Ah, day 6. Wherin I decide I am more-or-less done. Probably partially because last night it rained again and I was forced to sleep under a towel.
It will be weird going back to normal life. Real life. I've been sleeping from about 21:00 to 05:00 every night, mostly because once I wake up, I am too uncomfortable to get back to sleep. And usually other people are stirring at that point as well. Also, I have been stuffing my face. I seriously eat something like every two hours, mostly because I get hungry that often. I'll have to get back into the habit of say, oh, less than 4000 calories. I also have one to two alcoholic beverages a day. But I've been burning about that much as well. It's going to be weird when the town no longer caters to me, I can't bike on roads, when I no longer earn everything I eat and drink.
Mom had an accident today. We were biking into a town with awful roads, part uneven brick and part concrete. I was hungry even though it was only 09:00 and Dad was leading the way to the food area. We both heard Mom calling out hello to the Bike World tent as we passed it.
We stopped for food and realized Mom wasn't with us. After a few moments, we figured she had stopped to talk with the Bike World people or something. Dad elected to watch for her while I went to get pizza. She tried to call me during that time, but the reception was awful and I couldn't hear anything. After I got pizza, Dad grabbed a slice and said he was going back to find her.
I took my pizza and waited by the side of the road, minute after minute, my brain conjuring up horrible ideas of what may have happened, freaking myself out, praying. I knew I shouldn't move because if Dad found her, he'd come back here with her, and if he didn't find her, he'd come back for me and we'd go looking together. I tried to get reception on my phone. I put my sunglasses on when I began to cry.
A guy also with the Bike World charter wandered over to me and asked me if I was OK, as I'd been staring down the road for several minutes. I could barely talk to him because if I talked, I would sob. I felt very juvenile, a 26-year-old girl saying she can't find her mommy. As I was talking to him, I saw their familiar outlines coming down the hill.
When Mom got there, she was telling me about how she'd gone over her handlebars hitting an uneven part of the street, how her bike had been damaged and she'd needed the seat replaced, but I collapsed into her arms, sobbing, "I was so worried!" She has a few bruises, a bandaid on one knee, and an expensive and nice new bike seat. I am so happy she was OK. I've wondered that before. We always have plans to meet up in the next towns, but if something did happen, would the cell phone network be able to help us? What if we got loaded unconscious on the back of an ambulance? How long before the others would figure out we were missing or where to go? Thank God he's kept us safe so far.
Otherwise, today was easy which was good because I was low energy. Tomorrow is over 60 miles and we have to be done by 14:30.
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