Postscript

November 6, 2008, Morgan Hill, California, the Locsins' house
Well, now the journey is over, but the euphoria of the trip is still lingering in my heart and mind. I didn't have too much time to sit back and write the final entries in the blog until now, November 6, 2008. We are staying with the Locsins until we can find jobs and a house to rent. Gloria and I are staying in their studio, a nice, one-room building with a shower, sink, and refrigerator, all we need, next to their house. The children are staying in other rooms in the house that the Locsins have arranged to accommodate us. Such good people. Our trip stuff is spread out in these different locations. The bikes are under a tarp outside. Denise, Mrs. Locsin, has organized chores for all the kids and includes Paul, Vicky, John, and Sarah in her homeschooling groups. Willie is completing a computer-based ninth grade curriculum at Gilroy High School, which should enable him to catch up by the end of the year. He is wrestling in the 112 pound class for the school. Paul and the younger children are all being home-schooled at the Locsins. Gloria is the math teacher/expert to help with math. Becky, Adriana, and I are looking for jobs. Becky already found work assembling medical parts and tutoring math. Adriana is looking to be a waitress when she turns 18 in three weeks. Becky passed her written test for her driving license and has been practicing with me intensively. She is scheduled to take her driving test this Wednesday. Adriana is also practicing with me around the block until she passes the written test to get her permit, probably tomorrow. Both are doing fine. The little ones find they have lots of playmates and new activities to keep them amused. Our lives have changed pace dramatically since we have finished our trip; like a gust of wind we have entered the fast lane, but I think we we're prepared. I have taken the psychological test for the prison (I hope I passed) and should hear from them within 45 days. In the meantime I need to do something to earn money. Adriana is the only one who has begun typing her four journals to chronicle our trip and compile all the information into one book with pictures that we can appreciate for a lifetime. I still haven't read their journals and it will be a treat to do so when they are done. We have a new email address: ninefoxfamily@yahoo.com so that will be a sure way to communicate with us until we get a permanent place of our own. I figured up the total biking mileage: 4,502. The total number of days of the trip was 135; 95 were riding days. The average mileage on riding days was 47 miles. So, a new chapter has begun and the turns in the road are unknown; so in that way, life now is similar to how it was on the bike. Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely! As long as I could. I loved our adventure and our time together. Will we ever do it again. It's unlikely. Normal life is likely to weave its way into our gypsy fabric and conform us to the practical life. Becky and Adriana have discussed riding across Europe sometime in the future. Maybe they will need an old mechanic. I would still like to do my real adventure: cross the country without money, working my way across. It would take years probably, but it would work. Somebody will do it some day and have great experiences to share. What have I learned? I guess the main thing is not to be afraid to live, to dream, to venture into the unknown. Don't let fear paralyze you. You only have one life to live, and it is short. Live it fully with the gifts God has given you. If you trust Him, God will go before you and prepare the way. When you live this way, life is an adventure.

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Saturday, October 25, 2008, Locsin's house, Morgan Hill, California: The end of the trip and the beginning of a new chapter in life.
We got up before the crack of dawn and drove into the Grand Canyon National Park. When it got light enough to see, we discovered we were next to a deep river gorge with painted cliff walls. What a sight. We hadn't even gotten to the real Grand Canyon yet and already it was breathtakingly beautiful. We stopped for a short while to take pictures then entered the main park. By then the sun was coming up. We were some of the first ones there, so there were no crowds; we enjoyed the unbelievable views and took lots of picture. There were dozens of places to park and view different vista points, so it took hours to tour and we saw less than half. The museum was great and we discovered that to canoe down the Colorado River on a selected date, you must make reservations two years in advance and it costs about $300 a day, too much for us. The trip to the Grand Canyon was well worth the extra miles. Next time I would like to hike down to the river. When we left, we were hoping to take another short detour and go through Las Vegas and see a couple of our favorite sites: Caesar's Palace and The Rio Hotel (for the buffet). Unfortuneately, it was too late. We wouldn't have made it all the way to Morgan Hill before Sunday late if we did, so we decided against it and made our way directly toward northern California. I took a nap at some point in the early evening, which helped a lot to make it through the night. All of us were eager to make it the rest of the way to California and begin our new, albeit uncertain, chapter of our lives. At least we would be with our good friends, the Locsins, who said we could stay with them until we found a place of our own. We knew we would be arriving late so we told them and they left the studio room open for us when we arrived, at 5:00 am, Saturday morning. They had already laid out blankets and pillows and arranged the room for us to sleep. How good it was to sleep horizontally, in a bed again. We all fell asleep quickly, I think. But the memory of the trip would be etched forever in our minds. I know it is in mine.

