I came. I saw. I got seasonal depression.
I know that DC has mild winters compared to some places, but I don't know how people make it through winters that last half the year. I spent the first decade of my life in Louisiana, my teen years in Florida, and most of my twenties in California; I'm used to actual mild winters - not winters that seem mild to people from Minnesota. Cold weather shouldn't last more than two or three months. If you're still having to layer at mid-day in the month of April, it's time to find somewhere else to live. So, I have.
I had really been keeping an eye out for jobs all over the country. I searched for jobs in Los Angeles; I have so many friends there and the weather is great. I searched for jobs in New York City. I just went there for the first time a couple months ago, and I fell in love with it. I searched for bike jobs everywhere, but nothing quite came to fruition. Finally though, I settled on Austin, TX.
I was supposed to move to Austin last year. When I was struggling with unemployment in Santa Cruz, a good friend of mine there insisted that I move and stay in her extra room until I found some work. At the same time, I was pretty sweet on a girl that was going to move there for school late last year. It sounded pretty appealing, but I had already packed all my things to move back to my mom's in Florida. So, it got put off. In the meantime, I ended up moving to DC for a summer job, and the girl I was sweet on decided to go to a different school. When the job ended, I got apathetic and stayed in DC.
I guess I feel like I should've move to Austin at the end of the summer, but maybe a year in DC was good for me. It was certainly an experience. I spent eight months working at a bike shop, and if I continue working with bike projects, that'll sweeten up my resumé.
When and how to move to Austin became the next question. I'm still living blessedly car-free, so I had to do a bit of research. Renting a van was prohibitively expensive. I considered renting a car and just loading all my things into it and driving there - the way that I moved to California. It turned out to be about the same as what it would cost to ship everything freight and I wouldn't have to worry about gas with shipping.
I knew that a friend was getting married in Santa Fe, NM on May 21st. I really wanted to go to that, but it was so close to when I was planning on moving that it complicated things a bit. I thought it would be a great idea to bike to Austin from DC, but then I would get there and have to turn around and fly to Santa Fe and back. Also, I would have to leave DC way earlier to complete the trip before the wedding.
That's when it hit me. I could fly to Santa Fe with my bike, and then ride to Austin from there.
The distance to Austin from Santa Fe is about 700 miles, which sounds much more reasonable than the 1,800 miles between DC and Austin. Also, I've not really been through that country. I've driven the stretch of road between Amarillo and Denton, TX a couple times, but that's about a 150 miles further north than the route I'd be taking. So, that became the plan: Santa Fe -> wedding -> bike tour to Austin.
As it turns out, shipping a bike and camping equipment is as expensive as a return flight, so in the future, I'm not really going to be able to justify doing this again financially (I could still justify it in other ways). And, I'm swearing off big cross-country moves for a while. It's too much. I swear if I have tape up another box in the next year, I'll breakdown completely. I don't even want to hear the sound of packing tape being pulled off the roll. But, everything is pack and shipped off to Austin, now, where it will be waiting for me, hopefully all in one piece. I fly out to Santa Fe tomorrow.
I have a bit of anxiety - mostly having to do with camping in the middle of nowhere by myself. I haven't had much luck finding campgrounds. I guess I'll just camp wherever I get tired. I also am not sure how many days I'm going to do it in. The original plan was to do it in seven to ten days, but I think it might be interesting to kick up the milage a bit. I've been kind of fascinated with RAAM (Race Across America) lately, and the idea of doing as many miles in a day as daylight will permit sounds like a great challenge.
I'll keep updating my progress while I'm riding via my twitter account: http://twitter.com/VeloTramp
Wish me luck!
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