Final thoughts from Rasmivan:

After 50 days since leaving Seattle cycling over 2,500 miles the Peace Ride sadly finished in Chicago on 15 July. As in the previous report it was mentioned that unfortunately Salil came off his bike in Dexter, Iowa and fractured his collarbone. I continued on my own for the next 8 days. It was hoped that someone else could accompany me from Chicago to New York to continue the Peace Ride. Unfortunately no one was available and due to safety concerns of continuing the next 4 weeks to New York on my own it was decided to end the Peace Ride of America. Although I was disappointed I knew this was the correct decision.

The past 7 weeks cycling through America has been such an amazing experience, one that I will always remember with so much fondness and joy. The journey has been truly exhilarating. The landscape of the vastness and at times wilderness of remote rural America has been breathtaking. What has been more memorable are the people we have met on the road and those that kindly hosted us. The kindness and generosity of people has truly been heart warming. The whole journey has been one long meditation that I feel has changed me.

Although we didn’t complete our journey across the country by finishing in New York it a way it feels it doesn’t matter. It would have been wonderful if we had achieved this, but things happen that are beyond our control. We are all transformed by the experiences we have and the people we meet. These experiences help us to evolve inwardly and outwardly and to move forward in life.

It reminds me what Sri Chinmoy wrote on ‘The significance of cycling’:

“While we are cycling, we are reminding ourselves of evolution, of how the world is evolving in cycles. When we think of our planet, we think of a wheel turning; our life also is evolving like a wheel. So cycling reminds us of the process of evolution and of how everything goes in cycles.

Once upon a time, in the hoary past, we lived in an era of truth. Now we are living in an era of falsehood. There was a time when truth reigned supreme, but now we see that at every moment and in every place falsehood is reigning supreme. Our goal is to bring back again the golden age in which truth will be our inner guide and truth will reign supreme. So cycling reminds us of evolution, inner and outer.

In the process of evolution, our life-process, our life-energy — everything—is spinning so fast. The faster we can go, the sooner we will be able to have outer success and inner progress. And with our outer success and inner progress, we will be able to arrive at our goal infinitely faster than otherwise.”

From:Sri Chinmoy, My cycling experiences, Agni Press, 2007 Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mce

As this cycling journey has come to an end I will endeavour to pursue further cycling adventures. So who knows what’s in store for the rest of this year and 2026 as I move onto the next cycle in my life.