Agreeing To The Bike Ride

This is where all great things begin…with a lot of persistence.

While traveling four months in the northern tier of Mexico, we made a pact to hike once a week after we returned home.  We drove home through Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Colorado in mid-March as Covid raised her ugly head.  But true to our agreement, we hiked in the surrounding mountains every Tuesday.  To avoid people, tourist particularly, we hiked high – above tree line.

Hiking high is a test in endurance, low oxygen, balance, and knee joints.  Not in the best of shape, I huffed and puffed my way behind my husband, Larry.  It was on one of these steep inclines outside of Glen Haven, Colorado that he hit me with his plans for 2021.

“For my sixty-fifth birthday, I want to ride my bicycle from the west coast to the east coast.”

I couldn’t breathe, much less reply.

He went on, “I want you to be my support.”

Still unable to answer him, I signaled a ‘T’ for timeout on our climb.

“Um, what about our plans to do the ride together?”  I puffed.

Sidestepping my question, Larry continued.  “Give it some thought.  It’ll be fun.”

From then on out, every Tuesday hike, he would ask me, “Will you do this with me?”

“I don’t know, let me think about it.”  I answered week after week.

When two of my grown children said in essence ‘Larry does everything for you, why can’t you do this?’  I begrudgingly decided to be his support.

Then came his next surprise.  I assumed we would get a camper shell for the truck, much like some friends of ours had done a similar cross country bike trip.  But no. 

“What about the dogs?”  He asked.

“What about them?”

“We need to bring them too.”

“Are you kidding me?  I’m not driving that old 1970 camper, you yourself complain about its crummy towing.”

Well, that turned into another male oriented obsession, which new camper to purchase?  Larry spent hours upon hours researching the best fit for the job and settled upon a custom fiberglass fifth wheel made in Canada by Escape Industries.