Travelog Tjoan

I am writing this piece on my laptop sitting behind my desk one week after I did return home to Rhenen in the Netherlands. Yes, home again after an incredible recumbent bicycle adventure through the USA.

The late afternoon KLM return flight from Atlanta, Georgia, on the 6th landed in the early morning of the 7th of September at Schiphol airport. A very smooth touch down marked the moment I returned on Dutch soil after a five months journey that has provided me with life long memories and many new friends.

After docking to the gate, disembarking and passing immigration I proceeded to the luggage claim area to collect my bags and bicycle. After some time had passed both my bags finally did emerge on the luggage carousel and I could load them onto the trolley. However waiting at the special oversize baggage belt did not yield any result. Many parcels, boxes, strollers, wheelchairs, surfboards and indeed some other bicycles from who knows where did emerge and were dully claimed by their respective owners. But the box that contained my recumbent
bicycle did not appear. After all other items had been collected and the flashing light signaling fresh arrivals had remained off for quite some time, I decided to ask someone at the service desk if they could explain the absence of my bicycle.
They were indeed very helpful and called everyone connected to offloading flight 0622 from Atlanta. Alas, no person had seen the bicycle box and it resulted in a missing/lost report. That was a bit of a bummer I tell you. So there I was pushing only one trolley loaded with two suitcases and a carry-on bag and a neatly folded missing luggage report in the breast pocket of my shirt instead of having to struggle with yet another trolley bearing an unwieldy box containing my bike.
I must admit; It was easier this way but it felt a lot less good!

Both my sister and brother who had patiently waited all that time for me entering in the arrivals area, and who had nearly given up on that, did not immediately recognize me and not only because I had a for them unknown short haircut but I was obviously not having a bicycle with me! The reunion with my siblings was good and we sat together for a while in an airport cafe to exchange some newsy bits over a tea and juice . Afterwards the three of us walked to the parking garage. There I said goodbye to my sister, who went back to her house in Amsterdam, and loaded the bags in my brothers car. He brought me home to Rhenen, about an hour drive from Schiphol airport.
Late that afternoon, in a phone call from Schiphol airport I was told the bicycle had been found and would be delivered to my home the very next day. That was a relief.
At the end of the morning on Monday I indeed did receive the bicycle box and after unpacking my bike I found it to be in good order. Great!

As said a week has passed since I came home and four fifth of me is now back in this time zone, a slight jet lag effect still persists.
I did try to stick to a normal day and night rhythm, did participate in spinning exercise classes on two evenings this passed week and I did meet with my running group on Thursday.
I ran a total of 8 miles that evening of which 3 indoors as a warm up on a treadmill and then 5 mostly through the woods and that went fine. Then next day though the first signs of muscle ache in my legs did manifest themselves. Saturday both legs felt very soar indeed!
Running is definitely different from cycling, my physical condition had no problem with it, however my leg muscles did, all the more so! Whoa... it was painful!

I also scheduled an appointment last Friday with my recumbent bicycle shop ACE to give my Fujin a complete overhaul while putting it back together from its disassembled state.
I put the bike back in the shipping box re-taped it and hauled it on a small trolley to the train station in Rhenen. Two train changes and some three hours later I did arrive at the shop.
Here Mathijs and Mark did do a fine job on the overhaul. Thank you guys!
In the early evening I got home, now riding my recumbent from the station and it once again is in great shape, ready for a ride when I feel like it!

Now it is Monday, the muscle ache is gone and I have started to work again too.
At the end of last week I did receive the two boxes I had send to myself. One from Los Angeles the other from Atlanta both contained all kinds of printed matter. Maps, brochures, leaflets all those things one collects while traveling. It all will serve as support reference material when I am writing more stories to complete the journeys chronicles.
These will continue to appear on this web site in my travel log pages. I will put them in the right order by ante dating them.
Also I will sort through all the photo material and place those photo's that enhance the stories on the photo blog pages.

So I will continue to update the content of this website and you may want to visit from time to time and see what's new.
I would like to thank all of you who have left comments on my stories. Wonderful, keep them coming!
Also I invite anyone I have met and who has taken pictures of me or pictures of themselves to post those to this site or to my regular E mail address. That would be much appreciated!

Looking forward to hearing from you in the time to come, and .... don't forget to visit this site.

Greetings from Tjoan Liang.

