Pedaling for Peace

On April 15, 2012 I started riding my bicycle cross-country from Jacksonville, Florida in voluntary support of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) and the work of author and Peace Leadership Director for the NAPF, Paul K. Chappell. By July 4th, I had covered over 1300 miles to just west of Luling, Texas where a major mechanical failure brought this first stage of my cross-country journey to an end. After storing my bicycle and trailer with my aunt and uncle in Weatherford, Texas, I flew from Dallas to Santa Barbara, California to attend the NAPF First Annual Peace Leadership Summer Workshop. I then lived and worked in Santa Barbara for several more months before I returned to Jacksonville and sold off the rest of my possessions that I could to help fund a continuation of my journey. Starting June 8, 2013 and ending August 9, 2013, I rode from Weatherford, through 400 miles of the central Texas hill country, including Austin, Texas, back to Luling. It was at this point that a friend of mine invited me to work for a brief period in Pennsylvania before flying me back to Santa Barbara where I continued volunteering for the NAPF as well as for the Santa Barbara Bike Coalition. As of August 9th, 2014 I began"Stage III" of my cross-country adventure, this time heading south from Santa Barbara to San Diego and then east to El Paso, TX. It was there that illness, winter weather, and diminishing resources brought that leg of my journey to an end. After staying with another friend in Columbus, GA for several months, I moved "back home" to Kentucky to stay with my dad for a while and build a better "resource base" for future endeavors including review and further tracking and primitive survival skills training at Tom Brown, Jr's Tracker School , and a possible longer tour of the east coast, northern tier, and north west coast back down to Santa Barbara, CA.


Thursday, July 7, 2011

Recovering from My Move-Out

My move out of my basement apartment in Maryland ended up taking A Lot longer than I anticipated.  I think it was worse because I was not just moving to another place, but was having to sell things and put the rest in storage.  The time it took on e-mails and phone calls to potential takers of my furniture, etc., really cut into my time packing. And, then, at the end, I had to find a place to re-locate my left-over food stuffs, both perishable and not-so-perishable.  Add to that a live-in landlady who had motives of her own for slowing my progress (so that I ultimately missed my move-out deadline of June 30th), and then it becomes clearer as to why I did not actually get out of the house until July 2nd.

And now, I've come down with my usual, gunky, upper respiratory response to way too many days and nights of over exertion and not enough sleep. I am currently staying with a friend in Williamsburg, VA and I hope to be able to finish figuring out what I can pack onto my rig and how, while I am recovering from being sick.

In general, I have understood all of the challenges I have faced so far as mere "training" for the additional challenges I know I will face in the weeks and months ahead.  So I have been trying to just "Keep On Keepin' On" and assuming that I will get on the road eventually, and I will make this journey as I have planned, if not necessarily within the exact time-frame I planned.

For now, I am still in the transition phase of my journey, from living in a stable situation to living and traveling on my bicycle. I really wish I had time to pack my rig before moving out of my apartment, but that's just not the way it worked out.

As I anticipate will be the case throughout this experience, I am just going to have to adapt and overcome. :)

I appreciate everyone who has helped me thus far, by buying my stuff at Harper's Ferry Flea Market, and from Craig's list, and E-bay, etc. and for Radu who helped me move my larger furniture pieces into storage, and for others who accepted "food gifts" from my pantry, as I hate to see anything go to waste, and to those of you who have made direct contributions via this blog and PayPal.

I also appreciate all of the words of encouragement. I think some of you sense the enormity of what I am trying to undertake even moreso than I do.  But then, if I really understood how difficult this was going to be from the beginning, it might keep me from actually attempting it! Better just to take one day at a time and see how things go. :)

Thanks again, Everyone! I will be in touch.
Posted by Lori Bell at 8:38 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)