Day 177: Florida City to Marathon, 82 miles
Day 178: Marathon to Key West, 56 miles
These two days kind of flew by in a breeze.. A wet, tropical paradise kind of breeze but, a breeze nonetheless.
It's been weird coming to the end of this trip of mine and there was one thing in particular that I was stuck on. My head has been whirling around in the clouds these last few days since Lauderdale-By-The-Sea. We were sitting at the dinner table eating our pizza and Ray asked me, "What's the one thing you've learned from this whole thing?" And I sat back and I thought for a minute and I came back with a pretty bland "Do good things in life...." kind of response and as soon as I said it, as soon as the words left my mouth I didn't like them. Not that that isn't something to strive for in life but, I just didn't like it as the answer to that question so for the rest of the night I had it in the back of my mind. I slept on it and I didn't have anything much better. And so I've been riding these last few days mulling it over and thinking about the trip and all the miles I've ridden and all of the places I've seen and the people I've met in the last six months to try to come up with a better answer. It was a hard question. But, I think I've begun to formulate my answer and so now I'll answer Ray in the way I wish I had.
I've learned that life is for those that do and those that do get the most out of life. And let me be clear. It's not always sunny skies and butterflies and rainbows because there's always the ups and the downs, the climbs and the descents. But, life is way too damn short and way too damn unpredictable to be a passive participant in it. Whether you like it or not life is happening around you. Be a lead character in your life. Find a dream and go after it with reckless abandonment. Make mistakes. Fall down. Get hurt. Then pick your ass up and keep going. Don't let anything or anyone be a hinderence to that objective. Your life, your dreams, your goals, you do it. And if you don't know what you want out of your life sit down and figure it out and once you figure that out start taking steps towards achieving that thing whatever it may be. When you've got that thing, that end goal, find people that support you and believe in that for you. Build a network of positive people around you. If there are those around you that don't believe in it or in you, if they scoff at you, get rid of them. Negative people just plain suck and they are a drain on everyone so choose to be with positive people. Be a positive person and have good intentions. Find something good to build on even in the worst of times. Be thankful for the days you have and take advantage of them and I swear if you do all of that or try to do all of that then you will be able to look back at the whole crazy thing called life and be happy with it. How 'bout that hot slice of New York style pizza, Ray? How 'bout that.
Hey, if I can't get a little prophetic and filled with emotion at the end of a 6-month, 10,000+ mile bicycle trip around the country when can I?????
P.S. Another thing, find humor in life and relish in the absurdities of it all.
1. Southern dogs do not have southern hospitality.
2. Bike farts are scarier than shower farts.
3. Texas... God-damn that's a big state.
4. It never rains in Seattle.
5. North Dakota is a real place and people actually live there.
6. As much as it bothers me to say Upstate New York is one of the more beautiful places in the country.
7. We litter way too much! Sheesh...
8. You always have one pedal left in the tank.... Except for the "tank" that is this blog... That's kind of over. So go on. Get out of here. And do something crazy!
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