Down Time

A few weeks ago I went to a Cabela's for the first time in my life. Sheesh. It's ridiculous in that store, I felt as though I had stepped from the suburbs of Chicago into the foothills of Appalatia mixed with the county fair. In the end I walked out of the store with the tent that I was looking for for this upcoming summer; durable, water resistant, and simple to put up. The rain fly on my old tent disappeared at some point and I couldn't find a way to get a replacement, so I was anxious to get this one out of the box to make sure it had all it's parts before the statute of limitations on returning it ran out. In the process I just decided to pitch it...indoors. My apartment really didn't have any available space so I consolidated everything from two rooms into one and just barely had enough space. Since the tent was up I decided it was a good opportunity to test my sleeping bag and pad again too. If there was a video of this whole process it would have inspired a good deal of laughter, but this picture will just have to do:

I bring this up because I've been wondering what us cyclists are going to be doing at camp after we ride each day. With my calculations I estimate that I will be averaging somewhere around 15 miles per hour. On the average day we will be riding 70 miles. This means it will be roughly 5 hours of riding per day. If you add an hour of misc. time for breaks and lunch that is 6 hours. I've heard that the riders on the 2005 ride left camp around 8:00ish every morning so that would put the arrival time at the next camp at 2:00 in the afternoon. Figure an hour and a half to take care of the bike, pitch the tent, and shower and that takes us to about 3:30. Supper will probably be at 6:00 and take an hour or so to eat and do devotions. But what will we be doing with those gaps in the afternoon and the evening? Not much has been posted on the rider forum yet about this aspect of the tour, but I think this may be the best part. This will be where we get to know people and enjoy their company. I'm sure many people will use this time to call their loved ones at home or email, but I don't have a laptop and would rather talk to people in person than through a phone.

When I went to Mississippi shortly after Hurricane Katrina, I didn't really know anyone I was working with except my dad. I was in school at the time so I had some homework to catch up on, but I had lots of down time at night and was glad to find out some of those people loved to play cards. We played hearts mostly and it was a good way to connect with them and find common ground to start from. I'm hoping that a similar thing happens with this tour. I personally am going to pack a couple decks of cards, Rook cards, Settlers of Catan, Scrabble and whatever else I can manage to fit in case I find some fellow gamers somewhere between the Pacific and Atlantic.

Procrastinating or Waiting

As the countdown draws nearer to four months, I am beginning to feel a weight settling on my shoulders. I think this weight is one part procrastination and another part waiting for information on which direction God is leading me. I'm going to just run through several of these situations now.

First, I have been very blessed by the generosity of my family and friends. As of right now I am estimating that I have raised 80% of the $10,000 goal that was set for me by the tour. People have donated in greater amounts than I imagined they would, but I still need to go out and get that last portion. The amount that I can still raise may even be larger than what I have gotten already, however, it requires me to become far more uncomfortable. The group of people I'm refering to are people that I do not know.

How do you go about asking someone who you haven't met, don't know their occupation, don't know their financial situation, don't know their ideas about poverty or cycling to support you? How do you break the ice? I've been able to sit back and try to create a strategy because I am so far along in my goal, but because I am just thinking about it and not acting it feels like I am procrastinating. The last month I have been trying to get lined up with my classis to give a presentation at their meeting on March 4, so I can get the word out to all the area churches that don't have a rider. At the same time I am trying to plan a large fundraiser for sometime in May, but I don't know how large. By that time I may not need to raise a huge amount, so smaller would be okay, but I don't want to short change this fundraising effort, so I might want to plan for several hundred people. I don't want to limit my asking for support to people in the church community because poverty is not just an issue for people on a mission. I want to get an article in the local paper that informs people of the tour and its' goal, but if I invite the whole community to participate in the fundraiser I have no way of knowing how many people will show up because the local paper has a circulation over 100,000. I need to get in contact with the newspaper first, which may give me some time to figure out my scope.

