If there were not any challenges, I would stay home. If there weren't any challenges, if it was a breeze, what would be the point? Without challenges, how do we grow? Where do we stretch ourselves if it is so easy?
I mean, adventure is adventure. In an early post, I mentioned that most people want the adventure without the adventure. They want the adventure, but they do not want the risk, danger, and unknown. They want to know where they are going, where they are going to sleep, what they will eat, what's right around the next corner, etc. Adventure without the adventure.
With adventure risk is involved and that is that. With every adventure, challenges rise up. If there weren't any challenges, I would have stayed home. That's pure and simple. However, on the other hand, if I knew exactly what was going to happen. If I knew I was going to encounter a severe thunderstorm in the second week or if I was going to be climbing through the mountains in 100 degree heat for days or if I knew I was going to encounter flat tire after flat tire and my bike will break down every day or if I run out of food and water...well then, if I knew all that, I would also stay home. That is why there is an element of the unknown in the definition of adventure.
I have been alone in the desert, I have climbed for days in the mountains, burned in 100 degree heat with little water, traveled 100 miles with nothing but warm water, been lost on forest service roads and gravel country roads and have been guided through military zones where I didn't belong. I have been honked at, run off the road, yelled at, ridden on roads with nothing but a rumble strip on the shoulder or no shoulder at all, been pulled over by police motorcycles, been caught on the Interstate with no other route to cycle on. I have been caught in many thunderstorms and freezing temperatures, exposed to the elements, I have been riding through severe headwinds that blow me off the road, caught in lightning storms, pounding rain and hail. I have been lonely, hungry and thirsty. I have gone without sleep, wandering a city at night until dawn. I have been turned down at the last minute by hospitality hosts who changed their minds. I was stopped by a wildfire. I have almost lost my bicycle into the Pacific Ocean down a cliff. I have been offered weed and drugs. I have been stranded in the desert with a broken down bicycle. I was almost killed by traffic, almost run off an interstate bridge by a semi truck and have seen my life flash before my eyes, my bicycle pump was stolen which was my lifeline...I have known challenges, I have been unsafe, I have been in dangerous situations...
All these things my friends, encompass ADVENTURE...
However, I have also been helped along the way...helped by many strangers. Never underestimate the kindness of strangers. They will surprise you and at times you cannot help but rely on them. People want to help other people. I could tell you stories of Joe who picked me up in Idaho, of Troy & his wife Laurie who saw me drenched at a gas station in Utah, of Karen and her husband who gave me a ride through a canyon in Arizona, of Katie who took me in for a night in California, of Mike who rescued me from the wildfires and roadblocks in Oregon, of Molly who helped me in Colorado, of Mark and Bob who helped me in the middle of the Nevada Desert. I could go on and explain many more "Angels of the Road." I think you get the picture. Life is an adventure with ups and with downs and with angels. When the adventure seems dire, an angel comes and helps. God is good indeed. He has kept me safe and I trust He will continue to do so on subsequent trips. I believe I will encounter more dangers and more uncertain situations. I may even become discouraged again, but life is about living and God is in control. God is God and I am not. I must bring Him along.
If there weren't any challenges, I would have stayed home...on my couch where there is no danger.
But that isn't living...
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