April 9th 2009
I moved to Mt. Pleasant this past weekend for work and finally got a chance to take the bike out for a ride today. It was in the mid 50's and sunny with pretty strong wind gusts. The 70 mile ride was just what I needed after moving, starting a new job and not having any time for myself. I decided that I would plan out a route on my Garmin that would take me in a big loop north of town. I rode past a couple different lakes, but for the most part it was farmland or rolling hills.
As I was riding along following the route I had planned, I got lost and was staring down a dirt road. Against my better judgment, I ventured down this dirt road as the ground was pretty compacted and didn't look very difficult to ride. It was a seasonal road that the county doesn't maintain and it led me back to a state campground. This dirt road took me right across the middle of a lake I had passed a few minutes back. I stopped in the middle of the road and got out my camera to take some pictures as it was a very nice area. If I had let my fear take over and passed up this opportunity because of a little dirt, I would have never found this spot and been able to enjoy the moment.
Prior to this little adventure, I was getting pretty frustrated while riding because I had missed a few turns and my Garmin was trying to route me back to the place where I had got off track when all I wanted to do was continue on. It was hard for me to enjoy the ride when I kept worrying about the GPS and where it wanted me to go. It was then that I realized, I left the house to go for a bike ride and did not have any destination or specific place I had to be other than this "planned" route I had made. I know, it sounds crazy that a little thing like making a wrong turn would frustrate me, especially when I had no place to be. How can you be going the wrong way when you don't even have a right way to go? It was then that I made a decision to shut off my GPS and just ride until I was ready to go home. When it started to get dark, the GPS came back on and took me back to my house. The ride was so much better after I quit worrying about trying to follow the route I had planned!
How does this relate? Everyone has goals and plans to reach them, however you should not get frustrated if you get off track. Life is all about these little adventures and mishaps. So I didn't follow my planned route...I had a blast along the way and that is how every ride (on a bike or in life) should be.
.JPG)
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