Itinerant Philosopher

Joy and I are taking a short break from our ride across the US.

Once we reached Cedar City in Utah, we spent several days with our friends, Anne and Steve Janzer, visiting national parks in the area – specifically, Bryce and Zion.

We had taken rest days before, but it was the first time we’ve gone more than two days without cycling since May 1. It was wonderful to give our bums and cycling muscles a chance to rest. Even so, we still used the “stick of pain” at least once each day.

These two national parks are stupendous and it was wonderful to be able to visit them and get to areas of the parks we would not have been able to do if we were on our bikes. More than anything, we were both struck at the luxury of sitting in a car and watching miles fly by. It was weird to once again treat distances as inconsequential.

“Oh, that destination is 50 miles away? No problem. We can go there and be back before lunch.” On our bikes, 50 miles is most (or all) of a day, depending on the amount of climbing and wind. A restaurant with really good reviews is 5 miles away? At the end of a long cycling day, we’ll settle for mediocre and walking distance rather than tack on ten extra miles.

We are actually taking a two week break. Joy is currently in Europe (Stockholm and then London) to teach classes on data warehousing. I am back in the San Francisco Bay Area, visiting friends and family and restocking supplies.

Joy and I will regroup in Cedar City, where we left off, and resume our bicycle ride across the US on Monday, June 6.