Winter's Release

The snow is gently falling outside the window pane making for an idyllic winter scene save that it's the middle of May. The road that beckons is currently painted white and not conducive to bike riding so I sit and contemplate a journey yet to begin. The longest journey begins with a single footstep but unless I don snowshoes that first step will have to wait.

That's not quite true. This journey anticipated began years ago. Perhaps it was my first trip to Alaska, just enough of a young man's jaunt to have kept me dreaming about a return for too many years since. Perhaps it goes back to my father's death that now makes me note the passage of time and makes me realize if not now, when. Already the aches and pains that come with middle age are making themselves felt. Recovery from hard efforts takes longer than just a year or two ago. So now is the time. Take that first physical step (or as a cyclist that first pedal revolution). Get off the coach, away from the computer, take a deep breath and shove off. North is where I'm bound, to where the road has been beckoning for a long, long time. Too many to count the times spent at work over a long career dreaming of hot asphalt with a yellow line leading the way not to mention the after work winter riding sessions in the dark, in the snow, in the cold to maintain some semblance of readiness come spring to head out wherever my bike may take me.

This blog will chronicle that journey as it unfolds. Where precisely I'll end up I 'm not quite sure; how long it will take to get 'there', wherever 'there' is, I don't know. For me it doesn't really matter. I learned long ago that life is a journey, not a destination. From  past travels I know that I'm happiest when I'm out on that road to wherever, the road that beckons.