Goodbye, Friends. Hello Adventure!

After work today, my dad asked me how I was feeling. I told him I was feeling sentimental. The past few days have been nothing but a series of goodbyes and even though I know I will be back home before long, I feel so emotional about leaving.

I got emotional saying goodbye to the people at my church, to my Sunday School kids, my coworkers, customers at work…I thought I was holding myself together well until I became emotional while biking my commute for the last time.

Logically, it doesn’t make sense for me to feel emotions for a road but for me this is not just a road. It has been my classroom. This is the road that taught me to love cycling. On this road, I learned how to ride in dark, how to ride in the snow, how to stay warm in cold weather and how to use clipless pedals without falling over, just to name a few things. I have learned about myself, grown in my relationship with God and gained so much confidence while riding to and from work on this road.

But that isn’t why I became teary-eyed on my commute this morning. The reason I started bawling my little eyes out is because winter threw a going-away party for me on my final ride to work. That’s right, there was snow. Oh, it didn’t really stick but for about ten minutes, the snowflakes were falling so furiously that I felt like I was transported back to February. It was beautiful.

And then, after work was over, the wind was strong and the gusts were overpowering and I took it as an invitation to ride home slowly and take time to enjoy the familiar river and the farms, fields and hills that make my commute so unique and beautiful.

But surging past these sentimental thoughts, is an irrepressible excitement . On Wednesday when I wake up, I will do something rather ordinary. I will hop on my bike and pedal down the road. But this time something will be different. I won’t be back home before the day is over. Instead, my brother and I will continue to follow that road (and many other roads).

And if there are no major disasters…
And we remember the difference between East and West…

…We will end up in Colorado with our brother.

Only two days left until “GO!” time, the next time I post we will be on our way. Thank you to all of you for your encouragement and support in this adventure, it means so much to me.