I'm going to be sore in the morning...

Just got in from a really satisfying ride from Turners Falls to Northampton and back again. 49 miles and averaged right around 20mph - not bad! I'm riding my 1986 Miyata Seven-Ten. I bought it new over 20 years ago, and it still fits me like glove! I always loved the smooth "whir" sound it makes when I'm flying along at a good cadence. I've intentionally not ridden a new road/racing bike simply because I don't want to spoil the love affair I have with this particular bicycle. It's the first "real" bike I ever had. Actually, Joe at the bike shop validated my appreciation of the 710 by pointing out the advantages of a retro cro-moly frame; cro-mo represents a great combination of strength, weight, and flex and a lot of cyclists are opting for the older frames and fitting them with new components. The more I ride my Miyata now, the more I like it just the way it is.

Maybe a slightly easier ride tomorrow. We'll see...

Cheers!

~B

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

On October 25th we fly from New York to Germany. While we're deciding on the perfect place to live, we'll be staying in M's adopted city of Augsburg. I'm just starting to learn the language. Right now all I can do is order some kind of pastry from Linz. It's delicious!

Ever After...

It took me exactly three weeks to begin my journey after some setbacks in May, three weeks to ride my bicycle to Nova Scotia, three weeks to get back on the road after falling down in Amherst, twice three weeks before I decided to say goodbye to Yarmouth, three days of knowing Marietta before I knew this was something very special, and three weeks to fall in love before I finally knew.

On September 13th, I asked Marietta to marry me. She said "Yes"!

We're holding off on New Zealand for the time being in favor of settling in one place and building a solid base for life together and for our future travels and adventures -location to be announced. It's a wonderful world out there and we both feel strongly about discovering as much of it together as possible.

I never dreamed, when I set out on my adventure, that I'd ever find...well, exactly what I went looking for. I've learned so much about myself, my friends and family, the kindness of others, and the wonder and vastness of the world - even from my tiny secluded vantage point, and of course, I found Marietta. I still have a lot to digest and glean from what has already occurred, and I'm committed to doing just that in the coming months. As for now, it's time to take care of some business, including work, home, community, and a new Family.

Back on May 22nd, I set out on the road to find myself. I had no idea I'd discover so much more than I ever imagined.

Happily,

~B

Another Sunny Day

We're still in Cape May NJ and the weather's fine. Unfortunately the Cape May Public Library doesn't allow photo uploads and limits non-members to minutes of Internet time. Other than those restrictions, Cape May is wonderful. We've camped on the beach for the last four nights and will likely be doing the same at another location tonight. I have new journal pages and photos ready to go once we hit the right library. Maybe tomorrow. If not, we'll be back in Turners Falls?Brattleboro on Wednesday. I'm getting work right away while M continues her travels around New England. She is on vacation, after all. Cheers! ~B

I Hear New Zealand's Nice...

Quick Update: We're heading Down Under at the end of November for three months! Today, we're off on another ten days of holiday before I get some work to settle business here and to help fund the trip. While we're searching for the elusive New Zealand Kākā, I'll be hammering away at the keyboard. I have a lot of writing to catch up on. Cheers! ~B

A Visit Home

We're in Turners Falls, M and I that is. The whole family is coming to my Sister's house to greet the Prodigal Son and to meet M for the first time. We're heading out for another week and a half of vacation before getting back to work to settle accounts and save for the next big adventure...coming soon! I'm sure this one will be nothing like the last one, but that's OK. One Lucky Adventure is enough for a lifetime. Cheers! ~B

Photo: Mom and Dad's in Turners Falls. We moved to this house when I was 4 years old.

Honeymoon In Mexico

:-)

All is well in Bangor. We've been with Susan in her lovely Victorian home, within view of Stephen King's house (lots of his fan's taking pictures in from of his Gothic looking front gate). Anyway, we picked up a rental car yesterday and are heading to Moosehead lake or the White Mountains today. There are a few hurricanes coming up the coast , so the weather might be a little rough. We'll see. Everything's great! Just a quick hello! Cheers! ~B

A New Day

I've had the window open and the curtains pulled back for some time now. I guess in a way I've viewed my own life to be somewhat of a side show, "hey, look what Bob's up to now". Aside from friends participating in the fun, it's been mostly about me and the things I've experienced. It's been about me, and that's been OK for me up to now, but it's changed. M and I are together. I feel completely connected to her. Even in our difficult moments, I now have a good sense of where to find the ends, if that connection fails.

There's no getting around it, I'm writing for two. It's been great fun, and an amazing exersise in self discovery, showing you my insides and letting you peer through the open window, but it's different now. I'll still continue the travel portion of this journal, because I want to chronicle this time together, but the soul searching and soap opera are over.

We're grabbing a bus today and heading to Bangor, then up to Moosehead Lake, I won't be posting for a week or so. I hope you've enjoyed reading along as much as I've enjoyed writing.

