In my mind, this is a continuation of the trip I began in May of this year but ended after three months for health reasons. That adventure is covered in my journal Training Ride, a pedal around the western US as practice for an open ended ride to points unknown. The idea was that with time and Amazon I’d acquire the experience, equipment, and endurance needed to proceed south with confidence.  The plan worked great for kit development, but two months in I started having hip pains which I was able to ignore until a sciatica attack sent me to the ER in Crescent City and I limped home.  

I used the months spent waiting to see a doctor pondering the question of why socialized healthcare is such a bad thing. By the time my appointment had come around and I’d spent close to $1,000 in insurance premiums my symptoms had disappeared.   I did have a good conversation with an orthopedic nurse practitioner, and from sound of things they concluded I had bursitis plus sciatica. So I do stretches now.

I’m healthy as I’m going to get in New Mexico, my bike is perfect, but it’s now so cold in Albuquerque I just want to make soup and sit by the fire. Fortunately it’s nice in San Diego, good cycling weather and conveniently close to Mexico, so here I am. 

I now feel fine, but have lost confidence that my health will allow me to keep doing this.  Until I regain that confidence, I intend to keep my mileage goals low, 20 miles a day being ideal, but willing to go further in order to reach modern comforts and avoid camping. 

I’m 68 years old and growing older day by day, it’s now or never. The plan is to go south until I don’t want to anymore. 

Heart

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