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Friday, October 24, 2008, near the Grand Canyon, Arizona
We got a pretty late start from the Reynolds' house because of cleaning and packing the van. We finally left at around 11:00 am. The weather was great, sunny and calm. We saw some buffalo in a field. There were a few downhill runs that taxed our brakes, so I had to stop and let them cool for a while. Later in the evening we ended up in Durango, Colorado, at a McDonald's. McCain had been in town for a presidential rally so there were many supporters there and some who were Obama fans. Some stupid girls who were Obama supporters wrote obscenities on their arms against McCain and were flaunting them in peoples faces as they walked past inside of McDonald's. So I told them what I thought of their appearance and intelligence, but didn't waste too much time with them. Like the old saying goes, " A bear can whup a skunk, but it ain't worth it." We ended up driving a lot that night. We stopped at Four Corners (where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet at one point) but couldn't go in because it was already closed. We ended up driving all the way to the edge of Grand Canyon National Park and spent the night sitting up in the van by a gift store parking lot at 3:00 am.

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Thursday, October 23, 2008, Reynolds' house, Thorton, Colorado
Today Gloria and I had a "date" because Susan wanted us to. She insisted. So we went to see Fireproof at the movies. It was the best movie I have seen in years, good morals, good story, happy ending. Afterwards we went to a sushi place, good but expensive and not filling. It was nice to go out together. The Reynolds asked us to stay the weekend, but we couldn't if we were going to make it to California in time for me to go to my prison psychological test in Fresno on Monday. But if we could, we would have; they're such nice, hospitable people.

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008, Reynolds' house, Thorton, Colorado
I had a very uncomfortable sleep last night because by the time I stopped to sleep, it was well past midnight and everyone had gone to sleep... on top of my sleeping bag, and I didn't want to wake them up, so I did what I could. We got an early start (We always get an early start in the car because there is nothing to pack up. I just wake up and drive. The others wake up after that, and we stop when we want to. The wind was howling the whole way against us from the side, gusts up to 55 mph. A blizzard warning was supposed to go in to effect that night near Colorado, so we kept going, not wanting to get caught in the snow before arriving at Emily's house in Thorton. Fortunately we made it around 9:00 pm. John had a dinner waiting for us. Emily arrived around midnight from the airport. I was sleepy, so I went to bed pretty early. Boy, the bed was comfortable.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008,
We woke up and found breakfast waiting for us. We had a variety of cereals, tea, grapefruit, and juice, and Joanna had made homemade bread also. Delicious. We ate plenty then went outdoors to play. Tristan showed us how to launch coke bottles by pumping them full of air. They shot real high. Great science experiment. The kids played on the swing and we took pictures. Finally it was time to go. We will miss them. Hopefully, we will see them again before too long. Before we left we had to see Uncle Herman and Aunt Janet. He gave us apples and some money for the trip, which was helpful. Then we went to see Janet at the corner store where she works. We talked a good while before we had to leave. Everyone has been so good to us. I really hope we can return before too long. Oh, an Amish family was hitching up their wagon when we arrived and were dressed in their distinct garb, which was very amusing for the children. We managed to take some stealth photos before they left. After leaving Uncle Herman, we stopped at KD's Backroads, a restaurant in Salem where Uncle Herman's paintings are displayed on the walls for sale. He had about 30 pictures. Very nice. On the way toward Colorado, we heard Michael Savage for the first time in a long while. He was commenting on the upcoming election between McCain and Obama. It is always amusing and educational to hear him talk. He kept referring to Obama by his initials: B.O. "If we get B.O. in office, God help us." We stopped in Walmart to get a long overdue oil change, then went to Little Caesar's for pizza. I got that backwards. Pizza was first, then Walmart. It started raining in the evening, so we had to cover the trailer with one of the tarps to keep the panniers dry. It kept raining through the night until we stopped to sleep.

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Monday, October 20, 2008, The Allen's house, Indiana
We awoke to steamy wet windows as usual. There was a beautiful sunrise to start the day though and the drive was nice. Today we planned to see my cousin Isaac and his fiancee before heading to my cousin Joanna's house to spend the night with her family. We hadn't taken a shower or shaved in quite some time and I for one had been getting funny looks whenever I went to buy something at the gas station, like I just walked over from under the bridge. So I decided to try to take a shower before we arrived in Indiana. I called up a local YMCA in Cincinnati and explained the situation, and the director said we could come there and take showers, no problem. Great! So we found the place and I went in first to check it out. I met the director, a real nice lady, who came out and personally invited the rest of the reluctant family to take showers. She also gave me a card entitling us to use any YMCA in the country as guests while we were traveling. So nice. After showering and feeling 100% better, we all went to the biggest library I have ever been in, the Cincinnati Library, three stories high with one of the best genealogy research collections in the country. I updated the blog a little and we stayed a few hours before making our way to MacDonald's, against my will because we were scheduled to rendezvous with Isaac to eat a milkshake or something and then Joanna was expecting us to eat dinner a couple hours later. But I was overruled and the majority won and we ended up eating there first. Later we met up with Isaac in Clarksville, Indiana, at a Steak and Shake restaurant. We met Teneille (sp?), Isaac's fiance. It was great to see them and talk, even for only an hour or so. Then it was off to Joanna's. She had a big meal waiting for us, as usual. Delicious. Joanna is such a good hostess. Everyone enjoyed each other's company for awhile before going to bed.