The Vitality of a Southern Boy Turned Cyclist

So I must first apologize for not being a responsible blogger. With my last posting over 3 months ago, I've received emails from people asking if everything is ok, where I am and am I still alive? So first things first, I am indeed alive and well, quite more than that actually, I'm absolutely fantastic, a glowing ball of energy rolling down the road on two wheels. My smile seems to grow by the day, my legs are solid steel, my buns firmer than ever and my bowels are crazy as all hell.....I love it!

So I guess first I owe an explanation for why I haven't posted anything in over 3 months. In a nutshell here's the deal. Shortly after my last posting we reached Dunhuang, China (Gansu Province) which is where our route intersected train tracts. Our Chinese visas were within 2 weeks of expiring and the 1000 km of Taklamakan desert didn't exactly sound enticing to race across. So we decided to take a train through what remained of China (the gigantic Xinjiang province, which comprises 1/6th of China's landmass). However it was at this point that Spencer and Breckan, running low on time before the start of law school in August, decided to bypass the Central Asian countries and head directly south from Kashgar. So Dunhuang turned out to be a fork in the road for the rest of 'Team 7' and I, they would turn left in Kashgar and cycle south towards Pakistan. I would embark on a solo adventure and cycle west from Kashgar towards Kyrgyzstan, a country I knew absolutely nothing about (I couldn't even spell it). So we said our farewells, thanked each other for the time shared and the awesome memories and we departed in our own directions. (This was May 27th).

So I was to continue the rest of my trip alone (while singing 'Here I go again on my own!'). This was met with both excitement and anxiety as my two weeks of solo cycling in China was actually quite adventuresome but somewhat solemn. I actually wrote myself some words of encouragement just after I left the rest of the crew, a sort of pep talk before embarking on my solo journey (link to journal entry). The only problem was that my mother, the sweetest woman on the face of the earth, would have worried herself sick if she knew I was traveling alone, especially through a country with 'stan' in the title. So to save her some well deserved sleep (that she survived my childhood is deserving inside itself), I decided to lay low in the online world and I put the blog on temporary hiatus. Even my mother admits that she'd rather not know some things....but now I'm hoping to have gained some credibility for staying alive these past 3 months.

So that's the reason for me not posting for the past 3 months, as with China blocking blogger. My mother always taught me to stick with anything that I started and this is certainly no exception. So I'll release a few blogs from each country that I've been to, a sort of time release to prevent overwhelming your eyes and inboxes while maintaining the whole excitement of the unknown for my present experiences.

There's lots to catch up on....