After being home for a few months I struggled with the question of what I had learned from this trip. The big and obvious takeaway was that people, by and large, were inherently good. We had met so many people of different backgrounds and life circumstances but the common denominator was the graciousness and kindness shown to us along the way.

 

We did not meet one bad person on the whole trip. Everyone bent over backward to help us, whether it was the Mongolian family that brought out an ancient battery charger to help recharge my battery to the British shipping steward that went out of his way to make sure our bikes would arrive in New Jersey when we did. Even the strict border officials in Uzbekistan and the corrupt police in Kazakhstan wanted to chat and take pictures with us and sit on our motorcycles.

 

It also became apparent that the poorer the people were the more generous they were. The Mongolian Nomad family that fed us and performed a milk ceremony for our safe travel was a stunning example of generosity.

 

It’s so easy to fall into cynicism and negative thinking while grinding out an existence in privileged LA but this trip re-energized my faith in humanity and left me wanting to explore more of the world. It demystified my fear of being able to adapt to foreign situations and people. It also taught me that in every situation what you bring to the table will determine the outcome. We approached every new situation with an openness, a thirst for knowledge and understanding, and most importantly kindness that was completely reflected to us by everyone we met. I’m convinced that if we had come in as the “ugly Americans”, an approach that was not really in any of our DNA by the way, outcomes could have been different.

 

Another byproduct of the trip was gaining the confidence to take on some of the more difficult aspects of my life, particularly my marriage and business situation. This will be the subject of another book but I felt like since I had survived the ride across Mongolia and had organized this massive adventure, tackling day-to-day dramas became much easier and that I could, with determination, shape MY future any way that I wanted to and that no matter what, I would be ok. Turns out that living life fearlessly is very powerful and empowering.

 

Mike and I also decided to do several more large trips one of which we completed in 2020, crossing America off-road on the Trans America Trail. Hopefully, in 2022 we’ll be riding from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to LA to be followed in 2023 with a trip starting in Tierra Del Fuego Argentina, and ending in LA. Perhaps Africa will be after that. Regardless, we look forward to taking you all along as passengers on the next trips or reading about your adventures that might have been inspired by us racing the sun.

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