Day 26 - This is the end my friends.

I've debated my wrist throughout this ride. I've worried about it. I've prepped for what I thought would be the worst and what I thought would be the best. Ultimately I think it was extended time in the saddle and the climbing that did me in. When I'm climbing it's difficult to ride in a position that doesn't weight my wrist. I've consulted my family and Julia, everyone unanimously feels that I shouldn't continue on. My stubbornness wants me to continue to ride, riding uphill in a sitting position using one hand. But that just isn't realistic.

Monaca, PA, is in the end my final destination point. 2000 miles from my origin, Jackson, WY. I've met amazing people who truly proved to be the highlight of this trip. I've seen the small towns of America. The back highways. The towns that used to be. The cities that still are. I've pushed my body to the limits of what I thought I'm capable of and realized I'm capable of even more. I tested my ability to achieve something that for so long seemed insurmountable. The journey that I anticipated is truly the journey that I had. The hours of time to sit and be with my thoughts. The emotional struggle through barriers and towards goals, large and small.

I hoped and fantasized about doing amazing things for the advancement of mental health rights. I may not have realized them to the full extent that I dreamed, but I have come to understand that anyone can take on an issue and work to make a difference. Sometimes just talking to people about it is enough. I'll have to wait and see.

Amazingly the actual riding was the easiest part of the trip. What I thought would be a grueling slug fest of a fight across the country came to be an ordinary exercise of discipline. A full time job in which you have your ups and downs. Everyday is a struggle, but the ups truly make the struggle and the downs worth it! The immense sense of accomplishment after climbing a hill, or achieving the day's distance goal.

Most importantly I set out on this journey hoping to find what I wanted to do with my life. To let go of my attachments to my material possessions, and the everyday life that becomes routine and an inadvertent hurdle to pushing towards my dreams. To pull together all the motivation, fear, and resistance to Graduate School and fully appreciate what it is that I want from this life and how I'm going to make that happen.

But most importantly I want to thank everyone who became interested in what I was doing. Who gave me verbal, physical, financial, and cyber support. I'm now headed up to Vermont to work with Jim Geier making custom wood rocking chairs, www.vermontfolkrocker.com and spend some time with my girlfriend's family www.jerrygeier.com . I'm now ready to push forward into the next phase of my life.