With 9 days left, it's hard to believe we've made it to the western edge of the fourth largest nation in the world. The amount of miles for each ride seems trivial. No longer do we travel westward day-to-day moving toward the next rest day as a day off. On our next day off, we will have completed the journey that took us almost a year of preparation.Somewhere west of Chicago but east of Yellowstone, the novelty of the trip wore off. We weren't fueled by the adrenaline and excitement we left New York with. I found myself often wondering what happened to the novelty, the spark. It's easy to see now that the growth of our team occurred during the time when our novelty wore off. After reaching Portland, I understand that the novelty wore off to give us a chance to experience and learn. Suddenly our attentional resources weren't focused on the external aspects of the ride (excitement, riding our bikes). During this "down time" as I'll call it, many of us turned our attentional resources inward--to ourselves, our organization. As we left Portland and entered Corvallis, I realized that during the downtime, the novelty turned into wisdom, clarity, and confidence. Our souls of the trip aren't the springy, ecclectic, energetic youth we knew as we left Central Park nearly two months ago. We're older, taller, more mature in the context of the ride. We've learned so much and have truly, truly lived so fully these past sixty-three days.There's a chance I may not blog before the end, and if this is the case, I would like to extend my deepest grattitude to everyone involved in this trip. It could not have happened without your support.eamon