BJ–yes, everything relates to TV. Sorry. I fully admit to the indoctrination. What can I say?

MJG–what a great experience! Thanks for sharing. I can’t imagine being on a bike that long, but the rest of it sounds great.

Annette–not feeling all smug and superior when I have to walk into the hotel to get my room, and I’m looking and smelling like the kind of person I avoid on the street. But now, sitting at home again, clean and dainty, yes–I feel awfully good that I did that.

And Lady T, I completely agree with you. Love to go to movies by myself, and especially need to be there in time for every trailer. The trailers are as much of the experience as the movie itself.

In New Zealand, you don’t have to treat the water. Cool, huh?

When you start comparing the wonders of nature to a TV show you really need to consider throwing the damn thing out. You have been INDOCTRINATED, girl!

But maybe I’ve said too much.

To anyone who thinks that Iowa is a flat state, I say ‘eat it’. These were grueling days of riding up and down rolling hills in the middle of July in relentless humidity along with 6000 plus other bike riders. Why the torture? This was something I wanted to accomplish in my 40’s just to say I can do this.
Once I got into the rhythm of the day’s ride and accepted the fact that I would be one of the last riders into the designated town that evening and that I would always be taking a cold shower in the local high school or YMCA, then my head clicked into another gear. Yes, my butt hurt, my knees were stinging but I was free out on a country road and could think any thoughts I wanted to. I could ride next to another slow rider or just enjoy the solitude in my mind and think how lucky I was to have the physical energy to do this ride.

My partner and I started out together in the morning and we managed to eat snacks together along the way where gracious, friendly Iowans would put out a spread of baked goodies and cold drinks on tables in their front lawns and wave to us to stop in their yards. Yeh, we put on several pounds after 1 week, but how could we resist?

Back to the starting out together in the mornings, we road together until noon, then I rode the rest of the day with the slow riders and my partner cranked up his gears and covered the rest of the miles much faster than I. It was during those hours alone that I knew this would be an experience that I would draw on when I returned to the real world and was feeling whimpy or overcome by other challenges. If I could sit on this bike seat for 12 hrs. a day, then I could handle just about anything.

a couple observations on your recent recreational activities. who are we kidding?–”hiking” is simply a tarted up word for “walking around outside to kill time and feel all superior and smug about it.” backpacking is simply a tarted up word for “hiking with a bunch of s*** on you back so you can feel that much more superior and smug.” camping (ditto, fishing)is an excuse for being as lazy-assed as a person can possibly be (as your post so clearly demonstrates) in a socially acceptable, even laudable, fashion. all of these so-called activities disrupt the enviornment, bother the birds and put bears at risk for being shot, if they’re not fast enough to get you first.

you’ll have to excuse me if i’m just too considerate to in engage in, or condone, this kind of destructive and disruptive behavior. (well confession here, i do fish, but only as an excuse to drink, not to feel all smug and superior.)

i glad i got that off my chest, i’m off to the spa–ta!

For my head clearing activity,just going out to a movie and/or shopping by myself does it for me. You get to take your time about it and not have to debate with anyone about being early for the show(hey,I like the trailers!).