Mission description

This is a blog about travel, adventure, charity, and bikes. It's the story of my trip from San Francisco to wherever the road ends.
My goals are:
(1) Get as far as I can south - cycling, hitching, or whatever - before my time and money run out.
(2) Try to understand social inequality in the areas I travel through, and to do what I can to help.
My tools are my trusty bike, Magnum, my thumb, this blog, and the following websites, for which I am an ambassador:
You can follow the adventure right here, and you can see how it all started, and what it's all about, using the tabs above. If you want to be notified of new posts, you can subscribe using the links down on the right, or by liking the Wheels of Fortune Facebook page.

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Epilogue: So long and thanks for all the clicks

At the risk of the ridiculous, I thought I would bookend my now not-so-recent adventure by finishing this blog. If I had a therapist, he or she would have encouraged me to do this.

Like many things I have found difficult to finish, it didn't dawn on me until writing that last entry, exactly why I have had so much trouble making myself sit down and write it. It's obvious, of course: it's simply hard to acknowledge that something so singular is over. However, as I look at the dates of that last entry, I realise it relates to almost this time last year. I have been back for the better part of a year, and I have been living in the same place for over three months now - the longest I have been in the one place for over two years. It's a good time to draw a line under this particular chapter.

Just another beach in Mexico
Thank you to everyone I met along the way, and particularly to those who helped me. There were so many people who did so, in ways big and small, and I can never be grateful enough for this. Your help, hospitality, and kindness was moving, and I will not soon forget it.

To the truck drivers of Mexico: thank you for not running me over, and in fact for making way for me on many occasions. To the bus drivers of Mexico: I'm pretty sure you were all trying to kill me, so ha ha, you missed.

Thank you for reading this blog. Thank you for coming with me on the adventure. There were times when writing this blog made me feel connected, and in doing so, enormously comforted. I hope you found the blog interesting or entertaining in some way. If you have any thoughts or comments, I'd love to hear about them. If you have something similar in mind, I'd be happy to share experiences, and answer questions.

The previous entry was the end of the bike trip proper, the end of Wheels of Fortune, so I felt it appropriate to end the blog there. After leaving the bike in Guadalajara, I spent a few weeks blowing around with the winds, from the dusty plains in the desert of the central plateau, to the sand on the beaches that border the wild Pacific. From a beach in Oaxaca, it was then as if I was plucked from my reverie, and thrown back to reality, via a series of flights, to D.F., L.A., and then back home to the AU of S.

Once upon a time in Mexico
I had originally planned on writing a few more entries, based on these post-cycling meanderings in Mexico, and on some aspects of the ride that didn't fit neatly into particular dates. However, on current form, I'll get that done by around 2050. We'll all be commuting to work with jetpacks by then, and my blog will be comparatively less interesting.

So don't hold your breath, is what I'm saying. For now I'll leave you with what is as close as I have to a before and after in photographic form. All that's left then, is to say thank you once again, and so long!

From way back at the beginning.
After about 5 months, towards the end of the trip, and the last photo I have with Blue Steel.

Tuesday 15 April 2014

The last days of Blue Steel

Tuesday 21st May - Friday 24th May

The last days of Blue Steel were but few. I counted them from the day I decided to hang up my cycling boots - dirty old sneakers in my case - to the day I left Guadalajara on a bus. From that day, my bicycle would cease to be Blue Steel, and go back to being simply an old, blue, steel-framed mountain bike.

One of the big parks in GDL.
I rode the streets of Guadalajara, more than a little pensativo. I wasn't just giving up a bicycle, of course, I was giving up the way of life that came with it. Or at least, the one that had come with it for me. That may sound a little hyperbolic, but bicycle touring, as I hope I have at least partially shown, really is something else. Not just a mode of travel, nor a type of experience, nor adventure alone; it's both much more than these, and hardly these things at all. I think it's better described by where it takes you, and its effect on you, than anything else. Of course, this is also a very individual thing, and so ceases to be a useful description, beyond one's self.... I'm going to stop myself there. You get the idea.

What I was giving up was only half of the equation, and the more self-centred half. What I was leaving behind also bothered me: namely, the supplies I was taking to my chosen charities in Guatemala. This had become a somewhat defining motivation for me; to get the vitamins to Primeros Pasos and the spare parts for Quetzaltrekkers. What was I going to do? Just give that up? It felt a lot like failure. Probably because it was.

Taking my mind off failure with Gothic architecture in Guadalajara
One of the old gates to the city. Say what you want about the Spanish, but they did things with style.
So I did what any self-respecting quitter would do, and rationalised it. It was easier than I thought actually. Basically, it would be quicker, cheaper, and more convenient to simply post the supplies to Guatemala. So why not do that, and buy my ticket home? But that was not the point, I thought to myself. It was a little more symbolic than that, being an AngelMule, and this role had become central to the idea of the ride. And it still did not sit well with me that I had set out to do this thing myself, and I was giving up.

Perhaps it was during the via recreativa, perhaps some other time, I'm not really sure when, but at some point I realised that it mattered less how the gear got to Guate, more just that it did. And it didn't need to be me who delivered it - anything else was just my ego talking. It occurred to me that I was staying with a group of travellers, some of whom were bike tourists, and that I could simply ask someone else to take the gear to Guatemala; someone else to carry the torch. After all, AngelMule and OpenVolunteer were both born of and subsisted on good will. It made sense.

I found that someone else pretty quickly. Christian was an Argentinian guy, and another bike tourist at Casa Ciclista. He had been touring for many years, supporting himself purely by selling arts and crafts that he makes on the road. Amazing that he could do that! Christian readily agreed to take some things to Guatemala. He had plans to stop over at San Cristobal de las Casas in Southern Mexico to wait out the rainy season, but after that he was planning on cycling through Guatemala.

Via recreativa: some of Guadalajara's main roads are closed for a few hours every weekend for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy.
Christian agreed to to carry the torch. This was not his reaction (no cyclist likes extra weight, no matter how little), but I like to imagine it so.
Christian at work. He cycles with all this gear. He makes small pieces of woodwork. 
Having had resolved this dilemma, I felt much more relaxed about it all. In fact, when I thought about the goals I had set out for myself (you can see them above), I realised I had nothing to worry about. I had gotten caught up the details.

Things moved quickly from this point. I gave away my precious cargo, my gear, and my bike, to my fellow travellers and bike fans, and I was ready to leave.

Giving up Blue Steel.
My faithful stove and cooking gear.
From bike tourist...
...to, er, regular tourist? Not much difference really.
I bought a ticket for a bus headed to the mountains of central Mexico, and left the wheels of fortune behind me.

The last known sighting of Blue Steel.