Attitude Adjustments Needed

You can buy anything on Craig's List, right?


We were sort of tired anyway. It started to rain about 30 seconds before we headed out. It was light rain,though, and we could see lighter areas in the sky. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad. The forecast was for a 30% chance of showers, after all.

It kept right on raining. We had more climbing at the start than we had anticipated so the miles were not exactly melting away. My computer stopped displaying occasionally and eventually quit altogether. And it was cold, 47 degrees. (One more thing - I tried to type this last night, and the cool new program I was using decided to shut down and throw it all out just before I finished.)

We rode along feeling aggrieved, or maybe just grumpy. There was an old barn that had seen better days. It sagged in the middle. I thought a picture of it would be a good image to represent the type of day we were having but I was not about to go to all the trouble of stopping to take the picture. Then I was riding beside Bruce for a while. He made me look positively thrilled by comparison. I was afraid for a while that he would be pricing tickets to go home as soon as we reached cell service. He was tireder and colder than I was. We wanted an adventure, but we hadn't really come to grips with the reality that adventures are sometimes uncomfortable.

65 miles to go, and it's already noon. Aline came by and pulled over. We sat in the warm car and ate lunch. We scrounged through our stuff and put on as many layers as we could find. I had bike shorts, leg warmers, extra-warm long pants and waterproof pants, and wool socks, plastic bags, shoes and neoprene shoe covers. Good thing we weren't in the Arctic. Then we set out again. It was better, but it never really got easy. Big trucks provided strong drafts and muddy spray. We didn't stop for views much.

I figure there are going-there days when it's all about the journey. That's what we came for. But there are also getting-there days when all that matters is reaching the destination. Yesterday was a getting-there day.

I often find myself daydreaming of songs that would make appropriate themes for the day as I pedal along. For example, "King of the Road," or "Climb Every Mountain" (I've heard a lot of that one in my head recently).

Yesterday's? I can't think of the singer's name. He was a fairly popular comedian when I was a kid. I thought his stuff was hilarious. The song went more or less like this:

Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda,

Here I am at Camp Granada.
Camp is very entertaining
and they say we'll have some fun when it stops raining.

(Goes to a minor key)

Take me home, oh Mudda, Fadda
Take me home!
I hate Granada.
Don't leave me there
out in the forest
Where
I might
Get eaten by a bear.

And then the sun comes out and he changes his mind.

We look forward to less than 30 miles today with good weather and maybe a massage when we get there.