Early End to my Ride

I gave up on my bike ride along the West coast of Australia. There were a number of reasons for ending my ride. My sore back was making it difficult to enjoy riding. My 94 year old mother fell and broke her hip. My funds were running low. All three reasons contributed to my decision to fly back to the states early. When I hurt my back near Melbourne I did a pretty good job of injuring myself. I am sure the audible pop I heard when I twisted while lifting the heavy table was a disc getting injured. I recovered enough to get around somewhat but when I rode my bike every bump I hit sent electrical jolts up my spine and hurt too much to enjoy riding. That alone was enough to end my ride. My mom needed surgery to repair her broken hip after a fall and at her age health problems can go south quickly and I was three days of traveling away from where she was. Three days is a long time, too long in an emergency. I cut that to several hours just by returning to California. My money was running short because I had to spend too much money on accommodations after I hurt my back. When I was riding daily I typically camped out which was way cheaper than hostels and hotels which is where I ended up spending a few weeks. When I ride I spend about $30-35 a day with most of that going to food. The hotels were costing $65-85 and hostels cost $30-35 a day just for the bed and then I need to add food and some entertainment on top of that. In the end I still had enough cash to finish the ride if I could have been riding but not enough to just sit around in hotels and hostels.

I still enjoyed my trip to Australia despite not being able to ride as much as I had planned to ride. I will get healthy and build up my bank account and then hit the road again. I am not sure right now when or where I will do that. I have an opportunity to go back to New Zealand for a few months and I will more than likely do that. After NZ I may return to Australia to finish my ride on the West coast. I also want to ride in Southeast Asia from Thailand through Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and up through China. Not sure which route I will end up riding but when I do I will continue this blog. Until that time I will update every once in a while with the direction my plans are heading or any other interesting items that come along. So thanks for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed some of it.