Hard Riding

Packing on a bike is a pain. The humid nights air didn’t dry out any of the clothes I laid out in the motel room. I packed up and hit the road once more. I was a little anxious getting on Cindy from what happened last night. Before I started her up I mentally checked to see where my body had been hurting from the fall. My head was hurting from either the fall or the amount of adrenaline that was released after it. Shins a bit bruised up from digging into the pegs on the way down and elbow from posting it out to break the fall. It wasn’t bad at all, God somehow found an angel up there crazy enough to fallow me around.

I did not travel alone. I was fortunate enough to have yesterdays storm keep me company. The road to Chicago was a wet one and to add to it had a nasty crosswind to fight. I had to ride leaning the bike to the left to fight the wind that was stubbornly trying to get me off the road. Once in a while it would shift to the right and my lean would take me into the next lane before I could catch and correct myself.

Pulling up to Chicago the cloud cover lessened and a few sporadic, rain filled clouds remained. The road could not make up its mind. Raising my spirits it I would direct me in a direction that would have me avoid the cloud. Then slowly a bend would appear just ahead setting me up for a direct hit from the clouds payload.

With Chicago 30 miles away I finally began to see the sun peaking through up ahead. The newly paved highway had asphalt that was smooth and a deep black color. The road curved to aim me directly into the setting sun and the black turned into gold as the road tried to mimic the colors of the sun. I made it there just in time for the sunset. The beautiful muse that the creator painted before my very eyes made the 700+ miles of stormy riding worth it.

It was a hard ride and I was in a hurry to make it to a friends wedding on Saturday so I could not afford to stop in Chicago to train. I had to keep going and made it to the Wisconsin-Illinois border and set up camp for the night. It was just a little more until I could see my family and my little nephew. I was eager to fall asleep quickly to wake up even quicker.