Philip Delff's blog

First of all, I'm sorry that I haven't written anything for so long. I
have kept the news as a secret in cyberspace for more than a month,
and now I must reveal it. I finished the bike ride and arrived at
Santa Monica, Los Angeles, December 12th 2010! A bit more than two
months all in all and 54 days on the bike it was. Some people describe
such a trip as their time of their lives. I wouldn't do that. It hurt,
and I was frustrated and sometimes depressed when I feared I couldn't
finish.

But... It was a great experience that I will never forget. Meeting
people across the continent, seeing nature and climate change, and
doing it all by the use of my own body and trust in other people is
fantastic and taught me a lot. I learned about American culture,
geography, and last but not least about myself. It wouldn't make sense
to try to list what I think I have learned from the trip, but I will
give one example. My understanding of the human duality used to be
very well formulated in Tool's Lateralus: "Over thinking, over
analyzing separates the body from the mind". I have probably never in
my life spend as much time on thinking and analyzing as I did those
two months. However, a feeling of separation between the two is simply
not possible when depending on and using the body this
extensively.

Most importantly, I want to thank all of you who helped me from NYC to
LA. All you great Americans who welcomed me, became my friends, always
helped me, gave me food and sometimes let me stay at your places. I
write this in deep respect and admiration for your hospitable and warm
culture. I hope I'll soon be back in your beautiful country, and if
any of you who I met or anyone else that I didn't have the chance to
meet should ever come by in Copenhagen, let me know, and I will do
what I can to pay back some of all the great I got from you.

So... I'm pretty sure I'm not done with touring biking. Ideas for
trips aren't hard to get. Key West to the North-West of Washington
(the state), from LA through Central America, or anything,
anything. The amizing thing about bicycles is that you can go
whereever you want on them! And I must do that again sometime. I also
want to thank family and friends at home who supported me and sent me
emails and called me to exchange stories and to cheer on me. Last but
not least, I thank my sponsor, GripGrab for their great support and
their believe in me. I can only recommend their great equipment for a
bicycle tour like this.

I must say it's really hard to write about all this. I don't know
where to start and where to end. Maybe I'm going to translate parts of
my diary some day. But if there is something you want to know, just
drop a comment, and I'll write about it. If you are in Denmark, you
can have a look at Luksus in Feburary 2010. It will feature an article
about the trip, including some pictures I took.

Thanks again.
Yours sincerely,
Philip.

Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma. That was a lot of flat land, endless fields, and last but not least - great people. Leaving Illinois by the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge into St. Louis, Missouri, was also a goodbye to Route 40. Spending weeks on this roads doing I really don't know how many miles from somewhere in Pennsylvania, I had started to like this road. The history of it, the way people talk about it as a vein of life and stories through the country, the people I met, everything I saw, everything. Route 40 is a road that I'll alway remember. And maybe one day, I can finish what I'm missing from St. Louis to Denver. It has been so long since my last post that I don't even know where to start. I have had so many great experiences, seen so many sunsets and stars, had so much pain in my knee and back that it's hard to recall. But well...

Entering Missouri we had 4 inches of rain on my first day there. I hid away in a motel room. The day after I took the Katy Trail along the Missouri river towards Jefferson City. I was on this trail for three days or so, and it was very beautiful. Only was the lime stone trail a little heavy because of the wet leaves covering it, but the strong wind (wind is short notation for head wind. I have almost only been in head wind, and if it has not been right against me, I will write that) on the road made it a good option. The weather was beautiful the rest of my time in Missouri. I became friends with Terese and Tommy and stayed at their lovely place in Macks Creek. I saw a lot of cows and the Lake of the Ozarks. My route through Missouri was funny because I knew that it would get flatter and flatter every mile I put in after Jefferson City. Not only did the country get flatter and flatter. It also got less and less populated.

The next state was Kansas. Kansas is around 5 times the size of Denmark with a population of only half of what we have in Denmark. Endless fields and roads, dry land, and of course tough wind. I met great people, and in Yates Center I was even invited to a wedding. I decided to continue in stead, though. It would have been great but that's just the way this trip is. I'm here to keep going. Oklahoma, Texas. Flatter, dryer, and longer and longer between towns. In Texas after leaving Dalhart, I got my first tough experience with this emptiness. There was 45 miles to the next town which I didn't know, the sun was shining from a clear sky and I had less than 2 liters of water with me. Well, it was alright but I knew that from then on, I would always have to carry water for at least one day. Remember that I always risk standing in the middle of nowhere with a broken bike, an injury or I don't know. This can be scary.

