Day 49 – 🎶 One Day More 🎶

August 5, 2018

Day 49 – Brattleboro, VT to Manchester, NH – 78 miles, 4,340 feet vertical

What can I say?  We are here on the precipice, just a short bike ride from the sea.  Just a short ride from completing a journey that seemed almost unimaginable only two months ago – and with success not always so assured even while we were doing it.  

And now, on our penultimate day, we celebrate our achievement with our last dinner together – our “banquet” – with family and friends.  

And with our new family:  the riders of Across America North.  

We have bonded.  We have ridden together, suffered together, laughed together and cried together.  Each of us has a story to tell.  Each of us has been enriched by listening to the stories of others.  And we listened once again tonight as, one by one, we each rose to accept our completion certificate and address the group.

The themes were pretty consistent.  Everyone thanked the staff and heaped praise on their professionalism, their attitude, their positive demeanor, their hard work and their patience.  “All” we had to do was ride our bikes.

We also celebrated each other and our sense of camaraderie and new family.  There were some tears, but mostly a ton of laughs as we all shared our thoughts, our experiences, the good, the bad and mostly, the very funny.  I cannot possibly convey the depth of the new connections made over the past 49 days and sealed with words tonight. 

As part of my remarks, I recited words I had heard in the past.  It goes by the name, “Wolf Credo”.   I include it here: 

Wolf Credo

Respect the Elders
Teach the Young
Cooperate with the Pack

Play when you Can
Hunt when you Must
Rest in Between

Share your Affections
Voice your Feelings
Leave your Mark

In completing this amazing journey, we have all left our mark.  And as I said tonight, each of the riders of Across America North 2018 has left his or her mark on me.  

Please enjoy this recording of 🎶 One Day More 🎶 from Les Miz and I hope you like these photos from the day before our One Day More day.  And check out the amazing map at Where’s Jeff.  Catch it now before it flips to all green!! 

Thank you for following.

…Jeff