[Continuation of cross-country bike thread from Day 33.]
Above the scenery and tranquility of the trip, the illumination and learning are what distinguished this experience and set it apart.
I learned there is a reason bike shorts and shirts are made the way they are, that Tevas, though hippyish, can save your life when you’ve been in bike shoes all day, that being in a tent can give you privacy even though it’s only a piece of cloth separating you from the bears. I learned pure deet, repellent of mosquitoes, can burn through bike shorts if you leave it there too long.
I learned how to draft, which is when you ride directly behind someone and because they are breaking through the wind resistance for you, you don’t have to really pedal as hard. They pull you with them in fact. When large logging trucks passed by, which was often because we biked on back roads, all you had to do was brace yourself because the sheer force of the wind they created pulled you forward as if you were attached to the truck with a bungee cord.
I learned everything there is to know about bikes, repairing bikes, rebuilding bikes. Our group was from all over the country and world and there were a dozen lives to swap stories with every day.
Toward the end of the trip, we were so fit that some days we would bike two or three days worth of distance so we could have a free day to hang out while waiting for the rest of the group to follow.
None of us cared what we looked like during the trip, we each had one pair of “civilian clothes” that we wore when we had a day to rest. Otherwise, we were all in bike shorts and shirts, our hair was flattened by our helmets and sometimes we were covered in sweat, grime and bugs. By the end of the trip, I had a shaggy head of hair.
But we were all content. That is the word. Content. I learned you can be completely happy and at peace if you focus on what you want. It doesn’t matter if that is reaching the top of the Rockies at the end of the day, becoming a performer, starting your own business, writing a book, building your own home. As long as you work toward your dream, everything will follow, and you will find peace on the way.
On day 34 of my 365 Release, I am letting go of an extra racing bike seat. It is one of the items I switched out like the gears from Day 31. I switched to one that was ergonomically built and friendlier to my body very soon into the beginning of the trip. I have held onto it because it reminds me that you can be blissfully happy with even with just a little bike seat to sit on.
[I created the 365 Release Project to practice non-attachment, letting go and change by giving away 1 thing a day for 1 year. The background, vision and guidelines to the 365 RELEASE project are here. The running list of everything I have released is here.]
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