Leon

Hi All

It's been a while since I was a regular visitor to these pages, I've been getting too caught up with the so-called "normal" life and trying to fit my real life into the few hours I have after work.

Last year I did a bike journey, the most amazing experience of my life. Got sick of work and of the materialistic rubbish that we all put up with and headed out onto the road to try to slow down my life for a while.

I've made a web page of the experience, it's a bit of an ongoing project and is still far from finished, but there's quite a lot up there already. I never really wrote too much about road conditions, or technical stuff, so it won't be useful in that way, but I hope in some way it shows what it's like to drop out for a while, slow down and notice the changing of the seasons. And I hope it encourages a few others to take a leap for a while, stop contributing to their 401Ks for a while, and appreciate what a bloody amazing world this is and all the amazing people in it.

I'd love to know what you guys think of it.

https://www.geocities.com/leon_mauric...rone/index.htm

I'll keep adding to it when I can.

Cheers
Leon

Travelinguyrt

A great experience thanks for sharing. I enjoyed what I could read and see. I'll stop back when fone lines here in South Florida are 100% up and operating. No DSL means frequent shutdown and LONG waits for D/Ls,myt DSL won't be back in service till end of DEC

dreamy

Great site and photos. I especially approve of the fact that a severely underrated Aussie band (Something for Kate) made it onto your "sounds" page!

bhchdh 

Nice site. The picture you use for your entrance is amazing.

sth

Wonderful website Leon. Great journal, pics and layout. I have just started reading about your travels and am looking forward to continuing. You have lived the dream of many of us.

rich007

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing...

Btw, Leon, I checked out your other journeys... What year did you do your India trip??? Thanks.

Rich

Cyclist0094

great job on the website Leon, interesting and visually stimulating.

Ken Brown

Wonderful design, great photos, and he tells a good story.

roadfix

Love it!

Rogerinchrist

Ooooooooooo...................Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

skin flute

It would be benficial to your readers to set the text black on white as opposed to knocking it out of black. I tried reading the introduction, but felt blindness setting in after only a couple of paragraphs. White text on black vibrates and is really hard on the eyes.

The design is nice otherwise.

Erick L

I bookmarked your site when you presented it a while ago and read the whole text at least twice and went through all photos (love them) many times since. It's one of my favorite log.

Keep it up.

Orikal

As before, great stuff. I'm extremely envious.

As an aside, the state abbreviation for Alaska is AK. Just being nitpicky.

Brian McDonough

maybe you should have gone by motorcycle. less wear and tear on the body . by the way what medical problem did you have during your journey. One more thing . Would you ever consider selling your bicycle or has it become your best friend.

skin flute

I don't know if you changed the text to grey or if it's the fact I'm using a different web browser today, but I can read it now and it's awesome. It's getting me excited for my trip! WHOO!

trailwarrior

Great Job !

I have been planning longer and longer trips in preparation of going cross-country some day. I am amazed at your courage to just jump right in and go the distance. I have bookmarked your site and I know I will be back again.

Leon

Hi all

Thanks for your comments, I've just posted a couple more chapters of the bike story. If you were reading it, the new pages start at:
https://geocities.com/leon_maurice_an...ne/usa239e.htm

Brian - I have Coeliac disease, which means I can't eat wheat, barley, rye or oats. I only found out a week before starting the bike trip after having bad stomach and health problems for several years. It was hard to get used, it's not easy finding the right foods to eat in small towns. Powerbars and other types of energy bars were out of the question. I'd eat a lot of rice cakes with peanut butter and Nutella thickly spread over them and eat about six Snickers bars a day. Have barely touched either since. Going on the gluten free diet was a good thing though. I felt full of energy most of the time and put on something like ten kilograms, my first weight gain since I was about 17.

