I would be remise if I didn’t mention the many miracles that happened along the way to make this journey possible and safe. If I don’t write them down, there is a great possibility that I’ll forget over time, and these are worth remembering!

• We planned this for 2020, but we actually got to ride in 2021. There was no guarantee that all of the planning and reserving would lead to anything. We rerouted to avoid areas that were closed, like Canada, or had restrictions, like New England. This ride fit in at just the right time!

• In line with the timing, we missed the heatwave in the West by just a few days. We had one day over 100 degrees, but we could have had lots of days over 100 if we had been just few days behind.

• When we got to Red Lodge, there was a fire in the hills behind the hotel. I needed to give them my cell phone number in case they needed to evacuate the hotel. Had we been there a few days earlier, the mountain pass was closed, which would have altered our entire plan and caused us to reroute with a van ride instead of cycling in order to stay on schedule.

• Then we missed cycling through a big storm in the mid-west, it mostly moved through in the night. It did us a favor though, cooled the temps in the East. When we arrived in Lancaster the humidity was so much lower than it had been just a week prior.

• Charley horses, or muscle cramps, are hereditary. This means that I’m blessed with the ability to have my muscles roll after excessive exercise or loss of water from heat. On a 84km ride in NZ I had over 10 charley horses during the ride for an 85 degree day. During this trip I had one charley horse at night for a few seconds, and zero during the ride. This is nothing short of a miracle.

• No one got seriously injured!

• No logging truck or camper hit anyone (although there were some close calls as they raced by us).

• All of the bikes made it! Some repairs were needed, but nothing that knocked out a bike for more than a day.

• Eight boys shared hotel rooms/lodges for 59 nights and they still talk to each other.

• There are wildfires in the west and it has caused the air quality to be very dangerous for those exercising in the outdoors. A professional cyclist just canceled her attempt to set a record because the air quality was so poor. We missed those fires and smoke, see the map below for the current situation!

• And the most important, and by no means small, miracle was that everyone made it from one coast to the other! No one was sick or injured! The hard days may have made some want to quit, but they didn’t go home early, they pushed on. Grit comes through challenge and takes you to the finish line!

We are to count our blessings, and this means having eyes to see the many things going on around us that work together for our good!