Rest Day #2

Nothing like a rest day after 362 leg breaking miles in 6 days.

My mind and body have seem to come to grips with what's happening. I'm sleeping better and all of the aches and pains have diminished to the point where I can ignore them.

My legs hurt of course, but that comes as no surprise. The worst part is my hair. It's got three permanent rows from wearing a helmet too long. The picture above was taken after a long ride but even after a lather, rinse, repeat the rows won't go away.

At this point in the journey I'm 92 miles ahead of schedule and feeling good about completing the goal.

I went for an easy 30 miles on what must have been the nicest evening we've had here in Wisconsin for a long time. It was warm but not hot, light winds, little traffic and the low evening sun gave everything a golden glow.

I think one of the reasons I like biking is that it makes me feel like a kid. Riding along country roads, destination unknown, is one of life's simple pleasures. A chance to look at what's happening in the neighborhood and around the block. No phones, no day planners, no office politics. Just you and the wind.

Today's moment of beauty added to the already youthful spirit of the evening. Midway during the ride I was riding parallel to some railroad tracks and a train came up from behind with it's horn blaring. The tracks crossed the road about a half mile ahead. I charged as fast as I could to beat it to the crossing but the train arrived just ahead of me. The engineer smiled because he had won, and waved because it was a fun race. I waved back and enjoyed the rumbling of the flatbeds and boxcars as they roared past.