Today was my turn to submit an entry for the group journal. This is what I wrote.
Between brushing your teeth and pumping up your tires every morning, between breakfast and lunch, between pedal revolutions and hammer strokes, between point A and point B, between the myriad of tiny mundane proceedings that have filled every day of the past two weeks, it’s been easy for me to forget the epic nature of what we’re all doing.
Even the phrase “biking across the country” has been used so many times recently that the accomplishment it signifies seems to have been equated with something like “reading a book” or “making a sandwich.”
Every now again when I’m riding, I catch myself drifting off into this losing-sight-of-the-awesomeness-of-Bike-and-Build, and then make a point of reminding myself and those in the immediate vicinity just how amazingly lucky we are to be doing this. We’re barely two weeks into the trip and I’m already sad for when it will be over. But that bridge can be crossed later.
We had a wonderful day today. Before we left Scottsboro, of course, we had to swing by Alabama’s number one tourist attraction – the Unclaimed Baggage Center! It’s a unique place – kind of like a thrift store, except all of the stuff comes from baggage left unclaimed at airports for more than 90 days (so it’s actually nice stuff). While I couldn’t find any item that called to me, several of us walked out with some killer American flag bandannas, hats, fabulous sunglasses, Sesame Street books, shoes teleported from the 1980s, etc. Needless to say, we didn’t get on the road for a while.
Once we finally managed to get out the door, we were in for a beautiful ride. The weather cooperated, as did the terrain. (Which is to say, there were no thunderstorms or 4000-foot climbs.) All day we were riding through rolling hills of rural Alabama, getting barked at and/or chased by the local canine population. Good times.
When we got into Decatur, unloaded the trailer at our host church and scrubbed off multiple layers of sweat and sunblock, we headed to dinner at the world famous Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ. I opted for the stuffed baked potato – an enormous spud filled with sour cream, cheese, and a mound of pulled pork deliciousness – and we had a game of “let’s see who shall conquer whom.”
I think it was a draw.
