After much van work, travel anticipation, and trip planning, the day has come to begin my road trip across the USA! My goals: bicycle ride, watch for birds, photography, see places in our country new to me, meet other travelers, and visit with friends and family. My blog posts will have a delay in their arrival to you since I will be busy driving and taking each day as it comes, not writing a blog post. If you and I set a date for my visit, that is the date I will see you; please do not wait for a post saying I am in town. For readers new to my http://www.righteffort.blog, I would suggest you press the “follow” button. When my blog post is written it will come directly to your email; easy!

Before many of my travels, I hang a set of Tibetan prayer flags at our home. I want the mantras from the great Buddhist Bodhisattvas blowing in the wind to promote peace, compassion, strength and wisdom into all pervading space. During my travels when I see individuals, communities or the world encouraging peace, social justice and environmental sustainability, I feel optimistic. As I write this post, we are in desperate need of a humane humankind, yet we each can do our part and I always love seeing it when on the road. May I have positive energy through the thousands of miles ahead.

This trip I also decided to carry “Beads of Courage”. In 2018 I first carried a bead when I bicycled 700 miles across part of the USA. The beads are part of a non-profit that provides innovative, arts-in-medicine programs for children with serious illness, their families and healthcare providers who care for them. This time I decided to carry 2 beads … one for a child and the other bead for all the adults I currently personally know being courageous as they face struggles with their health. I am not sure I could be as courageous as they, and can only hope to support them to the best of my ability.

Life is precious … and while we can do what we can, we should. The Coronavirus pandemic forced us in different directions than what we initially hoped and thought we would be doing. Life does go on and one must decide how to live it. Never did I think I would purchase a gas-guzzling van, or fix it for travel, or drive across the USA once again a year later. But here I go with the best of intentions! I hope I see you down the road … smile and be well!