Fijis Across America

29th May 2010

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May 29, 2010

The desert is no place for a home! We’ve been in Arizona for a couple of days now and all I can see for miles is herds of cactus and stray tumbleweeds. This is the most I’ve ever missed Kentucky. Yesterday was a rest day and the riders took full advantage of some well deserved R&R. Wade was pretty sick all day, but he pulled through like a champ and rode through the sweltering heat today. We learned from a cowboy fella yesterday that this part of Arizona reaches temperatures of 120 degrees in the shade during late June!

Salome was our place of vacation yesterday but the town was smaller than most neighborhoods. There was one restaurant in sight. It was a Mexican place with burritos that were “this big.” I’m not sure how else to explain the remoteness of Salome except by saying that the nearest fast food restaurant was 40 miles away. I believe that’s the furthest away from a McDonald’s I’ve been since I was born.

Today was our 4th day of riding and the flat terrain offered a nice 83 mile cruise into Wickenburg, AZ. The next two days will be the riders’ biggest test yet with hills that turn to mountains and heat that threatens to melt the tape off your handle bars. It won’t be long before the fellas will be seeing mirages of our Old Kentucky Home just over the horizon. We’ve got a long way to go before that becomes a reality, but each mile brings us closer to our goal, closer to rest.

Every summer there is a cycling race called the Race Accross America (RAM) that goes from California to New Jersey. We met a guy in Wickenburg that has raced in the RAM twice, once when he was 48 years old and a second time when he was 51. His second time around, he relayed with a 4 man team…they made it across America in 7 days and 10 hours. I can’t imagine doing what we’re doing in one week! But it certainly inspired the riders, as most conversations we’ve had so far have done. Talking to people in unknown places, true strangers, is the thread that connects us all. The American culture is dynamic and diverse but in some places out here it seems like time has been warded off by tradition. It’s like the some of these towns haven’t changed since they were founded and the people have just always been. It’s truly a different world.

I think it’s still settling in that we are really doing this. Does an “adventure of a lifetime” become such during or after the trip? It seems like the full spectacle of this journey won’t be impressed on us until well after we’re finished. We are learning things about ourselves and about this world that we won’t even recognize until we reflect on it in months, years to come.

I’m thankful for every day. I pray this trip will never be about us. Most of all, I pray my life will never be about me.

Press On,

Jordan-FAA