May 16, 2015
Refugio Beach
Decided to come along on one of Gregg bike tours. No one showed up except Dawn and Allen and baby Will. First the train had an accident so we dropped idea of going up to Lompoc and riding down to Gaviota. Now we are here and Gregg’s backpacking group never showed up. Oh well, its nice and quiet here anyway.
The ride was interesting because Gregg made so many adjustments to my bike. New wheels, new tires, new back wheel rack for the panniers. Well, all of that kicked me out of alignment. My hurt arm made me very tentative about everything. When you have pain it effects your whole body. So a pain in the elbow translates to a pain in my hip which shoots down into my shins. Working thru my body and bike alignment pretty much took over all of my thoughts. My bike riding soul was not in balance.
But the best way to get it back into balance is to ride, ride, ride. After packing ALL of OUR TOUR STUFF as if we were leaving on the cross country trek, Gregg lay in bed and said “now we must rest, for tomorrow we ride”. It rang true and hit me somehow. This RIDE we are doing is all about pacing ourselves. Gregg is a master of that. He taught me that in the very beginning. Pace yourself. Spin don’t push. Walk up the hill if you feel tired. Just don’t stress.
It is one month before we hit the road for our big adventure. How does it feel? Exciting. Yet, today it is less exciting than it was 2 months ago. Today I just worry about all the things we still have to do. It is less about the trip but more about the preparation for departure. How do we leave this “ordinary” world behind so we can do our adventure without too much headache and come back to something that is sort of like what it was when we left it. My biggest worry are the dogs. Everyday when I see them I silently say “they’ll be OK, they won’t notice that we will be gone for 3 months!”. But I know they will. They sense everything. They understand our feelings and anxiety. They know something is going on. I have already told Gregg not to make a big fuss when we depart. Just act as it we will be back tomorrow. It breaks my heart. My eyes well up with tears. But I cannot let that take away from our adventure.
