Peace and quiet?

Dearest blog reader

I hope that this finds you doing well. I am near the end. We are at a camp ground  in Plainfield gathering our reserves for the final twenty mile push into Indianapolis. I must admit I feel a little ambivalent about staying in Plainfield for the last night. Why couldn't we have stayed in Eureka; a much more appropriate name for the accomplishments of the week? Eureka! I can ride 360 miles without my bum falling off. Eureka! I can make it up and down those hills. Well up those hills was an accomplishment. Down was no problem. Though, I am pretty proud that I stayed upright going 40 mph. That is flying and caused a fair amount of pucker.

Speaking of hills, I am buying a bulldozer. I am planning on finishing what God started and did not finish with that whole iceage thing. I know that you probably think that is too big a task. I disagree. Who would have thought that I could ride 360 miles in a week just 3 years ago? One mile at a time; one hill at a time, it is the same concept.

Most bizarre sight today? Coming up on the last 2 miles of the ride, I am overtaken by a funeral procession. That did cause me to pause for a minute. It took a little bit of the oomph out of the complaining that I felt like I was dying at from mile 30 to mile 40.

We had a great time tonight at supper; sitting talking, discussing other rides that we could do. Even more fun was sitting around the table with the veterans listening to their exploits and telling about the bikes that they have ridden 30,000 miles.

Tomorrow is the end. We will all go into Indianapolis in a group which is a bit disingenuous. The thing that has struck me most is that a bike ride is a very amebic. We all start as a group. Bike rider independence soon asserts itself and we all expand and contract based on each rider's abilities. The challenge quickly becomes remembering what conversation you were having with who as you come up upon your the next "dance" partner. The other challenge of group riding is you have to learn three different "faces"; helmet on, helmet off, and from behind on the bike. As a person who is name impaired, this has been a pretty big challenge.

The topic tonight is provided by Margaret Notaro (Meg to me). "Journeys! And the relationship (or lack thereof) between physical & spiritual distance traveled." This has been the biggest surprise for me. Going into the week, I thought that it was going to be a earthshaking week; church camp kind of big. Work has been hard. Ben is graduating. Grace is getting married. I thought that some great insight would occur. It didn't happen but then it did. The further I went the less spiritual I became. I did try. I intentionally did not listen to the 4 books that I downloaded. I spent time with my thoughts. I tried to be spiritual.

I did become quieter though. The further I went, the more physical the challenge the less spirituality I sensed. I just got quieter. I was becoming more focused on the next peddle turn, the shifting on the seat, the here and the now.

I want to thank all of those who sponsored me. It was a great experience. Susan, you are the only one who has yet to select a topic. Let me know. And if not, we will let the silence of the moment signify, we're done.

Take care.

Roger.