Because

Riding Day 36 – 76.25 miles

The day began as all our other campground mornings have begun on this journey: coffee first, followed by two packages of Quaker Instant Oatmeal. I’ve grown a bit weary of most of the things we’ve been eating out on the road, but I still love my oatmeal in the mornings!

We were rolling down the road by 9:15, still on Highway 90, the shoulders consistently wide and mostly smooth. My legs were feeling heavy, but the sun was shining, the surroundings were gorgeous, and I could feel the negativity I’d been harboring from the previous day evaporating like early morning fog. Odie and I rode mostly in silence, the road peppered with wide curves and gentle hills. Unlike the drivers in Tallahassee, the cars granted us a wide berth as they passed unhurriedly, as if they too were enraptured by the day’s tranquil beauty.

The Bob had found a choice spot in the shade for our first break, and I languished in the back seat of the OREM longer than I should, content to let the day slip away and maybe no one would notice, but then The Bob fractured the moment with his signature statement, “Okay, let’s go to Saint Augustine!” He’s been saying this since California, his not-so-subtle hint that we’ve been sitting long enough, and without this gentle prodding we might still be in Texas. So I drug myself out of the backseat, threw my leg over Hank, then waited for Odie to mount up and clip in, and off we went…but only for about 300 feet as I realized we had another flat on the front tire, #5 for those of you who are keeping track. The front tire has about 2,600 miles on it, and as it gets thinner, it becomes more susceptible to all the little pieces of sharp whatever that lie in wait along our route. I couldn’t find the culprit this time, but after spending a few minutes and inspecting the tire closely, I installed a new tube and we continued on our merry way.

By early afternoon we had covered about 46 miles, though I was still feeling sluggish. I was digging through the nutrition trough in the OREM’s bowels looking for something that sounded good enough to choke down when I noticed I’d received a text from my nephew Chris and his wife Amber. They had sent me words of encouragement, cheering us on from afar like so many of you have been doing since this journey started in that other lifetime when I thought I had a clue. And I’m not sure if it was those wonderful words, or the Peanut Butter M&Ms I selected from the trough, but for the rest of the day I felt stronger and better connected to what I was doing. This adventure has been challenging, and to all of you who have followed us as we’ve struggled and triumphed in equal measure, to those of you who have encouraged and applauded us, agonized with us, cheered for us and prayed for us, we can’t thank you enough or even begin to express how much it has meant to know and truly feel that we haven’t been alone out here, that wherever we were, you were there with us in spirit. Thank you.

At tonight’s informal plotting session, something we do every night, we realized that we only have 131 miles to go until Saint Augustine becomes a reality. Finishing this coming Saturday is a very likely outcome, but of course anything can still happen and stomp our expectations into a thin paste of “not today boys!” But it’s impossible not to start making plans beyond the end of the bicycle portion of this journey. The Bob can start looking at flights home, Odie and I can begin to figure out our routing to Washington State, and I can look at Hank and his stretched and sagging chain and believe he will make it all the way to the ocean. We ride a bike, we setup camp, we go to sleep, and then we get up and do it all over again…for a few more days we’ll keep doing what we do, because we will, because we’re blessed, but mostly because we can.