Pedaling Again

Canada  2009

If you become a ghost to all who know you, how do you stand the loneliness?  The question haunts me in all its varied forms spoken to myself and by friends who wish me well, but who wonder why I do this.  I am off to tour the southern states on a bicycle—aloof and self-sufficient, unbusy and unemployed, a tramp.  Some say I am wildly incautious, others say brave, but they are wrong.

I will travel mostly on recognized bicycle routes and should not be the only one there.  I may see them first in the little mirror attached to my glasses.  They will pull alongside with friendly words.  We will not have met, but they are not strangers, rather members of a small cadre who pedal long distances and find our abnormality enough to start conversation.  From within their groups they will say, “Traveling alone?”  But it will not be a question, for out there in broad open spaces, they already know I am traveling alone, and they wonder why. 

Perhaps I will see a spec in my mirror, which could be anything.  Half an hour later I make out the verticality of piston-like leg motion.  A cyclist a little faster than me, maybe pushing to catch up.  With that pleasant thought I pull off the road and feign resting under a tree. 

Sometimes, in a small town on one of my long rides, a waitress has felt sorry for me.  I have seen it in the way she pours coffee and lingers to talk, as to one who has no friends.  But I have been surrounded by a small number of friends, kept safe by generous people with a pattern of kindness, people who have given me the benefit of the doubt.  Some of them still visible, will be standing at distance, living lives in California.  I ask them not to worry and to try for understanding.

In 2007 I rode across America through its midsection, and in 2009 I pedaled Canada, its western half.  Those routes are shown on the above map.  On this trip I will explore the back lanes of the South, unheralded corners or America.  This ride is not a sprint, but a marathon—like life.  When I am old, I believe I would rather wish I had not gone than wish that I had.

Tentative Schedule

2/13/13 Fly with the bicycle to Daytona Beach, Fl

3/21/13 Navasota, Tx

4/11/13 Ft. Davis, Tx

4/21/13 Silver City, Nm

5/11/13 San Diego, Ca