I'd like to thank the following people:

1. Dr. Joy Santee: Meeting my wife is certainly the best thing that ever happened to me. She helped me countless times during the months I was recovering from my various maladies in 2023, put up with my whining during phone calls on a handful of difficult days during this tour, and took care of everything back at home while I was out goofing around for six weeks. She is the best person I've ever known. 

2. John Egan: John created much of the route for this tour, and provided additional suggestions and moral support on some of the difficult days. He is the foremost expert on creating bicycle touring routes in North America, in my opinion, and is also a great guy. I did not encounter much bad traffic on this trip, but the few times I did, it was basically always on a section that I'd worked out myself, and not one of John's routes.

3. Morri Nash: Morri picked me up at the San Luis Obispo airport, retrieved my bike from the local bike shop, let me stay at her home in Morro Bay for two nights, cooked great meals for me, took me on a fun ride with her friends on super-scenic Highway 1, and rode with me part of the morning of the first day of the tour. All of her help made starting this tour on the west coast much, much easier and more fun than it would have been otherwise.

4. Christa Albrecht-Crane: Christa and her husband Bob hosted me at their home in Orem, Utah on the sixteenth day of the tour, and their familiar faces, comfortable place, enjoyable conversation, and the great meals prepared by Christa really lifted my spirits after what had been a lonely stretch of the tour.

Also, thanks to the many kind strangers I met on the tour: The people who gave me water and Gatorade on the hot, dry, scarily remote section of US-6, and the many friendly people, across nine states, in gas stations, grocery stores, cafes, small towns, and motels that I enjoyed talking to.

Finally, thanks to everyone who followed along on my trip by reading this journal. Sometimes, updating a journal during a tour feels like doing homework, and knowing that some people were waiting for me to update it every day helped motivate me to keep going.