Every once and a while, I make good choices worthy of a little recognition and celebration. On my bike adventure, I made enough good choices to outweigh my most careless/thoughtless actions, like:

J: Hey L, that is definitely a patch of poison ivy. Let’s walk through anyway, what’s the worse that can happen? …

I won’t post a picture. Suffice to say, the worse that can happen is that you get a really itchy, oozy, and still spreading case of poison ivy.

Despite this rash (ha) decisions, my list of excellent choices is, thankfully, much longer and more delightful.

some good life choices:

5. Stopping on a bridge along the path to seeing people swimming below. Deciding to duck into the bush, shimmy into my suit, and go for a dip was one of the early winners in this list. Is there anything better than an impromptu swim on a hot summer’s day? Answer: no.

4. Closely related to the former, my next decision was also note-worthy and awesome – to leave on my wet swim suit and throw on my bib shorts to continue riding. The cool outfit not only made me look babe-alicious, but as it dried, it kept me cool for the rest of the day’s riding.

3. Leaving my sleeping bag packed until the thunderstorm had passed and I was able to drain the small pool of water from my hammock tent. I had a cozy cocoon to nestle down in once the thunder, wind, and rain was over.

2. Every single freezie, slushie, and ice cap I had along the way. Not only was I “supporting the local economies” of the towns I biked through, but each and every frozen delight was a good life choice, fuelling both my happiness and survival through the hot hot heat.

1. The most important choice I made this week was to do it. Was to get out there, to go for it, to have an adventure and to face my fears even as the trip didn’t go as planned. The best choice of all was to be bolder and braver than I thought that I was, and to find out that it was true.

Thanks to all of you that came along with me on this trip in spirit. You cheered me along the way. Since I have a lot of thesis work planned for the week, I anticipate a lot of procrasticnation-style escapism, which means more trip posts for you! Details of the trip (the route, the gear winners and losers, and thoughts along the way) to come.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!