Louis Mendoza's blog

Gabriel Nevarez shares his life story, a story that traces a family's immigrant experience. MORE »

Having spent two weeks in Texas, leaving San Antonio was both exciting and daunting. Exciting because I sense that I’m going to finish what I’ve started here and I’m excited about that as well as just being done. Being on the road this long has been exciting but it’s taken its toll on me. I am tired and long for being in my own bed in my own house and in familiar surroundings. Seeing so many friends and family members in the last couple of weeks has been really good. Meeting new people and hearing their stories continues to energize and inspire me. I’m not tired of that.MORE »

On Friday I cycled from Kingsland, GA to Lake City, Fla (97 miles) . I encountered several short but intense storms that required me to pull off the road because my vision, and I'm sure my visibility on the road, was being impaired. There was no chance of staying dry so I pulled out my tarp and covered my bags and bike as I sat out the rain under some trees. Saturday was a bit shorter (70 miles) as I rode from Lake City to Perry. Though I was 50+ miles away from Tallahassee, the chain motels in town had jacked up their prices due to the FSU game.MORE »

After a quick but inspiring visit to the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn where I viewed an amazing exhibit titled Coming to America, I headed back to downtown Detroit to check out my options for crossing into Canada and to see if any of my leads for contacts in the area would pan out. I learned that I would have to take a cab across because bicycles aren't allowed in the tunnel or the bridge. MORE »

The weather forecast for Thursday was severe thunderstorms so I delayed my start until Friday morning. Marianne took me to St. Paul's westside so I could make a video tribute for my friend raulrsalinas. I took Hwy. 52 south to Rochester and arrived late afternoon to this pristine city of about 100,000 where the Zumbro River flows into Silver Lake. MORE »