{"id":147392,"date":"2017-03-27T09:55:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T09:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=147392"},"modified":"2017-03-27T09:55:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T09:55:16","slug":"travelling-world-hera-van-willick-brief-visit-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/03\/27\/travelling-world-hera-van-willick-brief-visit-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Travelling the World with Hera van Willick: A Brief Visit to the North"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Before I tell you my story, I want to take you with me on one particular part of my travels.\u00a0What\u2019s the hottest temperature you\u2019ve ever been in? 90 degrees, 100? Can you remember how hot that felt? The feeling of being baked. The sweat dripping into your eyes. Clothes sticking to your skin. Can you feel it?\u00a0Now imagine yourself in over 120 degrees. You\u2019re in the desert in Kazakhstan. There is not a building in sight. Nothing but endless sand and low bushes and a road that is blurred in the shimmering heat. And you\u2019re on a bicycle.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s how I started my speech, six days ago, in a 5-star hotel in Bellevue.<\/p>\n

Bellevue is the upper-class neighboring city of Seattle. There were 300 people sitting around tables turned into my direction with anticipation. From the stage I looked into bright white lights, familiar to me from the theater stages on which I spend so much time over the years. My black pumps were killing my toes and on the screens left and right of the stage a life-size picture of me in Alaska was projected.<\/p>\n

WARNING FOR BIKE-FANATICS: there\u2019s hardly any cycling in this blog!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travel back in time with me, so I can explain you how I got here.\u00a0It was on October 7th when I was forced to stay in a campground in Jasper, Canada. To save some money I asked three young men to share a camp spot. That\u2019s how I got to camp with Trevor, Tim and Scott that night. After exchanging travel stories and a nice dinner and breakfast together we parted ways the next morning.<\/p>\n

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Tim, Scott, me and Trevor in Jasper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few weeks later Trevor send me a message.\u00a0He had shared my story with his colleagues and boss and they might be interested to hear me speak about my travels at their work, at Umpqua Bank. In November I visited Trevor and Umpqua in Spokane and suddenly it turned out not to just be about speaking at one branch but to do a speech at their annually \u2018Celebration of Excellence\u2019. An event where all presidents of the bank are present and people are awarded for their special efforts.<\/p>\n

In March!\u00a0\u2018Damn\u2019, I thought, that\u2019s not gonna happen, I\u2019ll be way down in Mexico by then.<\/p>\n

But it turned out Umpqua didn\u2019t care about that and as the months went by I started to realize what an incredible opportunity this was for me. It was no problem to fly me \u2018up-and-down\u2019 from Mexico. I also didn\u2019t have to wear my bike shorts on stage thanks to a \u2018clothing stipend\u2019 and in \u2018Bellevue\u2019 they would put me up in the 5 star hotel where the event would take place.
\nIn Joshua Tree I started writing a speech in which I told about my life on the bike and touched some parallels with the work at the bank, like: not letting fear guide you, taking responsibility, dealing with unexpected circumstances, stamina and following your heart.<\/p>\n

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Mexico City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On March 8 the day was there to fly to the USA. An early morning flight with layovers in Mexico City and Los Angeles and arrival in the evening in wet Seattle.\u00a0The first few days I spend with friends in Tacoma, Dave and Jenny, with whom I spend Thanksgiving in November and from whose house Shaun and I took off together. They live in a wonderful place, 240 steps down a cliff to get to their house on poles above the water. The ideal place to land and prepare for my speech.<\/p>\n

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In the free time between mine and their work we spend some time together, shopped for a \u2018business-casual\u2019 and a \u2018cocktail-formal\u2019 outfit and even held a try-out speech for friends and neighbors in their living room. In front of 15 people I stumbled and stuttered through my story. Luckily I know myself well enough to trust that it would probably be fluent in three more days. After a tourist visit to Seattle with Dave, I moved in to the Hyatt Recency in Bellevue.<\/p>\n