Another thing that has come up recently that I am waiting to hear about is my roommates' job situation. Currently, we are both working at the Field museum in Chicago, but he has applied for a job in Massechusetts that he is very qualified for and I would love to see him get. It just creates a logistical problem for me if he does get it. He will likely hear if he has the job in early March and the job starts April 1st. This would mean that I would have a month to figure out a new living situation because I can't afford our apartment alone. I could move back to my parents' a couple months earlier than expected and commute to work from Indiana. This is a decent option because I could still ride my bike to and from work and use it as my training, but that would be 50 miles per day in two sections. I could sublet my apartment and have all the utilities transfered to my name. I would need to find someone on pretty short notice that would be willing to move out by mid June and that may prove a more difficult than I'm willing to deal with. I could always hope some of my friends might be willing to let me crash at their place too for a short time. This is just one of those things I have to wait on because I have no control over it.

The last thing I am not sure whether I am waiting for or procrastinating about is buying my tickets to and from the tour. Because I have to resign from my job in order to take part in the tour I have the freedom to make my last day whenever I choose. I'd like to make it as late as possible to put a little extra money in the bank, but I would also like to visit my friend in California and possibly road trip the west coast to the start of the tour. I'm waiting to find out what my friends' plans are for this summer before I can make that decision. The longer I wait for that information, though, the more expensive and full flights become. Likewise, because I will not be employed right after the tour ends, I might think about continuing on after all of us riders reach Jersey City. I've never been to New England and I see no better time to do it. If I choose to do this I will need to ship a lot of my equipment home and figure out a way to carry the essentials the rest of the way. On top of this I need to buy temporary health insurance and have no idea how long to buy it for. The museum said that there is a good possibility of being rehired when I get back, but now would be a good time to explore other options as well, maybe find a job in a field that I would want to go to graduate school for so I can get some experience to put on my resume.

My life right now is like a novel or movie show. I've read the first few chapters or seen the preview and I know what it is building toward, but no one knows how I will get to that point. And I am as curious as anyone.

Winter

It's that time of year where I usually get depressed. The novelty of the cold weather has worn off, the Christmas season is more than a month passed, and the groundhog has indicated that we will have roughly two more months to spend indoors. But, I haven't been as happy as I am right now for a long time, I catch myself smiling for seemingly no reason everyday, and it's usually when I notice others smiling back at me. It makes me feel even better that my mood is positively impacting others.

I've always thought The Power of Possitive Thinking would make someone a little phony; I'm starting to reconsider, even though I'm not intentionally doing it. Here's an example: Friday. It started snowing Thursday after work and has continued throughout the entire night. There are eight inches of snow on the ground and the news is telling everyone in Chicago how bad the driving conditions are everywhere. It's time to leave for work and I am not about to walk so I haul my bike down the stairs and proceed. My bike is how I get to work and I didn't even think twice about it. Thankfully the weather has made fewer people take to the road and the ones who are on it are being very cautious, as am I. I stay on the main roads that are plowed and occasionally have to merge into a single lane with the cars to avoid foot tall piles of plowed snow. When I get to the non-traffic part of the ride I have to dismount and trudge for a bit, but I find most of it recently plowed (recently, as in, I wave to the people as they turn around to make another pass). I arrive at the museum only four minutes later than usual and as I pass the security guards in the shipping dock on my way to the bike cage their heads swivel and their mouths are agape. All I can do is smile from ear to ear.

It might be that rewarding feeling when something difficult is over or the knowledge that every time I do a difficult ride it is preparing me for this coming summer. During the ride it looked like something out of the training sequence from Rocky IV which gives me hope because in the end it was worth it for the Italian Stallion.

I've got to give credit to my mountain bike. I neglect taking care of it often and sometimes complain about how clunky it is, but it has gotten me to work everyday since November and I have only taken one minor spill on it. I've owned it since September 1993 and have never had to have any major repairs made on it. The chain has never broken, I haven't had to replace any spokes and other than the gearshifters becoming obsolete and getting a couple new sets of tires it has been the most reliable (physical) gift I have ever been given.

I think patience is what is causing this good mood. At times the tour seems despairingly far away and at other times I think there is no way that I could get enough training in in so little time and raise the rest of my funds. The US economy is moving downward and the political candidates are in a deadlock, but patience has a very calming effect. There are a lot of changes happening in my life because of this tour and the point of my life at which I am at, but I am relying on God to provide the solutions to my problems in time and not trying to take care of them hastily on my own.

I hope a similar feeling is finding its way to the other 210 people I will be riding with this coming summer.