Godspeed: Riding out the Recession

GODSPEED:

RIDING OUT THE

RECESSION

ROBERT LINZ

Copyright © 2014 Robert Linz.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-1547-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1549-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1548-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014909275

Balboa Press rev. date: 06/12/2014

Jess (my oldest) and Marissa (my middle daughter) rode the first 16 miles with me on the day of my departure from home (photo taken by Steve Oberjohn)

CONTENTS

Preface

Returned

Reflecting

Adversity or Opportunity?

The Recession

Accepting What is Given

The Daily Journey

Perils

Divine Timing

Canine Perils

People as Perils

Open to Synchronicities

Chance Meetings or Divine Orchestration

Creating

More Goodwill

Responding to Connections

Difficulty and the Wondrous

Missing the Mark

Providence Always at Hand

More of Missouri

Travel Companions

Kansas Hosts

Led to Make Changes

A Sampling of Fear

Ascending

The Divine as Merciful

Serving and Being Served

Where Home Seemed Close By

New Traveling Companions

Downtime in Yellowstone

Inspiration and Challenge

Ebb and Flow

The Intricacy of a Challenge

Dually Symbolic

Back in Oregon

The West Coast

Karma Always Brings You Around

Letting Go of it All Including Fear

Perhaps Peace Starts With a Belief That All Men Are One

Faith Interrupted and Instant Karma

Being Present to Help

The California Experience

The Holidays and Headed Back East

Wintering Across the South

Colder Than Normal

Manifestations

Texan Hospitality

Presented With Gifts

Never Alone and Always Provided For

Holiday Gifts Show Up on Winter Solstice

Unique Experiences in Texas

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama

Welcomed to the Land of Oranges

Finding Family versus Feeling Alone

Oekaze

Charmed

The Florida Keys

Northbound

Keeping Springtime Ahead of Me

Inscribed in Stone

Completing the Circle

Revelations upon my Return

PREFACE

T his book chronicles my year long solo bicycle journey around the USA between Memorial Day of 2011 through just beyond Memorial Day of 2012. It was a spiritual pilgrimage of sorts which has given me the opportunity to address my own philosophical thoughts on what life is actually about and how it seems to work in some sort of understandable way.

With this in mind, I would like to say that what I have written about in this book is something that I believe each of us shares as a common truth that lives within each of us. All of us have revelations about living that arise out of our experiences of life. For me, this book is my truth asking to be unearthed. It is my story asking only to be shared. In it are my own thoughts and conclusions about how I think that life has unfolded and continues to express itself as I experience it.

I do not want anyone to think that this work is an attempt on my part to convince others that they should think or believe what I have shared about my experience. I’ll admit that there have been times in my life when my sole purpose, it seemed, was to try to persuade others that they should buy into my perspective. Logic was my tool in those times as I unknowingly attempted to shore up my own beliefs. I know, now, that my desire to force others to think and believe as I did was more an expression of my own insecurity about those beliefs than anything else. Finding some way to shed that insecurity seems to be what my life journey is about. It is with this in mind that I have made the commitment to preface the expression of my thoughts and beliefs with the comment that, despite my passion for them, they are not intended as a way to convince anyone of anything.

In doing so, I apologize to everyone who was subjected to my insecurities at those earlier moments of my life. Regrettably, it took many years and many moments for me to reach the place where I had no choice but to acknowledge all of this to myself. I ask forgiveness for those moments.

Additionally, I would like to thank those who took the time to read through what was a very rough draft of this book and offer suggestions about structure, content, and clarity which helped in the revision of the text to the best of my ability.

Gary Robbe, a close friend and published author, offered his objectivity about the content of this work. This was indispensable to me in the process of expounding upon narrative that was needed and deleting content that was better left to the conclusions of the reader.

Bob Lynds, who I had met in Texas and who is degreed in English Literature, painstakingly marked up an early rough draft of this work that placed the manuscript on firm grammatical ground. My thanks go out to him for the dedication with which he took on this task.

