Weather is Complicated

Hey all, so we are stuck in Canton, OH one more night on our way to Columbus, OH. Today it is raining all day with winds up to 25 mph. This can be so frustrating for me as I am a man who likes to be on schedule and I just love getting out there on the road no matter what. Though I do know it is not smart to go out there today!

It looks like we are going to try and push to have two 65 mile days to get to Columbus by Monday, but we'll see how that goes as we push through some heavy winds tomorrow.

Rachael asked me what was the root of me wanting to get on the road in bad weather today as we were trying to decided on what to do.

What a good question.

I had to think about this for a little bit because I do like biking in all kinds of weather: snow, rain, sleet, winds, etc. I said to her that it is fun and there is a certain rush that goes with it when you are on the bike you really feel all elements coming at you, unlike when you're in a car.

But also to me the weather is something we can't control* and often times we try to avoid it at all cost and lock ourselves up no matter how good or bad it is. Therefore we are trying to avoid the bad things in life and on this bike trip trying to avoid the weather at all cost would force us to only see the good side of mother nature. Mother nature has so much to offer us and sometimes it is rough and sometimes we will have to stop and sometimes we have to keep going.

I know many people think it is absolutely crazy to go ride in bad weather but sometimes a little bad weather is humbling for the soul. On this trip so far I feel so much at peace and more connected to nature than I have ever felt and that includes facing the good and the bad times (even when I was yelling out curse words when my feet were soaked while we were biking in the rain once). The weather is kind of like the whole trip--you can't control all of it and sometimes you have to go with the punches and sometimes you have to lock yourself in and that is the beauty of it all. It looks like today we are locking ourselves in, but that is ok because we will face mother nature again tomorrow.

*I said we can't control the weather but we can to some extent as we are facing Climate Change and we need to take that on as a movement ;)