Sometimes I wake up wondering if it really happened at all. Sometimes I wonder if it was my past life that I went on this journey and I am only having visions of a life I once knew. When I first came home, 4 years ago, I found it impossible to converse with other people. After 4 years, and now I have assimilated back to the conundrum of the day to day life, I find myself in as much disbelieve as the audience that I told the stories to. A lot of my journey has already faded into passing memories that I only remember when I see the photos. I hope as I try to document this journey, it will bring me back on the road.

I visited my neighbor and my good friend Noah, as I head out of College Park. I’ve being living there for 15 years. Renting, building projects, and lets not forget constantly dealing with water issue in the basement. I visited Phaedon the week before, so he can cut some graphics for me for my panniers. Phaedon use to work at a print shop, so he is very verse at making vinyl, that and being a graphic designer by profession is also another perk. I got my logo and graphics cut and ready. I got everything packed the night before. The day of, I was still not ready, after all this was my first 1 year journey on the road. The hardest part perhaps was to get out of the house, so I took my photo with my parents and rode out, knowing I was not really ready. Courtesy of Miniyawee she got me a hotel in Laurel, MD. This was a much needed stop, cycle gear was around the corner, I was already out of the house, I finally have some personal downtime to get my wits together, and focus my mind for the trip.

My first stop was at Revzilla, I bought some straps I needed and head out. Met up with Susan in Philly for lunch, and then off I go. My first Couchsurfing was with a couple in Somerville Massachusetts. They were also motorcyclists. Unique living arrangements, and I use my air mattress for the first time on my trip on their floor. There was a few cats, I was surprise I was not allergic. It was also a very bare accommodation and very cramped. It was a cultural shock of the alternative lifestyle they live, and a good first exposure of what I can handle for accommodations on the road. They were very nice, and gave me some home made jerky for the road. I spent another day in Massachusetts and visited David, someone who I hosted for a few days when he was down in DC for a conference for work. Him and his wife hosted me in their new home and his new born baby. They were very nice, and I had my own room, and we cooked together and the next day I went on my way.

My first camping opportunity came up when I headed north to Mount Washington. It had just recently rained, I road too late into camp and camped in a wooded area, thinking I would get better privacy, how wrong I am. I took out the tent, and set it up for the first time for my trip. The sun was fading fast, and I broke out my cooking set and started trying to heat up some water. The mosquitos and bugs came out in full force as soon as the sun set, I was tending the water, swatting, and running around all at the same time to avoid being eaten. Alas, I was still eaten alive. I tried to start the fire pit to use the smoke to get ride of the mosquitos, but the wood was wet, I was already getting eaten alive by the mosquito, and I was too tired. I ditch the cooking ware and took the pack of tuna I had packed and went into my tent. It started raining again, I ate the pack of tuna, but I realize I invited two mosquitos into my tent. It was getting very cold and I already got like 15 mosquito bites. I ate the bag of tuna, but I was terrified if I do not throw the tuna smelled trash far away from the tent, I would end up with a bear in my tent when I woke up the next morning. So I got out of the tent, put the trash far away under a rock, and brush my tooth real quick away from camp and ran back inside the tent.

I be lying to you, if I told you I did not question my life choices at that moment. I finally got rid of the two mosquitos in the tent and now I’m just freezing and itching. If I was going to be completely honest, I was hungry too, that bag of tuna was not enough. But I was not about to go outside again. It was the first make or break moment, perhaps the most critical one. If I turn back around, there was not much concern about humiliation, not many people have successfully completed this solo journey, but then again it is way too early in the game, so I guess there are some embarrassment attached to it. I think most of my life can be boiled down to these moments. You have two choices, you face your fears or you turn around. I do not think I have ever turned around.

Next morning I woke up and rode to Mount Washington. First of many epic scenery to come. I took out my drone and took some fantastic drone shots on the mountain ascend and descend. As always with mountain passes, even though it is the dead of summer, the summit is at 35 degrees F (1.7 C). Mount Washington stands at 6,288 ft (1,917 meters), a little hill in comparison to where I will be headed in just a few months. I came down the mountain and found a couchsurfer host with an unfinish loft. I “camped out” in the loft grateful that there are no mosquitos. My host cooked a meal for me and also let me do laundry in his new laundry machine. Next day, I took my time and had a slow start, I left at 10 am.

Next day I found a campsite in upstate New York, right after Lake Champlain on the border of Canada (Walter F Pratt Memorial Forest - in the Adirondack Mountain Range). I learned from my first mistake, and came into camp early. Second thing I learn is I found one that is very open and far away enough from the trees. It was also not raining that day, and there was a picnic bench. I cooked a meal in my pot for the first time. I had plenty of time to cook, eat, clean up, pack up all the trash, and pack up my bike and enter my tent before the bugs came out. If day 1 experience was on a scale of 1-10 was a 1, the second attempt was a 6 or 7. It was not an epic scenery, it was not an amazing location, but it was very decent. I hid my trash for my food under the rock far away from the tent, and I found it littered across the forest when I woke up the next morning. Something got into it, but hard to tell what did, so I picked up what trash I could and took it with me, and threw it away on my next gas up.

I road to meet Jeff (who was from around Syracuse area), and he had secure an accommodation for us before we head into Canada. It rain a few days here and there, I also remember stopping by REI in Syracuse to pick up some minor gear. Next I rode through Canada border by Niagara Falls, my first land border crossing, and my first land border crossing by motorcycle. There is no need for VISA as an American, and there was an immediate convenient currency exchange right after the border crossing. I would learn soon, that this is not the case for 99% of the border crossing, and I would also learned throughout my journey that the citizenship my father painstakingly got me when we first got to the USA, was perhaps the best gift I could have ever gotten. Even though it was just crossing over to Canada, everyone spoke English and everyone is super friendly, it was very exciting but also very terrifying. There is no turning back now.