The Honest Truth

This is hard! This is really hard! This is officially the hardest thing I have ever done in my life!!!

After this week, I am mentally exhausted and homesick. Having my sister here was super awesome, but it did make me homesick...for my family (all but Mom, of course), for my friends, for a bed, for a nice shower, for the certainty of a warm place to be every night, for jeans and fleece and scarves instead of spandex. Okay, not so much the last one. We all secretly love spandex. But don't go crazy, America...spandex is a privilege, not a right. Haha!

I digress...ah yes, this week could be classified as complete mental breakdown week. At this point, me completing a cross-country bike trip is no longer a question of physical strength, power, and/or endurance. It is entirely a mental game. It's convincing myself to get out of a warm sleeping bag, wearily trudge to the bathroom, don another round of oh-so-flattering spandex, pack up camp (by this point, I am frozen), get on my bike, and pedal teetering the line between pedaling fast enough to warm-up, but not too fast to freeze in the wind.

You may have guessed by now...the most mentally exhausting portion of this journey is the weather. Did you know that literally EVERY town we have stayed in since Cut Bank, MT is having an "unseasonably" cold or wet or cold and wet week/summer/year? Take that combined with the tropical storms changing the wind patterns and I am having an "unseasonably" difficult ride. In the past eight days (since the halfway point), we have had two days of sunshine with temps in the 60s and six days of clouds, rain, and temps in the low 50s. Three days ago, I took a forced rest break due to rain...and by rain, I mean 6.5-7 inches in 24 hours in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! It is insane or shall we say "unseasonable."

At least amidst the mental exhaustion/mental breakdown, I am still riding well. I am currently in St. Ignace, MI and will be crossing from the Upper Peninsula to the Lower Peninsula of Michigan first thing in the morning. We detoured to Mackinac Island this morning for breakfast, sightseeing, and SHOPPING! Yea for end of season sales on winter apparel when in the rest of the country it isn't even winter yet!!! Shopping makes me happy! :) New coats make me happy too! Sunshine will make me even happier...come on Mother Nature, we are all cheering for you!

My favorite quote of today from Mackinac Island: One surry driver (aka horse drawn carriage driver) said to another surry driver, "Have you ever considered peeing yourself just to warm up?" Yep, that pretty much captures the attitude towards the "unseasonably" cold, damp air.