"My, my. A body gets around" Lena Grove in Faulkner's 'A Light in August'

Wherever we ride, whoever we talk to, people ask us a question - why? Why go on a three month long bike trip? Some of them wonder about our motivation - why cycling, why for so long. Others about the dedication - how do we find the time and the guts. Sometimes we say we just love cycling, other times that we had nothing better to do, both of which are good enough reasons. But Daumantas and I left our careers and friends in London and I didn't even own a bike before this trip, so there's clearly a more fundamental and important urge that pushed us into this venture. But what exactly was behind this urge is hard to pinpoint. 

Part of it was the disappointment with the corporate life and our careers. Part of it was the excess motivation that failed to get harnessed by our employers. Part of it was the primitive male nature to take risk, a craving to fling ourselves into the unknown and experience an adventure that our life was devoid of. Part of it was a desire to put ourselves into an extensive meditation and clear our minds of the unnecessary clutter that crowds the life of an average professional. Things that are supposed to make your life easier, such as a blackberry, email and internet that turn into a distractive addiction and inconspicuously gobble up your productivity. Also, things that are supposed to make your life more comfortable, such as a nice apartment, a car, or about any material possession that ends up enslaving and possessing you instead...

We definitely found what we were looking for on this cycling tour. Besides all the fun and adventures we had, our trip also reminded me of the many fundamental ideas that sort of escaped me when working and living in a city. Being able to carry all your possessions with you on your bike, and subsisting (and having the time of your life) on 20-30 bucks per day was quite liberating. It also seemed very attractively sustainable. And the understanding that there is only so little that a man needs to be happy, will definitely affect my future decisions in terms of lifestyle and career, helping me to preserve my independence and dignity to a degree uncommon amongst corporate professionals that I've met. 

But what really makes this trip special and life-changing is that it turned out to be so much more than we have expected, hoped or imagined it would be. And that is mostly because of the people we met and the kindness and generosity that they showed us. Just in the last couple of days, we met Patrick, who invited us to stay over under his roof, Tim who helped us transport the huge bike boxes that we wouldn't have been able to carry ourselves, Greg, who's house we are staying at in San Diego and whose computer I'm typing this from. And there were so many others before who kindly hosted and humored us, Karolis in LA, Whitney and her flat mates in San Francisco, Saliklis and his family in San Luis Obispo, the Fuller family in Yahats, the liquor store assistant that treated us with brandy, and the bearded man who bought our dinner, and so many others that we met along the way. 

Honestly, I had forgotten that this kind of friendliness and kindness still existed in this world and that it wasn't a virtue of the books and the times past. All of that help and support we received fills my heart with a desire to repay in kind and to treat others like I was treated on this trip. It makes me less embarrassed and more hopeful to be a human. I realize that I've been living the last two years very selfishly, so no wonder it failed to satisfy me because only a life lived for others is truly worthwhile. Don't let me forget this again.