This photo was taken yesterday at Thunder Hole, Acadia National Park. Well worth the visit.

Cheers, and Thanks!

~B

BTW, I'm keeping my man card.

A Lovely Bar Harbor Evening

I'm in the dining room at the Bar Harbor Hostel with M, Alex from Germany, and Egle from Lithuania. They've been talking while I put away the dishes from some burritos I made for the two of us. There was enough stuff to make a couple more for tomorrow. We're riding the bus in the morning to Bangor to get the rental car that M reserved and to couch surf with Susan. She sounded delightful when I spoke with her to coordinate tomorrow's arrival. She's picking us up at the bus terminal.

Today's visit to Acadia marked a huge breakthrough in our relationship. The drama that we experienced yesterday all came into focus and perspective. Sometimes when I write, it takes me a few days for the words and thoughts to settle in and to acquire the clarity for me to view them clearly. Today, I saw M clearly.

Yesterday I was wondering if "it was me", and today I figured out that it's actually both of us. That's the way it is in any relationship. Two travelers, moving along separately, completely accustomed to their own individual routines, come together. A small spark ignites a powder keg of passion and the skies light up. I've been lucky enough to have experienced this more than a few times in my life. It's a wonderful consuming feeling. The difficulty occurs when the ash tumbles form the sky and the bright colorful lights overhead slowly fade, and you're left staring at each other having to virtually start over. The light of day reveals so much more than high colored bursts of light ever could. Getting to know each other and actually measure the fit, determines your longevity together. Often times the fit is awkward, sometimes it's OK, rarely it's perfect, but it always requires effort. Today we put in the effort to get a better understanding of each other. It's working. M is truly wonderful. I'm done guessing.

Give us a little privacy, will ya?

~B

Photo: M, Alex, and Egle.

A Popover With Blueberry Jam

M and I just had a nice walk around downtown Bar Harbor and had coffee and a lite breakfast before heading to the market for lunch fixins. All is well, it's going to be a good day. Getting all this off my chest is so important to understanding myself and feeling heard. It's probably a little weird that I'm being heard by several hundred onlookers, but it works for me. Somehow it just works.

We're packing up at the hostel now and will be hopping on a bus to see the park. The bike is gone, Yarmouth is behind me, today is sunny, and Acadia awaits. I do dream of being on the road again, actually on the bike I have in storage in Massachusetts. I have no doubt that I'll be back on the road before long (BTW, I actually like where I am right now).

I hope I'm not boring you in the meantime...

Cheers!

~B

From the Cat to the Cafe

I was laughing right in her face! I couldn't help myself, it just seemed so incredibly ironic. All I could do was laugh. It was one of those full body laughs that comes up from the middle of you that youcan't help doing; when you try to not laugh, but the laugh sprays outmid-word and overtakes an otherwise serious conversation. I was almost choking. She's crying, I'm laughing, she's looking at me horrified that I could be acting so completely different than I had only the day before. Before she threw a tantrum over a pillow that wouldn't stay inflated, before she was blurted out that my sandwich in Yarmouth was more important than remembering to bring her Muesli, before she reminded me again about the weight of jar of jam, or again how I miscalculated the distance from the Cat to the Cafe (I know I'm leaving something out). And then the coup de grâce when she dumped me for taking too long on the computer to write my blog! "I'm leaving you and I'm not coming back. I'm going to see the national park, that's what I came here for". Um...OK. And she was gone. She took her stuff, paid her portion of the tab and she was gone. And there I was...exactly where I'm supposed to be. I could feel the laugh percolate it's first bubble deep down inside. She was gone. Exactly where I'm supposed to be. Backpack, paid the bill, out the door, gone. Exactly where I'm supposed to be. Another bubble...

The guy at the coffee bar seemed to know the area pretty well and I sat on the stool next to him to get directions to...I wasn't sure where I needed directions to, it just seemed like the thing to do; get off a boat in a distant town, get dumped, get directions. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. He had met her, and had a little insight into what had happened. He'd seen her pay the bill and leave as did everyone in the front of the cafe. Bubble Bubble. Then ten minutes after making her grand exit, she reappeared in the front door, backpack and all, asking me if I'm ready, exactly where I'm supposed to be. Bubble, Bubble, Glub...

When we came back inside after talking for an hour on the bench outside, I told the woman behind the counter that we were having kind of a bad day, and asked if it was OK if we camped out at the table in the corner while we figured it out. She said "we're open 'til 11:00pm"; it was noon.

Is it me? Do I bring this on myself? Well, sure the answer is a resounding yes, with minor caveats, to both questions. The main caveat being, I don't think it's me! I really don't. So here I am, sitting in a really cool hostel in Bar Harbor, with a really cool bunch of really cool people, thinking about my really stupid predicament. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. What put me here is what I need to examine in myself. My impetuous and impulsive nature that seems so drawn to the shiny object in the grass. So firmly rooted one minute, then so completely upside down and tossed into the air the next. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Bar Harbor's nice though. M and I are going to see the park today. Exactly where I'm supposed to be.

