Where the pavement ends
We are winding down to the last few opportunities for road rides of 2020.
Not only is it getting colder, but the sun is setting earlier and earlier. Today, I made it out the door right at 5 and was back before 6:30, but it toes were numb with chill and my body wasn’t much warmer, either.
Soon, the wind will be here to here to make us think twice about stepping outside, let alone ride a bike.
It may have been a rough year, and everyone is looking forward to the end of the pandemic, but I’m going to really miss the summer of 2020.
The summer of 2020 was when I found a spark deep within me that I didn’t know I had. I pushed through, and followed through, and kept hope alive when there was little to grasp onto.
The summer of 2020 was a hot beast, but it was beautiful. Friends came together to make our own fun, hold our own events, do things our own way. Nobody could tell us we couldn’t. We did the makeshift Tour de Prairie. We climbed at the 719 Ride. We rode across the entire freakin’ country and had a hell of a time doing it!
This was 2020, baby! We all lost a little piece of ourselves, we all struggled with meaning and motivation. We all questioned where we were going and why. We took a good hard look at our relationships. We made do.
Today I rode a familiar route down Horse Creek, stopped at the gravel, and then took in the sights. The sun was hiding behind clouds, and it was getting chilly. It was busier with traffic than I was expecting, with people headed home for the evening. Smoke still blanketed the horizon from the Medicine Bow Mountains.
Where the pavement meets the gravel. Road riding is wrapping up, but there’s plenty more to explore on other bikes!
There’s nothing quite like the Wyoming sky, so big, so vast, so inviting. Mountains dot the horizon to the west, never-ending prairie grass in every other direction. Some people don’t find beauty here. Others can’t imaging calling anywhere else home.
Nobody can deny that Wyoming is just one of those places that humans will never be able to tame. It will always be wild and free.
There are so many paths that await me, so many roads leading to unknown places, places where few have dared to venture. Adventures are there, at the end of the tarmac.
All I have to do is go for it.
The question is: Will I?
Any other year, and I probably would’ve said no. Or hesitated. Or made up excuses. Or chickened out.
But you know what? This is 2020, and I just can’t think of a reason that would hold me back anymore.
So for now, I’m going to miss the open road. But I am so ready for the rough, winding path to untapped, untouched beauty.
Looks like 2020 has left quite a mark on me.
I’m totally fine with that.