My Ride is Here

My cousin called to say that her mom had passed away at eight o’clock the previous night. It was a call that I had been waiting for. She was the last of our parents generation.


Late, after evening meditation, I headed out on Salina road to get a short bike ride in. It was a cool, windy evening out in the hinterland of farms, fields and prairies. At 7:15pm it was fifty-four degrees as I headed eastward into a fifteen miles per hour headwind. Late May- it struck me as more Fall-type weather. Sunshine gave way to darkening clouds. Unsure that I would see riders coming back in, I headed towards Germanville Road. Ordinarily, on Tuesdays, the group would be finishing the last leg of a thirty mile, fast ride. Riding the opposite direction of that loop, my hope faded of seeing them bike towards me.

At some point I gave up…. I lost my verve for the ride. Coming up on the see-through, corncrib building, a trusted landmark of every local cyclists, I decided to turn around. It was getting cold and I felt “flat”. Watching the sun disappear, I was reminded of cycling through Ireland, 2002. Then, I had finished biking through the Gap of Dunloe and I took a break to put on some arm warmers. It was Good Friday and I was checking the ambient light of sunset through the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, before I descended into the Black Valley. A similar sunset – darkening, but still enough light to see your way home. This time, the rhythm of the ride was gone. There was no tempo. I ambled homeward feeling blue.

I would have rather been no other place at any other time. The dynamic “high” of biking with ones compatriots is balanced by such therapeutic solitary rides.

Cycle therapy

Tom
Bliss, Iowa

Tailwinds

This last week has been a bike blessing. Different days, assorted riders and various ways of riding: fast, slow and everything in between.


Sunday, we split into two groups of theory. One group went fifty miles south with a tailwind to their back to start. They wanted to warm up (physically) to cool off as the day progressed, heading home into the wind. The second group split off northward into the wind, towards Sigourney. Not doubt that when the two groups separated at the intersection of Libertyville and Brookville Road, they each reviewed the merits of their own philosophy - tailwind first, or on the homeward leg, being the best approach.

Whenever I tell others of our cycling ventures, they ask where do you go? It is then that I realize that the uninitiated think in terms of goals and endpoints. Our reality is - the journey is the process. It is not “how” we perform but “why.” And for each one it can be a different conclusion.

At the end of the day, we end up at the same place...home.
This much I know is true.

Triple O