planning a Spring trip

planning a Spring trip

fiction
edward w pritchard

The week before Christmas is a hard time to be alone and a worse time to be included out of obligation. That being so and it being dark very early today near the winter solstice I am began planning my Spring bike trip.

It's invigorating to get out of one's routine and I haven't met a new person in years or been to an art museum in months and months. I would like to join a debating club, learn to play the piano or get involved in a competitive full contact fencing class.

Instead if I get out the old sleeping bag, look over my bike repair manual, read one of my inspirational travel books by an author on his cross country solo bike trip, " Life is a wheel" by Bruce Weber- Oregon to New York City, a quest for self discovery in the middle of a journey; then I'll  have something to look forward to, a plan, inspiration to get me through a long Winter.

First, in late April,  I'll take a bus to Wyethsville Va, on route 77 south, an important Civil War cross roads and for my purposes less than forty miles from Damascus Va, the friendliest town on the Appalachian trail.  The bus can haul the bike from Canton, Ohio to Wyethsville along with myself.  Then me, the bike, one small backpack and a light weight sleeping bag will petal to Damascus and then after a few days stay, back. Staying at a few Appalachian trail shelters I will maybe talk to one or two other travelers over my week long adventure. Sleeping on the shelter's hard wood floors, among the mice and avoiding bears I will work up an appetite. Then it's bag after bag of assorted nuts, dried fruits, caffeine drinks and candy bars until a hearty underwhelming meal or two in a picturesque diner. Seeing the wild hoses at Grayson State Park is always special. Of course the up hill biking can be an ordeal for someone my age but the challenge, but the challenge.

By the time I am back on the Greyhound bus headed back to Ohio it's starting the second week in May. Spring at my home with longer days and warmer skies.