I decided that stage 2 finished the day in Texas where I had dry land and cactuses on the side and mountain tops in the horizon (not that this matters to anything else than my motivation). The flat farming land of the Midwest is over, and the dry mountainous South-West has taken it's place around my bicycle, Two Log, and me. New Mexico is beautiful! In Tucumcari it was goodbye to Highway 54 which I have been on since Jefferson City, Missouri. I came on I-40 in a valley between flat mountains like cones with the top cut off, and vast land in between. The vegetation was now mainly cactuses and low bushes. Wow, a month ago I was in deep forests in Pennsylvania! I had the same feeling as when crossing the Mississippi River riding into St. Louis of having gone far. It's been so long since I left the East-cost, and then suddenly it feels like being in another part of the world. I did all that on a bicycle! For me, it's hard to understand. I had to change my rear tire. Riding on interstates are tough for the tires. And why? Because of tires... As vehicle tires contain wires these are like darts for bicycle wheels, and they are everywhere on the shoulder of I-40. I had three flat tires in two days. As my rear tire was completely worn down, I decide to change that hoping that would make the problem go away. That tire was flat only a few hours later. And now I'm in Albuquerque where I have spend a rest day. I got my bike tuned up (thanks to The Bike Coop for squeezing Two Log into the schedule). It turned out that not only did the wheels need some tuning. My chain and cassette were completely worn down so they had to be changed. The 2500 miles seem to not only tiring me at least. Yesterday I went to a concert and met a guy called Adrian who invited me to do an interview at the local tv station. I went there today, and it turned out that I was not going to be interviewed but to give a 15 minutes talk to the camera. I hadn't prepared anything but it went alright. Told about the project and my experiences, and I had the opportunity to send out a kiss to everybody on tv. It was funny. I guess it has already been broadcasted, and Adrian said he would broadcast it several times. I have a copy and I hope, I will be able to stream it from this site some day.

Tonight I was at a concert with Zappa Plays Zappa. It was fantastic! It was in the beautiful Sunshine Theater, and they played for two hours. They really are fantastic musicians. And I got to hear some of these crazy tunes that I sometimes have in my head biking. Including my favorite, Peaches En Regelia! Albuquerque is a wonderful city!

Now I have "only" around 800 miles left. It's probably going to be the toughest 800 miles of the whole trip. I'm going through Flagstaff (even though I have been warned that I will die there, like I was told that I would die in the Appalachians) but it's worth giving a chance. After that, the Mohave Dessert is waiting. I expect to be in terrible wind for all of these 800 miles, But now there's no reason in the world for not giving everything I have...

We had a server breakdown, and thanks a whole lot to AJ for taking care of it so that we are finally back in cyberspace. Sorry for the inconvenience to everyone else.

- Philip

After a little more than two weekes on the road, I decided to take a rest day in Indianapolis. I thought this was a good place to do it because of several reasons: I was tired, I had done approximately a thousand miles, and I was done going straight West for a while. I had been going West all the time for getting well past the Appalachians, and I was content that these were no longer the problem. Now it's more about getting South before it will be too cold and pass Albuqurque before it will have snow. Stage two is from Indianapolis to New Mexico and will be almost all flat. Then come the Rockies...

Regarding the nature, Pennsylvania and the first part of Ohio have been the most impressive parts. The rest of Ohio and Indianapolis have been flat farming land. Charming but not astonishing as the mountains and forrests that I had been throgh before that.

But.... The people I met! Wow, that was a great excperience. Out on the countryside things are just more calm, people take there time to glance at life and to have a talk. Talks for hours. I would just stop anywhere where I saw people, sit down and tell and listen. And they would welcome me, and before I asked my self they would offer me to sleep somewhere dry and warm (for instance in a van full of straw and pumpkins).

In Ohio and Indiana I learned an important thing about the bicycling. When the weather is good, there are no excuses. I had one day in Ohio where I went 70 miles in half a day. It was flat, not too hot, and the (head) wind was not too strong. Then the next two days, I was in a terrible head wind and could only go 8-10 mph. Then I was really happy with my 70 miles from the day before. Disappointed with the bicycling I stopped in Dunreith to ask a man if the wind was always that strong in that area. He said yes and invited me in for a beer. I stayed for more beers, food, pingpong and very nice conversations until bedtime. Katie and Keith blew up a air mattress for me so I was all set for the night. Thank you so much! Sorry I couldn't be there last Sunday to watch the Colts. But waiting for my laundry, I saw that they killed the Rams really badly.

In Indianapolis (Indy) I had to stay at a motel which sucked. But I went out and couldn't stop meeting fantastic people. After 20 minuttes I met Justin with whom I spent an hour or an hour and a half looking for a laundromat and discussing philosophy, especially Kiekegaard. What a co-incidence! He left me at a very nice little jazz club where I spent the rest of the evening in the bar enjoying the music and chatting.

