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By Johnny, December 22, 2009 12:42 am

This past Sunday, I had the privilege to be part of a conclusion to an incredible journey made by Victoria Merriman. About 4 months ago, Victoria set-out on a journey which began 4,000 miles away in Boston Harbor. Victoria’s adventure brought her through 12 states and multiple blog entries which she took the time to give us a play-by-play description of her journey. I should know because I’ve been reading her blog since she was traveling through Texas. I actually went back and read all her posts since the beginning or even before the trip so when I met her I felt like I already knew her. Of course, I was teased for being the “super fan” of the night, when in reality it was a privilege just to meet someone so courageous as herself. Did I forget to mention to you that she did all this by herself? Yup, something that myself and many out there would be scared to death to do, she courageously accomplished.

I was invited to welcome her at 3:30 – 4PM on Sunday. The welcoming party consisted of friend’s of Victoria as well as folks she had met when she was in LA 6 months ago. We were informed by text that she was 3 miles away and she would arrive by the bike path. We hustled down from the pier to the bike path and waited for 15 minutes. She arrived to a roar of cheers and applauds. Here’s a quick video I took of her approach.

She quickly got off her bike and greeted everyone. Her emotions then got hold of her and she was crying with much deserved tears of joy. She celebrated her arrival in similar fashion as her departure by dipping the “Supertour” and submerging into the Pacific ocean. I remembered reading how she loved swimming and recalled from her recent posts that she hasn’t done much of that so it was nice seeing her getting in the water.

After a few minutes of soaking in all that is happening, we finally made our way to a public bathroom so she could “freshen up” for our celebratory meal and drinks. We decided to go to a restaurant in Santa Monica which was about a mile away called Library Alehouse. I had the pleasure of riding her bike over to the location for her. As predicted, I was the first one there since everyone still had to walk to their car, find parking, and walk to the restaurant. Isn’t bicycling great! I must digress.

While we waited to be seated she was interrogated by everyone about details of her journey. Something she must have done through-out her journey so I’m sure she was used to it by now. I confessed to her my favorite story was when she got to fly a plane without even planning for it. She obliged and entertained the crowd with the step-by-step account of that day. It was like I was reading her blog again.

We eventually got seated and ordered our food and drinks. More stories were told at the table and more questions was asked. It was great for me to hear a voice to the written words on her blog. It was even better to get a sneak peak of what had happened after her last blog post. At the time of this post, I didn’t know what happened to her from San Diego till now. We had mentioned to the waitress what we were celebrating and she congratulated the accomplishment by comping us 3 dessert plates for us to share. The manager also came by to chat with Victoria about her trip.

Our meal ended close to 10PM. We exited the establishment and took some group photos and got some solo shots with our heroine. Here is my shot.

Everyone said their good byes including myself. She is such an inspiration that I can’t wait to go on my camping trip next week. That’s right, I’m going on a 4 day excursion to Lake Cachuma up near Santa Barbara by bike. Even though the trip is only 200 miles, Victoria was excited for me which I know she’s taking pity on my meager mileage given the fact she just finished 4000 miles.

Read her blog to find out more about her journey at http://www.victoriasblog.com. She’s a great writer and you will be entertained as much as I was.

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By Johnny, October 13, 2009 2:07 am

Meet Rosie Swale Pope. Rosie completed a 20,000 miles of walking all by herself. The 61 year old grandmother started her journey back in 2003 when her then husband had passed away. As a way to mourn, she embarked on this epic journey which took her through Europe, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, America, Greenland and Iceland. She endured frostbite, heat, pneumonia, running out of food, being knocked unconscious by a truck, breast cancer, and breaking 5 ribs. This resilient woman shows us all that it is still never too late to do the impossible. Another inspirational story that I will add to my list to keep me motivated on my future journey.

Rosie isn’t a stranger to the public. Back in the 1970s, she sailed through the tropics naked with her first husband and gave birth to her son onboard. Here’s a video of the conclusion of this trip.

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By Johnny, October 4, 2009 11:11 pm

I heard about the “Pedouins” a few weeks ago from a tweet by @qbike on Twitter. It explained that the Harrison family is planning on traveling from Kentucky to Alaska on a 5 person tandem bike. Most people would probably think that it’s crazy of them to be traveling with 3 young kids on a bicycle. I would like to commend them on their bravery and their sense of adventure. It appears that they are teaching the kids many different values on this trip. They are shooting to be the first quint bicyclists to ride 7,000 miles to Alaska. Their journey started on August 1st this year. What speaks to me most about them is their desire to achieve their dream of traveling. On an interview Bill was explaining that they’ve heard so many people wanting to do something they’ve always dreamed of and they didn’t want to be those people regretting never to live out their dream.

