Experience

Wildness of exhaustion. I feel so alive out in nature and traveling the nation with birds flying above me and around me…and at times I feel in flight myself! The camping, the miles, the sun, the fresh air…it is easy to get lost within the beauty of the wild and then it will hit – the catch up of exhaustion!

This trip is amazing in so many ways and it always lets me know when I need to rest – sometimes it is after a full week of hard riding, sometimes just 4 days, but when the body speaks on a journey of this length I have learned to listen. I have learned that it is okay to take in rest, a break is needed and it is okay to slow-down. From this serial entrepreneur and workaholic that is a big lesson learned. I am blessed to have a trip like this be my teacher and the life lessons are vast and continue to teach me! 8 months in and I am more open, more calm, and more clear on what holds importance to me!

Although I have multi-days where I don’t speak much to others – I see more in people as I take the time to really experience them when I am meeting new individuals. I really wanted to journal at a great campsite in Indiana-but the universe had other plans-my solitude was put on hold by the bright light of children. I sat at my picnic table and worked on building my camp fire when I looked up at a little girl who was screaming for her nana — her sister (maybe 5 yrs old) had just crashed her training-wheeled bicycle and was laying under it…about to cry…I glanced around and could not just watch this child…she was only 15 feet from me. So I ran over – picked the bike up while untwisting her leg -chatting the entire time with her about how brave she was, and how we sometimes fall…and as she stood up – tearless- we did a big high-five and that was it! For the next 4 hours, with their nana’s approval, I had 2 young ladies (maybe 5 and 7) hanging out at my picnic table. We read books, talked about camping, baby-dolls, and about where I live.

It is different to explain a trip like mine to a child. The older of the two asked me:

“Where do you live?”
A:- I live on the road, on my bike and in this tent.

“But where do you live, where is your house?”
A”-I don’t have one, I sold everything I did not want and put my keepsakes into storage, I am hoping to find a place to call home while out on the road.

“But where is your husband?”
A:- I don’t have one of those either.

She just stared at me with an odd look and a pause, then she said, “oh” and with that we were on to talking about bigger things like bicycle riding and preschool activities!

The simple pleasures are more abundant on this journey and I hope that is a lesson that sticks with me for years to come! And allowing myself the time to simply sit or rest…maybe I will take a rest now – cheers to naps.