Things I’ve learned
Today is a rest day in Fordyce, Arkansas doing the usual rest day things — bike maintenance, laundry, sending mail, making phone calls.
We’ve been on the road for just over six weeks now. I was thinking today that there must be some things that I’ve learned along the way. Here are some of them, in no particular order.
- If you see something interesting for a photo, stop and take a photo. I started out thinking “I’ll stop when I see the next one”, but I quickly realized that there often isn’t a next one.
- When you’re cycling, try to keep your mouth shut. Not because bad things come out of my mouth, but because bad things tend to fly in. This is happening more and more as I ride into warmer climates. I’ve tasted several varieties of insects over the last month. In New Mexico, it was gnats; in Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas, it was flies; and now in Arkansas, it’s gnats AND flies. I don’t know what Mississippi will bring, but I’m keeping my mouth shut as much as possible!
- Exercise makes caring for diabetes so much easier (this, I knew already), but you can’t exercise enough to make the diabetes go away. Of course, I knew this too, but this is a lesson that I’ve had to constantly relearn over the years and this tour is no different. I’ve gotten to a couple of points on this tour already where I was a bit too carefree in my diet.
- Everybody knows somebody with diabetes. We’ve spoken to a lot of people about The Dream Tour and nearly everybody tells us about somebody they know with diabetes. Sometimes it’s a friend and sometimes it’s a family member, but everybody knows someone.
- The things you struggle with in daily life at home will continue to be struggles on the road. It seems strange now, but leading up to the our departure, I saw The Dream Tour as a way to simiplify my life, even if for just seven months. I kept telling myself “Just wait ’til we’re on the road. Things will be so much easier/simplier/clearer.” Well, I can tell you know that it’s not necessarily so. If you have trouble keeping track of your house keys at home, you’ll have trouble keeping track of your hotel key when you’re on the road. For me, besides the house key issue, I struggle with organization. Paperwork, clothing, spare bicycle parts, tools — there’s so much of it and it seems overwhelming at times to keep it all organized. I’m having the same struggles during The Dream Tour.
These are just some of the things I’ve learned. I’ll share some more of them in the coming months.
May 2nd, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Outstanding post. I encourage you to do more of these, daily. I read bike tour books as kind of a hobby, and this is some of the most appealing material. THe more that you have in your daily posts, the easier it will be to write your book post tour.
And you will write a book. (Can’t say anything about whether Robert Altman will decide to turn it into a movie.
Keep up the great writing. I look forward to it daily.
May 2nd, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Oh Peter - This is so wonderful hearing someone express this learning process. It is like thinking “and when I grow up this will happen” or “when I retire that will happen”. Instead, the problems or the way things are just continue right along with us. The issues we face at home are the issues we face away from home. There is no escape. It is so human but some of us take a lot longer (if ever) to learn this. As you bike, I’m sure you see things more clearly.
Love always to both you and Pat. M&D
May 3rd, 2006 at 5:59 am
Greetings fromã??Japan. We are in Sendai rightã??now traveling around in a more conventional way. I am using internet access provided at our hotel and can`t guarantee that the characters I am typing will be the English alphabet so if you see some unusual characters, please ignore. We just wanted to wish you well from around the globe. We`ll spread word of your tour over here in Japan so you can become an international media sensation.
Best wishes to you and Pat.
Sayonara,
Denise and Lawrence