A Rider Has To Know The Limitations...

A Rider Has To Know The Limitations...

Here we go again! Lots to say, no idea where to start. Plus, there are so many different topics, it's hard to narrow down the focus! Hmmm, maybe I'll just do like I sometimes do... simply start going in some direction and see where that might lead. Heck, this is a lay-over day anyway because of rain, so no time pressures or frustrations, therefore...

We were gliding along the slab from Kerrville, TX, towards Winnie, our hoped-for destination for the evening, when it struck me. Yeah, that's a whole nuther thing in itself! Believe it or not, I'd actually done some serious planning, AND we were quite surprisingly adhering to that plan! Had I been so inspired by Rob's wonderful long distance spur-of-the-moment drop-by visit the other day, that I'd perhaps undergone some sort of psychic transformation?

We'd departed Deming, NM, in the cold windy conditions then present and headed towards Van Horn, TX... our second choice point. Our first had been in Las Cruces when we'd elected to forgo an 'off-slab' but much longer route through Alamogordo to Van Horn, where we'd be spending the following night. The wind and cold had already taken a serious toll on my ride ambition that day.

From Van Horn, would we continue on the slab on one trajectory, or would we swing southeast towards Alpine and a different ride altogether? An immediate conflict! 'Circumstances and opportunities' dictated only one choice, while inclination and predilection clearly were pulling us the other way!!!

See, I'd triggered this entire perplexity by first deciding where we wanted to be, when, and why. I'd wanted to visit my daughter in Florida, and we needed to be heading east anyway, since I had yet another doctor’s appointment in Montgomery, AL, on March 22nd... I was hoping to squeeze that visit in prior to the doc thing.

And that's another thing: Health issues have come to virtually dominate my life in recent years and to completely disrupt pursuit of my natural preferences and more usual actions! This entire aging thing has caused significant changes in everything we try to do! Of course it absolutely does beat the alternative, but... it's still less than ideal!!! Oh well, we're keeping the faith and trudging onward in spite of constant setbacks...

In my 'line of work', weather is another of the top priorities in all we do! Frozen precip is a 'Red Line' limiter, and even rain is right up there second in line on my 'no-fly zone' list, rare exceptions notwithstanding. Bouts of rain always occur in the southeast throughout the year, but late Winter/early Spring seems to have the most varied... and usually the most frequent rain of any duration. Everything has to be 'worked around' whatever Mother Nature appears to have lurking just ahead for us.

I tend to think of I-35 as a 'dry-line' of sorts, and on this ride the majority of our trip would be east of there with ever increasing episodes of falling moisture. That would produce the need for lay-overs now and then, like we're doing today, to allow wet weather to overtake us then pass, but also times when we'd need to 'pick-up the pace' so the overall 'flow' would lead to us arriving at the various points of need at times convenient to all concerned.

If riders are going to include specific time, destination, and/or any other inflexible aspect to their trips, then detailed planning becomes unavoidable... otherwise, it would be like trying to thread a needle while blindfolded. Doctors’ appointments, schedules and plans of loved ones, plus weather considerations have all become straight-jacket-like constraints upon the natural free-spirit inclination to roam randomly throughout our land. For this bewildered rider, once again he finds himself like a square peg being pounded into a round hole...

To make a very long story somewhat shorter, the decision was made to head more or less straight at our target destination while striving to hit it on the best date. That meant focused, diligent, and planned slab-work all the way... So there we were, having just passed through the traffic snarl in San Antonio headed straight towards Houston with its own scary traffic gauntlet and our next big test, then safely arriving beyond in Winnie, where we would set up shop. That left Baton Rouge as the only formidable traffic challenge hurdle remaining... until we arrived in the Orlando area... All work and no play on this leg of... the great winter adventure.

We stopped at a motel in Winnie where we've stayed many times over the last two decades or so, and now we're hunkered down for two nights to wait out some predicted rain this afternoon and evening. All that moisture is heading east, so the choice really was to simply not ride in it later today and much of tomorrow! To compensate, we'd ridden hard (for us anyway) to get here when we did, and we'll be doing that again tomorrow while following the rain from well behind... At least we'll be traversing Baton Rouge dry and during the weekend!

There was a self-discovery milestone during this ride, among several actually, that in particular pleasantly surprised this easily amazed discoverer... The impact of mental activity upon the physical being; that of the significant role self-talk and the mostly arbitrary lowering of expectations can play! Of how I'd actually come to think I could no longer do what actually could still be done with much less fatigue and disappointment than recently assumed!

In recent years, I couldn’t help but notice how I've slowly gone downhill in terms of stamina, strength, and outlook on distance riding. I'd allowed myself to 'recognize' my increasing limitations and to make adjustments ‘accordingly’. Well, it is true that I'm not as good as I once was; however, I’m learning that I'm way better than I'd begun to think I now had become! A bit embarrassing to admit but a marvelous realization overall.

Our girl and her pansy rider had discovered that our range and physical ability was actually far greater than I'd come to accept as the 'new normal'. Attitude and expectation adjustments had produced surprises totally unexpected, and the perceived implications for future trekking joy had been considerably expanded! We'd confronted the 'expectation' enemy, and the dilemma had turned out to reside largely between the ears of the rider! That some of the thoughts and resultant conclusions by this ‘thinking’ rider had become among the largest ‘limiters’ of all…

DDT