Welcome to New Readers - How to Use this Blog

If you're a new reader I want to welcome you to Discovering America on 2 Wheels.

Here's a quick recap of my adventure so far.... on 12/6/09 I left Lake Jackson Tx on a Trek 3700 Mountain Bike with an 8-gallon Action Packer with 25# of gear in it bolted to a seat post mounted rear rack and shouldering a backpack with 35# of gear in it and took a route up 36 turning west at Rosenberg on Alt 90 through Eagle Lake then taking Hwy 102 to I10 to 71W to LaGrange then Bastrop State Park then McKinney Falls State Park and then past Austin to Marble Falls and a first "2-day rest stop" at Inks Lake State Park just north of Marble Falls Tx.

My route continued out of Inks Lake State Park east on Hwy 29 to 281N in Burnet. I continued up 281N but was delayed a couple of days in Hamilton Tx. I cracked a rear rim on my bicycle and had to have a new one UPS'd in. From Hamilton I took 281N to Hico Tx where I transitioned to Hwy 67 with another stop in Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glenrose Tx. After leaving DVSP, I overnighted in Burleson before the push to the Leg 1 final destination - North Richland Hills Tx - a northeast suburb of Ft Worth which I reached on 12/19.... 510 miles in 13 days.

I stayed with my son, stored my bike and backpack in NRH and rode back down to Lake Jackson for Christmas. I visited the LJ Verizon Wireless Store and came out up to speed on the latest wireless technology with an LG Env3 (chosen for ease of use, LG reliability and QWERTY keyboard) with VZW Navigator and a Gateway Netbook w/ a VZW card built in.

I returned to NRH with my son after Christmas, created the concept and the blog for Discovering America on 2 Wheels and populated the blog with the text, message and commentary from the first leg which amounted to about 150 posts. I learned how to link my cell phone to my blog so that my text, pics and video would be sent to it wirelessly real time.

On 12/29, I began Leg 2 by leaving Fort Worth in the snow and began a due west route on 180 with a first stop of Weatherford. I then cycled to Lake Mineral Wells State Park and spent 3 days there exploring the beautiful lake shore trails. I mailed all my camping gear from the Mineral Wells Post Office to the Muleshoe Tx PO near the New Mexico border because the next 300 miles would be spent in motels. My trip down 180W went by in 60 mile increments with stays in Breckenridge, Anson and Snyder where I picked up Hwy 84 to Lubbock and then Muleshoe Tx where I learned a labeling error on my part had resulted in the Muleshoe PO returning my camping gear to Lake Jackson!

Adapt and Overcome.... after some quick thinking and research, I realized the best course of action was to buy new camping gear in Clovis NM which I did before continuing to Sumner Lake SP near Ft Sumner NM where I stayed at a beautiful park on a man-made lake in the Chihuahan Desert of New Mexico waking every morning to the sounds of quacking Mallards and honking Canada Geese.

I took a back road route over a caliche road from Sumner Lake SP to Santa Rosa NM. I was expecting to camp out at Santa Rosa SP but a "blackout" due to budget cuts closed the NM State Parks on 1/14 and 1/15.

I left Santa Rosa bound for Villanueva State Park but made an error in attempting to access the park from the east from Hwy 84 through a labyrinth of dirt roads between Anton Chico and Villanueva State Park.... I got lost for the first time but was rescued by a truck load of young folks and transported back to I40 where I resumed my westerly trek before turning north on Hwy 3 to Villanueva State Park.... the best kept secret in the New Mexico State Park System... nestled in a sandstone canyon on the Pecos River, this park was amazing in the rugged beauty it held in its small footprint. I was the only one in the park and enjoyed the solitude of hiking the rim trails on both sides of the canyon before departing on the final 50 miles to Santa Fe.

Stiff head winds on I25 prevented me from reaching Santa Fe but I overnighted in a wonderful Baptist retreat - the Glorieta Convention Center... nestled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at 7400' elevation. On 1/21 I cruised the final 25 miles into Santa Fe and my destination for the end of Leg 2.

My wife flew into Albuquerque and met me in Santa Fe where we re-discovered the highest elevation state capital in the United States and its unique variety of Old and New cultures. I left my bicycle and backpack in storage in Santa Fe and we flew out of Albuquerque on 1/24 and returned to Lake Jackson.

Since then I have been working on gaining corporate sponsorship for my continuing bicycle trek across America. I will be returning to Santa Fe in the near future to look for a home there and get going on Leg 3.... Leg 3 will either be a "wagon wheel" around Santa Fe.... it is at the center of many natural wonders and dramatic scenery from one of the latest National Park additions at Valles Caldera National Reserve - already known as "the Yellowstone of the Southwest" to the ancient cliff dwellings of Bandelier National Monument to the red cliffs and desert of Jemez Springs and the snow-capped Redondo Peak.

The other alternative to Leg 3 is an 1150 mile run down the Historic Route 66 now I40 from Santa Fe NM to Los Angeles CA with a detour at Flagstaff to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
So that brings you up to date.... the details of everything described above along with hundreds of pictures and a number of videos are contained in the 900+ posts to the blog.

I hope you enjoy this site.... its imagery and commentary.... it comes from a heart of passion for the great outdoors and a deep appreciation of this country and the people in it.... who have welcomed me with open arms, helping hands and warm and friendly conversation.

As you scroll down on the blog, the list of 2010 post titles are displayed at the right. The dates of the post are not displayed but once you click on one the date will be noted on the post.... once a post is accessed, you can scroll down and click on "Older Post" or "Newer Post" to go forward or back in time from the post that was accessed or just click on another post title to the right.

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Please submit "Comments" and suggestions on the blog.... I am trying to turn this blog and the adventure that generates it into a new career so your comments, likes and dislikes are important to the development of this site and my own future success.

As you'll see if you read a few of the blogs, it is a combination and variety of anything and everything that I encounter in my winter trek across America on a bicycle. It is a journey of Discovery in more ways than can be captured in the text and pictures which wall paper this blog.

I hope you'll ride with me on this butt numbing, thigh screaming, lung busting, snow laden, irreverent, humbling, impassioned, introspective, mystical and magical search for the best things in life....a once in a lifetime thrill ride I call

Discovering America on 2 Wheels.