Nathan Fillion once said, “I like to say there’s certain things you can’t take back: One of them is ‘I love you,’ and one of them is bullets.” Today was the first time in my life I had direct contact with bullets.
We were cycling along when I heard this noise you hear when cars pass across loose stones on the road, or sewage covers – babang babang… Listen.

When we realised the noise was coming from the road, we turned off the Freeway into an entrance on the side of the road and found what I had heard about but had never seen. A shooting range.

What kind of people would spent their Saturday afternoon with mufflers on their ears shooting at targets that remotely look like people with guns that are used by special forces in war zones with each shot costing maybe 20-30 cents?

They were terribly nice people. They promised to put up information on An Saol on their Facebook site. They congratulated us on the good work we are doing.

How often have we been told to ‘bite the bullet’? To endure (and accept) the unavoidable situation of our injured loved ones and that of our own difficult situation.

We won’t accept that. Instead, we will have a shot a changing what should not, in the first instance, ever have become reality.

And this bicycle ride will teach us how to make it happen. Not because we come across all sorts of strange things, including shooting ranges, but because we go beyond of what at least I thought I was capable of doing, with friends I never spent more than a few hours with at a time.

Tomorrow will be a big day, up Big Sur, up at 6 am in order to make it. We’ll give it a shot.

I had my doubts. Now I know. I should not be here. This is no country for old men. It’s a country for young people. Freewheelin’. Surfin’.

And there, in the middle of it all, am I, cycling through what must be one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Trying to raise awareness and money for An Saol in California. Trying to cycle 1,000 km with my two friends. Sweating in the heat. Getting a sore back side. Being so tired and exhausted each evening that it’s almost impossible to gather my thoughts.

I am thinking how much Pádraig must have enjoyed it when he was here one summer on his first J1. He probably said it, but I don’t remember. Or maybe I was too busy to listen. Now I’m thinking it should be him traveling up from Hollywood to Napa, going to the out-of-this-world beaches, enjoying the sun on his skin, listening to the sea, the music, the people.

Someone wrote to me that Pádraig was the original ‘Into the Wild’ person. If I think what all of this means … The point is that he should be doing this trip. And so he will. This thing about Alaska I’ve been on for a long time is not a pipe dream.

What I’m doing here these days is good, at least it’s meant to be good. An Saol and the An Saol Project is reaching people who will share it with their friends, they will spread the word here in the US. And who knows? These two weeks of being in a country for young and beautiful people doing the impossible might help making the impossible possible.

(And really: I’m not so old – and neither are my two co-cyclists and friends!)

An important reason for our cycle is to raise funding for the An Saol project.

Today, we passed the €5,000 collected by 52 people supporting the #GreatAmericanCyce II!

Some of the scenery today was spectacular – so was the filming. Look at this!

 

There’s loads  to write about but I’m too tired to write much tonight, another of these nights when I’m falling asleep as I’m trying to gather my thoughts and putting them on ‘paper’. That’ll have to wait for another day…

Here’s the first sign of Napa:

Don’t know where to start. So many things happened today. The night was hectic, most o aFrom a meeting with the Rotary Club in Santa Monica in the morning to the meeting with Rotary Club members at the house of a Rotary member who has a daughter who suffered a severe Acquired Brain Injury in a car accident many years ago and really recovered so much with the help of her parents.

In between 108km of what must be one of the most beautiful bicycle rides in the world. From Santa Monica we passed through Venice Beach, the most amazing beach I’d ever seen – not just because of the really clean and golden sand, but equally because of the people and the general atmosphere of the place. Further up North, we passed through Malibu with the most amazing houses overlooking some of the most amazing cost line you could imagine,

I first really enjoyed the whole experience immensely. Cycling along the Pacific Coast on the Marin Bike felt like flying. It was breath-taking. Literally. I was also very happy that (unlike in Boston) my back side this time seemed to have withheld the pressure.

Tonight we are staying with the most wonderful couple in their most amazing house in Ventura. It’s late here and I am shattered – though, I’m the last man ‘standing’. My friends just fell to the side tonight and started to sleep immediately. I’ll follow their example now and will try to gather some strength for an early morning start!