By the way, I'm Bob, and I have a BLOG.

Bubble...

~B

Huh????

Interesting twist today.

Boy, is this going to make a good book.

Whatever,

~B

Carla's Crappy Bike

When I arrived in Yarmouth on Thursday July 17th, I could have never imagined the course of wonderful, magical, and sometimes painful events that lay ahead for me. So often in my life I've been in situations where I've acted primarily with my heart, and not always with my head; my intentions, I believe are always good, but at a glance from the outside, it's not uncommon for the observer's eyebrows to tend to head north. Crazy-Impulsive-Impetuous-Bob. That's me!

Here's the deal...one of the principal reasons I began this odyssey was for Love. I felt that "she", whoever she was, was not in Brattleboro. I admit to being a hopeless romantic, that's one of my downfalls (or redeeming qualities, however you look at it). As much as I've tried to find the right fit for me in a life partner, I've managed to end up alone. I have wonderful friends, a great family, plenty in life that gives me pleasure, but still there's this hole in my gut that yearns to be filled. I'm certain that this yearning is what kept me hanging around Yarmouth for so long. I thought I caught sight of "her" the day I arrived, then once or twice after realizing that first glimpse was not meant to be. Then along came, let's just call her M. She was one of Carla's Couch Surfers, and I was charged with the task of acting as surrogate host while Carla was surfing in the States, not a problem - glad to do it. M is from Germany. It's actually Dr. L, if truth be told, extremely well educated, a lively (sometimes childlike) spirit, hauntingly beautiful, and often painfully direct. Somehow the combination captivated me.

If I had this last week to do over, I wouldn't really change much, except possibly the timing. The explosion that marked the beginning of my relationship with Marietta was the force that propelled me from life in Yarmouth five days ahead of schedule. My decision to leave was already well known, this just pushed the date up and made the departure more of an exodus than a fond farewell. Leaving my friends there in that way was a mistake, even for the prospect of finally discovering that love I'd been seeking. There was a better way, but that "Bob" that I described earlier was unable to see it. All he felt was hurt and confusions, and all he could focus on was what he saw ahead, not what he was leaving in his wake. That Bob, and this one, is truly sorry for that.

So, now to the happy resolution. Fast forward to Tuesday morning. The "Last Campsite" photo was in the camera, the was bike loaded for the road, and I headed west to the Cat. We "sailed" at 4pm. The ride out of Nova Scotia was as difficult as the ride into Nova Scotia was easy. I battled a constant headwind from the start, but still managed to average 20kph. When I stopped by to gather up some of Marietta's belongings, Carla was there to greet me at the door. I hadn't checked email in two days and missed the part where tensions between us had softened, I was still hurt and confused. When something happens that puts a rift in a relationship (a couple such incidents have occurred for me on this journey), it's impossible to heal the hurt unless you're talking. Well, we talked. Finally, we talked. It's OK now. I think we understand each other better as a result of having everything thrown up into the air for a time. When the pieces finally come back down, it's more real if you have a better understanding of where most of those pieces belong. I think we both do now.

As I mentioned, the ride back to Yarmouth was hard, the ride out of Yarmouth was hard. The ride in between those two important days, was hard too. I'm tired, it occurred to me especially on the ride back, I'm just tired. I said it before, one day "Forrest just stopped running". Well, as I rode in to Yarmouth and the mile marker's on the 103 counted down from 58 to 1, then to the end of the 103, I knew this was the day that "Bob just stopped riding". I wasn't sure how, I just had the sense that this was the day, the mile (actually kilometer) markers foretold it. After Carla and I worked through our difficulties, I told her of my plans to hitchhike from Bar Harbor to Bangor where Marietta had reserved a rental car, and Carla said "hey, why don't I just buy your bike".

Every day that Carla and I set our alarms early to get on our bikes, each day a different route so I'd get to know more of Yarmouth, I insisted that Carla ride my bike and I take the crappy one. Don't ask me how much she paid, but I will tell you she got a GREAT deal! She even paid me in American dollars, not that funny Canadian money you guys use up north (big wink). I'm using the money to pay for the Cat ride and for food.

When I think about Yarmouth, I'll think about Carly rolling out of bed, putting on the goofy helmet with the big visor, and heading out on my lucky adventure bicycle, number two. I'll imagine her riding the Chebogue Loop, and smile.

From Bar Harbor, here in the States...

Cheers!

~B

Standing Tall

The Last Campsite in Nova Scotia

I'm a day few days behind. it's been quite a ride! Give me time to catch up.
I've got a new post that will publish today. ~B