#97 Day 6 - NC Coast Bicycle Tour Part 1
Holden Beach Campground to Sunset Beach / The Final Push
This is the last day on the road. With this final push I’ll land at Sunset Beach NC, the southernmost beach in the state, where my wife will pick me up. She and I will then drive to Carolina Beach for the weekend to stay with friends.
I’d like to have another day, another week, another month on my bike. But all good therapy sessions must come to an end. However, I have learned and relearned so much about myself as I traveled solo down the coast. As if to say, “Hello me, it’s me again.”
The main thing that I have forgotten about myself, that I’m always reminded of when traveling like this, is that I’m a finisher by nature. When a job needs to be done, I do it. When something is broken, I fix it. When a goal is set, I complete it. But in the darkness of the past couple years instinct stood in opposition to my natural attributes, causing me to lose my strength in these areas. It’s hard to excel when you are the thing that’s now broken. Repairing oneself is a very difficult task.
Whenever traveling, especially backpacking, or in the case of this week, bicycle touring, the mind clears. It begins to think differently, more simply, and I wonder why it is I’m content living so simply with only a tent and a few supplies, while at home I need a roof, a truck, a bed, a tv, a desk, a computer, and streaming options to entertain me for hours at a time.
All these things demand payment. How many hours a week does the average person work to pay for all these things? While we’re on the job, working to obtain and maintain these things, we dream of a time when we can live more freely, either for a couple of weeks scattered across a calendar year, or or way down the road in retirement, if we’re fortunate enough to live long enough.
As I get older I find myself measuring purchases in hours of life traded for them, rather than by dollars.
Why do we insist upon making life so difficult on ourselves?