Day 4 will be Ventura to Solvang.

Instead of a written ‘diary’, here are some impressions of today by Martin and Chris!

Chris describing his cycle up to the Griffith Observatory

Martin found it equally hard to climb up that steep mountain!

Hollywood – the city of dreams and make-belief!

Tomorrow you can follow us from Santa Monica to Ventura!

 

We haven’t really started yet. Just getting ready.

And what better way to start with a good send-off party – attended, no less by the Irish Honorary Consul, Finbar Hill.

There was a great turnout and everybody had a great evening. We told our friends what we are planning to do, not just over the next two weeks or so, but over the next three years and beyond.

We took a few videos, will put them together over the next few days, and share them with you. Here just a few impressions.

… and a short video

 

Off to Hollywood and what promises to be a great start to a great adventure!

Follow us:

The Great American Cycle 2 Fundraiser – October 4 – October 15 – Los Angeles to Napa Valley, California

fb.me/AnSaolFoundation
#GreatAmericanCycle

Donate

Well, it’s Naples California – and we are getting ready for the #GreatAmericanCycle starting tomorrow in Hollywood (California:).

Here is what you can do to help us: Tweet, share on FB, Instagram and whatever else you can think of that we are doing it why we are doing it.

There are some flyers available at the bottom of the Cycle web page with all the information.

If you and/or your friends want to support our fundraising efforts, here is the link!

Tonight, our great friend, supporter, tech & media guru, and support vehicle captain, together with his fabulous wife, have invited family, friends, and neighbours to their gorgeous house (where they have us so generously invited to stay) to hear about our cycle and the work we would like to support.

It’ll be a great night in!

No time – about to board. Coming into Los Angeles!

One ‘old bloke’ is there waiting for us – the other two are on the way!!
(After a bit of a problem at the airport:)

Watch this space!

http://ansaol.ie/donate/
http://ansaol.ie/great-american-cycle-2-fundraiser/

#GreatAmericanCycle
https://www.facebook.com/AnSaolFoundation/

Today is the catholic church’s Day for Life, a special day dedicated to celebrating the dignity of life. Pope John Paul II introduced this day in his 1995 encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) “to foster in individual consciences, in families, in the Church, and in civil society, recognition of the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition” (EV #85).., An opportunity to highlight that in our ‘modern’ society, as well as the often quoted, shocking view of some doctors that ‘life’ after a severe acquired brain injury only requires ‘maintenance’.-

Tonight is one of these nights I’m feeling a bit of an un-ease. All of what I’m going to do over the next two weeks and a bit is really out of my league, completely. And leaving Pádraig and the rest of the family in Dublin won’t be easy either, for all of us.

I’m writing this early, because we’ll have an evening together with the family and I’ll try to go to bed early – though I’m pretty certain that sleep won’t come easy.

Oh, and if you want to watch something really beautiful (and in Irish) check out this very recent video. Pádraig loves it!

Incredible stuff is happening. Really. First and most importantly: Pádraig’s new favourite ‘exercise’ is playing ‘hot hands’: you put a hand down on the table, the other person does likewise, and so forth. As the other person tries to slap your hand, you try to pull it away. And that is exactly what Pádraig did this morning as I tried to put my hand down on his – and at lightning speed. A little bit later, when I tried to get him ready for transfer into his wheelchair, he pulled up his legs all by himself to help.

What started as an unbelievable day continued…

We watched Shane Grogan and his family on Ireland AM.

At lunchtime, Georg Hook interviewed me on his show “High Noon” about the Great American Cycle we’re about to embark on.

 

And in the afternoon, I had my first very promising meeting with the HSE in preparation of what is rapidly becoming a real possibility: getting the An Saol Project on the road in early 2017.

Tonight, I’m finding it difficult to process all of this and to get ready mentally for leaving in less than 2 days. I have no idea how all this is happening. How so many people are getting onto the Dreamboat. How it seems that the ‘impossible’ is going to become reality. At so many different levels. Two ‘firsts’ in the space of half an hour. I’m still in shock.

I’m almost afraid to believe all this in case there’ll be a huge disappointment in the end. Do you know this feeling?