Coast to Coast

            This is a map of my biking route that I'm planning on taking come March of next year. There still exists a few flaws in my plan, but I am working through them and have so far come up with a strong concept of everything that will be involved on this trip. First off, the distance that I will be traveling I cannot set to the exact mile, to do so would be completely unrealistic due to the plethora of variables along the way. However, I've estimated that the trip will run around 8,000 miles. When I rode to Salt Lake City and back for a combined 84 miles (7 hours of combined riding time), I know that I will be able to at the very least make 60 miles per riding day with a loaded bike; meaning  I would need 133 days of riding. Though I'm sure I can ride 80 per day easily, I like to have a little leeway in case of the unexpected.   

This is the bike that I will be using on my trip.
It is a Trek FX 7.3 commuter bike I bought a
little over a year ago. (This picture was taken
a few weeks ago during my ride to SLC.)

I would like to head off by March and September will be the longest I plan to stay out, giving me seven months and 137 extra, non biking days if needed. I will most likely return home earlier than that, but like I said, I like to keep it open just in case. I also will be spending a day or two site seeing in most of the major cities I visit, if not more depending. Include into that a day or possibly two if needed of down time per week you'll probably find that most of that extra 137 days to be well used.

Like I said, there are still some variables I am working out before I can do this, but I'm really going to gun for it and try to be totally prepared by the end of February. I will also be starting up a new blog (which will hopefully include video of my prep and progress) that will be devoted solely to this journey. Meanwhile, I will keep this blog up to date on my progress until I find a good site for my new blog.

If anyone has any comments, ideas or even criticisms they'd like to share, please feel free. I could use all of the support, information and challenges I can get!  

The Voting Independant

                 When it comes to politics, I can either be very vehement with my stances, or overly cynical. With the 2012 elections just around the corner, I've been seeing both sides of the coin in an almost continual rotation. This duality of perspective stems from my absolute hatred of the two party system. They split America by red state and blue state, bipolarize stances to the point where it's barely comprehensible and shepherds the sheep of the country into one of two ideological slaughterhouses.

Okay, maybe that last analogy was a bit over the top, but my personal opinion is that political parties shouldn't exist at all. How many people do you know that will vote for someone just because they have a pachyderm or jackass plastered on their signs and commercials? And how many of those people actually have differing ideals from their party, but just go with the flow anyway? I once met a man in the Bible-belt who called himself a "Blabtist" (meaning Baptist). He would mock the inner workings and doctrinal stances of his church all the time, but he would never leave it because it was the one thing that was familiar to him and he didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of change.  I believe that there are more "Blabtists" in the U.S. than we might think. People who disagree with something but, for some reason, choose not to act, instead they fall in with what is familiar. The only thing worse than a fence sitter is someone who chooses without thought.

Though I would eventually like to see the end of the political party system, the first step is to bring third parties into the spotlight. Parties such as the Constitution, Green and Libertarian parties, each having wide, differing stances, need to be more politically and socially recognized to enhance our choices come election time. We are voting for people to represent us in government and, more importantly, people to represent you. Now I'm not saying that no one should vote Democrat or Republican. If you've studied their stances and agree wholly or mostly with that candidate then definitely vote for them.

Gary Johnson,
Libertarian Candidate

As for me, I will be voting Gary Johnson for president come November sixth. He is the Libertarian candidate and the closest I can find in representing my ideals. His platform offers real change compared to the nitpicking that both Mitt Romney and Barak Obama are offering. Changes like reforming the tax system and removing the IRS for the FairTax proposal, ending the futile Drug War and legalizing marijuana to save billions of dollars and reduce the power of drug cartels in Central and South America which are funded mostly by the American dollar. And finally, reforming the immigration laws to make legal immigration easier and increase pressure on those who just want a free ride.

Do I think he has a chance to become president? No, of course not.  But I am not going to vote for someone that does not represent me. To do so would completely undermine the concept of a democratic republic. And this applies to all levels of government, what I want is for people to wake up and vote for who represents them. Gage the stances instead of the color of their affiliation. Alternative choices need media attention as well and debates need more than just the two candidates. If we can do these things then the facade will be thrown off and the real democratic republic will emerge just as the founding fathers envisioned it to be centuries before.

The Great American. . . Conundrum

Ugh!...I’ve been chewing on some serious writer’s block recently. Last week I sat down and wrote down a blog entry that was nearly a thousand words only to delete it all because it was barely coherent and jumped around aimlessly. Hopefully I’ll be able to lay out my thoughts a little better this go and maybe even say something that'll make you stop and think.

Today’s topic: The United States of America. I read a post from a friend’s blog a while back which got me thinking on my own views of the country I live in. When I was little I saw America as the greatest country in the world, as a teenager I saw it as the most corrupt, hypocritical nation in existence. Nowadays, I know that the truth lies somewhere down the middle.

Anyone who grew up in the States has learned in school of the great good that the U.S. has done since its declaration of independence in 1776. We won our freedom from the subjugation of Britain, fought against slavery in the civil war, tamed the west, were victorious in not one but two world wars, and now leading the fight on terror worldwide.

However, there is a dark side to all of these glorious conquests that have, on the most part, been ignored by history. For instance, the guerilla warfare the fledgling nation used against the British in the Revolutionary War is similar to what terrorist groups now use in the Middle-East today. When I was in the American South, I heard a completely different take on the Civil War. In this version, the South had been hammered by multiple laws that restricted rights and trade for years and that slavery was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Supposedly, Robert E. Lee, later to become the most noted generals in the confederacy, followed the law and released his slaves when the law was passed but Ulysses S. Grant, later general in the Union army and president of the United States, kept his slaves until authorities demanded the he released them or face charges. Horrible atrocities were committed against the First Nations as they were pushed from their ancestral lands and forced into reservations where treaties were constantly made up and broken by the U.S. The First World War was pointless for all countries involved, while during the Second World War, our allies called for our full support over and over but it wasn’t until we were attacked that we decided to get our hands dirty. And during the cold war, Korea and Vietnam were proxy battles with the Soviet Union.

Now before you go all out on how horrible and wrong this country is, let’s try taking a step back and look at it from a worldwide view. In comparison to other countries such as Great Britain, Russia and China we’re pretty average on the good/evil meter. The British held the second largest empire in history (that’s not counting the oceans and seas they claimed) and subjugated everyone they came in contact with. During the Soviet era of Russia, Stalin created work camps called gulags where around fourteen million people were sent to and somewhere between seven hundred thousand to millions died. And finally, Mao’s regime in China took over Tibet and ravaged Nepal when the government was coming into its own.

Once again these are just a few examples. Every country around the world has both good and bad, it’s just human nature. The most we can do is take an active part in the happenings of our countries. Vote, let your voice be heard, do what you think will help your homeland progress and become a better nation. As for me, even though it is far from perfect and there are many things in my country’s laws and history that I do not agree with or support, I can honestly say I am proud to be a citizen of the United States of America. It is the place where I was born and where the many of my ancestors immigrated to find opportunity they couldn’t elsewhere.