In the back of my head, everyday since I began my trip on June 19th, I've played this navigational chess match with myself. Do I spend a day rafting on the Salmon River or try to bike 80 miles instead? It's 100 degrees, 11:30 am, and I've only gone 35 miles, do I keep on going or get a motel room with an air conditioner? I've biked nine days straight and am feeling good, but I've fallen seven days behind on my journal and website, do I take a day off to catch up? Everyday presents a new situation that requires a decision. Do I work towards achieving the goal of enjoying myself by not being a slave to the miles, or do I keep pushing to make it to Connecticut? It's never easy and you can never do both. I just think of the phrase "the steps of the journey is the journey" and try to make decisions that will hopefully balance out in the end.

Lately, I've been faced with several of these situations. Some in which I actually had a decision to make and others that were made for me. In Carbondale, I took three days off, one to visit my cousin, one to wait for Alex to arrive from San Francisco, and one to wait out the rain. Yesterday, I took another day off so Alex could rest (I can't blame him, on my fourth day, I was exhausted). This Wednesday afternoon and Thursday we're going to take off to visit my father's grad school roommate's daughter.

These are the things you have to do. It's one thing to see the country, it's quite another to experience it. The United States is the diverse people, cultures and lifestyles that make up its fabric. If you bike across the country and only stop to take pictures, you're only enjoying half the experience. You have to immerse yourself where ever you go, you must stop and smell the preverbial roses, but you also have to cover the miles. These are the decisions, that is the game you must play.

Because of the decisions I've made, the way I've chosen to experience my journey, I'm faced with the biggest decision of my trip. Do I continue on my course and ride to Yorktown, VA the official end of the TransAmerica Trail, or do I go off course, head north and hope to make it to Connecticut in time for Lenny's wedding?

After much internal debate, discussions with Alex, and studying of maps, I decided that finishing my trip in Connecticut is more important to me than finishing the TransAmerica Trail. Because of the stops I've made, I don't have time to follow my orginal plan of riding to Yorktown, then ride up the coast to Connecticut. There just isn't time. Instead, I'll have to abandon the luxury of following a trail, using maps designed specifically for bikers, that mark where the stores, restaraunts and campgrounds are. This decision means a greater adventure is ahead of Alex and me, one that will be unpredictable, and unexpected. Surely, it will be more difficult, but along with greater risk comes greater rewards.