Rest, Relaxation and Logistics

If I were a bear....

My knee is better. This I can say with assurance. Whether it will remain that way when I get back on the road, I can only guess, but I am grateful that I have healed enough to venture out again. This week has been a confusing roller coaster of hopefulness and despair as I find the balance between rest and exercise that allows my knee to heal. Each day, I had a different idea about where I was going to be by the end of the week, and half the time, that idea was more of a wish than a plan. Biking for a week and then taking at least a few days off to evaluate your progress, fine tune your gear set-up, and figure out the rest of the trip does seem to be the ideal way to start an expedition however, for it gives you a chance to gather confidence before heading into the meat of the expedition. Today, my knee feels good, even after a bike ride, and my poison oak has been reduced to scabs and scars which barely itch. I am ready to head out tomorrow. 

 Between icing and heating my knee, stretching, going for long, rambling walks in the city, cleaning and oiling my bike, adjusting my pedals, eating delicious food, and spending time with Quinn and his family, I have been figuring out a long strand of logistics whose ultimate effect on my trip is that I will be taking the next month of riding very slowly. The fact of the matter is, I happen to be a senior in high school with a relatively privileged upbringing in the United States of America, and as a member of this rather large but frustratingly exclusive group of people, I will likely have the opportunity to attend college. And with this opportunity comes a myriad of options and obligations.

Los Angelos

 Because I was in Ecuador this fall with extremely limited access to internet and no phone communication, I have come into the college search scene with the blanket fire approach. That is, I have spent hundreds of hours writing essays and applying to far more colleges than any sane person ought to do, and have thereby put myself into a bit of a conundrum. I have applied to twelve schools all across this continent and now I have to figure out how I can visit at least some of these places. This biking expedition is helping a little, for I have already visited UC Berkeley and I will be visiting Prescott College in two weeks, but unfortunately, many of the institutions I would like to visit don't come into close enough proximity to my route for me to reach them by bike. 

Flights :(

Thus, I will have to do more air travel which I am extremely unhappy about because I was hoping to burn more calories than fossil fuels on this trip, but it does seem to be an important step in the decision process. And I'm going to need all the help I can get. Seriously. I still haven't heard back from about half the colleges I applied to, so as the decisions roll in, my options will likely diminish, and when the financial aid packages come, the remaining options will most assuredly plummet, for my resources are limited and my commitment to minimal debt is irrevocable. But even so, I will probably have a few schools to consider that I have yet to visit and this will effect my biking plans.

 At the moment, the only college visiting plans that I have set are to visit Prescott College on my way to Phoenix (by bike!) and to fly to Vancouver, British Columbia to attend an admitted students weekend at Quest University in Squamish on April 3-6. The flight is out of Phoenix which gives me a solid week and a half to go the 100 miles or so from Prescott to Phoenix. If I am accepted to Colorado College and University of Chicago, I will try to figure out a way to visit those schools in the lull.Of course, my funds are limited, but Quest University offers a travel grant which helps a lot, and we'll see what happens with the other schools. 

Guess I'm probably going down that Street soon. 

But I diverge, the purpose of this trip is not, of course, to visit colleges, but rather to see the country from the seat of my bicycle, challenge myself, meet new people, raise money for Kroka Expeditions, and have an adventure. From now until El Paso, Texas, the adventure will be a solitary one, for Quinn has decided that he needs to remain at home for the rest of the spring. I am sorry to see him go, for it was awesome to have his companionship on the journey from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo and he is a good friend. This past week has been phenomenal, for having a place to rest and plan from has allowed me to recover.

However, travelling alone creates a certain atmosphere which leaves room to discover things along the way that would have been missed had you been travelling with other people. What's more, it will give me the chance to contemplate my life and the world as my legs carry me across the next thousand miles or of this country. 

I have a long road ahead of me...

Love, peace and healing knees,

Sonya