I am grateful to my daughter Christa who kindly poured through this document offering suggestions about missing transitions and clarity of content that had gone unnoticed. Despite the differences in our spiritual perspectives, Christa offered her help and support in the creation of this work. For her kindness and non-judgmentalness I am eternally grateful.

And finally I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Linh Dich who reviewed the rough draft of this work at a time when I was ready to end the process of revising what I had written and submit it for publication. Her professional appraisal of the work and suggestions for its improvement were the impetus for revisiting the work on the manuscript that was needed before submission. Although my efforts at revision would not live up to her professional standards, I am grateful that her suggestions moved me to invest effort to making this a more finished work from its introduction, through its body, and ending in a more revealing conclusion. By helping me to clarify my intentions for putting my thoughts into print, she gave me the opportunity to come to a place of peacefulness about what I would submit for publication.

RETURNED

I am back home now in Cincinnati, Ohio after a year on the road pedaling my well loaded Surly Cross Check around the United States. Am I somehow changed now after having had this experience or am I now even more deeply the person I was at the time of my departure? I like to think the latter: that the experience of the last year was a confirmation of the person I had chosen to become after 58 years of life. Be that as it may, I feel compelled to share my experience of that journey. I experienced that trek as a microcosm of the larger journey of my life which brought me to an eventful departure from home on Memorial Day of 2011.

Probably the most often asked question of me as I met people around the country was What prompted you to leave home for an entire year and ride your bicycle all the way around the USA? The answer to that was a simple one: the recession had put me out on the road. As a self employed carpenter, contractor and real estate agent at the end of 2009 and early 2010, the opportunities for making a living had shriveled significantly. Many of us in this country hunkered down to wait out what turned out to be the most serious downturn in the global economy since the Great Depression.

Although my answer that the recession had put me on the road seems straightforward, there are many more levels of significance that exist within that simple response. The recession had given me what I like to think of as a significant "moment in time. A moment when I was given the choice to see myself as a victim of some sort of unfolding disaster or to see what was happening as an unfolding opportunity. I chose to see it as an opportunity to do what I will describe as what my Divine Nature intends for me to do. I had been given the chance to respond to the adversity that had shown itself or to react" to it in fear. I could choose to have faith that I was being redirected down my Divinely intended path or I could choose to react in fear and attempt to overcome the obstacle that was in my way, seeing that obstacle as a difficulty only. I chose to see my situation as an opportunity that had been presented to me.

Final project prior to departure on Memorial Day 2011

REFLECTING

M y work as a carpenter/contractor/real estate agent had been going well since an earlier " moment in time when divorce found its way into my life. Precipitated by an auto accident that served to open the can of worms" that existed around myself and my marriage, my divorce became the fertile ground for the personal and spiritual change that I, at the very least, needed in my life at that time. As a result of this significant moment, I decided to respond by changing my attitude about my work, myself, and what this life was really about. The adversity of an auto accident, consequent divorce process, emotional trauma, and potential financial ruin opened the door to my seeing my work as a vehicle for serving others rather than as merely a way to make a living: to see myself as a cooperative rather than as a competitive being: to accept that the emotional trauma and threat of financial ruin were opportunities to act, on a daily basis, upon the belief that, I am and we are, always one with the Divine and never alone. It is in the faith that I have never been separate from the Divine that I had chosen to live my life at this point… That the Divine intention for this life exists in service to others… That my Divine Nature shows me the way in every moment of my life, whether it is wondrous or difficult. I had come to believe that my journey, this life, was very simple: to remember that I am one with all, one in the infinite presence of the Divine, that I have always been and will always be, that we have always been and will always be. In this simplicity, there is incomprehensible comple xity.

Reflection made easy. Camped on a lake in New York

ADVERSITY OR OPPORTUNITY?

S ince early in my life I had come to believe that there is opportunity in adversity. That in every difficult situation there is something positive that will show itself as a consequence of the difficulty. Most notably, at the age of 18, I was given evidence for this.

While playing basketball with friends at the local park near my parents’ home on the West Side of Cincinnati, one of the guys who had been playing left the game angry about something that had gone down and decided to chuck a rock at those of us remaining on the court. That rock crashed thru my front teeth as I turned in response to a yell of watch out!

