Stopping The World

Riding Day 9

Our first day back in the saddle was highly productive and beautiful! We covered 87.3 miles in 5+45 minutes of riding time spread out over roughly 8 hours of total time. There were a few hills initially, but nothing that resembled the hills of a few days ago. The road, Highway 70, was very busy and for the first 20 or so miles the shoulders were more akin to a battlefield or were completely non-existent, which meant that we were either getting rattled to death, or risking actual death as we had to ride on the road. Most of the drivers were cool and gave us room, but there’s always a few folks who try to give a bike rider the squeeze. By mid-morning the shoulders had become constant and much smoother, and the rest of the ride was fast and uneventful, except that we experienced our first flat tire, which occurred after over 600 miles of riding…not too shabby.

We met two other riders today who are also riding to Saint Augustine, though totally unsupported. Dustin and Ana are probably in their early twenties and hail from Wisconsin. Once they reach Florida, they’ll be going to Wyoming to work for the summer, just two bright young tumbleweeds without a care in the world…refreshing! We were having a break on the side of the road as they rolled by and invited them to hang out and have some refreshments with us as the OREM is basically a food truck right now, stuffed with peanut M&M’s, granola bars, apples, Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccinos, mini-cinnamon rolls, honey peanuts and oh so much more. They gratefully accepted and eventually rode away stuffed to the gills. We saw them again later, and might see them again tomorrow at some point, but our natural pace is 2-3 mph faster, and by the end of tomorrow’s ride we’ll probably be 20 miles or more beyond them.

Right now it’s 8:00pm, The Bob and Odie are already tucked into bed, and I’m sitting outside all alone under a bowlful of stars. We found a remote place to camp on BLM land with no one else around. The wind is howling, it’s going to be in the low 40’s and it’s as beautiful a setting as I could possibly imagine. Coyotes have been wailing occasionally in the distance and hearing them, I understand the eternal nature of this world in that deeper way that never happens while sitting in my living room. If you want to stop the world, even for just a little while, go spend time in the wilderness and just be. That said, my iPhone can be used as a hotspot, ironically, out here in the middle of nowhere, so I will be posting this from the fringes of nowhere and everywhere. Peace to you all, and goodnight from the center of the world…

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