Cell
coverage in the Sierras is spotty and Ralph was feeling the need to connect
with work--being the CEO on vacation does not absolve one of staying on top of
disasters that may occur. He elected to
answer e-mails after breakfast and so I got the boys up early to drive to Lake
Tahoe and have breakfast there. It was
as lovely as I remembered it from 20 years ago. Then, my wife and I had woken
to a strange sound that turned out to be a hot air balloon on the Lake that was
filling and we watched it drift off at dawn.
This trip we did not have time to play the slots in S Lake Tahoe because
we had a 140 mile ride to Austin I was desirous of beginning before the mercury
got over 100 degrees. We returned to the
hotel parking lot to apply sunscreen.
Daniel would accompany us on the six-13 today. He wore the Buckler shirt that became his
trademark.
Fallon
was approx 60 miles away but when we turned onto US 50 about a mile S of the
hotel we picked up a fierce tail wind.
All my planning came to fruition, a 40 mile per hour tailwind and we put
the chain on the big ring in front and the little ring in back and flew low to
Fallon for lunch. Traffic between Fallon
and Carson City is constant but not heavy.
It was possible to ride on the road and cars had plenty of time to go
around. There is a good shoulder but it
has those annoying rumble strips that
require very close attention to avoid and when you are riding 35 MPH it
is better to just get in with the flow of traffic. We had heard about Pony Express stations
along this route but saw no obvious markings and we were having too good a time
flying along with a tailwind to stop. I am pretty sure a bike could beat a
horse from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento but you would need a little
pavement..... Fallon was a strip mall kind of trashy looking place with a lot
of good- hearted people we were unable to meet because we wanted to enjoy the
air conditioning on the floor of this table-less restaurant we were stupid
enough to order in. After consuming 2000
plus calories in my poor boy, I was not anxious to jump on the bike through the
bombing range and MiddleGate desert, so we loaded up the car and transported the
bikes to the top of Carroll Summit on Nevada 722(skipping some 60 miles of less attractive salt flats). This is the alternate route instead of
following US-50 and I highly recommend it for the scenery. It is only 44 miles from the summit to Austin
BUT from Fallon its over a hundred miles with only a rinky dink stop in a
blistering concrete block convenience store in MiddleGate. Don’t leave Fallon
or Austin unprepared to ride a long way without seeing anyone. We did not see one car from the top of
Carroll Summit to the intersection of US-50 before the climb to Austin.
Daniel
has improved markedly. Three days ago he
couldn’t clip in and now he’s pacelining at 35MPH. (Ralph and I would keep urging him to close
the gap which he usually did with a vengeance if the road turned uphill!) That
really was my original plan. I thought
the boys could take turns being rabbits, riding at 20mph for 30-40 miles while
Ralph and just kind of sat in and took in the scenery. After one got tired the other could take
over. We were leery of following them
too closely though. Although in much
better general shape than us (and younger) they were a little
unpredictable. Ralph and I have been
riding together for years and know each others foibles--I can tell when he’s
going to quit pedaling and when he’s going to accelerate but I didn’t want to
chance it with a newbie.
We ate dinner at the International Cafe. It was
misnamed. There was only a bitter waitress whose husband had been laid off by
a mining company and whose trailer park neighbors were dwindling with the lack
of work. Austin was a bustling town of
10,000 some 50 years ago but it has
slipped to 600. Off the main drag the desolate houses are eerie, like my long ago hitchhiking experience at midnight in
the South Bronx. Empty buildings everywhere
and no people. Some fine looking churches were all boarded
up but looked ready to open up and have services The Pony Canyon Motel, worrisomely, did not
have A/C but after dark, since it is at 6,000 feet, cools off rapidly with fans. The hotel must buy re-cycled TVs. I have never seen one so old in working
condition. I should have looked for the Zenith I had stolen from me in dental school. Two other “groups” were
overnighting in Austin, a Jamaican family moving West with small U-Haul and a biker
couple with tattoos from a time before they were trendy. I so want to get to the bottom of this tattoo
thing...rebellion is fine, dye your hair purple or blue, sag or wear pants with some
cleavage like a plumber, but why o why put Roman numerals on your neck?
Piercing. I used to read National
Geographic as a kid for the naked ladies and the unbelievable pictures of
people who wanted to look like platypuses or have necks like giraffes but they
were in foreign places with mud huts and now they seemed to have transmitted a
virus that our children have caught... 39% of millenials have tattoos compared
to only 15% of boomers. I DO know a
boomer with a tattoo but he got it for unexplained reasons eons ago and I’ve
never heard anyone say they want one. People do not “show off” their
personal works of art by talking about them. I want a sign on a minivan that says "Let me tell you about my tattoos". I guess they go to the bathroom and admire them in the
mirror.....
Strive, thrive, alive. There’s a lot of “I” in these words. Desire. I want to ride my bicycle across the
country. It begins with a want, a
feeling that this I must do. If
conditions are good and a man is satisfied, how can he achieve anything?
Doesn’t contentment breed complacency?
Why go further if you are already happy?
It may be a psychological thing-consider-if one stagnates, but is happy,
one goes along and all is well until suddenly it isn’t. You should have prepared by aiming to go somewhere else. You shouldn't have relied on taking things as they come. Now you are in a place
that is hard to get out of. So, a lack
of ambition may be a reflection that a man is happy. In short a virtue. But if the reason is just laziness perhaps the
lack of ambition is a vice. What is a man that does not live up to his
potential? A tragedy, an unfortunate
occurrence, a commonplace, no particular problem? If he lacks something perhaps it is only then
that he can fully want. It is the lack
that generates the corresponding motivation.
If one is satisfied with ones place or status is that the end of story? A man may
feel inferior and need to
compensate. Achievements make him feel
better. Striving is merely a sign that
he is unhappy. It is not a good, it is a
necessity given who he is.
Secular humanism is a faith for the timid, the careful, and the skeptical. It's a nuanced balance that says-Yes, I'm willing to listen to you. I want to hear your story. I have a story too so don't go all judgemental on me. It
has not yet but COULD lead human beings to some “better” arrangement of their
affairs. I have faith in an
improveability model rather than a certainty model. We can get better and we can get worse. We’re not there yet. The human future is still open. With the Christian God , everything of
importance has already happened, The
future is defined. It is not known when,
but God is shutting this play down, everybody gets their just rewards, and we
start another reality in Heaven. This show’s over. Our life between the first
and second coming. Let us then reject
absolutist faiths of all kinds and consider relativism.
In these
times there seems to be a return to Faith, perhaps it’s easier than an
existentialism. My own instincts run against
the tide pulling man back to God. I am a
natural contrarian and do not feel right rejecting the painful modernity of the
20th century. It was our responsibility and look what a mess it
was, we should not fight those battles again.
Then too, let us not return to the Crusades and try the Middle Ages
again. Let’s go without a Saviour for a
while…..Perhaps we could be really really humble……
Trucks do use US 50 and there is no big
sign that says no air brakes allowed.
The traffic density is just enough to wake you on the hour as they go
downhill through the town.
No comments:
Post a Comment