The next day, I finally found a laundromat a couple of miles out of town. I don't understand how the indys get their laundry done... On my way back I got the first flat tire of the trip. Good it was on a rest day so I had plenty of time to fix it. Here, I realized that some of the spokes in my front wheal were loose as drying lines. It seems like it will never really recover from the accident in York, PA. I had to have this fixed before leaving Indy so I decided to stay one more night (embarrassingly, I still don't manage to tune my wheels my self).

A little disappointed with my new big accomodation bill, I went out to find some cheap but good food to cure my persisting hang-overs. Found BARcelona where I met Will who kindly cured me by buying me a large plate of paella (is there anything better than seafood for hang-overs?), a dessert and last but not least five pints. I was more than cured. Thanks doctor Will! Ready to find the next bar with some other people I met in the first bar, including the bar tender.

Will had recommended me a bike store which I went to the next morning. Again hungry, I went down the street and found a resonably cheaply looking grille serving breakfast. Again, the sun shone on me and directly into my pocket. While Mark who I met in the restaurant was out in his car to look for maps for me, the waiter discretely mentioned for me that my bill had been payed by the gentleman who just left. I said "I beg you pardon?"

These are the experiences in life that I never understand why come to me. Mixed with the enormous joy of feeling the generousity of other people, I also feel a little spoiled and wonder why I deserve it. And I guess I don't. But the fellowship and the gratitude I feel is much stronger than any feeling of guilt. And I remind myself that accepting must be as beatiful as giving, since giving is only possible if someone accepts. And my time to give will also come. At the same time, a lot of these people know that I'm an adventurer who may have started this trip without really having the money, and they tell me that what I'm doing is great, and that they want to help me and to encourage me not to give up. Thank you so much all of you fantastic people, I have met. Have great you have been. You surprise me every day!

Well that was a lot of talking about a lot of not bicycling stuff. How the time flies when it rains outside. I think it almost stopped. I plan on being in St. Louis on Thursday so I'd better get started!

This post has been removed for two reasons:

1) I finished! Have a look at the map at www.delff.dk/nycla  for an overview of the route.

2) The urls in the post were very long and caused the blog to have very long lines and being annoying to read.

I'm now in Chinatown, Manhattan. Already yesterday, I decided to take a long walk today. That's what I did, and here I am, tired after 8 or 10 hours of walking and a little bicycling. New York City is awesome! It really has been love at first sight. I could write a lot about that but I will dedicate this post to my trip planning.

I found www.togabikes.com and went to West End Ave to look for a road bike. I found a Specialized and the Cannondale CAAD9 (6, I think). Wasn't convinced so I continued looking into every bike store I came by. Anyway, test riding road bikes in NYC was a great experience. There are a lot of bicycles here, and the traffic on Manhattan is not scary as I had expected. I just couldn't keep myself from pushing it and leaving the store all sweaty If you consider going to NYC, I can only recommend you to bring your bike!

I stopped at a quite small store called "Midtown Bicycles" (part of the Metro Bicycle Stores chain) at 9th Avenue. When I told Don at the desk about my plan, he said "Then you want a touring bike". I said "Well, I actually thought about a road bike followed by a trailer". Immediately, he answered "No, I have a Bob trailer, and this is not what you want. I have done many trips like this, and you will prefer a touring bike in stead." The conversation went on, and he argued that the trailer is too much weight up and down. And more importantly he adviced me not to go for a stiff aluminium frame with an aggressive geometry for so long a trip. He adviced me bying a Trek 520. This is the first advice I have had from a guy that has actually done pretty much what I'm going to do. He has gone from South Carolina to LA, so I'll repeat a lot of his trip. Why not listening to him? I think I'll follow his advice and buy a touring bike.

The only sad thing about not using a trailer is that I will not be able to bring my trekking backpack then. I have had so many experinces with that bag, that I will dedicate a post to saying goodbye to it, should it be the case. I went on and found an outdoor store in Park Place (next to Ground Zero). Here, I found mos of the outdoor gear that I will need for getting started. If I choose to buy the Trek bike from Don, he can have it so that I can leave by the end of the week. Just sad that I won't have time for riding a lot here in NYC.

All in all, a very fruitful first day of preparations. Beautiful country, see you soon!

This is where I will write about my bicycle trip beginning in October 2009. Until I leave Copenhagen, I have plenty of things to do so until then, refer to the website:

www.delff.dk/~philip/nycla2009

But as you can see, I already got the shirt for the trip. To be continued!

- Philip