Competence
So...this morning, I decided to make a short hop of about four miles into Wytheville proper, and get a(nother) motel. I was checked in and showered by eleven.
I had a list of good reasons: 1) I was still dopey and slagged from yesterday's sizzling haul to the KOA; 2) I had work that I wanted to finish; 3) rain looked likely. The first reason turned out to be the one with the most substance...even with the cell phone alarm set for 6:35 AM, I just could not hobble out of the tent until a little before eight. Even on the quick run into town, my legs let me know that they were still noodle-like and would greatly appreciate it if I did not use them very much, thank you. 40 miles to the hostel in Troutdale would've been torturous, especially the last bit, which looks to be a decent climb. When I got here, I crashed out for three hours in the afternoon. Despite the heat and sun yesterday, the only parts of me that actually got burned were my knees. Upright cyclists don't have to worry about toasted knees, but my riding position means that I catch harsh rays on the kneecaps from about 1PM to 3PM if I'm headed west, and apparently two applications of SPF 45 sunblock weren't enough. Not a bad burn at all, just enough to make my knees and lower thighs feel warm today, but I've found that any burn makes me very sleepy the next day.
So, I napped and finished up more work here, enough so that I feel like I can leave it behind for several days while my clients review it.
And, of course...it didn't rain.
But that doesn't really matter. What was interesting to me is that finally, I seem to have shed some of my anxiety...the character of the "motel/no motel" decision was different. As I wrote to a reader this evening, for the past three and a half weeks, I've been beset by doubt and anxiety at every turn. Now, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this itinerant lifestyle thing. I decided I needed a motel, and I went there. I had a good lunch feed at an Appleby's up the road. Then, to make up for the expense, I bought dinner for tonight and some snackage for tomorrow for just $5 at the local Food Lion. I hit the CVS for a big bottle of B-complex vitamins and a couple of baby wipe travel-paks (good for the no-shower campsite I'll be at tomorrow). In other words: I functioned. I did what needed to be done. I didn't fret, worry, mope, or otherwise make myself miserable. And I laughed like a loon on the way back from the Appleby's, walking along the grass next to Route 11, feeling here, now, in Wytheville, surrounded by parking lots and traffic, with a big sheaf of tree-furred mountains behind me. Big grins all around!
Tomorrow I'll be headed for a National Forestry Service campsite in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area near Sugar Grove (30.2 miles), which will be my first non-private campsite of the trip. I hope it's a good experience; I'm getting tired of paying for private campsites as though I was showing up in an SUV with a cooler and a television.
I do have some more bits to write about yesterday's 50-miler, but it's getting late and it's time for bed.
