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Hmmm, it’s August 14 and I’ve been home for three weeks. I’ve meant to write before now; ‘regular life’ has been consuming. So I’ll give a shot now at wrapping up the trip report and providing the third of three performance reports. After this post, I’ll likely write on two more topics: 1) a reflection about what the trip has meant to me, and 2) one or more gear reports about what I brought what I bought what I used and what I left behind.

I woke up at Chip’s home in Jericho Vermont on Sunday, July 22 and packed the bike (by then knick-named “beauty queen”) for the final push home. Inside the house, the gang was watching the Tour de France – it was too good to miss, especially with that day’s controversy over steroid use by the tour leader. 11:00 AM rolled around and it was time to head south. As I’ve done a half dozen times before, I started off on the backroads, enjoying New England’s winding green landscape.

Also as on other occasions, it occurred to me that if I were to hop on the highway, I could sleep in my own bed that night. It had been eighty six days since I’d even seen my town, let alone slept in my own bed. I pulled on the throttle. Then I reflected on my recent encounter with Ontario’s law enforcement community (henceforth referred to as “my little international legal matter”) and I relaxed my grip. As I thought more about home, the reading on the speedometer climbed again.

I arrived home in the late evening and was glad to return in the anonymity of darkness. I was ready to be home but I wasn’t quite ready for home to know that I was there. A few days of hiding out would be in order.

Dark or not, Griffin recognized me immediately. I’ve never seen him so excited! I knelt to greet him, but he ran laps through the yard and driveway. Endlessly he ran laps. “I’m over here Griff!” He ran more, forever, everywhere. I do believe that no being is as honest and transparent with their feelings as a dog. Griffin made me feel quite welcome indeed.

And so, in brief, I am home. And it’s good to be here. As mentioned, I have more to say, but noting as important now as “thank you.” Thank you those who supported my trip and my goals. A list of ‘thank yous” would doubtlessly start with my family – my mother, my brother Doug and my sister Cindy – each of whom realizes that Paul must now and then go on crazy missions. I thank those who contributed to the Dana-Farber Institute and helped to beat our goal. I thank the people I met up with while traveling – without doubt, travelers place their happiness and well-being in the hands of each other – and together we make it through quite well. I thank my friends for being the same pack of goons I left behind. I thank those at my workplace who respected my travel interests and welcomed me back. I thank those in my local club who helped my prep my bike and who taught me to not fear the wrench or the soldering iron. Quite importantly, I thank anyone who was in touch with me while I was gone – you all gave me a very much needed sense of community, at times when I was light years from anything familiar. And of course I thank Griffin who has always been an unconditional dearest friend.

PERFORMANCE REPORT THREE OF THREE

This report covers the July ’07 performance period and also gives trip-in-total statistics as I may consider them to be relevant, humorous or self-serving.

Again, I’ll recap my goals:

1) ride one huge loop around North America;

2) run 360 miles and

3) raise $3,600 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

RIDE ONE HUGE CIRCLE:

Success in this category involves a route that does not return to it’s origin by significantly repeating its “outward” path. I will admit that the return trip through northwest Canada involves a bit of redundancy through the southern Yukon and northern British Columbia. I assign responsibility for this ‘overlap’ entirely to mother nature. With good –no, outstanding- intentions of riding the Stewart Cassiar Highway (a north/south route in western BC, an alternative a part of the Alaska Highway), I was thwarted first by mudslides in Terrace BC on the way up, then by heavy rains south of Watson Lake YK on the way back. Accepting that this part of the route was twice diverted by a power greater than I, I claim enormous success in the One Huge Circle category. GPS output for the entire trip below:

RUN 360 MILES:

In evaluating this metric, it will be helpful (to me) to recall the RME, or the Road Mile Equivalent. As previously discussed, this is a proprietary measurement that normalizes energy spent doing various things against the amount of energy required for me to run a mile under certain conditions that appeal to me. My running goal for this trip was 360 miles. Conveniently, I ran precisely 360 RMEs. For those of you concerned with trivial statistics such as actual miles run, the figure is approximately 319. Again, I claim undeniable victory in this category.

RAISE $3,600:

The mission of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is important to me as they perform research for cures to cancer and provide assistance to those affected. In memory of my father, I decided to support this organization and I’m pleased that many of you have decided to show your support as well.

In my mind, this is where I did nothing and you all have earned big boasting rights. With a goal of $3,600 in mind, 28 of you contributed $4,295. Thank you! And thank yourselves!

If interested, it is not too late to contribute to this worthwhile organization.

The link to the donation page is https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=93429&lis=1&kntae93429=885616D3D499435C9BE414B99C4E122D&supId=169175024

OTHER METRICS:

Total Motorcycle Miles:

May: 7,249

June: 5,370

July: 6,394

Cumulative: 19,013

Average Miles per Gallon: 39.76

May: 41.35

June: 38.69 (decrease primarily attributed switch to to knobby tires)

July: 39.07 (knobby tires for most of this period)

Tires Used: 6.7, consider the following. . .

IF Tires Installed:

May: 4 (started with new Tourance (street) tires, replaced both with TKC (dirt/knobby) at the end of May

June: 3 (new rear TKC early in month, new front and rear TKC late in May)

July: 1 (new rear Tourance early in month)

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THEN Tires Used = (tires installed) – ( 1 * % of front tire tread remaining) – ( 1 * % of rear tire tread remaining)

Tires Used = (8 tires installed) – ( 1 * 60% of front tire tread remaining) – ( 1 * 70% of rear tire tread remaining)

Tires Used = (8) – ( 0.60) – ( 0.70)

Tires Used = 8 – 1.3

Tires Used = 6.7

States Visited (no double counting from prior period): 27

May: 16 (VA SC, NC, TN, AL, MI, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA, ID, MO, ID)

June: 1 (AK)

July: 10 (WY, SD, IO, NE, WI, MN, NY, VT, NY, PA)

Non-Contiguous US Places Visited Even If It’s Not Cool To Group Them (no double counting from prior period): 6

May: 2 (BVI, PR)

June: 2 (BC, YK)

July: 2 (AB, ON)

Weddings Attended:

May: 1

June: 0

July: .025

Average: 0.3417

Years Aged (as measured by birthdays)

May: 0

June: 0

July: 1

Average: 0.33 years per month (dog year rules apply)

Tattoos that say “bubba”: 0 (phew!)

Tattoos that say something else: 0 (boring!)

Stupid Nights Drinking With Chip, Jim or the ADVRider Crew:

May: 0

June: 0

July: 10 *hick*