My initial response to that was to chase down the culprit and proceed to pummel him. With him on the ground beneath me, and as I bled profusely over him, a voice popped into my head which said don’t do this. Seething with anger, I chose to let him go in response to that voice. Probably because I had chosen not to express my anger with him, it ended up that his parents’ insurance company provided my parents with enough money to repair the damage to my teeth along with paying for orthodontic treatment which I sorely needed. Although a positive outcome for a difficult situation, the story does not end there.

It was at this time that the conflict in Vietnam was at its height and 18 yr olds were being given numbers in yearly lotteries in order to determine who would be drafted into the military to serve in this conflict. The lottery number for my birthday that year was 21… it was very certain at that time that numbers all the way up to about 120 would be taken in the draft. When I commented to my orthodontist that my treatment may have to be discontinued for that reason, he smiled and informed me that the rock thrown thru my front teeth had saved me, for the moment, from being drafted into the Vietnam conflict. He was the first person to inform me that I would be given an orthodontic deferment.

I was called for induction that year, went down to get my physical, coughed right and coughed left, and then had my draft card stamped as being given an orthodontic deferment. To this day I am grateful for that voice that popped into my head that said don’t do this! as I crouched over that guy in the park. In fact, at the age of 57, I ran into him while doing some of my remodel work and was able to thank him for saving me from the experience of Vietnam.

I had been spared the experience of Vietnam amidst what seemed a rotten bit of luck which ended up being the best bit of luck that I had received up to that point in my young life. Now some see this merely as luck amidst what are believed to be the random experiences of life. However, I personally believe that this is the natural unfolding of the karma of our lives. I believe that as eternal beings, the choices to relent, to surrender to and peacefully accept what our Divine Nature intends for us, results in the presence of karmic experiences that show up in the moments of our lives in order to direct us further upon a spiritual journey towards Oneness.

In this case, I believe that I had paid some of my Karmic debt for previous poor choices in this life or previous lives and I was being given the opportunity to enter my college years unscathed by what could have been a very devastating experience in a war that should not have been. That experience also planted the seed for my belief that there is purpose in every experience that we have in this life. That despite whatever we freely choose to do, our divine nature reconstructs and orchestrates the unfolding of the experiences that will show up so that time and again we are given the possibility for aligning ourselves with the Divine intention of our lives.

By choosing not to give in to my anger, I accepted the opportunity to set aside vengeful behavior… vengeful behavior that would have created additionally unfolding karmic debt… more karma for a poor choice which would have spiraled my life experience further into the hellish abysses that could bring me to my knees.

In my case, I chose to relent by not striking back at a guy who had thrown a rock thru my front teeth, and in return was given a pathway that allowed for a more peaceful, less traumatic path that carried me toward experiencing the Oneness that I believe is our spiritual destiny.

THE RECESSION

T he presence of the recession had created another significant moment in my life. Even though I had adjusted my attitude about my work in the direction of seeing that work as a way in which I could serve others rather than as a way to make a living, it seemed that the adjustment of my values was now going unrewarded. A difficulty had shown itself despite my changed attitude, and I now had the choice of seeing myself as a victim or seeing myself as having been given another significant moment. I had been given the choice to abandon my spiritual perspective or relent to the incomprehensible nature of it. I chose to allow the incomprehensible to reveal it self.

Within this particular significant moment a number of experiences in my life converged. During my college years the thought of traveling across the country on my bicycle grew from a seed planted in early childhood. As a kid, I had gotten myself around on a bike that I had purchased for myself. My mom, a constant worrier, would not purchase one for me since it was too dangerous riding a bike around with all those cars on the road. Fortunately, my riding was not curtailed when I purchased the bike for myself. During my high school years a friend and I would strap a bunch of camping gear on our bikes and travel to a state park north of Cincinnati for weekends of camping.

