Friday Writings for Randos - Uphill

{A weekly that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's. . .  

Up-Hill 

By Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

The Jersey Devil in December.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Sunday was a good day to lounge around in a robe and warm slippers, curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee, a hard crossword puzzle and a sharp number 2 pencil with a good eraser. Instead, at 6:00 am, in the lingering night that makes a December morning, I was driving through fog, interspersed with rain, to meet three Randonneurs in Vineland, New Jersey and ride a 201 kilometer route through five south Jersey Pineland counties. 

Friday Writings for Randos - Re-learned lesson

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

An excerpt from:

Schuylkill to Susquehanna Permanent (1/16/2010)

 By Don Jagel*

  
Riding along River Road, at about 60 miles into the ride, I was really starting to pay for my early effort. My butt was dragging.  Arriving at the Subway Restaurant (Control 3) in Columbia, we stopped for lunch.  By this time the temperature was well into the 40's, and close to 50.  Wow, that is the way January weather should be.  After lunch we started the uphill ride out of Columbia. My fatigued legs didn't like the idea of spinning again, especially after sitting for awhile during lunch. Rick patiently waited for me on the uphills and tried to hold himself back on the flats so he wouldn't leave me too far behind.

Riding across America

Typically, I save the links to other people's writings for Fridays. But I've been enjoying Chris Nadovich's account of his 2009 bike ride across America. He wrote it en route. It's honest, direct, plain spoken, and funny in an understated way. I don't know how many people have read it so far, but more people should. It rings true, possible and audacious all at once and that makes it all the more inspirational. I left the best parts back at the source, but here's a small sample. . .

Friday writings for Randos - Call me Ishmael

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

An excerpt from:

Moby Dick

by Herman Melville

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. 

Friday Writings for Randos - What We'd Come For

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

An excerpt from:

Somebody Else's Rum

by Mark Jenkins

"Mark, you feel it?" In the firelight, John's eye's gleamed like a wolf's.

Friday Writings for Randos - You don't have to be perfect.

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

An excerpt from:

Bike for Life

(from an interview with Rich White)

By Roy Wallack & Bill Katovsky

Don't judge yourself by the mirror. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be fit enough to do the things that you want to do. That's the most important thing.