One thing that I love about traveling by myself is the flexibility that I have to make decisions and to change things.

When I was planning my trip, my first goal was simply to get to the east coast and to see where I’d want to go from there and if I wanted to keep going. The answer is a resounding “YES!” I’m having the time of my life and enjoying most every aspect of this trip. Even the hard days where I’m tearing up while biking on the side of the road make me feel stronger and reflective.

When people would ask me what I planned to do in the winter, I would always say that I was going to go south and find a place to work in Florida or New Orleans and to stay for a month or so to try and replenish my coffers a bit. I hoped to do a kind of modified perimeter of the United States. I’ve changed my mind about that.

When I was getting ready to leave New York City the second time, I realized that the holidays were coming up and that I really wanted to go home, at least for Thanksgiving. This year I have so much for which I am truly thankful, that I want to spend the holiday in a traditional manner. I started looking at flights to get me home for the holidays.

I contemplated putting my stuff in storage down in Atlanta or Orlando and returning to continue from there, but then I started thinking that if I do want to stop for a month, I’d be better off doing that where I know people and where I definitely have a place to stay.

Just now, I purchased a one-way flight from Orlando, FL to Seattle. This is the first fixed date I’ve put on my trip. November 16 will find me back in what will likely be the chilly, dark and damp Northwest. It will also place me with my family and in the land where I grew up.

This will also let me try out living and working in Washington State. I’m planning to stay through the New Year. I’m signing up for some booking services and hope to work as much as possible while there. I’ll also be available to create and delver centerpieces and twisted decorations for Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you know of any events where balloons my be needed in the Northwest, please let me know!

Fortunately, I have another month of biking to look forward to as I head to Orlando. I’m also hoping to do a January bike tour down the California coast, if anyone is interested in joining me.

I have a lot of blog post ideas kicking around my head and half composed. I’m grateful to everyone for the amazing support I’ve received and all of the amazing hospitality which has profoundly humbled me. Hopefully, within the next few days I can articulate some of that into words.

In the meantime, I hope to see anyone in the Western Washington area. I may be looking for a temporary room up in the Seattle area, so if anyone knows any leads, let me know! Also, if anyone wants to try out some bike touring or winter camping, let me know! I really hope to be more social than I was back in May.

So, there’s what’s next! Wish me good fortune for my next month of on-bike adventures!

I found this in my drafts section. I suppose should go ahead publish this.  It looks like I had written this back in October!

I was excited to get back onto my bike to continue south, but I had little direction other than that which Google Maps provided me with. The ride took 3 days and the highlight was running into some other balloon artists, one of whom I had met at the previous year’s Twist and Shout balloon convention.

Steven Jones (not to be confused with the other Steven Jones) works for DAPA Balloons and gave me a call after he saw me biking along the road. It was a great surprise, and they helped with a ride across a bridge and with a place to stay that night. This was a great surprise, especially so because the ride so far was filled with traffic and monotony.

Dawn, of DAPA balloons set me up to stay that night in their house in Joppa, MD, which was an absolute delight. The next day I was out to get to Washington, DC. This was one of my toughest rides.

Riding into and through Baltimore meant losing the shoulder and traveling through areas beset with highway interchanges and lots and lots of traffic, even in the middle of the day.

Eventually, I made it to downtown Baltimore and stumble upon “Occupy Baltimore.”

After chatting with some other cyclists that I saw at the protest, I had some vague directions for the route to DC.

This was tough. The directions out of Baltimore were haphazard and difficult to follow.

One particularly demoralizing development was finding myself just about onto a nice long, and direct route to where I needed to go, and then being stymied by a closed overpass. I had to take a 5 mile detour and was tossed into a very confusing jumble of streets and bike paths by the airport.

Eventually, with the light fading, I was getting close. However, I was also in an area filled with tracts of military installation and no streetlights, so I did the last couple of miles in darkness, very thankful for my lights and reflective properties.

I took DC’s Metra train into the city and when I emerged into the streets that were brightly lit, bordered by bike lanes and even populated by other cyclists, I was extremely happy as i cycled to see my friend Erica and get inside for the night.

My visit to Philadelphia was more haphazard than normal. I was going to arrive in Philadelphia on Monday, but then I was going to head right back to New York City on a bus to work on a big balloon project on Wednesday. Fortunately, my friendEllen was understanding and was going to allow me to stash my bike and most of my gear while I went back to New York.

Her home was magnificent and was well worth the hills and cobble-stone obstacles encountered on the ride from the train station.

