Some Kody Pre-Bicycle Tour Thoughts and Sappiness Galore

Hola! Tonight I'm headed out by train to Newport News, VA to meet up with #bikekrew4lyfe. We'll hug/kiss/etc... eat at the Whataburger conveniently located right next to the train station, bike up to Yorktown, stay in a swanky, not swanky at all hotel but with FREE BREAKFAST, take all the breakfast, dip our tires in the Atlantic Ocean and start the tour on Sunday morning.

First section- 368 miles

From Yorktown, we be going through the historic-y Virginian towns of Williamsburg, Jamestown, etc...cutting across the fairly flat state until we climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and ride through the Shenandoah National Park- probably my favorite part of the country that I've seen so far. The
Appalachians will always be special to me as up until high school, me and my parents would spend a week each fall in western North Carolina to see the leaves change colors. Since then, my dad and I have spent a little time three of the last four summers white water rafting and hanging in that part of the country. Posting that little preview now cause I don't know of often I'll be able to post or if I'll be up to it.

Those quads tho

I guess I wanna make to make it clear that my intention for this trip is in NO way to be a cliche "on the road" adventure where the white male protagonist, confused and disillusioned with the state of his life, takes a physical journey to find out who he "is." I have no doubt that this will be a life-changing summer and I absolutely have some spiritual goals in mind, but my real intentions are to get a shredding bod and instant grad school/job application gold. Jk lol.

I just really love biking and feel like it is the best way for me to see this country. I've never been west of Chicago and really dig the idea of every mile past that point to be completely new territory for me. 

One thing in particular that I wanna explore is the idea of locality in this country. I feel like my understanding of my own country has been mainly through books, images, and for the most part, think of it in terms of Red/Blue states. I'm going to be using my phone as little as possible and will try to only get my news from whatever sources I come across on the ride. Weeeee!


Anyways, these last few months of preparation have been amazing. When I got my touring bike and took it apart for the first time I remember thinking something like, "Holy shit. I feel like I feel like I'm learning something new for the first time in years." That was pretty cool. 

I wanna thank Ferris Wheels Bike Shop in JP for being ballers in helping me out in choosing my bike and loads of other gear. 

MAINLY, I wanna spout some lexical love to all the amazing people in my life who've heard me go on for the last few months about this tour with incredible support, love, and excitement without ever telling me to shut the hell up about it. I don't believe in God but I do believe in friends and I'm so happy that I'll get to see a few special people in my life that will be meeting us along the way! 

Anyways, yeah. I'm so stoked for the years-in-the-making tour to start so damn soon! In the words of John Steinbeck:

  "Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes 

             over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has
             personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two
             are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after
             years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules,
             reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality
             of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go
             along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like a marriage.
             The certain way to be wrong is to think you can control it. I feel better now, having said
             this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it."

My mannnn. Aight I'm done! Love and stuff. Don't forget to floss. Check out SkiM's new EP when it's released sometime in the next few weeks (it's real good, I swear). Drink good beer. Don't wear white after labor day. See ya next post or something! And thanks for reading this far. I swear this is gonna be the most essay-ish of them all.


Kodyyyyyy