Hello Wilbur

For lack of nothing else exciting happening other than a fantastically unmotivated yet very productive training ride today maybe I should ramble about nonsensical crap. I briefly caught a few minutes of a travel program on PBS-HD tonight. It’s a cool show on every night at 7:30pm and deals only with travel in Europe. Every night a different small region of any given country. Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Croatia. Croatia?? Yep. Tonight’s show was on Croatia. I must confess my thoughts of Croatia before watching tonight’s program was a Croats v Serbs Holy War-torn hole-in-the-ground. What I saw was beautiful coastal towns and islands from a country I would never have given a second thought. Tons of tourists visit this place. It’s just across the Adriatic from Italy. A country I’d love to visit. I’m not saying Croatia would be second on my list. I guess my point is How big/small is this world we live. How many people don’t leave York County, PA? Ever. Or don’t cross state lines, in their entire life? I’ve always loved the idea of traveling. Even if I never seem to do it. I think hoping in a jet and landing 6hrs later on the west coast is fascinating. Isn’t it crazy to think, in the grand scale of time, it was only roughly 100 years ago that the airplane was invented? As Uncle Jack would say, “I got socks older than that!”

So I think of all the places I’ve dreamed of going. And why I haven’t been there or what’s holding me back now. Mexico. Central America-Costa Rica, Belize. South America-Brazil, Argentina, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego(the end of the road). Europe(see above)-Portugal, Germany, Belgium. Why not Asia too? Nepal, Japan, Hong Kong. Not to mention Australia & New Zealand. Fiji. Tahiti. PNG. The funny thing about all those places is I haven’t even mentioned Alaska, PacNorWest, Montana, NoCal, AZ, TX, CO, WY……blah, blah, blah. The list goes on. That’s a lot of travel. How could I possibly see all that? I only get two weeks vacation a year. Maybe I’ll just become a slacker and not work anymore. Give up my cushy bike job and travel the world. The Wifey can support my trips, eh Wifey? Didn’t think so. I want to take her along. So I’m back to my quandary. Old people travel. Not all, but some. Do I need to wait ‘til I’m old? Will I ever make it to old? Existentialism at work. Do I just need to watch PBS-HD and pretend I’m there? Maybe lottery tickets should be a part of my life. Maybe I’ll just take baby steps and travel to Carlisle Sunday to partake in some good ‘cross practice.

As nice as today was I could not get my ass in gear and start my ride. 30 minutes in I still felt uninterested. So I started a 20 minute “interval” and felt really good while doing it. Pushed it harder than Coach told me to, even after he told me to resist the temptation to do so. 10 minutes rest was actually 6(shh…don’t tell Mike) and another 22 minute “interval” pushed harder than prescribed. Mind you, we’re not talking fullgas here but I was 7-10bpm off of race pace and felt great doing it. 41 miles in total today after not having the motivation to even get started. Not a bad day, I guess.

Raiders are on. Losing but not looking terrible doing it. Football on the double nickel. Phillies are tanking, again. Penn State barely gets over on South Florida?? I root for whoever plays PSU. Hockey less than a month away. ‘Cross in less than 3 weeks. Fall is here.

GoodNightNow! ‘Sup Josh?