In my time in Philadelphia, I also randomly ran into a fellow balloon artist, Sarah Rose when I saw her holding a balloon in the street. It’s a dead giveaway.

Other highlights:

Meeting Balloonjamin Franklin

Seeing the Liberty Bell
Drinking Bubble Tea
Finally trying Yeungling Beer (From America’s oldest Brewery!)
Reconnecting with a childhood friend
Seeing sights from movies I haven’t seen (Cue Eye of the Tiger)

The crew had to be at work bright and early. It was bittersweet to see them leave so soon and my heart was a little sad.

However, I was back to my normal touring mode, and i had about 20 miles to ride to get back to Boston!

The hills and confusing directions made this take a while, but I was soon hanging out at the home of my friend Becca.

I had met Becca back in Chicago and saw her the last time I was in Boston. It was fabulous getting to catch up with her and have her feed me as she is a fabulous chef! After lunch, I showed her how to make some balloons and she showed some great potential.

In the afternoon we were off to explore Boston and see parts that I hadn’t seen the last time we were here. I was particularly excited to go to Harvard Square in Cambridge, since one of my favorite radio shows, Car Talk, is recorded there. While we didn’t see Click or Clack, we did see this giant, suspicious backpack:

Walking around Harvard was enlightening. Even the graffiti in the bathrooms is at a different level. Becca and I met her boyfriend, Steve, for dinner at an Indian restaurant (my favorite!), then walked around, enjoying the fabulous, warm night.

The next day Becca had to work, so I was left to my own devices. This is one of my favorite things. I got my biked fixed, explored the neighborhood (Jamaica Plain), and then went back to Becca’s place and played with balloons.

For a few days I’d been thinking that making a balloon Cthulhu would be fun, and I set into i. I don’t think it was a coincidence that while I was making this effigy, the sky unleashed with torrential rain. Cthulhu does have to show his power.

Luckily, the family cat came to the rescue when that pesky monster tried to come up through the bath tub.

As for future plans…I go to New York city tomorrow night/Friday morning on the Amtrak. I’ll be doing the New York Century bike ride on Sunday (with balloons of course). I plan to spend the following week busking and playing tourist in New York, and then plan on heading down to Philadelphia on September 26th and staying there for a week.

After that, I’ll keep on heading south and seeing where this bike trip takes me!

Waking up was easy this morning since I didn’t really sleep the night before. There must have bee some foreshadowing in play since several people had asked me if I ever got scared when camping by myself.

While I wasn’t scared enough to get up a leave, I did sleep with my pocket knife handy that night. Neighbors of the Knights of Columbus hall were up kind of late and at 2:30 in the morning I heard a loud, bone-chilling cry…and then another one and then some more. It was kind of like the sound of a cat trying to bark, loudly. (I later discovered that it was foxes!)

After the restless night, I was a little slow going, but one of the club members brought me coffee early in the morning an I was packed up and on the road by 8.

My troubles from the day before continued. I felt like I had no momentum and the hills just seemed a lot harder than they should. However, this time I was feeling fine and didn’t just write it off to a mental issue. At the top of a hill, with an attentive bovine audience, I looked at my bike. The tires were still definitely inflated (I check that constantly), the front wheel seemed to be fine….but then I discovered the culprit: my back wheel was wobbly and my brake was rubbing. My wheel wasn’t freely rotating without a lot of effort and this explained why it was so hard to ride. I know my limitations as a bike mechanic and that I would be in Boston that night, so I loosened my back brakes and continued on….still marveling at how much easier it was to ride!

The ride into Worcester was less than 30 miles from Ware, and I took my time. I was going to pick up the commuter rail from there to avoid the busy suburban roads. When I got on the train, I was pleasantly surprised that it was much easier to bring a bike on than in comparison with Chicagoland’s Metra.

Getting into Boston was great. For the first time I was in a place where I had been before. I was seeing people whom I had already met and I was seeing bicycles everywhere!

The number of bikes was a real treat. South Station had a line up of bike share bikes and while I waited for my friends, I watched the bike share bikes come and go.

After the entertaining people watching, my friend Zach and his crew pulled up to take me, and my bike with them to dinner. They were in town for a business trip and it was especially surreal to see the people who I know so well from Chicago in this new city. We went to a Chinese hotpot restaurant and the culture shock continued. Having eaten so much gas station and small town food…this was exotic…and delicious.

Seeing the guys and walking around Boston was great. It was unseasonably warm and it seemed like everyone was outside enjoying the temperatures.

We all went back to the hotel in the suburbs and I got my new balloon supply from Zach and I slept on my sleeping pad there in great contentment with having this familiar company.