. But, our tenants' lease in our Tucson townhouse would not be up till October 1. What better way to fill the gap but to load my bike in the back bay of our Nissan Quest and the scant possessions we'd actually need and road-trip for 99 days. And so it became: Tucson by way of Maine, Georgia, a Circle Tour by bike of Lake Michigan all before the first revolutions of the car wheels west of Chicago.

But Monday August 29th we did just that: headed West. It was Day 67 of travel, but it felt strangely exciting to be finally heading in the direction of Tucson.

Kinda sad it took our leave taking to get us to make a trip to Springfield to see the Lincoln Museum. But the timing was perfect with Kirk's thorough studying of Lincoln and the Civil War in anticipation of Chautauqua's Civil War Themed Week just the week before and our visits to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, and the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA. earlier on this Trek.

Be sure to put the Lincoln Museum on your travel Bucket List. So well done.

My father grew up in Nokomis, IL, now a little town of 2,400. While we visited my grandparents only two weekends a year, my brother and I have fond memories of the bench swing in the back yard, my grandfather's vet office in a room off the garage and its medicinal smell that strangely reminds me of Lapsang Souchong Tea. He mainly served large animals--hogs, cattle, horses, mules for which he would make "farm-calls". But there was the occasional dog and cat that would come to Doc Walcher's office at 322 Spruce Street, Nokomis, IL.

I did not have the opportunity to attend either his or my grandmother's funeral in 1969 and 1970; we made certain Nokomis was on our route West to Tucson.

322 Spruce Street, Nokomis, IL

 How to find my grandparents' graves? Three miles outside Nokomis we called one of the two funeral homes in town and posed the question. Marty, who answered the phone, instantly knew Jesse Leroy Walcher. He was buried in Plot 17, Section 1 Site 2. If we'd come by the funeral home he'd escort us to the grave site on his motor cycle. Even more remarkable was he remembered Doc Walcher well (who has now been deceased for 42 years), and that the good Doc had cared for his pet dogs when he was a kid.

Marty (left) and Kirk (right)

Tailgate lunch in the Nokomis Cemetery

Kansas was one of the few remaining states I had not yet ridden in so grabbed that opportunity after lunch with Susan Sawyer, an old friend whom we had not seen since 1988. It was well over 100, 108, I believe. I lost my heat acclimatization being off the bike for 6 weeks and traveling in the moderate climes of New England and the UP. So many miles I did not go in KS, but enough to count and enough to heed the warning of the sign where I began my ride.

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