A headwind during the very last 20 miles from downtown San Diego southbound slowed my approach to the goal of this recumbent journey. It was Tuesday, the 27th of August near three in the afternoon, when I got to a dusty, hot and rather deserted State park which, a sign read, was not even officially open that day. Slipping passed a closed gate I entered the park anyway, because I saw the road continued to go west toward the pacific shore line and I hoped I could end this trip by sitting on the beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
However the road ended rather abruptly only a quarter of a mile later still quite some distance from the beach.
All that Border Field State park is, really, is an estuary plain right next to the border with Mexico and as such it has low scrubs and thorny plants as vegetation and a narrow strip of beach which I could have reached had I chosen to push the bicycle down a narrow track with loose sand over half a mile long,
I opted to not do this and instead decided to call the point where the paved road ended in a sandy circular turn around area the official end of my recumbent bicycle journey over the last 5 months.

Now that nearly 7000 road miles are behind me without any mechanical problems with my Fujin, no problems with either my body or mind, though I have been called crazy for doing this more then once during this trip, and having had the fortune of never having had a broken spoke or even flat tire on this entire trip!, it is now over. I did do what I had set out to do and completed the ride within the time I had made available to do it in.
It was both a joyous and somewhat sad occasion at the same time I think.
As there was no one else there to “celebrate” with I called Menno and a few friends to let them know I arrived there. So with a still partially cold can of Iced Tea in one hand and using the other hand to hold my cellphone to my ear I spent some time talking to old and new friends about my journey. Some kind of celebration after all.

The only disturbances in sound were the passing border patrol vehicles that very frequently used a nearby road and somewhat more distant some navy helicopters that were doing drop off, pick flight maneuver exercises in a similar terrain to my north. To my south I had a view of Mexico that lay beyond the security fence that followed the hilly terrain contours like a vertical ribbon. A bright white apartment complex, some high rises and a bullring were the most visible objects over there. It was to far to discern any people.

After the phone calls I sat there for a while experiencing the feelings and emotions I tend to have when a journey has come to an end.
Joy and relief over the fact that it had all gone without mishap, gratefulness for the many interesting encounters and numerous new friendships I have made while traversing this continent. Sadness too, over the fact that my cycling exploits would now, at least for a while be on hold again. I have felt very happy over the last few months doing this and it has rekindled the traveling spirit within, the very same one I must now quiet down again, at least for some time to come.
I do love to do the things I do while I am back at home in The Netherlands but to have the freedom to move every day, getting up not knowing what that day might bring and where I would be the next night has an always had a strong appeal to me from my very earliest travel experiences to this very day.

All done, I backtracked my route and pedaled back to the nearest town called Imperial Beach. The men on duty at a border patrol roadblock checkpoint along the way remembered me passing them some hours earlier and I was waived to go thought without any checking.
In Imperial Beach I found accommodation at a motel and not long after that I headed on foot to a restaurant to get a fine meal to end the day.

After a very good nights rest,I woke refreshed and ready to roll, then I realized I was no heading toward my goal but was actually backtracking to get back to San Diego where I planned to stay some days before taking a train back to Los Angeles. A week earlier I had booked a flight from Los Angeles airport eastbound to Atlanta on the 1st of September. So the remaining days would be spent divided between San D and LA.
In San D I would meet up with a friend I had met cycling down the coast some weeks earlier and in LA I would stay with family that lives there in Orange county.

Tomorrow I will fly east bound to Atlanta, Georgia and spend another 5 days among friends there before returning to The Netherlands on the sixth of September.

I have prepared my bicycle for air travel here in Los Angeles and have put it in a box ready to fly back with me all the way, that is if the baggage handlers don't manage to destroy the box while on this domestic flight.
The lay over time in Atlanta will be too short to make it worthwhile putting it back together over there to use it thus I will not be riding it again until it has been reassembled at home.
The Fujin has done it's last mile here in the USA this time around, but it might well be here again as my road companion on another bicycle tour.

A last word now, a BIG Thank You!!!.. to all the wonderful people I met and who have made this trip again so special for me. Be it only during the briefest of moments along the roadside somewhere, a short exchange of sorts or during a more extended period while riding along the same roads and sharing a meal or two somewhere or anything in between, whichever it was, meeting you all is what makes traveling such a great experience.
The helpfulness, kindness, generosity and friendships I have encountered once again has been fantastic!