Oh and another interesting/slightly tragic thing was that this trip was partly funded by a settlement I got from a bicycle accident when I first got to the USA. I'm not sure if I have to be careful mentioning any names for legal reasons. I was run over by a $22 million dollar football player, who had been playing for the Oakland raiders. The day before he had hit me, he had been cleared of a date-**** case in San Francisco. Just a few weeks ago, I heard that he was tragically killed in a high speed car accident. He had a lot of talent but I guess the money kind of ruined his chances. If you follow American football at all, you probably know who I am talking about.

Haven't got rid of the bike (Stef), I've taken her everywhere since (she's with me now in the UK, we even did a 3-day, very cold trip to see Stonehenge). Have had to pay a lot of excess baggage to drag her about but it's worth it...sentimental value. Even had to bribe some airport officials in Manila in order to bring her on the plane for free.

Rich - did the India trip in 2000. Loved it and have to get back there again. Maybe with a bike (not).

Dreamy - I love Something for Kate, I first saw them in a sweaty Perth bar back in 1996 or 97 supporting Jebediah. Have been away from Oz for a while now so not keeping up with the music, but one band that someone introduced me to lately was "the Panics" from Perth also...really brilliant, check 'em out.

Skin flute - sorry about making you go blind. I made the background black because I thought that the photographs looking a lot better on the dark background. Maybe I could work out some way to have the background and text colours optional - if anyone has any ideas on how to do this, let me know.

Thanks everyone else for your comments, I appreciate them. It definitely makes the hours spent hunched over a computer worth it.

Cheers
Leon

bluerider

Leon,

Really enjoyed your site, great story and beautiful pictures. I really appreciate the time you have taken to share your experience with all of us.

As a fellow picker, I'm curious why you chose to bring the 12 string?

hotwheels

You are an Ar-teest!. Thank you for an excellent web site.

kayakboy

I love the sight. It is quite helpful and a good story to boot. I like the logic in this you just posted. "Even had to bribe some airport officials in Manila in order to bring her on the plane for free."

spinnaker

Beautiful website. Great job! Did I read that right 140 mile average a day? When di d you have time to take photos an notes?

Katrogen

I had a very enjoyable time reading your website. It was truly inspiring and the pictures are beautiful! One of these days I'll do the same.

xilios

My wife and I really enjoyed your site, great pictures.
We're thinking of a tour up and down the west cost of Canada and the U.S. for our 25th anniversary in a few years.

Leon

Hi and thanks for the nice comments, I only just learnt how to subscribe to this thread.
Bluerider: I chose to bring the 12 string because I had romantic visions of me sitting at a campfire belting out tunes, but sadly I didn't learn any busking songs before I left, I've just always made up my own stuff. It was a pain in the arse to carry it out around, but those times I got to pull it out on a rest day or at the end of a day with the sun setting made it all very much worthwhile. Yep, I'd bring it again, but it kinda fell to bits.
Spinnaker: No I didn't do 140 miles a day, I'm not that fit, I think my average over the whole trip was something like 40 to 50 miles a day.

As an aside, I'm living in the UK at the moment, Brighton to be exact. Am planning on taking off next Tuesday and riding down to Land's End and then up to John O Groats. Am looking forward to it, but as of yet, I don't even have any maps or routes planned (bloody typical for me). I thought for a moment, a good gimmick would be to ride without any map at all (the end to end ride usually only takes about two weeks). It would force me to talk to people more and maybe discover places I would have never seen had I used a map. But I'm also thinking about how bloody frustrating it might be, and after one or two days, giving in, and buying an atlas. I'd love to have some sort of gimmick though...
Sorry, haven't checked these pages lately.
Cheers
Leon

subigo

Leon, you have an awesome site there. I've spent the past day reading it... it's like a novel. I am in the middle of planning my tour and I plan on sending my friends and family to your site when they ask, "Why would you want to do such a thing?".

One question I do have for you though... How much did this trip cost you? You didn't seem to eat much or spend much... but every once in a while you have enough for a boat ride, train ride, etc.... It would be nice to know how much this trip cost you.