Although not much of this was done while working my way thru college, the thought had been planted. As graduation approached my intention was to pursue a Doctorate in Psychobiology in California. I intended to get myself to the west coast by riding my bike out there from my home in Cincinnati. Although spawned in my youth, the thought became coupled with the celebration of the coming Bicentennial of the country in 1976. As part of that celebration, there had been a bicycle route plotted out across the country from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon which became known as the Trans America Bike Trail. The timing could not have been better as I celebrated my graduation from Thomas More College in 1975. I had even accomplished being accepted into a Doctoral program in Psychobiology at the University of California Riverside. UCR offered me a full ride in that four year program and included a stipend attached to a teaching fellowship.

Although, for personal reasons which resulted in the birth of my three daughters, I chose to remain in the Midwest working on a Doctorate in Experimental Psychology, the desire to cycle across the country remained. Thirty four years later, the recession resurrected that desire. So, as has happened many times in my life, I was being given the opportunity to respond to adversity by finding the positive mystical redirection present within that adversity.

Riding out the recession for a year and reclaiming that dream born in my college years wasn’t the only element that converged within this experience. Authoring some sort of published work was another of those dreams that had lingered with me from my earlier years. It was my thought that the recession was now giving me the opportunity to act on my spiritual beliefs and share those acts of faith with many more people than I had been able to share with over the course of 33 years in the construction business.

I think that I have touched the lives of many for whom I have worked over the years as a carpenter. It always seemed that conversations about how to live life found their way onto many of the jobsites that I have worked over the course of hammering out those many years. Close friendships have resulted from those conversations. It is my belief that, in many cases, I was present not only to rebuild physical spaces for people but to also share concepts about rebuilding both the personal and spiritual places of our lives.

Since my divorce, I had acted upon my beliefs and it had changed my life. Although interesting and significant to me, this turning point was perhaps not so interesting and significant to others. It was my thought, however, that sharing the experience of how I had acted upon those beliefs while cycling across the United States might perhaps capture the interest and imagination of many more people who are also searching for a meaningful way to live their lives. Was this content for authoring a book? I thought that perhaps it was and prepared myself for journaling my way across the country.

ACCEPTING WHAT IS GIVEN

I t was with the willingness to take a new direction that I embarked upon this cycling journey across and around the USA. Much like an ancient mariner, I was perceived by friends as heading out on a lengthy journey filled with potential perils. I have always been enamored with the custom of wishing those ancient mariners Godspeed as they journeyed forth into the seemingly infinite expanses of the oceans of the world. Cherishing the phrase Godspeed you on your journey, I knew that I would want to express that sentiment with other cyclists that I was sure to meet as I traveled the well established bike routes that crisscross the USA.

Also, if this was to prove to be the unique spiritual experience that I believed it would become, then I thought that I should mark my departure with some sort of act of faith. So I vowed that I would only begin wishing fellow travelers Godspeed after I had been wished Godspeed by some other person as I began my trek into the remote spaces of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.

I believe that my commitment was rewarded on the seventeenth day of my trip in Rosiclare, Illinois. In order to speak of that day, it seems necessary to speak of the events of a few days prior to that which brought me to the experience of that remarkable day of the journey.

Since probably the tenth day out on the road, I had begun to experience some serious swelling in my legs. In addition, my left calf muscle was becoming increasingly sore from one day to the next. I had taken a rest day a couple of days earlier which had not seemed to help either of those problems. As a result, I decided to reduce my mileage on the seventeenth day of the journey in order to give my legs a lower dose of what I had been imposing upon them.

Checking my route for camping possibilities in the middle of that seventeenth day, I found a city park in Rosiclare, Illinois that was described as having camping facilities available. I called the phone number of the camp host for the park just after noon that day and got Alphel Wiseman on the phone. Alphel informed me that there were sites available and that I should check in with him upon my arrival. I hit Rosiclare at about 2:00 that afternoon, shortening my riding day by about 3 hours. It was welcome relief to my sore calf muscle and an opportunity to rest and re-hydrate amidst weather that was pushing 100 degrees F.

Stopping in at the small grocery store in town for food for the evening, I asked for directions to the city park. I was given instructions to head down to the flood wall, ride straight on thru, and hang a right into the park. Riding into the park that afternoon I was greeted by the