What was most interesting part that I found was their story about how the couple met at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Seems more like a script straight out from a short film. A southern gentleman who used to live in Alaska buys a red Toyota pick-up truck. Drives it down to the Grand Canyon. He hikes down to the canyon and finds one camping spot. It so happens that he meets his wife there and they hike back up and spend 2 more months on the road. They eventually got married and have several children who are born in various places ranging from Florida to the Netherlands.

This story as well as the past summer’s real life story of 2 geeks riding across America from Pennsylvania to Oregon are a true inspiration to me. I too am looking to do something similar in my life time. I’ve already taken steps to learn more about camping as well as prepare for a potential trip up the coast from south of California to San Francisco. I may even continue year to year up north until maybe even to Alaska. People like this keeps my hope and spirit alive that this feat can be accomplished. Living car free should make this more easy for me to do it physically.

By-the-way, I’m done with my 3rd week of my car-free trial. I had to start my car and get some gas since I was running on fumes. Even though I didn’t use my car, I had to make sure it wasn’t going to be in worse condition than before I started this. I still have to keep it maintained so people would buy it from me in a few weeks from now.

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By Johnny, April 26, 2008 12:33 am

Lesson learned… Always check-in at least an hour before your flight takes off. We arrived 37 minutes before our flight and was denied boarding until 1:35PM. Our flight was suppose to leave at 7AM. Yes, 6 hour delay. To top it off, we didn’t even get to make that flight and was asked to wait another 2 hours. We didn’t get into Boston until 12:10AM.

At least we made it here and collected our luggage, which arrived before we did. Time to get some shut-eye. It is almost 5AM here! Yikes!

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By Johnny, August 13, 2007 10:38 pm

Some pictures of our journey up to Canada for the first time ever for everyone. We made it into Vancouver and took a tour around the city. Vancouver like many city seemed to be sprawling with people this weekend.

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By Johnny, August 12, 2007 10:18 pm

We spent the entire day in downtown Seattle. First we visited Pike Place Market. Pretty cool place. The highlight was the famous fish tossing stand. We also got to peruse the underground shops below Pike Place Market. We then had lunch at the restaurant near the Waterfront. I forget which one but it was ok. Nothing spectacular. After lunch we went to see the first ever Starbucks coffee shop in Pike Place Market. We then made our way to the Space Needle. We didn’t go up the needle but instead took the “Duck Tours”.

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By Johnny, August 8, 2007 10:43 pm

Here’s the 5th day of our vacation. We spent our morning walking around downtown Portland. Like Los Angeles, Portland wasn’t crowded and it didn’t seem like it was the primary hub of the area. We cruised over to the International Rose Test Garden. We perused the rows and rows of roses and admired the view at the garden. When lunch came, we headed over to the Nike Campus in Beaverton to see Lori for the last time. She gave us an awesome tour of the campus. We bid farewell and went on our way to Mt. Hood. It was a beautiful drive to the base of the mountain. Still had some snow on the mountain. We then headed over to the Hood River and eventually made it across to Washington.

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By Johnny, August 5, 2007 11:06 pm

Leaving Eureka and heading up to Oregon. We passed by the Redwood Forest. Stopped by and looked at Paul Bunyan and Babe the Ox at the Trees of Mystery in Klamath, California. We eventually crossed the Oregon border and ended up driving to Beaverton, Oregon.

Also, I want to say that I have really good friends. People who came out to join me in celebrating my 31st birthday this weekend. We all had a great time at The Crab Pot and The Boiling Crab (yes back-to-back shell fish restaurants). Thanks for the delicious meal and the gifts (even though I said no gifts). My birthday was exactly how I liked it, low-key with good company.

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By Johnny, August 4, 2007 11:05 am

Our trip continued through San Franciso. We ate a a damn good place that made awesome breakfast omelettes and crepes. After that we took our travels up through Willits and Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt State Park. Highlights included Confusion Hill and driving our car through a redwood tree. We finally reached our stop in Eureka, California.

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By Johnny, August 3, 2007 4:05 pm

Our day in the MotoGP and AMA races at Laguna Seca. We went from driving into Monterey, California to the end of the big race.